One Answer & What I Know For Sure (This Week) & #iPPP

It's been an emotional week.  A scary week.  Another week where we watch events unfold on the news and take stock.  A week where we count our blessings.  A week where we hug our kids tighter while researching how to talk to them about bombs and explosions.  

A week with no answers. 

With all the very overwhelming stuff going on, I distracted myself with crafts and YouTube videos.  I jumped on the new trend on YouTube called Draw My Life.  It's a trend for younger people, for people that are pretty good artists.  But I didn't let that stop me.  

It was pretty hard to try to draw my life and fit it into 2 minutes.  I mean I feel like I've lived a lot of life.  But here's the thing, when you break it all down it's about the relationships.  When you only have two minutes and you're not that great of an artist, you don't draw the bad job you had when you were 22 or the friend that totally did you wrong or the crazy concert you went to or a million and five other things. Because you have to really think about what shaped you.  And for me it was the people--my parents, my husband, my kids.  Maybe I did find one answer this week, when you break it all down it's about the people, the relationships, I know that for sure (this week).

You should draw your life, put it on YouTube or not, just do it.  Draw your life and maybe you'll find an answer too. Like the whole Field of Dreams thing, "build it and they will come."  Draw it and you will find the answer.  Or a Yoda thing--draw it and an answer you will find.(That last sentence must be read aloud and in a Yoda voice, it makes it so much better.)


Here's What Else I Know For Sure (This Week):

• My Draw My Life video has incredibly bad drawings, but is short and hopefully a little entertaining.

• Mr. Rogers helps grown ups too.  The world is noisy and full of some pretty scary stuff.  Fred Rogers (AKA Mr. Rogers) has been all over the Internet this week.  His famous advice is helping parents everywhere figure out how to talk to our kids.  But it's also helping us feel comforted and safer.  Watch the clip below for some of the greatest advice evah.  For real.

• Life is like an album cover from 1976.  Or at least it can look like that with the right filter on Instagram.  My sister and I used to get out the album covers from the greats like The Pointer Sisters and try to dress like them and pose like them in the mirror.  Didn't you guys do that as kids?  

Boy band potential?  JT looks like he's rapping. Yo.

• Sunshine, balanced hormones and comfortable pants are all I need to be happy.  Yeah, I may sound like an old lady and I don't care.  All I need is an elastic waistband and hormone replacement therapy and sunny skies. Is that too much to ask for? 

• It's important for siblings to support each other.  Unfortunately, Peyton and Lucy weren't feeling JT's basketball game, but they get a couple points for showing up.

• Twitter is legit.  I got all my news this week from Twitter and it turned out to be more reliable than some news on television.  It is such a great way to find out what's going on in the world, usually from people are where the news is going on.  If you aren't on Twitter, you should be and when you are, follow me at @AngelaYBlood.

• Drunk Crafting is a new thing.  Earlier this week I worked hard on a craft project while drinking a lot of wine and well, um, it didn't work out perfectly.  After laughing about it with a friend, we decided that just might make a really fun new meme or Pinterest board.  What do you think?  I mean it would be all safe crafting (no glue guns or sewing machines) and the drinking would be responsible (I mean it doesn't take much to get me tipsy).

Can you spot the mistake?
Sadly, it took me a while, but in my defense, I was hungover.

• Being middle age is confusing.  Part of me wishes I was a hippie at Coachella this weekend and the other part of me wishes I could stay in bed watching a Golden Girls marathon on Hallmark Channel.  

What do you know for sure (this week)? C'mon, we're friends, share what you know.  Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page.

  Come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed.

I'm linking up today with my good buddy Greta from  Gfunkified.com and Sarah at SundaySpill.com for the #iPPP link up.  They host a link up where they encourage people to share "your funny, your yummy, your heartfelt, your favorite photos of the week" from our phones.  Check them out.

Oh yeah, and come follow me on Twitter @AngelaYBlood and subscribe to my MomPulse YouTube channel here.

Your Story Matters (& Linking Up With MamaKat)

Everyone has a story.  And the story matters.  Your story matters.

Here's the story of a big sister helping her little brother walk on a log.  We were on an evening nature hike enjoying the evening sunshine in early spring.  

In fact, family narratives or understanding where our families come from can be the "best single predictor of children's emotional health and happiness" according to a recent article in the New York Times.  

A friend of mine who happened to be a very good story teller used to encourage everyone to share their stories.   "Tell the story, tell it and tell it and tell it again," she urged us.  My friend told stories about her childhood, her sisters, her mother, her own children, her grandchildren.  My friend passed away over a year ago, but sometimes I think about her stories.  Like how she said her mother would nap every afternoon no matter what, she would just announce to the children that she was going to "rest now."  I tried that the other day and my kids laughed at me.  I'm in awe of my friend's mother (who also had four children during her napping days).

My friend, and her well-rested mother, were pretty brilliant.  She could have written the book that was featured in the New York Times article.  Because she totally got the article's "bottom line" which is: "if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the story of your family’s positive moments and your ability to bounce back from the difficult ones." 

Stories can be funny, educational, detailed or simple.  Stories can be told around a campfire, emailed, texted and even documented on YouTube.  No matter how you do it,  just know they matter.  And not because I said so, the New York Times says so and they still matter (at least they carry a little more weight than me).

Click here to read the NYT article.

I linked up with Mama Kat's Vlogging Prompts to tell a part of my story.  

There's a fun trend on YouTube called Draw My Life and if it's trending on YouTube, well you know I want in. (Yeah, this may not be the story that helps my kids' emotional well-being.) So, last night before bed I duct taped my flipcam to the kitchen cabinet (because everyone else had gone to bed), grabbed my marker and started drawing. 


Here's how my lifestory is summed up with a marker in approximately two minutes. 

If you're an email subscriber, click here http://youtu.be/49P9WgoIv9s to see the video.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't already.

Check out Mama Kat's Draw My Life video, it's awesome.