How To Ground Your Kids

My kids have been grounded for various reasons. It is not the first time but it seems like everything we do nothing works. We will set a time limit for how long they are grounded and its our fault we usually end up forgetting and they get un-grounded and back to normal life. What does this teach the kids? Nothing really except that their parents are forgetful and if they hold out just a few days they will let us do whatever again. Not anymore! I found this idea on one of my friends facebook pages and thought it was a wonderful idea!

Not time limit so I do not forget. I, of course used a few things from this list but added some of my own and I am not as generous with points. (Call me a hardass) I know I am, but sometimes that is what kids need. 
I also added some tasks that have to do with kindness. For example, they have to come home from school and tell a parent about their day at school. Others are to write a nice letter (full page) to a family member, give a family member a good genuine hug, read books to their little brother, give someone in the family a compliment. 
What amazes me, my kids would rather to do the manual labor to get the points that take up more time and less points than to do the nice things and get more points. (I am not sure how to change this) 

Not only have I done a points system but I have also kept up with another sheet on why they are grounded just so they don't forget. (in reality so I don't forget) Taking things was not working and with our oldest, taking something did not bother him. Only thing he cares about is band and if we make him miss a game his grade suffers. I had to find something else. 

The points system seems very logical and well... I am getting a break. They are doing MY chores to earn points. 

Go about this any way you see fit. Unfortunately, I have to put, take a shower without being told on the list.  Ugh..Boys

Did You Know That There Was An Eclipse?

Did you hear there was a lunar eclipse? 
I woke up..not for this event but because of Logan being sick. I woke up to check his fever and the eclipse had began. I figured why not stay up and try to get pictures of the entire thing? That was a FAIL!! Unfortunately I was not able to get it all. I got some of it :-) came back in, chilled on the couch for a bit and went outside at peak time and it was gone!! Gone I tell you. BLACK. I walked out in my yard to see if I could find it somewhere and I barely could see it. By barely I mean I could not even find it through my camera lens because it was so dark. Now imagine this, Im outside in my yard and its pitch black!! Only light out is from my front porch light. My yard has holes everywhere (due to my husky) and I am night blind as can be! I am also freakishly afraid of snakes. I am thinking to myself I am going to step on a damn snake trying to find the moon! The neighbors dog starts barking and scares the crap out of me and almost fall and bust my butt. Thats it, I was done. I went back in the house!! I got on facebook and seen everyone else around me in my area had a lunar eclipse fail too!! Now I do not feel so bad but pretty ticked I wasted this precious time trying to find this moon and photograph it when I could have been sleeping!

Anyways thats the only picture I got. Before that I was playing with my camera and got a few pictures of the moon before eclipse time (like before bed) and saw an awesome spider web and tried and tried to capture it clearly but failed. Oh well, its a neat picture anyways. 

The day after it stormed, and the sky afterwards was such a beautiful blue. This picture did not do it justice. Sucks living in the woods. We never get a clear shot of the sky. 

How did you Lunar Eclipse experience go?? Tell me in the comments :-) Have a wonderful weekend. 

Hey..It's Okay Tuesday

I have been absent in the blogging world and you can tell! Nice to know that literally no one noticed. But its Hey....its okay Tuesday

So its okay

That no one missed me in the blogging world!

That I will more than likely have to have my gallbladder removed soon.

That my daughter does not want to spend 2 weekends in a row with us

That while I was a tad bit intoxicated I let my Mr. Sexy get a cat, I am not a fan of feline critters. And this describes our relation perfectly!

That my blog will never be where I want it. I will never be that professional blogger pulling in tons of money. I have yet to even make $30 this year. But its okay. I do not want to put in the time and effort and especially funds into it that it calls for! Im good at taking a couple of weeks off. You can not do that if you want to be a "professional" blogger. I do not want to follow all those blogger rules and such. I am good to just go with the flow!

What are you okay with this Tuesday??

