Easy Breezy #FunnyFriday

Welcome to January’s Funny Friday, a regular feature published on the last Friday of every month. Funny Friday is a collaborative project. Each month one of the participants submits a picture, then we all write five captions or thoughts inspired by that month’s picture. Links to the other bloggers’ posts are below, click on them and see what they’ve come up with. I hope we bring a smile to your face as you start your weekend.

Here’s today’s picture. It was submitted by Dawn of Cognitivve Script.

1. Wife: Explain to me again why we need this contraption. 

Husband: It's going to help me get so much done. 

Wife: Such as?! 

Husband: Stuff. 

Wife: Stuff?

Husband: Yeah, stuff.

Wife: Well, since you'll be able to get so much stuff done, I'll just need to add to your Honey Do list. 

Husband: ...  

2. Wife: Why did you just have to have it?! 

Husband: It was such a great deal. 

Wife: A great deal eh?! 

Husband: An excellent deal. A person would have to be a fool, to pass up such a great deal. 

Wife: Remember that, when I go shopping later.

Husband: ... 

3. Earl had listened to his wife complain about the heat for the last time, and was taking matters into his own hands. 

4. Johnny was certain there weren't any rules forbidding fans, in the model sailboat race handbook. This was definitely going to be his year. 

5. Anyone else wondering what's the back story?! I know I am. Also, as a California resident  I'm wondering where to get one.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! 

Click on the links below and let some other bloggers make you smile:

Baking In A Tornado            https://www.BakingInATornado.com

Southern Belle Charm                https://www.southernbellecharm.com

Cognitive Script               https://cognitivescript.blogspot.com          

           

Just One #UseYourWords

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked four to six words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are: 

bifocal ~ snow ~ sunshine ~ trees ~ magic

It was submitted by: https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

I don't need the magic of bifocals to see, the sunshine reflecting off the snow on the trees.

Can you use all the words in one sentence?! Lay it on me.

Don't forget to check out the rest of January's Use Your Words posts!!

Baking In A Tornado                       https://www.bakinginatornado.com

Climaxed                                       https://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com

Wandering Web Designer                https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

Cognitive Script                              https://cognitivescript.blogspot.com   

Southern Belle Charm                     https://southernbellecharm.com

On the Border                                 https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/  

Part-time Working Hockey Mom        https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch

New Leaf #BlogWithFriends

Welcome to January's Blog with Friends post!! This is our first Blog with Friends round-up of 2019, and fittingly, our theme for this month is New Year. If you are not familiar with our Blog with Friends Round-ups, it really is a simple concept. We get together and choose a theme, and then we all create posts based on that theme. The posts can be anything that the theme inspires in the blogger. You may read a post and find poetry, a recipe, a DIY project, a craft, a sewing creation, a short story, or just random rambling. Any of the above, and any of a million other possibilities.

For some reason, whenever I hear the words 'new year', I always think of resolutions and change. So, when I read this month's theme, that is immediately where my mind went. Now, if you know me, you know that I am not one to make resolutions. I like to make goals, and then I like to work to complete them, but I don't hate on myself if/when I fall short. This is probably a bad thing, but it works for me. 

However, going into this new year, I definitely have some changes I want to see happen. I have been struggling with the grief over my father's death since September, and it has really led me to take a deep look at myself. I have decided on a list of changes I really want to see happen in 2019. I figure if I share them with the world, it may help me to stick to the process, to make them happen.

So, here are my goals for 2019.

1. Be a better mom. This is my biggest thing I want. I want to yell less. I want to laugh more. I want to do more. I want to complete the entire backlog, of all the activities I want to do. I want to do at least two activities for each holiday we celebrate. I want to mark off some of our do/see list. It is a list of places I want to go with Gigi. Each year it grows longer. I want to shorten it in 2019. I just want my relationship with Gigi to deepen. I also want to fill up at least one journal for her to read, once she is an adult. I wanted to do one a year, and gift them to her on her eighteenth birthday, but I have not accomplished an average of one a year. I want to do one whole on this year. When this year ends, I want to feel like I was a good mom. 

2. I want to finish off my tattoo list, with the exception of my Bob Marley tattoo. I have made progress on this. I got the owl dream catcher I wanted. I go on the 15th to get two other tattoos marked off. I go on the 18th to get a third marked off. So, that leaves the tattoo I want in honor of my dad, the fun tattoo I want of a random thing (long story for another post), and my Bob Marley tattoo. My Bob Tattoo is going to cost a fortune. It will need to be planned accordingly. I will get it. Most likely not this year though.

