100 Things About Simplicity.

1. My name is Samara, which is Hebrew and means "Asked of God."
2. Because my name is Hebrew, many people make many assumptions about my ethnicity, religion and sometimes even race.
3. To clear all that up right here and right now, I am a Caucasian, Christian with roots from Germany, Norway and Belgium.
4. I am 26 years old.
5. My husband's name is Jeff and he is 34 years old.
6. I have two stepchildren, T is 9 and M is 7.
7. I have a son and he is 23 months.
8. We live in Suburban Minnesota.
9. I have a BA in Communications from the University of Minnesota.
10. I attended the U for a year and a half.
11. I attended North Park University for my first two years of college.
12. Straight out of college I joined corporate America, which I quickly found was not the right place for me.
13. Eighteen months later, I quit my job with nothing lined up and pretty much spent a summer carting two kids around and watching Friends.
14. I eventually was hired by our local school district, initially in special education but currently as a parent volunteer coordinator.
15. I do like my job, though I do at times go through job-identity crisis.
16. The problem is I want to do too many things and at the same time can't quite decide what I really want to do.
17. I not only write on my blog but also freelance for some MN publications.
18. Perhaps that will be my way to fame and fortune.
19. If not, I'm entirely satisfied with that.
20. I do believe though that someday, I will write a book.
21. Currently, I think the topic would be stepfamily life.
22. That could change.
23. I grew up in this great state, about 24 miles away from where we live now.
24. My dad still lives there.
25. My mom had terminal carcinoma in her lungs and was diagnosed in May 2007. She died December 13, 2007. I miss her every day.
26. Watching my mother battle with cancer and my father take care of her has been both heartbreaking and inspiring.
27. My husband also grew up in MN and his parents still live in that home 20 miles away too.
28. My in-laws own a popular bakery that makes yummy donuts.
29. I have been blessed to have a lot of travels in my life.
30. There are still a lot of places I would like to visit: Italy, Spain, France.
31. I would like to go back to Sweden and England again too.
32. Someday is all I can say.
33. I ran my first 5K this past fall and really loved it.
34. I'd love to say that someday I'd like to run a marathon but I really don't know...I know it's mind over matter. We'll see.
35. I love tennis and wish I had more time and energy to play.
36. Before Cold Play was as big as they are now, one of my former tennis teammates and I were given tickets to a concert as we walked down Michigan Avenue.
37. The concert was at the Chicago State Theater.
38. We sat in just about the front row.
39. The only song I recognized at the time was "Yellow".
40. It's only now that I know just how popular of a group they are.
41. That random experience is one of many, especially when I was in Chicago.
42. I love Christmas and love the way our home looks all decorated for the season.
43. With that said, we don't do the whole Santa thing.
44. We (or I) get a lot of slack on this, but I don't care.
45. It's my goal this year to truly show the meaning of 'giving' to the kids in a way that they get it and want to give.
46. I feel like I just got used to writing and saying 2007 and it will be time to write 2008.
47. The older I get, the faster time goes by.
48. Sometimes that's good, other times that's sad.
49. I have seriously contemplated law school several times since finishing my BA.
50. At this time it's on the back burner again.
51. When I finished college, my attitude was that I was done for life.
52. Funny how as we get older our attitudes change.
53. I hope that we are someday able to move to a larger city.
54. When I say larger city, I mean Chicago, Boston, New York.
55. Realistically, this will not happen for another 11 1/2 years.
56. People don't quite understand our stepfamily "situation" and tend to ask a lot of questions.
57. It's good we all get along and make it work, because that helps us all have a sense of humor.
58. My stepkids mom is not an awful, horrible ex-wife. She's pretty cool. I like her.
59. I once worked at Go! Coffee on Francisco Street in Chicago.
60. I loved that job and would do it again in a heartbeat.
61. I'd love to own a coffee shop, though in the world of Starbucks and Caribou, other coffee shops can no longer compete or keep up.
62. My stepkids call me Samara.
63. I get asked what they call me a lot.
64. H still calls me mom, momma, yum.
65. Not sure why yum and mom go together, but I don't think it's that uncommon.
66. I started this blog because I was bored and had entirely too much time on my hands a few summers ago.
67. Since then it's become a social/creative outlet that even if I am so busy I can't have time to breathe, I somehow have time to blog.
68. Therefore I am a blogger.
69. Next year I really really really want to go to BlogHer. Do you want to go with me?!?
70. I am a good baker.
71. Not such a good cook but I'm working on it.
72. We eat dinner as a family just about every night.
73. I am tired of people asking me if/when I will have another child.
74. I am also tired of people asking me if I love H differently than my stepchildren.
75. My husband and I met at Starbucks.
76, Neither of us were looking for love.
77. I love our story.
78. Sometimes I wish I could see the future just for a minute and then come back to reality.
79. Is that weird?
80. Have I told you yet that I drive a minivan?
81. My dream minivan is a Honda Odyssey, currently I drive a Chrysler Town and Country and will be driving it for at least a few more years.
82. Kind of silly that I have a dream minivan isn't it?
83. I have very bad eating habits.
84. I snack a lot and don't always eat three meals a day.
85. I also like coffee drinks a lot.
86. I could eat a bowl of ice cream each and every night.
87. For the record, I don't.
88. Being a wife, stepmom and mom has changed me a lot.
89. For the better.
90. I like who I am, I am content with where I am at and happy with the life we are living.
91. I still think I have a lot of growing and learning to do.
92. Writing (whether it's blogs or otherwise) has helped me process a lot of things.
93. I am very passionate about stepfamilies and stepmom issues.
94. There are a lot of stepmom blogs out there that are very negative. That really bugs me.
95. My favorite Christmas song is "So this is Christmas/War is Over" by The Beatles.
96. I believe I am doing my best.
97. Sometimes I wish I could freeze a day or a week in time and just enjoy it some more.
98. Othertimes I wish we could re-wind or fast-forward.
99. I believe simplicity is more than living a simple life.
100. Simplicity is a state of mind, a goal of mine and what I desire my life to reflect. In a complex world, we all need something simple to get us through the day.
Updated April 2, 2008