my thoughts on prayers

February 16, 20185 Comments

i have a few thoughts on prayers.

for a long time i was afraid to pray.

i didn’t know who to pray to or what to say.

what i found is that it doesn’t matter who you pray to or what you say…it just matters that you do it.

here’s the thing,

we can choose to hear emptiness when people send out their prayers & thoughts

we can choose to change our thoughts about prayers and use our prayers to change our thoughts.

prayer

a solemn request for help
an earnest hope or wish

thought

an idea or opinion produced by thinking
the product of mental activity

look at the definitions above…

we all have requests for help.

we all have earnest hopes and wishes.

we all have opinions and ideas produced by thinking.

we all have products of mental activity.

i decided to look up synonyms for prayers and thoughts to help me work through my frustration with how easily those words are tossed out in times of trauma and grief.

in other words we could…

ask for hope.

urge logic.

beg for understanding.

petition for consideration.

require ideation.

implore regard.

plead for rumination.

solicit attention.

demand reasoning.

implore scrutiny.

so while we may be judging how other are using the words PRAYERS & THOUGHTS, we could use our own prayers (ask, urge, beg, petition, require, implore plead, solicit, demand, and implore), to who or whatever you choose, for our own thoughts (hope, logic, understanding, consideration, ideation, regard, rumination, attention, reasoning, scrutiny).

i ask to be free from judgement and fear.

i ask to let love in.

valentine’s day 2013: you color my world friend

February 6, 20181 Comment

I am happy to say that my kids agreed to give their friends something that is NOT candy this year!

We’ve decided on ideas for each of them, but have to wait until this weekend to put them together.

Until then, I thought I would revisit our no candy valentines from years past…this one is from 2013.

valentines

I found these adorable crayon packages at Target (in 2013, but haven’t seen them since)…you can currently find them here.

Tear pages out of the atlas (you can purchase an atlas here).

Cut out heart shapes…about 6″ large.

Glue a crayon pack onto one side of the heart.

Write “You color my world, friend!” on the other side.

Sign your name.

Share the love!

home is…homemade valentines.

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a walk down memory lane

January 10, 2018Leave a comment

some old photos of the kids rooms popped up on my facebook memories yesterday.

the photo below is baby girls room in january 2013. the tissue paper flowers were from her 1st birthday party in 2010! they hung in our playroom for a few years and then i added them to her bedroom.

i also made the paper bag sunflowers.

five years ago, when baby girl was only 3, i could do pretty much whatever I wanted to do with her room. i had fun playing around with DIY decorations, thrifted items, and some of the artwork i had in her baby room.

a couple years ago we ended up having the kids switch rooms. i think i ended up moving all the furniture by myself one day when ryan was out of town. i remember it being really messy and hard and wondering why i decided to do it.

the following photo is one i took on my phone this morning. totally not staged for a photo shoot, but a comparison.she loves pigs, so she dictates the design of her room now…i just add bits and pieces when she lets me.

the photo below is in the same room as the photo above, but it was the little guys room 5 years ago.

he was 5 and loved everything batman.

the decorations on his wall next to the bed were from his golden birthday party that was a super hero theme.

i had a love/hate relationship with his bunk/twin beds. we traded them out for a full bed a few years ago and there are some rare occasions when i wish we had held onto the twin beds (like when we have visitors and i wish the kids could just sleep in the same room together).he is now in baby girls old room. they each got to choose an accent wall color when we had our house repainted in 2016. his favorite color is purple.

he is a little more easy going when it comes to the decorations in his room. i was able to repurpose some dog prints that we used to have in our family room. it love how it worked out because on the wall to the right of the photo i found a decal that is a lab carrying a lacrosse stick. you can also see the pillow on the bed with max the lax dog. the lacrosse storage organizer is from pottery barn, but is used to display a vintage lacrosse stick that my dad gave him, and a pair of gloves from a former professional lacrosse player. he says it’s one of his favorite parts of his room.

i am hoping to write more posts that are interiors related this year as i also hope to start doing design work for clients here in the portland metro area.

what kind of posts would you like to see more of this year?

i’d love to hear your requests and comments!!

a dozen

January 3, 20181 Comment

Twelve years ago today we moved to Portland.

