Tag Archives: time

Want To Perk Up Your Spirit? Try This!

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by Christie Perkins

So lately I’ve been wearing some personality magnifying glasses that only sees my weaknesses. I sort of, kind of,… ok REALLY hate them. Every day it has this amazing power to pick up some new weakness. Well, I guess it’s not “new”- let’s face this- weaknesses don’t just flourish in a petri dish overnight. But, my ability to see what I am not is really annoying me.

try-this1Argh.

So, I got the half-brained brilliant idea to list all my weaknesses down. Wow. And as I listed them a full force of thoughts came rushing at me. The creative juices were loose. In fact, they were a little overly rambunctious. Calm down now. I knew I wasn’t very successful at many things but I had no idea that I really did stink it up this bad. Yeah, that took my depressed state down a few notches.

Not exactly the best idea.

Phew! I was glad my five year old interrupted me as my personal stink list pad was filling up fast with what I think bad. Gulp. Nice interruption. I didn’t want to go back to that little self-reflection activity. Continue reading →

Using the 5 Love Languages to Save Families

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by Christie Perkins

I’m a nonfiction junkie. I love reading self help books and text books. Yep, I’m a full on geek. And I also like a light clean romance book. You know the kind, the kind where the discovery of real love is realized…not just that state of the twitterpation station of life.

using-the-5-love-languages-to-save-familiesSo with my atypical spectrum of book likes, my friend gave me the perfect book: The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell. A perfect mix of knowledge and how to discover and express real love to your kids and family. Not just to be infatuated with our fabulous (and crazy driving destination) families but how to show them that we love them.

So geek it up with me.

Families need a little more love, a little more connections with one another, and a lot more work. So, no matter your situation: divorced, separated, happily married, existing in the same room with a legalized paper that indicates your married, single, with kids… or without, take a look at what Gary and Ross have to say. I’ll get to the details of that in a minute. But, I have tried a few of these simple techniques and have found a little more cohesion in our family. I liked the results.

Because no family is exempt from attack and every family is worth saving, no matter, no what! Continue reading →

How Not to Make Tamales

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by Christie Perkins

How Not to Make TamalesSo. Um… I had good intentions. And as the saying goes “It’s the thought that counts.” And let me tell you I’ve had some really awesome thoughts. Ha. These thoughts never formalized into anything… not even a failure. And you know the power of failing. Some of my greatest strengths and funny memories have come from failing. Anyway.

I’m denying myself of some great opportunities here. Think of the stories I could tell.

Hm. Well. Here’s a classic recipe quirk of the infamous “Yeah, you know… I was gonna try that.” Here’s my version of tamales: Continue reading →

How Dealing with Cancer is Like Building a House

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by Christie Perkins

If you have ever built a house you know the deep ditch neuro pathways you carve from overthinking details.

You even sometimes dream about the process… or have nightmares.

“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head,And whispered to her neighbor_ _Winter is dead.”(1)You have lived in other places and you quickly categorize what you like and don’t like. You adopt and adapt from previous experience the things you should do for the next house. But some things you take for granted, like the placement of plugs. You don’t really think about those details because someone else does the thinking for that.

Unless you’ve had a bad experience with that.

In my last house I had one light switch in a bedroom that was vacationing halfway down the wall. Ok. Maybe not that far. But, you would practically jab your armpit with the door frame before you found the switch… and I always prayed that a spider wasn’t playing boogie man as I felt the wall.

That’s crawly (not to mention creepy). Continue reading →

When Positivity Goes Kerplunk

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by Christie Perkins

So I’m living in some crazy warped time zone. It comes with the territory of “cancer news” I suppose. In the easy-load-mode I’m scheduling my daily “to do’s” and suddenly I’m thrust into the cancer twilight zone.

It’s eerie.

When PositivityIt’s eerie because the days are long. In my normal world I’ve found myself wishing to squeeze more hours out of the day. Cancer news becomes that wish granter. It’s very generous at stretching out the days. Nice little guy.