 Link up here

Arkansas Walk Now For Autism Speaks

As many of you know my son is Autistic. The diagnosis became "real" June 19th 2013 when he was 2 years old. Before this he did have a preliminary diagnoses. So we have known very early on that he had autism. 
We have tried to do fundraising and raise money to donate to local organizations that contribute to autism. Unfortunately where I live there are not many local anythings. And we could not get much money raised at all, so we dropped it. 
Now we are focusing on Autism Speaks and I have been reading a lot of things where people are against this organization. Everything I am reading just makes no sense. I mean why do people want to nit pick everything and cause drama over the smallest things. I even received a message from someone warning me against Autism Speaks on my facebook page, Natural Beautisms and Flappings in Life, but yet I was unable to respond. 

So I will address some of the concerns people have against Autism Speaks
1) No one on the committee is autistic- Frankly this does not bother me one bit! Why would it bother anyone else? Are people who work in schools and the therapists that help our children autistic? Probably not. I am sure the people on the committee who are NOT autistic do have experience with autistic individuals, isn't that what matters?

2) Autism Speaks pulls money away from local communities- Well there are hardly any local anything where I live. We have a few things such as Community Connections, Arkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center. When these local communities hold an event for fundraising we will do the same for them as we do Autism Speaks. Its not Autism Speaks fault that some people focus on raising funds for them than other organizations. 

3) Only 4% of money raised goes to blah blah blah--Honestly how can we tell? And if this was the case wouldnt this be fraud of some sort? I have not done a lot of research on this but I will eventually.  I know a lot of goes towards research and I am grateful for that! 

There are other accusations that I do not agree with. Autism Speaks’ advertising depends on offensive and outdated rhetoric of fear and pity, presenting the lives of autistic people as tragic burdens on our families and society. In its advertising, Autism Speaks has compared being autistic to being kidnapped, dying of a natural disaster, having a fatal disease, and countless other inappropriate analogies.

I mean come on! I have never had these thoughts cross my mind when I watch any video on autism speaks. They show the reality of autism, how it effects lives. And no this is not held true to all autistic children. None of the people are the same. What is wrong with showing the ugly side of autism? Nothing, hence the purpose of fundraising to raise awareness and donate money for research. So far I have NOTHING against autism speaks. It has been full of information that has helped me and my family learn and cope with my sons diagnoses and help us learn ways to teach him. 

So with this being said there is an event coming up October 18th that we have signed up for. Arkansas Walk Now for Autism Speaks. We have never done a walk before so this is the first and we have never tried to raise money for Autism Speaks so this is the first time for that. I am asking for donations to support us in our walk for Autism. Even Logan will be walking!! Please find it in your hearts to overlook all this controversy about Autism Speaks and donate. Our goal is to raise $500 by October 18th. If you get right down to it, every organization has controversy. 
Here is the link to our donation team, Logans Sidekicks! Please share this and donate!! I am thinking to everyone who donates I will send them a complimentary autism awareness para-cord bracelet. 

I WALK FOR LOGAN

A Day In My Life

A day in my life is not glamorous by any means. It is boring for the most part and a lot of people probably do not want to be in my shoes. We have everyday struggles with living pay check to pay check. I am a worry wart so I worry about everything even if it is two months ahead of time. I think I put a bunch of unnecessary stress on myself. (To much time to think about it, perhaps?)
2 boys who attend school (public) and one that attends a preschool. I guess you can say that. I am not sure what they call them. Developmental preschool. He has autism which I have mentioned several times. 

My morning starts off at 6:30 a.m. by waking up little man (Logan) and getting him ready for his day. Some mornings are good and others are not so good. Depends on how he slept that night. 

I get him off on the bus, then the two boys off on theirs and I usually try to back to sleep. I am an insomniac so sleeping in the night is something that I do not usually do. 

I wake up from my nap and take my dogs out and start on my "chores" you know those awful things grown ups have to do? Laundry which is a never ending battle, picking up all the crap left from the night before. Our coffee table ends up being completely covered by the end of the night. Did I mention I live with 4 boys? I dust everyday. Once a week I move everything and dust under it. I vacuum everyday. I have a Siberian Husky, this must not be skipped or I will have a new dog in the house. After my chores are done I sit down in front of my computer, in "my spot" and start working on my blog or scrolling through facebook. Have I ever mentioned that I do not have a social life? My social life is behind a computer screen. 