We drove our extended cab pickup loaded with our five fuzzy faces (3 black labs and two cats) towing our malibu (loaded with fragiles) from Denver to Boise (actually, Mountain Home) through high winds in Wyoming and a blizzard in Eastern Idaho. We stayed with some dear friends for the night and drove the rest of the way through snow in Eastern Oregon, and a driving rain and darkness through the Gorge. Only to hit rush hour traffic on 217 on the way to our rental house on Bull Mountain. We stayed with friends in the exact neighborhood where we have ended up…and met the moving van on the morning of January 3rd, 2006….probably the only DRY day in that record setting wettest January in Portland. Welcome to Oregon!

I am not sure how long we actually planned on living here.

At one point we almost moved, but ended up staying.

For now, I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

Colorado is where I was born, raised, and met my husband, but Portland is home.

It’s where we started our own family.

It’s where we have been through the best and the worst of our marriage.

It’s where we have made friends that feel like family.

It’s where we have planted our roots.

Cheers to a dozen years in the Rose City, Bridgeport, Stumptown, and all that keeps Portland weird.

easy christmas card photo books

December 28, 2017Leave a comment

I have been getting a lot of questions about an Instagram story I posted a couple weeks ago about what I do with all of the Christmas cards that we receive. I wrote this blog post 5 years ago and figured it might be a good time to repost it.

Don’t throw out all those cards, easily turn them into little photo books that you can pull out each year! We now have 9 years of books collected and I love to pull out the books in late November and look through them the entire month of December.

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is receiving the cards from all of our friends and relatives. I especially like the photos.

They make me smile from the day I receive my first card until the day I finally take them down from their display…which is usually one of the last things to come down.

Over the years I have saved the photos in a drawer in my desk. You see, my aunt had albums full of christmas card photos and every year I loved to sit down on Christmas day and look through them. Although I didn’t know all the people, I learned to recognize the familiar faces year after year and enjoyed seeing how families had grown, adult children had gotten married, etc. My plan was to eventually start some albums of my own.

As I was trying to find space in the drawer in my desk for our cards from Christmas 2012 I finally decided to just put the darn books together. I mean, for goodness sake, all I needed was a hole punch (I used a 3 hole punch and a single hole punch), some chipboard, some rings, and a glue stick!

All of my cards were organized by year, so I started punching holes.

{That’s my mom and dad in Italy}

I used two holes of a three hole punch so that I would eventually be able to line up the cards that were differing sizes and shapes.

Then I cut some chipboard that I had from the back of some thrifted frames that I won’t be using. I cut the chipboard a little larger than the largest card…three of the books ended up being 9″ x 6″ and one is 8″ x 6″.

I punched holes in the chipboard and glued our christmas card to the front.

I also made back covers for the books so the cards are protected on both sides of the book.

This year our card was a post card and I wanted to include the back of the card, so I put it on the inside of the back cover.

In less than an hour (it actually took 2 days, but I had to start and stop multiple times for various reasons…kids, dogs, cats, husbands, etc.) I had books from the last 4 years put together!

For now, they are in our basket of photo books in the family room. I think, eventually, I will put them in the attic with the rest of the Christmas decor so they will be a fun tradition to pull out of the bins each year.

Notice a change to the bookshelves? I’ll fill you in on that quick project this week!

Stay tuned…

I hope this inspires you to keep those cards! It’s a super simple project and feels so good once you have it done!

{wellness wednesday} mother nature and mother nurture

December 6, 2017Leave a comment

i have had a little one home with me all week.

i am so thankful to be able to easily make the choice to have them home with me when they are not feeling well. and, while i may not get the things done that i normally would do while they are at school, i don’t have to take a personal day or worry about getting a sub when they need to be home. what a blessing.i have been topically applying snifflease to her chest and thieves on her back. RC and raven have been in the diffuser. snuggles, christmas movies, snacks, and plenty of fluids all day long.

no toxins.

no chemicals.

just mother nature and mother nurture at our house.

essential oils are not going to keep our kids from staying home from school once in a while, but they will help support their bodies systems to get back above the wellness line.

if you are interested in finding out more about how to support your body and keep your family above the wellenss line, leave a comment or contact me!

