Forward!

It's been a long time since I've made any videos but I've started again. I'm hoping to keep it going before Youtube yanks my "partner" status.

Here are the newest.

Raising Nerbies

Ah, the beloved nerd-baby - recently referred to as the "nerby." It's what every nerd should hope for and more! And I've been blessed with three!

Honestly, before I decided I was going to be a mommy, I always said I'd raise my spawn with wonderful things like books and faeries and - and superheroes! Luckily, with now 3 kids, I've put a bit of everything in them.

I'd like to share some things that my kids have been loving. Throughout this post, you'll get an idea of the types of people my kids are - as of now. FIRST, let us name them.

My 1st. Let's call her Tomboy. Since she was a baby, Tomboy was into dragons and Transformers and sword-fighting. I mean, she was deeply in love with these things. She was obsessed with Narnia for the longest time and when I came home with the movie, Eragon, she flipped a switch.
She's been begging to see the movie but I'm still too afraid it'll be a bit scary for her. She's almost 7 but I don't want her to be desensitized to violence, you know? SO, I turned to books! I needed something with pictures and a lot of info because this kid LOVES to learn. See below. Eragon's Guide to Alagaesia. Holy shazbok, let me tell you my kid was ecstatic! The book is full of information about the world and there are pictures galore! (Yes, there are pictures of the yucky bad guys called the Ra'zac and urgals but seeing them in action is a whole different thing, so I'm ok with my kids seeing pics.)

Here's a link to the book, Eragon's Guide to Alagaesia.

As I mentioned before, she was obsessed with Narnia so I ended up buying her a similar book to the Eragon one but for some reason I can't find a link to it! If/when I do, I'll add it to this post.

So, ONWARD.

My 2nd child - we shall call her Princess. Because she's just that. A little princess. The girliest girl you'd ever see. Pink, unicorns, rainbows and flowers and hugs and kisses. It doesn't get any girlier than that. She's adorable but it's bit more difficult to get her into nerdy stuff...until I found... MERLIN!
Of course, she can't watch every episode, so, that's about as nerdy as she gets...so far.
My first motherhood fail.
I'll have to work on that.
But not a complete failure because I love Merlin.

So, onto #3... Goblin, the 3rd of my brood. Why do I call him that? His ears, of course! He's got these ears that just stick out to the side and they're huge but adorable. He also gets screechy and gargley and hooty. Now, with his being only 4 months old right now, he doesn't have much choice on the matter of his nerby upbringing. He's the easy one, though - until he's old enough to voice his opinion.
Batman.
Superman.
Spiderman.
Star Wars. Yoda, especially.
Everything. This boy has been smothered by the NerdSupreme and I love it.

So, I've introduced my three. Now, what types of things do we do for fun that keep the nerdiness alive?

1. Paper flying dragons!
These things are awesome.
Pages of different types of dragons that you pop out, fold according to directions and throw them around. They really fly! There's tons of information about each type of dragon inside, too.

They really fly!

2. Drawing! My kids love to draw and when I got them a "How to Draw Fantasy" book (not quite the one below), their imagination soared! For pretending, of course.

3. Movies! Nothing like EPIC visual and audio stimulation(in moderation, of course)! Narnia is one of the greatest fantasy movies that's safe for kids. Though there are a couple scary scenes that I fast-forward through, the vast majority of the movie is great.

4. Pretending! What beats pretending? I admit, I join in it when I can. Whether I play the dragon keeping the princess in the tower or lead the girls onto a space exploration or even become pirates on a treasure hunt, it's fun all around. And throughout, I get to give them little lessons and teach them super cool things they never knew about planets or animals or whatever! Of course, we never leave out the dressing up. I've put a lot of focus into keeping a variety of costumes at home.

4. Mommy Time!
Mommy time is something special. It's the time I take to learn more about my kids. I ask questions and get the greatest answers ever! (and the funniest)
When we're in the car or at home, I'll declare it Mommy Time and the girls get so excited! I ask questions like, "If you could go on a fantasy adventure, who would you bring, what would you do and what kind of creatures would you see?" They come up with all sorts of stories and ideas - scary, exciting or of course, silly.

5. We go on adventures!
I thank God that I live around so many parks and nature preserves. At least once a week, I take my kids to places like The Raptor Center or hiking or playing in the woods. Seriously. It's not always parks for this family! I look more to not-too-heavily-wooded areas where they can run through the trees. It's fun to get away from civilization.

