I love St. Patty's day because my mom is nearly half Irish and we grew up hearing about all the traditions of our proud Irish ancestors We're a wild, crazy but loving bunch, us Irish.  I'm a little less than a quarter but I still wear my Irish with pride.

I love how everything is green and fresh around this time of the year, especially this year since Emerald is the Pantone color of the year.

Cheers to you my friends!!  I don't drink much these days but if I did, I'd share a pint of Guinness with you while we ate corned beef and cabbage (which is actually what I'm making for dinner tonight).  I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day and stay safe!!

Have you linked up with the Aloha Friday Blog Hop yet?  (It's still going strong!!)
Link up HERE {Aloha Friday Blog Hop}.

Oh and did I mention I'm having a St. Patrick's Day Flash sale on ALL ad spaces?  All ads are 40% OFF!!  This is the time to buy ad space whether you're purchasing now or for a future week or month, this is a big savings, take advantage of it!!  Enter code: FLASH16 at checkout.  

Go take advantage of the ad sale HERE {Advertise on What Jean Likes}

It has been almost a year since my last Monday Bytes feature... Scary how quickly time flies by isn't it?  Well for those of you who weren't around last May or before, Monday Bytes is basically just a feature where I share my favorite posts/videos of the last week or so with all of my lovely readers.  I have to get back into the groove with this feature because it's been so long so forgive me if it's not as sweet and simple as Monday Bytes' past... I just want to share all the things that inspired me this week with all of you.

• Bonding in the Kitchen {The Wiegands}
• Roast Pumpkin Feta Salad (Gluten Free) {Active Mum}
• 9 Ways To Prevent & Treat Colds & Flu {Organic Momma}
• Nail Polish Swatches Galore {Pampered With Polish}
• Kids Easter Art {Pinkie For Pink}
• Target Style: Spring Lace {Bedazzles After Dark}
• Point N' Shoot {Janette Lane}
• Spring To Do {Katie Did What}
• Thin Mint Gooey Bars {The View From 510}
• Fashion Week Beauty Trends Fall/Winter 2013 {Blonde Episodes}
• This Is Me Nice To Meet You {Gwen Moss}

Pixiwoo Makeup Tutorial: Rachel Weisz - Oz the Great and Powerful

I was so blessed this Sunday when Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages visited our church and was the guest speaker.  I learned so much from his teaching and downloaded two of his books Sunday morning.

The first book I purchased was one he spoke from today called The Family You've Always Wanted: Five Ways You Can Make It Happen.  I literally sat and immersed myself in this book and took notes while my son was working on his homework corrections.  It was that good.  There's no such thing as a perfect family and I know I have so much work and learning to do as a mother so I try my best to really pour myself into motherhood and take great advice to heart and try my best to effectively implement it in my life.

The second book was The 5 Love Languages of Children which I have yet to read but am really looking forward to doing so in my off time tomorrow night.  I think it's so important to have insight into how children think, respond and act so that we as parents can bring out the best in our children and ourselves.  Parenting is literally the hardest yet most rewarding job out there and I want to do it right.. Never hurts to keep learning from those wiser and more experienced than I...

Oh yeah... one last thing...

Did you know I am hosting a giveaway on The Life of A Not So Ordinary Wife? I'm giving away 2 ad spaces so go click the link and enter the giveaway!

Aloha,

© What Jean Likes Photography

John Greenleaf Whittier once said:

“Beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast.”  (Sunset on the Bearcamp, 1876 )

I don't know about you, but I try to take time out to enjoy as many sunsets as possible although I must confess that I haven't actually purposely gone to watch the sunset in quite some time.  The wonderful thing about purposely making a point of enjoying a sunset or sunrise is that it never leaves you. You can close your eyes and transport yourself back to that place in time and it helps bring a peaceful calm over you even in the most stressful situations.

As a landscape photographer who's constantly "chasing the light", I would try to find the perfect locations to capture the beauty of the sunset in the horizon.  On this day I was at a place called Magic Island to the left of Ala Moana Beach Park with my son Alaka'i just watching the sun fall below the horizon in the west.  Of course, I had my camera with me... I would never purposely watch a sunset without it!