3. I want to become a better cook. I am not going to hold my breath on this one, or be too hard on myself. It seems rare that Chad and Gigi LOVE my cooking. I would like to end the year with a handful of dishes I can make, that they love. Fingers crossed. Also, baked goods do not count.

4. I want to end this year healthier than I start it. I definitely won't be too hard on myself. This is mostly out of my control. I just want to be better about that part that I can control. I also want to end the year able to ride my new bike really well. Fingers cross.

5. I want to do more me time. Time I spend actually working on myself, or doing something I genuinely enjoy. Not just time spent alone or quiet. I want to have productive me time. We shall see.

6. I want to end the year at peace with my daddy's passing. I may not be over it, anytime soon, but I want to be at peace with it. 

7. I want to have regular date nights. Obviously, Gigi will be there too, but I want to make the outing special for Chad and I, and enjoy the together time.

8. I want to have some girl nights. Maybe three or four total for the year. I do not know if I will succeed at this one, but I can try.

9. I want to volunteer more. This one does not need explanation. I just want to do more good.

10. I want to end the year, with a solid plan for celebrating my next birthday. I always say I am going to celebrate, and then I never do. I need to change that. A good friend told me I deserve to be celebrated. So, I hope to end this year with a plan for my next birthday (January 2, 2020). 

So, there you have it. I am hoping to write a post in December, about how well I did with these goals. Fingers crossed.

What are your goals or resolutions for 2019?! Do you have some?! I would love to hear them!! 

Feel free to hold me accountable throughout the year!!

Now, make sure you check out these other awesome Blog with Friends posts:

Karen of Baking In A Tornado

Orange Cognac Bread Pudding

Dawn of Spatulas On Parade

Sugar Free Pear Bundt with Vanilla Whipped Cream

Minette of Southern Belle Charm

Perfectly Imperfect

Lydia of Cluttered Genius

Go Mom 2019

Spare Rod #SecretSubjectSwap

Welcome to the first Secret Subject Swap of 2019. This week six awesome bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. 

My “Secret Subject” is: If you could change one form of discipline you practiced when your kids were very young, what would it be?

It was submitted by: https://batteredhope.blogspot.com

So, if you are my friend on Facebook, you know that I have recently been struggling with this very thing. It is hard to discipline Gigi. It is hard, because she is a complex girl. I love her for it. It also frustrates me. She is so very sensitive, and yet so very stubborn. I cannot imagine where she gets that from. So, it just makes successfully disciplining her hard. Then again, that is just part of being a parent eh? Having difficulties, and having to up your parenting game.

If I discipline her, and it hurts her, that in turn hurts me. Plus, it really ends the success of the discipline. If she is not phased by it, it is another failure. I am struggling to find a method that works well. I struggled when she was younger too. I wish I could go back and change my method. I used time out often, and I don't know if it necessarily worked, but at least I got some mini breaks, so I could just breathe. 

My biggest issue lately, is yelling. I hate to yell. I hate to be yelled at. I hate to be around yelling. Well, it seems that these days, many times, they only way I am listened to, is when I yell. It gets attention, and they suddenly seem to be able to listen to me. I have been struggling with it for a while, but it did not become a huge problem until recently. Between my grief and my frustration from yelling, I was really feeling down about my parenting.

As you will learn in a post next week, I am working on making some changes in my parenting. I am particularly working on discipline and yelling. So,  I wish I could go back and put more focus on effective discipline, when Gigi was younger, and maybe make time out be more productive. I would love to have time out still work as a discipline option.

So, this subject really spoke to me. I am working on improving communication with Gigi, discipline, and working on not yelling. I am doing well on the yelling front. Yay! We are also increasing her responsibilities. Lots of changes here. Luckily, she loves helping out, so some of the changes are going smoothly.

What about you? Anything you would change about your discipline techniques? Any advice? Man, parenting is way harder than I ever even imagined. Of course, it also so much more rewarding than I knew it would be.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  Sit back, grab a drink, and check them all out. I will see you there!

Baking In A Tornado

Climaxed

Wandering Web Designer

Cognitive Script

Southern Belle Charm

Part-time Working Hockey Mom