I absolutely love a new year. I love the promises that a new year holds. I love the way I feel and the motivation I have ready to make a difference in my year. I stick with some of my goals and abandon some of them. I think the important thing is to vocalize them and try to implement a plan. Last year we changed our diet pretty drastically. We certainly need to improve some after the holidays and I need to get back into the habit of some more time consuming things, but all in all - I am happy with the dietary changes we made in 2013. We also made some large life changes - mainly in that we moved in with my mom temporarily while we try to sell our home, which should happen this year.
Here are my/our January goals.
1. Grow spiritually in our marriage.
2. Grow spiritually as a family.
3. Re-establish some of our healthy eating habits and develop new ones.
4. Drink more water.
5. Evaluate budget and make necessary changes.
6. Learn to knit. (specifically casting on)
7. Make and sell crocheted items.
8. Blog at least once a week.
9. Organize a different room once a week.
10. Read one book a month.
11. Minimize ipad/electronics/computer time.
12. Lesson plan for the month of January for homeschool.
13. Develop new chore charts for the children.
14. Work on and implement structured weekly plan.
15. Exercise and rehab my knee.
Here is how I/we plan on making our goals happen.
1. Grow spiritually in our marriage. I've created a document for devotion and discussion questions. I will share it in a week if we like it and it is working for us. We are going to journal our thoughts daily and work through these together in the evening. This will keep us in close connection and help us be more intentional about our time together. Unfortunately, we've gotten into the rut of putting the kids to bed and playing on our electronics or doing our own thing. That isn't always a bad thing, but it is really easy to make it a daily habit and not spend enough quality time together. We really want to change that and we are both so excited to make this change.
2. Grow spiritually as a family. We definitely spend time reading the Bible and praying with our kids, but we want to be more consistent. We purchased a new devotional to go through with them every night. This will be in addition to what I do with them in school. This will likely become our bedtime ritual as a family.
3. Re-establish some of our healthy eating habits and develop new ones. I am going to start making kombucha again as well as having my cooking day. On my cooking days, I would make lara bars, muffins, pancakes, bone broth, and prep and foods we would need for the week. I want to start making water and milk kefir. I also need to get back into the habit of making weekly meal plans for every meal. It keeps us from dining out and helps us stay on track with our food budget.
4. Drink more water. I am going to keep my water bottle full and make myself drink it. I just get out of the habit and the best way for me to get back into the habit is by keep a full water bottle with me at all times. This is something I will do for the kids as well.
5. Evaluate budget and make necessary changes. This is where we look at our spending and see what can change. Cut out unnecessary things. We will evaluate interest rates, insurance rates, cell phone rates, etc. I also want to develop a debt reduction plan so we can eliminate what debt we do have this year. We need to figure out how to pay for some medical expenses for Harrison and work on a good savings plan. We tend to do better on a cash envelope system. Thankfully our debt isn't overwhelming and I feel like we can knock it out this year if we stay focused.
6. Learn to knit. (specifically casting on). Chris got me a knitting book with DVD for Christmas and I just need to slot myself time each week to work on it. I believe I'm going to slot out time from several evenings each week.
7. Make and sell crocheted items. I am basically going to start posting some of the things I make for sell. I'm considering taking orders on custom items, but I need to figure out time frames and prices.
8. Blog at least once a week. I am going to schedule time to blog. I've never scheduled time before. I just do it when I feel like it. I would really like to be more consistent.
9. Organize a different room once a week. I'm going to look through some of these plans that other people have already developed and find one that works for me. I think I can manage 15-30 minutes a day of organizing in one room. I actually enjoy it. Something is better than nothing in this area.
10. Read one book a month. Rather than scrolling through facebook or playing on my ipad or watching TV when I lay in bed to go to sleep, I am going to read at least one chapter a night. I love reading, but I get out of the habit. I have tons of books to catch up on, so this is how I'm going to do it.
11. Minimize ipad/electronics/computer time. I am going to start by putting my phone on do not disturb for a big portion of the day. I am also going to start setting a timer on my electronics time. It adds up fast.
12. Lesson plan for the month of January for homeschool. I am going to do it this week and have it ready to do when we start school, next week. It will probably take me half a day.