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{mindful monday} each moment

December 4, 20171 Comment

mindful

[mahynd–fuh l]

adjective

attentive, aware, or careful
noting or relating to the psychological technique of mindfulness

mindfulness

the quality or state of being mindful
the practice of maintaining a nonjudgemental state of heightened or complete awarenesss of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis

through my yin yoga practice over the last few years i have truly learned mindfulness. in those minutes, in that hour, i can truly focus on my breath while thoughts come into and out of my mind without judgement of myself or others.

in those moments i feel whole, confident, and content.

when i miss those practices because i let other things get in the way i feel it in all aspects of my life.

however, i should not let missing those yoga classes affect my mindfulness practice…mindfulness can be practiced without yoga.

mindfulness can be practiced every day.

each moment.

as best you can.

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colorful holidays

November 14, 20173 Comments

i have been inspired by a couple of my favorite color loving instagram feeds lately…

@ohhappyday

@megduerksen

so, while we wait to cut our christmas tree until the day after thanksgiving, and the santa’s still stay in attic storage i have started planning for the crossing over of holidays that comes when thanksgiving and christmas collide.

i am also not afraid to make it smell like christmas before thanksgiving.

my parents will be visiting us for thanksgiving. while they have taken in the traditions of cutting down the tree and starting to decorate for christmas they have never actually been here for christmas.

i want a bit more christmas in the house when they get here so they can get a feeling for what it is like here on christmas morning. unfortunately, i cannot replicate the excitement of our children on christmas morning…something i will cherish even more this year as they are getting older.

my aunt gifted me with colored vintage glassware that my grandmother had collected for her. it will play a part as our thanksgiving centerpiece, and then i have some other plans for it during the christmas season!

the open shelving in our kitchen continues to be a favorite place to change up the displays for the seasons. this year i mixed up the fiesta ware and some of my vintage shiny brite collection. i also added some led uplighting which was super easy to do!

the pacific northwest continues to put on a beautiful show for us this fall.

our japanese maple is one of the last trees to lose its leaves each fall. the leaves are a purple color all summer and turn to a bright red.

the front garden is mostly put to bed except for some carrots, kale, herbs, and the strawberry plants.

i’ve been collecting leaves from our yard…we only have the douglas fir trees and the japanese maple, but we get leaves from the neighbors…this is a giant leafed maple!

are you a wait until after thanksgiving to bring out christmas?

or, do you let them play nicely together?

or, are you a “what’s thanksgiving?! it’s all christmas all the time after halloween” person?

no matter what, i hope you are enjoying whatever you choose!

comfortable with the uncomfortable

November 9, 20171 Comment

i take a yin yoga class 2-4 times a week. if you are not familiar with yin yoga it is a slow-paced style of yoga with poses, or asanas, that are held for longer periods of time. for beginners this may range from 45 seconds to two minutes with more advanced practitioners holding poses for 5 minutes or more.

last thursday we held a pose for eight minutes.

EIGHT minutes.

eight minutes in paschimottanasana.

what is paschimottanasana you might ask? (and how do you pronounce it?!)

paschimottanasana (POSH-ee-moh-tan-AHS-anna) is a seated forward fold and can be used to help your distracted mind (and your hamstrings) unwind.

the benefits of paschimottanasana are as follows:

calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
stretches the spine, shoulders, hamstrings
stimulates the liver, kidneys, ovaries, and uterus
improves digestion
helps relieve the symptoms of menopause and menstrual discomfort
soothes headache and anxiety and reduces fatigue
therapeutic for high blood pressure, infertility, insomnia, and sinusitis
traditional texts say that Paschimottanasana increases appetite, reduces obesity, and cures diseases

our instructor said the hardest part of staying in the pose would be staying in the pose for EIGHT minutes because you start to feel uncomfortable about the TIME you are spending in the pose.