I love this particular photo more than so many other sunsets I've shot because I literally had to do little to no editing on this photo.  I just cropped and sharpened.  The colors were naturally vibrant although I did add just a little vibrancy to make it pop but very little post-processing was done to this photo.  It's just God's perfection as I watched it live.  The golden hue was truly bright and rich and the contrast between the purple/blue of the water growing dark from the looming dusk that follows the sun as it fades below the horizon created such a lovely contrast.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!! I'm working on the March Aloha Friday Blog Hop Team post today and some other exciting posts.

What are all of you up to?

Aloha,

What are some easy crafting ideas for kids?  I am going to be babysitting my two neices (almost 6 years old & 2 years old) for 4 whole days so I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for crafting or baking that I can do with them and my 11 year old son that they'll enjoy. 

So yeah... I'm a geek, in the best and worst sense of the word.  Ever since I was a child, I was a little quirky, a lot dorky and almost always geeky.  Though I never had to wear glasses growing up (and always wished I needed them), I still found ways to separate myself from others and not fit in.          I am what most consider cerebral and introverted (in person at least) which is why, perhaps, I prefer working behind the camera.  It's sort of a detachment thing... where I can be around people but stay in my head and create without really communicating too much with people except to tell them how to pose or where to move.

I was always someone who floated from group to group or clique to clique growing up.  I never quite belonged so I was either floating from group to group with different friends or alone... and I was perfectly fine with that.  I'm one of those people who prefers the quiet sound of silence but can function in the noisiest of places.  I think that being a mom helped me fine tune that whole focus amidst chaos thing we all tend to have where we tune out the noise and focus on the task at hand.  Thank God being a woman has afforded me the ability to multi-task and tune noise out, otherwise I'd never get anything done!

Lately life has been an amalgam of different chaotic and hectic things that monopolize my time and make me feel scatterbrained even though I'm not.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I swear the days are going by faster and faster... It seems like I took the silly photo above yesterday when in fact, it was taken on Sunday at Nordstrom while I was waiting for my niece to try on a dress.  Those are green neon frame glasses, the cheap $5 kids kind and she told me to try them on because she thought they were silly.  So being the ever obliging aunt that I am, did so and took a silly picture which I never intended to share with anyone, let alone the bloggy world.

I look at this photo and the phrase "psycho" comes to mind because of the crazy look in my eye.  My niece Kaliko thought it was hilarious though.  Another word that comes to mind...well two...  is "double chin".  Can't wait to see that go... coming sooner than later now that I eat right and work out every. single. day.... every.single.day..  Yikes.  But I digress, this blog is about me being a geek.  Though I'm an introverted nerd, I have a good sense of humor and am rather funny (or that's what I've been told).  Anywhoo.... I wasn't going to share this photo that I took that day because I thought it would be more useful as a funny photo album memory than something to share with the world.

This week is like a paperwork extravaganza at my office.  Billings, reimbursables, contracts, emails, payroll, walkthroughs, inspections and the list goes on and on.  I feel like I'm literally drowning in it sometimes and it comes home with me because I leave at 2 to pick my son and finish paperwork at home which is awesome...and also not awesome.  Lately, drowning out noise and distraction at home while I work has become increasingly difficult as my brother and his daughters come for dinner and it's like a playground in my house.  Bananas.  So while the noise ensues, I have to finish my work and it. is. hard.  So I turn on my iPhone to a playlist I call "instrumental" and I put in my earbuds and tune out the world.  Classical and instrumental music really does the best job for me as far as focusing and tuning the noise out.