By the time I have had maybe an hour or two for all my blogging and things Mr. Sexy gets home from work with my little man. He has a total of maybe 20 or 30 minutes to calm down from school, get something to drink and a snack before our wonderful ABA therapist arrives to start another 4 hours of therapy with little man. 

So while therapy is going on I try to participate as much as I can, Mr. Sexy will most of the times take care of dinner. I am running back and forth with therapy and taking care of the older two boys, which they have to be reminded to do their chores, take a shower and do homework. I try to call my mom everyday and do this almost towards the end of therapy during the time Logan is having books read to him. The therapist leaves around 7 p.m. then its time to get Logan settled down, eat his dinner(since he does not eat with us because he is super picky) get cleaned up, lotioned down because he has eczema so he needs his daily steroid cream rubbed on the rough spots then the lotion on after that on his entire body. He hates this so its whining the entire time and my hair getting yanked on and even sometimes being kicked. The joys of autism right? He just does not like the feel of that slimmy stuff on him. Then he gets his nightly dose of melatonin and benadryl. If no benadryl he will scratch himself until he bleeds. Then if he is allowed he will get to play his game for a bit before bedtime and of course all we do is sit and watch t.v.

So the little one goes to bed and we are soon to follow. Eric goes right to sleep of course. Men seem to be able to do that well. I sit there on my phone on instagram, pinterest, farm heroes saga, and fb for several hours before I drift off. Then wake up and start over. Not so glamorous right? Every now and then I can go to wal-mart after begging my Mr. Sexy if we can go after therapy. Who thought being in the house so much can make you go insane?

What about you? Is a day in your life glamorous or boring or just peachy?

Lend Your Ears

I posted a bit of advice yesterday on my personal facebook page. 

"Sometimes people do not need someone to give them advice or to talk to them, sometimes they just need someone to listen. Lend your ears to someone today. It may be the best thing you can do."

"A penny saved is...not much"

Tales of Travel

Ah tales of travel. 
I for one have not traveled hardly at all! We never did growing up. We never had these elaborate family vacations. We spent our time at home. Most times working. That's all my parents did. 

The first trip I went on almost destroyed my life. That was my almost 2 years living in Denver Colorado back in 2005 I loved it there but like I said it almost destroyed everything. I came back home to go ol' Arkansas (insert sarcasm) Sorry no pics for this one. 

My first time ever on a plane, May 2009! It was not the planned vacation. We had intended on Cancun Mexico. The swine flu broke out so that was no longer a go. (Trip was paid for by my ex's place of employment) They sent us to Miami Florida. We stayed at the Fontainebleau Hotel for 5 nights. That was a bit to long to be gone from home. I was crying by day 3. Everything was ridiculously expensive but I did enjoy the sites. Yes, I do have pictures of this trip. It was a lot of firsts. 

View from our room

What was going on at the hotel? Regis and Kelly was being filmed all week while we were there. Celebrities, and paparazzi everywhere and security. This is when I discovered Kelly Ripa is a snob. She was surrounded by body guards and security and hardly spoke to anyone. Regis on the other hand was walking around with his wife with no security or body guards and giving everyone hugs! I have never been a fan of Kelly Ripa since then, but adore Regis!

The Ocean

Just a part of the hotel and one of the pools

Who can visit Florida without going to Sea World or in our case we went to Miami Seaquarium

The most recent trip that Mr. Sexy and I took was to the beautiful Eureka Springs Arkansas in 2013. We took a weekend trip and it was around Valentines Day

This greeted us in our room

We visited the famous Crecent Hotel which was featured on the awesome show The Ghost Hunters. At this Hotel they caught what they called the holy grail of apparitions. 

This is what they caught on video. This is the therma cam.

We of course had to take the tour and take some pics of the place.
This was my 3rd time there, Mr. Sexy's first

 Possible Orb?? 