So, this is my life of motherhood as of now!
I look forward to the day that all my offspring and I will share movies, books and daydreams. Until then, we'll keep enjoying nerdy play and nature.

Moms,
what type of nerdy things do you do for your nerbies?

Positivity When Everything Sucks

Happy Thursday, all! The end of the week is coming insanely fast and it's all been a blur to me. Just yesterday by itself was ridiculous. From 6 am to 1 pm, I can't tell you what I got done around my house. Because nothing was done!

The smallest of my goblin spawn is teething. He's only 4 months old, the poor little sausage. He got through colic and just when he started sleeping through the night, his teeth are tearing through his tiny little gums, waking him up at all hours of the night.

So, that's bad enough. But there's more.
A nasty cold has found its way into my home. My middle-spawn got it. My mother in law got it. I got it. And now the littlest one got it.

UNCOOL.

Let's put this all together, shall we?
Teething = No sleep. No sleep = no energy. No energy = BLAH and nothing gets done.
Cold = annoyance. (when your nose isn't running, it's suffocating you) Annoyance = irritability. Irritability = GET OUT OF MY FACE.

All in all, it's been very negative-y lately, which brings me to the point of this post...

Once you get past the creepy face, positivity is a pretty amazing thing. I wasn't always a positive person. I was actually a terribly negative person most of my life. Being raised in a Romanian community was...well...tough. There's lots of criticism going on. Not from my parents, thank God. They never pushed anything on me which is a pretty cool thing, considering how the typical Romanian parent is. (but that's for another post, on another day)

I don't mean to complain or to put down my culture, but yikes. Some people are just terrible and negative about everything. They're bitter and must have something dramatic going on to fulfill their need for gossip whether it be in their life of yours. And they take every little thing and turn it into something huge and embarrassing.

Why am I saying this? Well, being the kind of person that I am - - (a person who likes to write and chill out instead of being a robot cleaner/cook - a person who's able to level with teenagers - which, God forbid, is a terrible thing to some parents because I'm a mother, therefore I must be old and join in the gossip and never leave my kitchen or put down the vacuum - a person who doesn't care for brand name clothing or having perfect nails all the time - a person who likes to watch fantasy/sci-fi instead of "true stories") I am often put down. Often talked about. Often complained about. I know this. I'm not an idiot, contrary to popular belief. But through all of this I keep a smile on my face and a laugh on my tongue. I remind myself every day that everyone has their problems and I can't change them and that none of these people really know me. And, in fact, I don't need their approval, either. God made me the way I am for a reason and I will live my life in a way I can enjoy it while taking care of my family and myself.

Bitterness, once brought into someone's life, is a terrible thing to get rid of. You sort of get attached or addicted. I've known a lot of negative people throughout my life - people with low self-esteem.

Self-esteem in itself is a tricky thing. Many don't realize that if you have low self-esteem and always put yourself down, you get ugly. I'm not talking figuratively, either. I mean, really, physically ugly. There's a certain look to a negative person that the average person doesn't find attractive, but if a person who is unfortunate-looking has some confidence, they become more physically attractive.
Trippy, eh?

Putting yourself down doesn't make you "cool" and doesn't make anyone want to be your friend. It makes people avoid you and roll their eyes at every dumb thing you complain about. I used to be one of those.
"Oh, if a guy would actually like me, blah blah blah."
"Oh, if I were prettier, maybe I would have more friends and blah, blah, blah."
It's pathetic, really, but when I was in that phase, that's all I could believe about myself. I didn't think I could do anything to make people like me.

Positivity is not about putting a smile on your face and going on with a frown in your gut. It's deeper than that. You can put bad occurrences or ugly situations aside and know that everything will be ok. Life will go on and you'll survive.

If you're life is in a slump right now and you want to feel more positive, go and open all your blinds in the house. Bring in some natural light. Put on some of your favorite music - and I don't mean anything with negative lyrics. Try something instrumental or chill. If the weather is nice, open your windows. If not, light some candles and bring in a fresh smell. Take some deep breaths and look around. Listen to the birds singing or the wind through the trees. If you do any of this, some bit of positivity will come in and that's all you need. The first step.

Life is good, people. It's not about how you look or who you hang with or what you do for fun. If you have a positive outlook on things, you can be flipping burgers and still enjoy life. The world gets a little brighter, the air gets a bit fresher and your mind clears so much more. You can actually get things done and feel useful.