13. Develop new chore charts for the children. Our kids have gotten lazy. They also want to earn money. I'm going to start figuring out a new chore chart for each child. I will share when I'm done.
14. Work on and implement structured weekly plan. Time management is not my strong suit. It never has been. I need to have a flexible routine of things I want to accomplish each day, so that I can consistently accomplish goals. I'm going to develop a new weekly cleaning schedule. The kids chore charts will help with this. I will incorporate my weekly organizing into this plan. I think this will really help me from feeling so overwhelmed all of the time.
15. Exercise and rehab my knee. I just need to schedule my PT for my knee. I also want to walk and/or do The Shred a few times a week. Nothing crazy. I just need to start moving regularly again.
And there you have it. My monthly goals for January. I will update at the end of the month on how well we did. I'd love to hear your goals too!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Harry Potter and Halloween 2013
This past summer we entered the world of Harry Potter. I had attempted to read the first book to Harrison during fall of 2012, but he wasn't ready (much to my dismay). I had never read any of the books or watched the movies. I was twenty when the first book was written and had no interest in that genre at the time. As I grew older, I was curious but I couldn't justify the time reading or watching the movies. So basically I was depriving myself without knowing. Harrison has always liked the idea of Harry Potter, so I knew it was coming eventually. For some reason, we decided to watch all of the movies during summer break. It was a huge family event and we LOVED every minute of it. Now we have progressed to reading the books and the kids are really enjoying it. I honestly don't know how I lived those 16 years of my life without Harry Potter. I am a changed woman. Haha.
So naturally we decided that we should go as our favorite characters from Harry Potter for Halloween. Harrison obviously wanted to be Harry, as Kadie wanted to be Hermione. Sam was pretty indifferent, but it seemed natural that he should be Ron. I started pricing and researching costumes in late July. I realized at that time we would not be purchasing the official costumes because I'm pretty frugal when it comes to Halloween. I couldn't not justify spending $100 on costumes. I should have started making costumes in August, but let's just be honest...that is not how I roll.
I didn't actually start making the robes until the week prior to Trunk or Treat. This was dumb considering I wasn't even sure if my sewing machine still worked and that pretty much left me no time to accommodate for mistakes or mishaps. I thought the scarves would crochet up much faster, but they did not. They were tedious and not fun to make at all.
Somehow, I made it by our Trunk or Treat deadline and all three of my adorable kiddos proudly pranced around in their mostly mama made costumes and daddy made wands. I won't talk about all of the mishaps and lack of sleep that helped make that possible. (Cough cough...Sam didn't end up getting a scarf)
Here is the link that I used to make the Gryffindor robe.
Here is the link for the scarf. I modified the scarf a bit, but mostly followed the pattern.
The ties were made from felt and we just cut them out using a template I found online. I used a circle of elastic to keep them on their necks.
Chris made their wands this summer as a fun project.
We used white button downs, black pants/skirt for the rest of the uniform. We had most of the regular clothing for the boys, so really it just took buying Kadie the solid pieces of clothing. The nice thing about the uniform clothing is that we can wear the pieces all fall and winter. Conveniently timed, Harrison got new glasses this past week. We used orange hair spray to make Sam look like Ron.
Here are some photos of the process and the cute kids.
So naturally we decided that we should go as our favorite characters from Harry Potter for Halloween. Harrison obviously wanted to be Harry, as Kadie wanted to be Hermione. Sam was pretty indifferent, but it seemed natural that he should be Ron. I started pricing and researching costumes in late July. I realized at that time we would not be purchasing the official costumes because I'm pretty frugal when it comes to Halloween. I couldn't not justify spending $100 on costumes. I should have started making costumes in August, but let's just be honest...that is not how I roll.
I didn't actually start making the robes until the week prior to Trunk or Treat. This was dumb considering I wasn't even sure if my sewing machine still worked and that pretty much left me no time to accommodate for mistakes or mishaps. I thought the scarves would crochet up much faster, but they did not. They were tedious and not fun to make at all.
Somehow, I made it by our Trunk or Treat deadline and all three of my adorable kiddos proudly pranced around in their mostly mama made costumes and daddy made wands. I won't talk about all of the mishaps and lack of sleep that helped make that possible. (Cough cough...Sam didn't end up getting a scarf)
Here is the link that I used to make the Gryffindor robe.