The next day we went horseback riding! Where we stayed was a beautiful place to stay. I highly recommend Pond Mountain Lodge

And you can not go to Eureka Springs without visiting Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

We have every intention on going back and actually staying at the refuge. They offer rooms right there. How awesome. Spend the night with the big cats! 

There you go. My tales of travel. I have not traveled much but what I have done remains in my memories and always will. The smaller one to Eureka means more to me than the one to Miami Florida. That trip had tears involved. The one to Eureka had none. 

Where have you traveled?

My First and LAST "Vlog"

This Can't Possibly Be Me

I am pretty open about myself and my life so there is not many facts I "hide" from my readers. I am not fake at all and real as can be, or at least I try to be. This post is a bit more difficult to write. 

Most people don't know this but..............

I have 3 kids I gave birth to, and 3 baby daddys. No, I am not ashamed. 

I am a pessimist! Hardcore. I always think something bad is going to happen. 

I have a touch of OCD--My house has to be clean. You can walk in and not be able to tell I have 4 boys occupying my house. 

I am a wanna be crafter- I try but have no imagination so I rely on pinterest

I have a hard time with empathy--This is according to my Mr. Sexy. I think I have empathy towards certain things, just not for wussiness??

I like to think I do not like to cuddle.......Mr. Sexy says I love to.

Anger? I do have a quick temper. Most times (in my age) I can control it pretty easily. When it comes to my kids....Yeah you will release the spawn of satan!

What are some things we dont know about you? 

Halloween Fever!

Fall seems to have rolled around here in good ol' Arkansas and you can tell it in the stores as well. One of my most favorite time of the year. Other than winter because I love love some snow. 

I also love Halloween! I used to decorate every year and loved it. I could not wait for it to come. I kind of got out of the habit when my life made a huge 360, I got depressed got into drinking and drugs but not anymore!! Having a blended family though and not having all the kids under my roof still had me in a depression. I have been stuck in a rut for a bit, not anymore. I am coming back out and I want to decorate and celebrate the holidays once again and to start off with we have HALLOWEEN!! My favorite!! It has to be less stressful holiday of the year. 

I am pinning my heart out and daydreaming of all these elaborate and wonderful decor! I wish I was so creative to make this stuff myself without the help of pinterest but thankfully we have this wonderful site to help us not so creative folk. 

Here is my mood board collage! 

Want to see my Halloween Board? Then Click HERE
Check all of my pinterest boards HERE


What mood have you been in lately and pinning?

Married But Living With My Boyfriend

I have been struggling with myself on whether or not to participate in today's prompt: What is your relationship status?  

I know how people can be judgmental and in the blog world I am sure there are a lot of these type of people, or those who just do not understand. So do I really want to put myself out there for the judgment to be passed? Lose readers due to my life decisions? I guess that will be up to you, my readers. I struggled whether to post about my relationship or not afraid of the decisions people will make. Then I think, why should I care? It is my life, if I choose to let it out I will and I am..and if you choose to not follow me or continue reading my blogs that is up to you. I know I am a good person and that is what matters. 

My relationship status is--I'm married but yet I live with my boyfriend. 

If you have read my About Me page you will see that I am not great in the relationship field. I have been married 3 times. I was 16 when I married the 1st time. The last marriage and the one I am currently in happened in 2008 mainly for legal reasons. Its a very long story and I really do not want to get into that much detail. We had our son together, Logan who is Autistic. Some people are cut out to be special needs parents and some aren't and I hate to say it, but his father really is not that person. Things happen, marriage fell apart and there was no putting it back together, no fault of just his or just mine but fault of us both. (mostly him)

During the troubled times and me mentioning counseling (which he refused) I met my now, boyfriend. Eric who I refer to as my (Mr. Sexy).  To make an even longer story short, we live together. No I am not divorced because. 1) I can not afford it 2) he wont pay for one. 

I care for our son but in my eyes Logans daddy is my Mr. Sexy. Logans birth-father, the one I am currently married to has not seen his son since December. He has one time. For 3 hours. That is it. He may text once every two weeks to see how he is doing. I get how is Logan doing? I reply with Fine and that is the extent of our conversation. 
One day I hope to be divorced once I save up the funds. I did try to do that one thing online where you pay like 100 for an uncontested divorce but he does not agree to my terms. 

