What You Get From Me

Click right here to go to My First Giveaway!

Eckeltricity!!

I bet Mr. Weasley would have been excited too!

Click right here to go to My First Giveaway!

The First Giveaway!

I'm going to do my first giveaway.  Have fun, tell people about 75% Hippie, and hopefully you'll win a $5 Amazon.com gift card!

Please pass this along in your social media, through email, or however you would like!

Tune In Tomorrow

Tune in tomorrow for my first giveaway!

The Weekend

It's the weekend.  Two more weeks of school left.  It's been a long long haul but I'm almost there.  I have no idea what I'm going to do without Saturday School Work Day.  Okay, I'll clean my house, let's be real.  My daughter will be much happier without the dreaded Mommy Homework.

I'm going to take my well deserved six months off, during which time I'm going to have my weight loss surgery.  I've reached the point where physically, I cannot take this anymore.  It's drastic but necessary, unfortunately.

  Things have been stressful for the past few weeks here in the house.  There are days when I feel like just moving out with my daughter and being done with all this.  I am so sick of drama.  Can't people just chain up their drama llamas and live a normal life?  I understand that shit happens but must we wallow in it?  I just put on my hip waders and work around it.  I can't let it affect me or the kiddo anymore than it already does.  At the end of it all, it's us and that is a great combination. 

Thank the Goddess for my amazing, smart, beautiful, funny, sarcastic, and witty child.

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)   
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
  He chortled in his joy.


`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe. 

 

Maybe it's weird to be inspired by somebody so clearly on drugs but hey, that works for me.  This poem moves me for some reason.  I've always loved it, then after seeing Tim Burton's version of Alice In Wonderland, I loved it even more.  Tim Burton is amazing and the masterpieces he creates really speak to the depths of my soul.  They are haunting.  I dig that.

Peace is Patriotic

The most patriotic thing you can do is to speak out for peace.

We have a responsibility to the people in this world to be an example.

Let Peace Reign!

Happy Peace Day!

Circle the World What if we could circle the world Flying peace doves beneath the sun Giant twenty foot wings of fabric That are hand made by everyone Once a year we circle the world Saying ain’t it time to bury the guns Our time has come and we have begun To Circle the World It’s a dream and it’s a vision It’s a prayer that we may see When every person, every creature Will be treated with dignity When every war will be a memory We shall never shall repeat Our time has come and we have begun To Circle the World ~Dana Lyons~ Circle the World by Dana Lyons Copyright 2004 Lyons Brothers Music BMI www.cowswithguns.com

http://www.cowswithguns.com/lyrics2/lyrics_for_public/circle.html

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Dory's Philosophy

Gotta love Dory.

Just keep swimming!

Twinning

Becca and I take turns doing Happy Hippie Heart.  Yesterday was my turn and I posted a picture of three of our kids reading and a quote about reading and TV.  I get this phone call from Becca who is cracking up.  She just finished telling her husband and kids that when the movie was over, the TV was going off for the day and they could use their imaginations.  She sat down, checked to see if I had the blog done, and there we were, in each others heads again. 

I do this with my close friends, we can't help it.  We end up sharing brains.  Sometimes I feel bad for them, other times I think "Ha!  That's what you get for being friends with me!"

See, no good deed goes unpunished after all.  To see the amazing mind linked post you can click here. 

Have an awesome week!  Remember that you choose your path, you choose your reactions, and nobody can make you feel bad unless you let them!

Down

I just feel down today.

Stephen King Is Wise

I read Twilight.  I was excited to read Twilight.  The vampires sparkled.  Really?  Bella whined and bitched.  A lot.  It was like living at my house or something.  Did I momentarily enjoy them?  Yep.  Would I re-read them?  The answer to that question is a question:  Have all the other books been destroyed in some horrid accident?

Thanks Becca for sending me this.  You truly know how to make me smile.  I think I'm off to re-read the Harry Potter series now.

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Lightening It Up For Friday

It's amazing how we don't need alcohol to be this awesome.

Life Insurance

I always thought life insurance was for old people.  

I'm applying for a medical loan with a co-signer and to keep them as free from the responsibility of paying back that loan, I applied for life insurance.  Weird.  

Then I started thinking about how my family would pay expenses of my death if something unfortunate were to happen.  I mean, you'd think I'd be safe and all having already been hit by the bus that everyone seems to use as an example, but you never know.  Despite my weight, I'm in excellent health.  My blood pressure and cholesterol are great, etc. etc. etc.  I don't need life insurance.  Then I think of my mom dying.  I think of looking at the cost of everything and thinking "How in the hell are we going to pay for this"?  Then thinking "How can I think of that right now"?  I think of the payments that the funeral home let us make because Westford's is amazing.  

I don't want my family to ever go through that.  I don't want Kim to ever go through that.  So, I applied for life insurance.  

Let's hope I don't need it for about 65 years, okay?

Fear

I have social anxiety.  I don't normally tell people this and many people who know me would be surprised.  Especially those of you who knew me back in the day.  I didn't used to be like this.  I didn't used to dread going to the grocery store.  I'd say I didn't used to dread going to the mall, but once I hit about 25, disliking the mall had nothing to do with anxiety.  I didn't dread going to the fair, a parade, or even to a friends party. 

I don't know exactly when it started because it manifested physically.  I just thought I was getting sick a lot.  It took years to figure it out.  In fact, it wasn't until we had been in California for a year that a doctor thought to ask some questions about depression.  Another year and half of the same things going on and my fabulous doctor here in Bellingham figured it out and put me on an anti-anxiety drug.  Finally, some relief.  However, that relief came at a price.  I was a personality zombie.  Finally, after about six months, my friends and family came to me and said "We want you to be okay but you aren't you anymore at all".  My daughter felt like she didn't have a mother.  That broke my heart.  Goodbye pills, not so welcome back anxiety.

It's been three years since I stopped taking the zombification drugs.  My anxiety sucks but somehow, we make it work.  I push myself in some ways and have lost ground in other ways.  Every day is a battle and every day that I walk out my front door, I win. 

I win.

Still the Best Oscar Acceptance Speech Ever!

Michael Moore - oscar speech by Pzychofreak

Here is an excerpt from Michael Moore's new book that comes out today.  I know that I will be buying it and I encourage you to do the same.  You can read more at the World Peace Journal.

"Why was I still alive? For more than a year there had been threats, intimidation, harassment and even assaults in broad daylight. It was the first year of the Iraq war, and I was told by a top security expert (who is often used by the federal government for assassination prevention) that "there is no one in America other than President Bush who is in more danger than you".*

It makes me sad what we, as humans, do with the truth.  Most people run from it, bury it, or even destroy it but so few tell it.  Those brave few who tell it are usually ostracized, threatened, and yes even hurt or killed.  The truth is hard and sometimes ugly.  The truth is painful and can be something to fear.  It's also necessary and must be told!

"If we give in to the terrorists, the terrorists win."

~George W. Bush

Thank you Michael Moore for not letting the terrorists win! 

*Extracted from Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life by Michael Moore.

My Beauty

Last year instead of doing the traditional Donette school picture that I get charged way too much for, Becca took some fantastic pictures of Kim.  I think this is my favorite.  It feels like she's saying "Goodbye Summer.  I loved you while you were here.  I will love Autumn too but in a completely different way than I love you".  I mean, she could just be looking at a sunflower but that's what I see in this picture.