cindycullen.com

It’s raining outside here. The wind is blowing. It’s cold and yukky. But, it’s a beautiful day.

One little act of kindness can change everything. One little note of peace can make any day look wonderful.

To that person that brightened my day, if you are reading, Thank you!

In the end, it’s not the bad, but the good that we remember. At least it is for me. The good always outweighs the bad.

Have a BEAUTIFUL day!  And make someone else’s day beautiful too!

It must be written in the soccer rules book that it either has be to be freezing cold, pouring rain or scorching hot before a soccer game can be played.  So far this year we’ve sat through rain, snow and now sunshine.  The sunshine was a nice change yesterday but now we all have sunburns to deal with.

Could it be that we just can’t be pleased?  Surely not!  I guess it’s that we only remember the bad in things instead of the good.  I was thankful for the sunshine… it actually felt good… until I got too much and got burned.  Lucky for me, mine will turn to tan easily and I won’t get burned for the rest of the summer.  Unfortunately for my kids, they don’t have the same luxury… well, one of the three will tan and not burn much, if any, again.  But, the other two, if not careful, will burn over and over and over again.
Could it be that soccer is the first reason for us to be outside in the sun and so I associate the sport with sunburns??  That could very well be it.  We always forget the sunscreen at the soccer games.  And with good reason… Just a couple of weeks ago, we were sitting in the snow, freezing to death and sunscreen was NOT on our minds at all.

But, before long, the season will be over and we’ll forget about how miserable we all were in the snow and now with our sunburns.  And it won’t be long before the kids will be asking, “When will soccer start again, Mom?”  How soon we forget the pain.

Well, I’m one step closer to my black belt! I achieved my yellow belt tonight! Woohoo!! Yes, I know, it’s still a long way from my black belt, but I like to celebrate each little success along the way!!

Yellow is better than orange which I was this morning and have been for the last 4 months. And it shows that I’m improving and not staying the same. I can see the growth and the new belt is a marker to show that I’m not the only one that notices my progress.

My kids still look down on their ‘old’ mom who is ONLY a yellow belt since they are all blue belts, soon to be green. But, that’s ok. It doesn’t bother me. I know that one day I will catch up when I reach that black belt achievement.

It’s great to have a goal. And on days when I don’t want another bruise, or I don’t think I can kick above knee high, or I don’t think I can stand another push up, it helps to keep that black belt goal in mind.

Why do I want the black belt?

Because, I will prove to myself that I really stuck with something and put in the hard work, sweat, and determination to learn and grow. And that’s what life is all about. Growing and improving ourselves. Challenging ourselves to be better than we were yesterday. NOT staying the same, but becoming stronger and wiser than we were before.

Karate has been a great work-out, but more than that, it has helped my self-confidence and I can see how it has been a great character-builder in my children. I love the lessons that are taught - not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. It takes great concentration, determination, and dedication plus hard work, sweat and sometimes tears to accomplish the black belt status. Karate works not only my body, but my mind as well. And at my age, I could use the work outs!!

Want to spar??

For the other article about karate mama click here.

This is what I jokingly asked my kids yesterday. Yes, it’s that time again. Time to buy pool chemicals and get the pool ready. The time of year when we spend so much money on pool chemicals we wonder if we are going to be able to afford groceries too.

This year I decided to switch to Chlorine from Baquacil. I really liked the Baquacil the first couple of years, but the last year or so I’ve had really bad problems with algae in the latter part of the pool season. Not to mention that the chemicals seem to cost twice as much when using Baquacil.

We changed the sand in the filter over the weekend. That’s what they suggested before we switch chemicals. And then last night I put the new shock in the pool. This morning my water is a neon green color. They told me to expect the water to change color since there was probably some baquacil still left in the water. They were right!! I’m hoping that the color goes away before we decide it’s warm enough to swim!! That should be a little while since the temp went back down into the seventies this week. I’m sure the water is really COLD!

The kids wouldn’t mind. They would get in and turn blue and still not complain. Their teeth would chatter so hard that I would think they were going to shatter and they still wouldn’t complain. I don’t know what it is about pools and kids, but they would endure all kinds of colds and flu to get to swim for just a few minutes in April. If I’ve heard, “Can we swim yet?” once, I’ve heard it a million times!

And, by the way, they chose the swimming pool over eating this month, so now I can use the grocery budget on the pool chemicals! Well, at least until suppertime.

Have a coool spring!

Cindy