Anyways that's my relationship status, married but living with my boyfriend. He is my best friend, the one I confide in, we laugh together, we get silly, we fight, we make up, we go to bed together every night at the same time, we are a real family and he supports me. Never in my string of relationships and marriages have I ever had anyone let me be myself and love me for me and my bitchiness! I love my Mr. Sexy even if we are not married on paper. In our hearts we are!

No matter what kind of relationship it is, it always needs both sides to survive.

Our New Tradition

I hope everyone is doing great! I have been out for several days. A week to be exact I believe. 
Here is my explanation. Firstly I try not to blog when my Mr. Sexy is home. He feels like I am ignoring him :-) Second, I ended up sick. Yes the illness came upon this house. My daughter had came to visit for her weekend time and she passed it on to us. Thank you Gabby! Eric (Mr. Sexy) ended up sick first. He took off work and slept for awhile and I will admit, I have a lack of empathy sometimes and I did not want to get sick so I tried to keep my distance from him. That did not work and I ended up with it, 2x's worse. Imagine that. Seems the further down the line an illness goes it gets worse. My step son ended up at the doctor yesterday with a minor ear infection. He is no antibiotics for a bit. 

This morning you could tell it was Friday. Waking the 2 kids out of 3 up to get ready for school was a bit more hard. Cory overslept and would not wake up when his older brother tried to get him up. 30 minutes later he gets up when I tell him. Shower was skipped. Logan had his covers up over his head and was not awake at all and he just wanted to stay in bed. Thank goodness its Friday so the little bits can wake up on their own tomorrow. The one thing I love about Saturday.

During the down time of trying to recover I missed out on several prompts from the Blog-Tember Challenge. That is okay I will do my best to try to make them up. If not at least get back on track again. 

Day 12- Tell us about a favorite tradition, it can be any tradition and tell us what makes it so special. 

It is very hard to have traditions when you have a blended family especially around the holidays. Everyone is trying to figure out when kids will be with us or be with the other side or when we can celebrate with our families and then try to have our own. Mr. Sexy (Eric) and I have been together 2 years this month. Our relationship is new still yet so there are not many traditions set in stone. Like I said it is so hard to do the traditional traditions. 

While trying to type up this post and racking my brain on a tradition we have or could have, I found one.

We make a yearly trip to the Little Rock Zoo every year. This started in 2013 when we heard thatArkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center hosts one day out of the year where admission is free for families who have been affected by Autism. We have attended both years so far and hope to continue this. Unfortunately, getting everyone to go and together is impossible. 

2013 All the Kids together

This Year and As you can see, 2 kids are missing. One wanted to stay with a friend and the other is having issues talking to his father. Long Story

I have come to realize when you have a blended family, traditions have to be tweaked a bit. You can not always have everyone together at once to do the special thing your family does. Keep the tradition and if everyone can attend that is great if not that is fine too. We will continue to attend Zoo Day that Arkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center hosts every year! 

What favorite traditions do you have? We want to hear and you can link up At Brave Love

Guys, Stay Away From The Skinny Jeans!

Pick a fashion trend you love and a fashion trend you hate. Win us over!

Oh what a challenge to write about for sure!!

I am not a fashion person at all. I go with what I like and what is comfortable. 

Right now I am into the Super hero t-shirt fad oh and of course the Big Bang Theory shirts! 

So far I have Batman shirts, Wolverine and a couple of Big Bang Theory. I guess you could say I am somewhat of a geek. Oh and Yoga pants! I thought I would hate them but guess what? I love them! They are so comfortable. I am just a bit self conscious about them because of panty lines! EEk and I am not a butt floss wearer. 

Got them ALL

A fashion fad I do not like

SKINNY JEANS

Especially on guys. Yeah this is just not right. 

What makes it worse for the girls, if they are not skinny to begin with and try to fit themselves in these jeans to hip. Please don't do this.