The babies were excited to play chase with the waves, running and yelling as the waves came near them. It brings a smile to my face to think of the memories of them playing chase.  The littlest one found a great way of tuning her art ability by drawing in the sand. She instantly became addicted to it and didn’t want to leave the beach and I was thankful she was not drawing on the walls again.

For a few minutes or two the baby had fun chasing the Seagulls. She ran as fast as her little legs could take her. Of course the Seagulls looked at her like you think your going to catch me sister. Please…. You can not catch me in your wildest dreams. I have wings. She soon gave up and looked at them like she was saying fine if you don’t want to play with me, I have sand that will let me play.

The other babies enjoyed the walk down the beach. Excited to find all the unique shells that were on the beach. Collecting all the ones that they found to be unique. Jem found on that she thought was in the shape of a chicken leg. I think she was hungry. LOL Though she was right it could have been a chicken leg. Props to her and her imagination.

It was nice to see people (who were not being paid) walking down the beach picking up the trash and putting it in the trash reciprocals. People were walking there dogs, running, collecting shells, playing catch and having family time. The beach brings enjoyment to so many people. As a society we need to be conscious of waste and recycling so we can continue to have the enjoyment of beach and other wonderful simple pleasures that the great Earth has given us.

Ones step closer to being deliriously happy….. By Ann Marie anessa.me

Though, I must say my choices are NOT the ones usually picked to watch since I love guns, bullets and blood. Yes, the movies that make me happy and nobody else likes.  Everyone else prefers the mooshie…lovey…chick flick movies ( Holding back the chunks now….Ok, I’m better.) and the kid type movies from Disney etc. We also love to watch “old” movies and TV shows such as MacGyver or Swiss Family Robinson when that was on TV….not the movie…

We all grab our pillows and blankets and a cozy spot to watch TV…It is amazing to see and hear their reactions to some of the “older” movies…I must say they have loved them. I’m happy that we have had the chance to expose them to show and things of the past…One of the best times is when we all discuss the movies. The kids always have input or really get into the characters and start talking about what they think the characters are going to do next.

We get excited when the Netflix comes in the mail. The kids carefully rip open the DVDs to see what is inside. After family movie night they put the Netflix in the mail and patiently wait for the next movies to come…It has been a great family experience to pick out movies and TV series from the past…Great memories…I must say even the big kids who no longer live here get into our family movie nights when they can…

One step closer to being a deliriously happy as a family….creating family memories and traditions to pass on…

Time waits for no one…time does not wait for you to reach your goals and then proceed.

Though it would be so nice if we could say, “Time stand still a minute or two while I to get this done.” I would be saying that all day long. Time stop! Time go! Time stop! Time go!
Yep, I could become addicted to those words so would everyone else. The utter chaos it would cause..

I have had a couple of people tell me this year ‘What have you lost but time..not a big thing.’ I’m looking at them thinking ‘amazing, time is not a big thing.’ Time is a major component of your day, success, life and it’s not important? What planet are you from?? A second lost is a second you will not get back. We definitely had different view points on time. Not to say I haven’t wasted time, but time has become a “precious commodity” that I’m becoming more respectful of and enjoying more of.

Time is always in perpetual movement. Make this the year that you organize your schedule/time so you get the most out of your day to accomplish your work and personal goals.

Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever. ~Horace Mann

One step closer to creating a life of being deliriously happy…  ~Ann Marie~anessa.me

I remember Christmas Eve…..I use to spend most of the day listening to Christmas music and keeping an eye on the gifts being put under the tree….. spying for the packages with my name on them…waiting for a time when no one was in room with me….when the opportunity arose I would shake the gifts to see if I could figure out what was in them….and of course looking at the size of the gift…typical kid…..