Did I ever tell you I was a music major in college?  I wanted to compose symphonies.  Yeah... like a million miles from what I actually ended up doing as my "day job".  From elementary through high school, I was a band geek and it inspired me so much.  Being in my high school marching band really lit a fire in my soul to perform and create music.  Though my forte was the flute or singing, I could play anything.  I think it was one of the few gifts I've had and appreciated and made good use of in my life.  Being in the Kamehameha Schools Marching Band in high school allowed me to not only do what I loved, but travel the world performing.  I owe so much life experience to being in band....to my music.  Oh how I miss playing.... I miss high school marching band practice or college marching band practice...or chamber choir... Oh how I miss playing my instruments...and I played them all.  I miss writing music and conducting and I even miss the boring music theory classes.... I told you, I'm a geek.

Music was my outlet growing up.  My escape from bullies, from loneliness (wait Jean, I thought you liked being lonely?), from my type A mind and thoughts.  Being alone has it's advantages but anyone who says they honestly prefer being alone always, is lying.  I like being alone but man, sometimes it got lonely.  But I'm not going to go dark here.. Gonna keep it light.

So I'm doing my paperwork listening to a playlist of shuffled classical and contemporary instrumental music.  From Chopin to Mozart to Beethoven to Marianelli, to John Williams compositions....oh how I love his music.  John Williams, the composer who does like every Stephen Spielberg movie soundtrack (he created the themes from Jaws, ET, etc. etc. etc) can move me in such a way that I feel like I can do a million things at once and my productivity doing paperwork increases exponentially.  His music evokes emotion and fond memories for me not only because it's so excellently composed, but because of the wonderful movies he composed the music for.  Would I be a total dork if I told you that John Williams is arguably the greatest composer of the last 50 years?  Maybe longer?  I would argue my case were you to refute it.. though there are a lot of amazing composers alive right now like Dario Marianelli (you might know his music from the movie Pride and Prejudice/Jane Eyre/Atonement) and  Michael Kamen (most notably composed An American Symphony from Mr. Holland's Opus) or Mark Mancina (composed August Rush).

I could go on and on because I'm a geek, a dork and a music aficionado but I won't.. Perhaps I'll save more of that geek-ness for another post.  If you ever have a hard time focusing, try listening to the main theme from Adventures on Earth from E.T. (John Williams) or Georgiana from Pride and Prejudice (Dario Marianelli) or An American Symphony from Mr. Holland's Opus (Michael Kamen) or August's Rhapsody in C Major from August Rush (Mark Mancina).  Those are just a few of my favorites that move me and help me to get the work I have piling up done.

Hope you all have a lovely and wonderful day.  This geek is excited that it's the end of the week!



Aloha,

Every year seems to be passing by faster and faster as I get older but I suppose that's the "norm" in life as I've heard pretty much every person older than I express the same or similar sentiments.  Life, doesn't it go by in just a blink?  I swear, not that long ago I was sitting in my room of my old house with bright lavender walls, playing with Barbies and watching The Little Mermaid.  Now I'm sitting here at my very grown up desk, playing a few minutes of hookie from my "day job" on my 31st birthday.

I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, I didn't quite envision my life this way.  I didn't think that at the age of 31 I'd be a single mom to an 11 year old son let alone doing it by myself with no husband or pseudo father figure for my boy. I honestly thought that at this age, I would have been a practicing MD or perhaps a symphony composer... (more on that later) and that I would be newly married with a baby on the way with a loving and handsome husband.

I realize many of you are living that dream and boy oh boy, I envy you sometimes.  Not that I'm not thankful for the life God gave me.  I am quite blessed despite going down the wrong fork in the road quite a few times.  I think it's the mistakes that shapes you into who you will become and boy, have I made mistakes in my life!! I love reading through so many of your blogs because I like seeing that there are happily married women my age with families and it gives me hope.  As I sit here on my birthday, drinking down my veggie juice I made for lunch instead of eating what I really want (pizza...yum), I wonder if I'm ever going to get married, if there even is a "Mr. Right" out there for me...  Blah this blog is taking a turn towards being a bummer and I really didn't want it to become that.