So, suddenly I find myself saying, “Wow! Was that just yesterday? It seems so long ago.” Time is no longer my own. Oh boy, is it not at all. Faceless strangers begin writing their little memos on my to do list: doctors, phone calls, return calls, surgeries, temporary kid shifting (thank you all), check ups, check outs, checkbook hocking procedures followed by twisted facial locking procedures. Continue reading →

Have To; Need To: Knowing the Difference

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by Christie Perkins

Have To; Need ToDo You Know the Difference_Today’s going to be different. I’m dropping what I have to do for what I need to do. Today won’t be filled with perfecting a blog, crunching my time to meet a deadline, and stealing my midnight dream opportunities for what has to be done.

My brain and body is going to love this.

Sure. There will be things I “have” to do. Yes. I will eat. But, I’m not just going to shove food down the hatch to satiate the grumbling tummy so I can get to the next thing. I’m going to picnic on my already cruddy floors with my preschool child. We are going to yak about pigs, friends, and monsters. And we are going to put a few more crumbs on the floor.

We are going to connect. Continue reading →

The Key To Better Relationships: Stop & Refocus

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by Christie Perkins

A while back I prayed to find out what I needed to do to be a better mom (that was the gist of the prayer anyway). I wanted a little more mojo between us. Not that the kids and I had a bad relationship but I just wanted more relationship superglue before the teenage years hit. S A I L O R SC L U BYes, I wanted that uber connection-greed associated with moms and their midget genetic counterparts. A specific thought entered my mind:

…get off the computer when the boys get home.

Ah, yes.

Bingo. It was a good idea. I could see the benefit of this counsel. Sometimes those thoughts come and I shift my head back, turn my chin slightly to the side, and scrunch one eyebrow. That? That’s the answer? But not this time. This made perfect sense. Continue reading →

Wowzers! New Year’s Goals That Actually Work

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By Christie PErkins

new years goals

I love new starts. It’s why I love the roll over of a new year, daylight savings (yes, I’m one of the endangered few that actually likes daylight savings time), a new school year, St. Patricks Day, Sunday’s, a new bottle of shampoo or toothpaste.

Ah.

New starts are like de-junking the house. It’s our renewed effort to ditch shabby habits for new and improved habits. Often I make trite, tight, new goals to organize, improve health habits, and develop talents. Blah, blah, blah. Continue reading →

Just do 7 things a week

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Making Lists

By Christie Perkins

I read a book by Stephen R. Covey many years ago that changed the way I spend my week. Since I’m a textbook nerd I’ll skip the high tech definitions and get right to the point. You’ll appreciate the shortcut version, I’m sure.

2014 Fish Lake with Paxtons 207But first you must know I’m a huge list maker. I thrive off lists. It’s not so much the list that I like but it’s the check marks that complete me. I like to feel productive. It’s my twisted sugar rush.

So you must know that list making can be a bit of a problem. On one particular unproductive day I couldn’t stand the fact that I wasn’t getting anything done so I actually created a list that I could check off the things I had already done that day. Oh, what a pitiful list. When you have to actually write down brush your teeth and get dressed as a “to do” item you can assume my noon to moon list was doomed to other menial tasks.

So, yep, it was lame. Continue reading →

Sure Fire Ways To A More Balanced Life

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How to Find Balance After Chemo and Radiation

by Christie Perkins

Fish Lake with Paxtons 041Finding balance after a major setback can be frustrating. After I finished chemo and radiation I believed that life would spring back to “normal” for me.

Preconceived notions are quite humorous. Yep. Hilarious.

For the entire year after treatments I found myself laying on the ground more than I was walking gracefully on any kind of balance beam. Oh, I would get up but it wasn’t long before I was toppling over…

And dreaming peacefully about falsified energy zings & things. Then I’d wake up more behind. “Be patient with yourself,” my doctor would tell me over and over. I was tired of being patient. Hadn’t I spent the entire year before being patient? Continue reading →