I was put to bed early evening and was awaken around 11 pm or so….I got ready along with the rest of the family and we would walk to our church which was up the block from us….It usually was a beautiful night…..with a blanket of snow on the ground and new snow falling….the air would be cold and crisp…nothing said Christmas more then that…

The first thing we would see when we arrived at church was the beautiful life size (or so it seemed) Manger scene…We would enter church, the choir would be singing songs and church would be packed….after Mass we would start our journey back to the house…singing Christmas carols at times…

When we got home my dad, mom and who ever else would make a big breakfast with eggs, bratwurst, cinnamon rolls, bacon, toast and sweets…after our bellies were full it would be off to bed so Santa could come…I would still got up at the crack of dawn to open gifts…

To me Christmas is not Christmas without going to Midnight Mass….my kids go with me at times…but we never have breakfast like I did…but maybe someday…between the Mass, the Carols, and the generosity of the season that is what Christmas is all about…

One step closer to being deliriously happy….http://www.anessa.me

After a snowfall the plow trucks would push the snow into huge piles on the corners of the block were I lived. We seen this as great opportunities to build forts, caves and have some fun. We were pretty good little engineers and we didn’t have many cave ins. Lucky for us no one was ever hurt. Course we never gave thought that someone could get hurt. We were just kids having some fun.

The relentless task of using our feet and hands to build our caves and forts gave way to the hours of fun, laughs and excitement for the day. We enjoyed climbing in and out the caves and on top of the caves. Building caves with partners to have snowball fights with the other group and take ownership over their caves was so much fun and still brings a smile to my face. Great memories that have lasted my life time.

Great snow memories that have help create one more step to being deliriously happy.. ~aaworkingmoms~ anessa.me

I had a daughter who would get upset and depressed if she did not get 100% on all of her school work. We took family skip days when she started getting stressed out. Her teacher and the school councilor were in agreement about the skip days.  Needless to say she is like me with grades.

My wee ones are homeschooled. Their homework is sent in and graded and emailed to me. They have no idea what their grades are nor do they ask. They get all A’s but don’t even know it. They simply get to enjoy their studies and be kids with no worries about their grades. We concentrate on making sure they understand what is being taught. It makes our job of teaching easier and it is less stressful for them. It is a win-win situation for us.

To me grades do not make a person and grades do not have to control a person’s outcome. There have been many people who graduated at the top of their class and they never amounted to a hill of beans and others who barely passed who have become very successful. They had ambition and the will power to succeed. Some extremely smart people I have known committed suicide because they could not handle failure and the need they had to be on top. One cannot help but to think this may have been focused on at an early age because of the stress to be at the top of the class. Many kids are bored in school for one reason or another which diminishes their ambition to learn. Everyone has their own way of learning that works best for them and schools are set up for kids who can sit at a desk quietly and work. For everyone else, it makes it a bit harder to learn. The main thing is not everyone who gets ‘good’ grades comes out on top and not everyone who barely passes is stuck at the bottom of dead beat job.

One step closer to becoming deliriously happy. ~Ann Marie (A&A Workingmoms)

Are their fits to get their point across or to drive you utterly insane. I know, they are learning at a young age which buttons to push to drive you nuts and which buttons push to get what they want. The have a photographic memory which holds the answers to these questions and they are able to retrieve the data at a moments notice to use it to get anything they want from you. They are cunning but oh, so lovable and fun.

The cute beautiful sneaky creatures that they are, so brilliant and deceiving a great combination! They fool you with those cute little checks that are so irresistibly pinchable and top it with sweet innocent smiles. The icing on the cake is all the kisses and hugs their unconditional love. One of their greatest gifts that they bestow on you.

With all that being said, I have figured out away to get them back a tad all in fun of course. I love to irritate them, bug them with hugs and kisses. Chase them and pick on them. Do all sorts of silly things which have the wee ones fussing and the big ones yelling “MOM”. I’m the cunning devious mother who has way to much fun irritating them. A goal which I accomplish everyday according to them. LOL

We have lots of FUN everyday. There is not a day that goes by that kisses, hugs and I love yous are not passed out to everyone along with me bugging them. I would never trade the babies in for anything in this world. No matter how fussy they are, for if they were not here to drive me insane and irritate me who would do that and what would my life be like. mmmm wait minute, what am I saying. I would love to have a quiet life with no fussing fit throwing kids. If only I would of thought about that before I had kids. Just kidding; maybe!

To me having kids is one step closer to being deliriously happy!~By Ann Marie (aaworkingmoms)

Social media has made the world a smaller place and has forged relationships that we normally would of not had the opportunity to have. It plays a role in every aspect of life today from the mommy blogger, to the actor, to news media, corporations, churches, and even some schools. Social media has made it easier for people to connect, whether it be for business or for friendship. Technology has come such a long way over the years.