I'm actually in quite a good mood today, full of energy and hope.  Today is not only my birthday, but my mom's birthday too.  Yeah, she had me on her 28th birthday... some birthday present huh?  She says I was a blessing to her but honestly, I don't know if I'd enjoy pushing a baby out on my birthday haha.  But I digress.  As I sit here pondering what life has in store for me, what my future hold and what God's plans for me in the years ahead are, I can't help but look at my life now and be thankful because I have a great life.  Lonely at times, but still wonderful.  Alaka'i is such an amazing son.  I often feel like I'm not doing right by him because I don't have a father for him but I'd rather wait for the right guy than expose him to many Mr. wrongs.

Life.  It goes by so quickly and it's so easy to take for granted.  I took so many years for granted, I took my health for granted and now I'm working my butt off trying to correct all the wrongs I've done to my body by eating poorly and not getting enough exercise or nutrition.  I think that this year is going to be so much more than just another year in my calender.  It's going to be a year for change and overall growth and actually living my life.  :)

Don't mind me, I'm just feeling pensive here as I sit at my desk taking a break from the hundreds of invoices I have to create today...  Tonight is all about spending time with my son and working on the blog.  Wow, isn't growing  up like so exciting guys?  LOL.  One lesson I've learned as an adult and a parent is that children are the greatest blessing and a mother's work (whether she has a "day job" or not), is never done and it's the only job we truly love.

Hope you all are having a lovely Wednesday.

Aloha,

Sometimes I feel like this truck stuck in the mud. Gotta push myself to achieve my goals.

So for those of you don't know, I've been on a juice fast since Sunday and it hasn't been the easiest experience of my life.  I was utterly exhausted and had the worst headache I've had in years.  (Think hangover of your life x 2!)  The smell of food made me want to cry and watching my son eat the things I miss so dearly was harder than I can say.  Days 1-3 were the worst of it, they were the days I absolutely didn't think I could continue on my juicing fast and that I should give it up and quit.  I decided to go to sleep instead of pig out on the oh so yummy spaghetti I made my son the night before and sheesh, I'm so glad I did.  On day 4 I woke up energized and ready to go.  It was like I drank four cups of coffee but without the jitters, no mood swings, no head aches, no pains.  It was wonderful.  I have to tell ya, it's day 5 now and I got the all clear from my doctor to go up to 60 days on this juice fast as long as I get blood tests every couple of weeks to make sure my levels are all healthy so I'm thinking this might be doable for me.  I know it seems extreme but it took a lot of years of extremely bad eating and no exercising to get me here and it's going to take rather extreme measures to get me back to normal.  I haven't been in a single digit dress size since middle school and I'm so ready to change that!

Extreme as it may be, I wasn't prepared for the exhaustion days 1-3 presented me with and I am so far behind on everything that I used to do at night like blogging, answering emails, following people and all of that.  I used to do most of my blogging at night and prepare ahead of time but the last few nights I got so tired so early that I ended up going to bed.  Normally I'm up into the wee hours of the morning doing my blog work so it's definitely an adjustment and I know I need more rest than I normally get so I have to figure out a balance.  So if you are awaiting a response to an email, a contest, a follow, or anything else, I'm so very sorry and I am literally working on all of that right this second to get back to all of you!!  Another superdy duper not-so-fun thing was having my email server crash on me for two days so I wasn't getting any email.  Frustrating! Thank goodness it's back online!

I'm about 9 lbs down from where I started on Sunday so it's worth it.  Thank you all for being so kind and understanding while I go through this adjustment period.  I hope all of you are having a lovely week!

Aloha,

Today I'm at work totally swamped. So much to do. So little time to get it all done.  Sigh. Thank goodness it's a Wordless Wednesday?  Are you "back to reality" yet?  My son goes back to school tomorrow and today he's with his grandma.  I'm strangely ready for him to go back to school.  Is that terrible of me?

I hope you all are having a fab Wednesday.  Gonna go link up on all the Wednesday blog hops during my lunch break.  Wanna know where I link up and party? On my sidebar I have every single blog hop button that I participate in. Check them out!! Oh and if you have a hop and want your button there, comment me and I'll come link up and add your button!!