All you need is some positivity.

Technology, Kids and Today

Technology is huge today. I realize this. Everyone knows that it's important to keep up with it, right?
Right.
Erm, ok. I had a point here. Where do I begin?

As I sit here at my kids' gymnastics practice, the siblings of every gymnast here has something in their hands. Candy? No. Toys? Uh uh.
They have iPads. They have iPhones. Every. Single. One.

When my kids were small(er), I was one of those parents who handed them my phone for games whenever we'd go shopping or anywhere in public. It was easy to just hand over the quiet. That's what it was. One would act up, I'd shush her and give her my phone and viola! Silence. She was better than I was at Angry Birds...and she was 5.

There was one day when all that stopped. We were out running errands and my daughter asked for my phone. At the time, I was waiting for my husband to call me with some information I needed to do some paperwork for our business, so I said, "no."

God forbid, I said no.

She begged and begged and cried and completely lost it. She flipped out, screaming for my phone. I couldn't believe she was so addicted to it. I'd decided not to continue to feed that monstrosity inside of my spawn and refused to give her any sort of technological thing I owned. I took her Leap Frog learning computers. Anything with a screen was gone and things got hard. Everywhere I went, I had to bring something that could possibly keep her interested. There were many tantrums, many timeouts but eventually she learned. She stopped asking for my phone and...oh my lawd, she started bringing books everywhere we went!

BOOKS!

As a writer and lover of words, I was ecstatic about this. Naturally, her little sister is taking after her and bringing coloring books and a box of crayons wherever we go and I am so proud. I am so glad I cut them from this addiction because I'm telling you it was horrific.
Now, I look around and I see these kids being raised on phones and video games from the tender age of 1. 1!! Seriously? Parents are losing control over their kids because of technology and these little people are turning into little monsters.

Yes, technology is important and no, my kids are not unaware of how to use computers and iPads. Why? Because they learn how to use them at school. But you know what? That's enough. They know how to use these things but I - the parent - decided not to allow them to take over my children's minds. I refused to give into their tantrums and taught  them not to depend on technology for entertainment. I wish more parents would do something and remind their kids that there are other wonders to childhood. Coloring. Pretending. Reading.

Anyone else agree?

A Year! A Year is gone! (Whine, whine, whine...)

As said in the title of this post,
A YEAR IS GONE! A year of NO WRITING! It hurts my heart to think I've gone twelve months without writing something. ANYthing!
Well, yeah, ok, I DID have a baby but while I was pregnant, I didn't write? I didn't have the brain-juice to even READ or watch TV! I just sort of vegetated until it was time to pop.

So, yes, a year has passed me by and my desire to write has been on fire...but now my problem is time! Being up all night, feeding baby every 3 hours between cleaning and doing things for OTHER people takes up any potential writing time. Seriously, it's like, the second I wasn't pregnant anymore, I've have loads of people asking me to do stuff for them - paperwork, mostly - and that's on top of the paperwork I already do for the businesses my hubby owns.

I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed and a little taken advantage of, honestly. And completely unappreciated.
That and NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG.

...

Hmwahaha, NOW I sound like a REAL woman, eh?
I kid, I kid.

Ok, anyway, so yeah, I do plan on continuing my writing. I continue to receive emails about Nahtaia on an almost daily basis which is awesome. My days have been made by some of the comments I'm getting. I feel like I did something that people are actually happy about and it's a good feeling. I mean, I do what I HAVE to do ALL day - minus this blog post - and the end of the day comes and I'm thinking, "what did I do for myself today?"

*clears throat*

Um, nothing!

That's happened for a little over two months now. I haven't done ANYTHING for myself but diet! And THAT'S not fun!
I don't want to be a complainer. I mean, I'm taking care of my family and I'm doing my best, considering the time put into focusing on my little Grumpel but to not have the time to do anything FUN? Something that will sort of freshen my mind up.
People go shopping. People go play sports. People hang out on the phone for hours. I DO NOTHING. I carry a 15 lb baby and have two little minions with me constantly.
Don't get me wrong; I LOVE them all to death! And I can't even get frustrated when Grumpel cries cuz the lip thing he does is just SO CUTE but lately I've come to this realization that everyone around me has time to themselves...

...

and I'm a blob.

Is that selfish of me?

9 Months of Evil Me

I've been gone for some time. But for good reason!