Jem started twitting with me when she was 8 years old. She instantly fell in love with it and wanted to learn more about social media, blogging and about our business. She wanted to blog so away she went and the domino effect happened with the other two kids who were 6 and 10 at that time. As adults its hard enough to get people to read your blog; can you imagine how hard it is to get people to read blogs from kids. I came up with an idea while I was blogging for Saronti, a children’s website. I thought how great would it be if this site had an area for my kids to blog. The owner of the site thought it was a great idea, so we did a feed and she published their blogs. I will never forget that day, the kids excitement and sense of accomplishment to see their blogs published on Saronti. It was very exciting to me as a parent because who would have read or even publish a kids blog. It is no longer a pain staking task to get them to write. They write about all sorts of things from dinosaurs to whats going on with them. It is a way for them to express themselves as individuals.

Jem was still wanting more social media for kids and wanted to start a business so she came up with an idea of a social media site for kids.The domino affect happened again and her brother and sister jumped onboard. She loves connecting with kids from around the world. So the site was created with their help so they could meet more kids and make a difference in the world.. Connecting with kids from other parts of the world/country is a great learning experience for kids. They can learn how other kids live, what they think about and what they have in common. They can play games with educational value, practice their writing skills with blogging, learn to put what they think and change it into thoughts, create groups to voice their opinions and make a change/difference in the world. Kids connecting with kids to make the world a better place. Who says social media has to be just for adults.

I love to watch the waves hit the sand and deposit gifts from the ocean. Gifts of shells fish and yes, let’s not forget debris. The ocean sings joyous stimulating songs to the souls who love her. She invites everyone that visits her to take in her unending beauty, play in her yard but she commands respect from everyone. She has and will always continue to teach us about life and at times she gives up her secretes but she still stays mysterious, dark and cold. She is strong, powerful and fearless. She can rage her anger and turbulence like no other but the same time calm and relax the turbulence within a person. Astronomically amazing she is.

I just recently realized how much I love the ocean at night. The water is so black and the waves are white the combo make an extraordinary chillaxin dual. The smell of the water and wind blowing while you are sitting on the beach in the dark is a great place to release your inner struggles and rejuvenate your soul. I long for a house on the shore of the ocean with deck overlooking the ocean so I can sleep hearing and smelling the ocean. One step to becoming deliriously happy.

I have 5 babies that will be having birthdays this next month. I’m happy they are here to enjoy them but I think we should throw the age and birthday thing out the door. I have called my birthday my “Earthday” for years. I never have to think about my age until someone asks me and it always happens. How old are you? How old are your kids? You don’t look old enough to have that many kids and you surely are not old enough to be a grandma, another word that I don’t use. LOL I get asked this because I was blessed with looking young and acting even younger. Mostly because I refuse to grow up or grow; won’t use the other word.

I guess if society as a whole was not so stuck on the age thing and everything was not centered on having fewer wrinkles and being young I could handle it. I have had this age issue since I was 13. Yeap, when I turned 13 I decided to stop having the birthday thing and stopped telling people how old I was. Seriously at times I have forgotten. Of course until I have to flip out my drivers license or at my doctors office. Yes, here I’m sitting in the office and they announced my birthday to everyone and continued to do the same to everyone. I happened to be the youngest there and the most applaud or the one that has a big enough mouth to say something. Well, did they get a huge ear full from me. I even told them that I would refuse to go back if they kept this up. They have since stopped doing this. I thought it was just wrong. If I wanted everyone to know my freakin age I would plaster it to my shirt. NOT.

Even though I gotten many compliments it doesn’t matter because at some point people start saying you’re too old for this and that. They attach age to everything even if age has nothing to do with what is going on with you or the situation.
When I first started having kids I got harassed because I was a baby having a baby by most standards. Then I got told I was too old to have a baby and how did I expect to carry my child’s luggage to their dorm room, nothing like a slap in the face. I had years to go before I would even turn 4….well you know what I’m trying to say. On the other hand, many use age as an excuse not to do something. I can’t go back to school, change jobs, have kids, move, etc. because I’m too old. Everyone is an age critic.

Don’t get me wrong I’m thankful to be here because I’m not ready to be pushing up the daisies yet. But for us chronologically challenged people and for society as a whole I think the world would be a better place if we got rid of the age stigma. If people just looked at people for who they are and for the knowledge that they posses, instead of attaching an age to it. My personal step to becoming deliriously happy creating happy thoughts and free from age restrictions. ~~A&A Workingmoms~~ www.anessa.me