FEBRUARY!

Everyone says it, "Where has the time gone?" and we'll chime in right along side them, because we're amazed that January has passed so quickly!!! Our recent club gathering this past Saturday was fun, with everyone visiting and for those of us who aren't so great at making lei (read: TINA) still enjoying everyone's company. We have a fun, and different activity planned for February, we're just waiting on some confirmations and we'll begin letting everyone know.

We do have our Mainland Council Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs quarterly gathering in February, and we're looking forward to sharing time, space and mana'o with club leaders from across the Continental United States. We hav

e a grant "boot camp" workshop scheduled, which will hopefully enable us to secure funding to better assist in our people's and our community's growth.

We do want to share some of the amazing initiatives occurring in our community, especially the amazing work of `Anapesi Ka`ili, take a look at

the flyer below. It just can't get any easier to stay abreast of issues that impact us as Pacific Islanders!! Please help spread the word!!

Rolling on through January

Received a new planner for the year at work. Started out empty and in about five minutes flat, filled right up. Amazing how it does that seemingly all by itself. Geez. Then I realized, if I'm not careful, 2011 will be about crossing out each event one by one....versus living my life. Whew. Good thing I noticed that trend (it happened a lot last year unfortunately) early this time around.

So here's to 2011 being about not just going OUTSIDE of my comfort zone as much as EXPANDING it. Lots of things in the works for 2011....some of which may come as a slight shock to some, don't worry, it's a GOOD thing, and some not so shocking. Like you know, FINALLY getting Kalei and Lehua to COMMIT to toilet training. Because oh my goodness diapers (not to mention wipes, although I think we'll need those until they're much older...hands, faces, handprints...) are flippin pricey and for THREE kids?! GET. OUTTA. TOWN. Crazy expensive. We'll just have to keep at it.

BUSY WEEK this week! Ho`oponopono class, genealogy chant review, awa chants/ceremony, KALEA board meeting, Native Hawaiian Naming practices presentation with Hui Hawai`i O Utah, and ho`opuka...whew! But we do all these things so it's the "norm" for our girls, that they're raised being engaged in cultural practices and in the community. Trying to grow strong Native Hawaiian females, here people! LOL

Giving Thanks...

STILL trying to come to grips with Thanksgiving being this week. Sad, I know. Normally I'm much more prepared, so NOT being prepared is fully throwing my OCD self for a loop. Auwe. Anyhow, had a GREAT time at Hui Hawai`i O Utah Hawaiian Civic Club's 25th Anniversary party! Lots of kupuna, lots of friends, and family and of course mea `ai! So rejuvenated, and ready to do big things in 2011!!! Especially with KALEA! Was so funny, David was like, "Wow hon, it was so good to see everybody!" only he said it like 20 times. Can you tell he misses being with everyone??! Yeah, little bit. Hahaha.

Back to Thanksgiving though, in this time of giving thanks, I am acutely aware that not everyone will have a table full of food to gather around, not everyone will have a home to enjoy the holiday in, and not all of us will be surrounded by family and friends. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have even a little of these blessings, be thankful. Be humble. Be giving. If when you're celebrating, you experience a moment when it is all driven home for you, just how blessed you are, take the time to realize that not everyone will enjoy the same blessings. Then do something, anything you can, to change that, even if for just one person.

On a different, but no less serious note, one thing I am heartily grateful for is the fact that THERE IS NO CAPTAIN COOK DAY. Mahalo Ke Akua for this small blessing. In light of our Native American cousins examples, we can be grateful for this small gift.

We are now gearing up for the civic club's Christmas party which should be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! So many things to look forward to!!! This Thanksgiving, we hope you all are bountifully blessed with the gifts of family and friends and the blessings of warm homes and warm meals to sustain you. From our `ohana to yours, may EVERY DAY BE A DAY OF THANKS

Happily UN-Frazzled!!!

So we have an event this weekend. And wonders of wonders, I'm not freaking out, I'm not stressed, my face isn't blotchy, no hives in sight, and my blood pressure isn't sky rocketing. No, I still have my OCD, it's alive and well, thank you. I'm fairly calm because my board ROCKS!!! My executive board for Hui Hawai`i O Utah Hawaiian Civic Club are doing an amazing, amazing, AMAZING job with all of the preparations for this weekend's event.

Not that yours truly hasn't been busy. I have. Extremely so. So much so that I walked past the calendar and saw that Thanksgiving was next week. Now, on a technical level, I did know that yes, Thanksgiving is next Thursday, but on a practical level? Well the whole idea seemed a little abstract to me. Focusing on Civic Club, and work, and stuff with the girls, shifted Thanksgiving OUT of focus, and put it into the "background". Walking past that calendar shifted the focus back, gave me a mini shock to the head and heart, and has now placed Thanksgiving smack dab in the foreground again. And just in time. Got the grocery list going, menu planning, decorations, and we're moving right along!

Even with our crazy lives, we receive gems from above every day. Lehuakona, our 19 month old has been happily starting to go potty all by herself! She's got the whole thing pretty wired, even if I say so myself. She'll strip off the bottoms and diaper, climb on the potty, balance, do her business, jump off, reach for the toilet paper, take care of things, flush and go to wash her hands. Mommy or Daddy are always there to supervise, but we just love her independent spirit! We'll get back to you when she's 15 and see if we're loving her independent nature then.

Kalei's creativity is growing by leaps and bounds. She now loves to draw and will make up little stories about what she's drawn, and she'll sit with a book and tell her sisters all sorts of stories about what she believes is happening in the book she's reading. Her memory retention is amazing. She's been able to pule in Hawaiian for a while now, she'll recite the whole thing, and is now moving on to teaching her sister Lehua, who can follow along with her. So cute. So humbling.

Pumehana is a typical big sister, gets after the babies when they're acting up, and hugs them tight when the crawl on her lap to snuggle. She's looking forward to watching Harry Potter this weekend, but I think it's more for the popcorn, which she loves. She loves taking the popcorn tub away from Daddy and putting napkins in his hand instead. Her way of saying "You've had enough dad." I guess. Kinda funny, because sometimes he doesn't even notice, especially if he's really into the movie, and goes to put the napkin in his mouth. You can't shut Pume up after that, she's laughing hysterically at that point.

David's been spending a lot of time with her, especially once the babies are calmed or sleeping for the night. He and Pumehana have Halo Reach disputes, with Pumehana always insisting she's winning, and that she has more "kills" than he does....then their teasing back and forth begins. Which Pumehana LOVES. All the while I get to get caught up on work, civic club, Kalea, community or household stuff. Lately I've been able to take care of all of that early in the week so amazingly enough I've had time to read. To the tune of 4 books since this time last month! I just realized that. Give me a moment to get over my shock. Ok pau. Mostly it's due to my amazing husband who will take care of the girls and stuff while I get work done. Leaving me time to read in the latter part of the week. So far, I've read "The Glassblower of Murano" - it was okay. "The Botticelli Secret" - it was better than The Glassblower of Murano, same author, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" -pretty good once the story got rolling, and "Bed of Roses" pretty good, I was surprised I liked it. I'm now on "The Rossetti Letter" and so far so good.

Anyhow, that's our life as of this week. Holy moly that was a long post!!! Will have tons of pics to post after this weekend! Stay tuned!