he said that by being focused on our breath, our body would relax, and our mind would follow allowing us to become comfortable with the uncomfortable task of holding the pose for eight minutes.

to tell you the truth, i would have liked to hold it even longer.

and, to be completely honest, i look nothing like the image above when i am in paschimottanasana.

in yin yoga we use all kinds of straps and props to support our poses so we can hold them for long periods of time. i probably had my head resting on blocks or a bolster, and maybe even a strap around my feet. my head was nowhere near my knees and my hands were not wrapped around my feet.

someday, maybe. someday.

i have really come to love my mornings with yin yoga and can really tell a difference when i have missed a class. it’s not necessarily that i become out of shape, or stiff, but i find myself becoming un-comfortable with the uncomfortable.

i don’t always want to be comfortable with the uncomfortable because there are some uncomfortable situations you should be uncomfortable with. however, i sure like being able to deal with uncomfortable situations with a clear mind and that is what yoga helps me do.

are you a yogi? if so, what style of yoga is your favorite and why?

baby steps, too

November 6, 2017Leave a comment

Sometimes I go down the rabbit hole of old blog posts. I have blogged since 2008 and there were many years that I blogged multiple times a week. I miss it.

This short post from November 2010 brought back so many memories…

Lately, it seems like things are very out of control in my life. A very busy 3 year old and a 1 year old who wants to keep up with her big brother keep this momma very busy. My head is always spinning with what needs to get done, what I would like to get done, and what I have forgotten to get done. Right when I feel like I have it all under control something happens (like a little guy getting sick, or a baby girl who is teething) and I just fall apart.

I have always been independent.

I am a control freak.

I don’t like to ask for help.

I hate the feeling of not being able to handle everything by myself.

Sometimes I feel all alone.

And, yet, I know I am not alone.

At any rate, i’m moving forward. And, just like my baby girl who recently started walking, I am taking baby steps.

Recently, when talking with a family member who has a newborn and almost two year old I was reminded that there were times that I was barely making it through the days of being at home with two little ones. Somehow I made it through the lack of sleep and tireless physical exhaustion of taking care of little ones. I am so thankful that I was able to be with them everyday.

Lately, I miss those days. Those days filled with taking care of my babies.With both of my kids in school full time my job as “stay at home mom” has turned into more of a job of housecleaner and errand runner, which I am not very fond of.

They are away from home 6+ hours a day and I miss them. I miss how they filled my days.

The short time span I get with them each day after school is so full, but such a small amount of time with them.

They come home to do homework, and most days, want to play with friends as soon as that is done.

Some days there is a sports or school activity thrown in the mix.

Then dinner. Always dinner.It all seems so rushed. I miss the slow days of not having to be anywhere. And, just being together.

I absolutely love the people who my kids are becoming, but I miss being the one that got to spend my days with them.

This is an updated version of that blog post from 2010, 7 years later…

Lately, it seems like things are very out of control in my life. A very busy 10 year old and an 8 year old who wants to keep up with her big brother keep this momma very busy. My head is always spinning with what needs to get done, what I would like to get done, and what I have forgotten to get done. Right when I feel like I have it all under control something happens (like a little guy feeling left out, or a baby girl getting upset that she has to clean up messes) and I just fall apart.

I have always been independent, but spending the days by myself can be a bit lonely.

I like to be in control, but am learning that I am not in control of so many things…and it is hard.

I don’t like to ask for help, but there are also things I just don’t want to do and that I would rather have somebody help me with.

I hate the feeling of not being able to do everything well, but want to be able to do so much more.

Sometimes I feel all alone.

And, yet, I know I am not alone.

At any rate, I’m moving forward. And, just like my kids who are taking more and more baby steps towards independence, I am taking baby steps, too.

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stephany taddeo

home is what you make it

my thoughts on prayers

prayer

thought

valentine’s day 2013: you color my world friend

valentines

a walk down memory lane

a dozen

easy christmas card photo books

{wellness wednesday} mother nature and mother nurture

{mindful monday} each moment

mindful

adjective

mindfulness

colorful holidays

comfortable with the uncomfortable

baby steps, too