I...had a baby. Yes, and it's been interesting. Meet Grumpelstiltskin. (note: not his real name)

If you were keeping up with my very little presence online in the time I was pregnant, you would have noticed the cranky air I carried with me everywhere I posted. Clearly, pregnancy did not treat me too well. But you know what? I didn't really realize how terrible I was being until a couple weeks after I gave birth.

EVERYTHING CHANGED during those nine months.

I was a completely different person. Now, this may sound like the typical junk you hear about pregnancies in movies, but I'm here to tell you that it is so much deeper than you would think.
I couldn't enjoy the things I did before. I couldn't read, write, listen to music, go out.
I didn't want to do anything.
I didn't want to go anywhere.
I wanted to be locked up in my room all day.
I had friends come over occasionally, and I would just sit there with this void look on my face. Occasionally I'd fake a half-smile. No sense of humor. Just...annoyed all the time. That in itself is weird because I have a wild sense of humor. I could very rarely even laugh.
Worse than anything, my brain could not register a thought about my own books. I couldn't think about plots, characters...no new ideas hit me. I felt like I'd abandoned myself...like a huge part of who I am just up and left me to soak up the negativity in this world.
Believe it or not, during this time, I DIDN'T EVEN WANT COFFEE. I used to be a coffee junky.
Hormones are vile, vile chemicals. BURN THEM WITH DRAGON FIRE.

About four weeks after giving birth, I got back to normal - for the most part. My dorky sense of humor is back. My outgoing nature is back. My retarded laughs over dumb things is back. I've been bombarded with new ideas for Zirconya - which is AWESOME. Looking back, I wrinkle my nose and wonder how I could have let myself get so strange, but the thing is, I had absolutely no control! I didn't WANT to be boring. I didn't WANT to be practically dead. It was out of my hands and I feel like I lost so much precious, positive time in my life.

So, now that THAT problem is moving on and away, my new issue is cabin fever. I need to get out some. I need to go to a book store and smell some books. I need to sip some coffee in front of my laptop as I write. I need to go out with some friends and talk about the most unimportant things. I've been in the house now with the same people, 24/7. I love them, of course! But when everyone else is getting out - shopping, school, etc - I'm begging people to come visit me.

When will this "getting out" happen? Your guess is as good as mine.

I WOULD like to apologize to anyone I offended during my 9 month rampage. Or...wait. Would I?

...

I was PREGNANT. DEAL WITH IT.
hmhmwahaha

-Diana

FAIL.

I've dunnit again. I've fallen into the pits of "I don't wanna" and did something none could imagine.
I've...
I've gotten my nails done! I've gotten gel nails put on actually.
BUT! Yes, there is a but...I have a legitimate excuse for my failure. My  nails started growing eerily fast. I'm talking, every day is a noticeable length difference and I have to cut them every 4 days. 4 DAYS.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have no sense of "upkeep" when it comes to beauty and fashion. I live life on the edge of a blade called, "Screw It, I Got Better Things To Do." I hate cutting my nails. I hate doing my hair. I hate having to stare at the clothes in my closet to "match" my outfit. Who has time for that? I got kids, a husband, a house, a business and school! (which is out for the next few months, w00t!) My mind is happily in the clouds of getting things done then turning to fantastical things that can never come true. I don't have time for NAILS every 4 days! So, I decided to try gel nails and have someone else cut them for me every week or two.

Hmwah ha! I feel positively evil. I'm sure all the divas are rolling their eyes at me. And I enjoy this, yes? Yes. I will not conform to giving off a fraud version of me because society thinks thats what all women should be.

I'm not a total slob, all right? I shower. I do SOMETHING to my hair every morning. I brush my teeth. I hide my acne. But I don't plop on three inches of makeup to make me look completely different or like I need a dusting. If my socks are striped yellow and black and my shirt is red and green, big whoop! It's not like I'm out trying to impress the world.

I'm laid back. I'm chill. I riiiide the waaaave of - okay, now I'm sounding like a drug addict.

I'm the same when it comes to my hair. If I go out for something special, I put more time into it. If I'm at home all day, a bandana is sometimes my best friend. I don't have the patience to stand in front of a mirror  with a straightener and three different brushes and eight different hair products. Nor do I choose to put so much money in something so fleeting! What would I do when I'm an old hag? I would be cringing until muscle spasms covered my body every time I would look in a mirror! I'd have a spastic death!

And though my rant is not over yet, my hunger pangs are overwhelming. SO, have a great Friday everyone!