Here is the link for the scarf. I modified the scarf a bit, but mostly followed the pattern.
The ties were made from felt and we just cut them out using a template I found online. I used a circle of elastic to keep them on their necks.
Chris made their wands this summer as a fun project.
We used white button downs, black pants/skirt for the rest of the uniform. We had most of the regular clothing for the boys, so really it just took buying Kadie the solid pieces of clothing. The nice thing about the uniform clothing is that we can wear the pieces all fall and winter. Conveniently timed, Harrison got new glasses this past week. We used orange hair spray to make Sam look like Ron.
Here are some photos of the process and the cute kids.
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They were so silly and so proud. They loved every minute of being their favorite characters. |
 |
| Oh Harrison, stop with the gummy smile. |
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| Can't even handle it. Seriously kid. |
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| And he is back to the "I'm cute" sideways smile. Sam the Ham. |
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| Sweet little Hermione. |
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| Beauty. |
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Expecto Patronum! |
Sunday, September 29, 2013
My own personal distractions
I had great intentions of being a regular blogger this summer. I had a plan of writing about distractions. Then life happened. In May, right before my 36th birthday, I was in a great deal of pain for nearly two weeks. I assumed I had kidney stones but a CT scan did not confirm that suspicion. My symptoms most closely matched those of endometriosis, but the only way that can be accurately diagnosed is through an abdominal laparoscopy. Thankfully, I have not had nearly the amount of pain since May and have had no need to have anymore treatment.
Shortly after my abdominal and pelvic pain, I injured my knee. I have no idea what I did to it, but it hurt all of the time. If you know me well, you know that I have an incredibly high tolerance to pain. This pain was so bad, that I immediately called an orthopedic doctor. Ten years ago I had some knee issues, but weight loss helped tremendously. I went through a series of cortisone shots and nothing provided relief. A MRI showed what my doctor thought was a torn meniscus. My surgery was scheduled for July 10th.
Now if you know my family, you probably know that we decided to move this past summer. We had outgrown our home. We decided to move out and start working on our house to get it ready for the market. We moved into my mom's house, which is large enough for us each to have our own room. This was good on both ends - because my mom lives on a lot of land and since she has become a widow, it has been really difficult to upkeep the property. This moved literally dragged on for several months. We moved half of our things prior to my surgery. We didn't have the resources to hire movers, so we were doing most of it on our own. Remember that I have a bum knee. This is the greatest factor contributing to why it took us so long. We started moving the other half a few weeks after my surgery. Other than what is in our basement, we have most of it moved.
Of course when life happens, it happens. We had lots of unexpected financial things occur this past summer and limited resources to handle most of it. My van A/C stopped working. The A/C unit in our bonus room of our house stopped working. My surgery. You get the idea. We finally got in to see a developmental pediatrician for Harrison. We've been going through lots of tests so we can get a better idea of how to proceed with his treatment plan. Unfortunately some of it isn't covered by insurance, so we have to figure out how to make all of that work.
So the point in this story is to tell you that I've been distracted. I've been distracted with pain, injuries, surgery, moving, financial stress, treatment for Harrison, physical limitations due to my surgery, and our insanely busy schedule.
I've been a terrible friend. I have almost zero time for socializing. I've been a scrambled and scattered mess. I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel and I'm just running in circles. Things are looking up, but I feel like I've lost time. I wasn't able to enjoy my family as much this summer due to my physical limitations. I couldn't go on hikes or do many fun outdoorsy things. I can't seem to find my rhythm as far as homeschooling and school year schedules. I can't get our home organized and I can't stay on top of my housework. I'm going to be honest. I didn't handle the physical limitations well. I'm a terrible patient. I don't really follow doctor's orders. I do stupid things and pay for them by having days of pain afterwards. I've been grouchy. So incredibly grouchy. I am not myself.
In the midst of my very small storm, I have been blessed by some fabulous people. I have some dear friends who never let me sink. They know exactly when I need encouraging words, hugs, or the opportunity to cry. God has revealed Himself to me this summer in ways that I never quite knew Him. I really allowed myself to be vulnerable and see Him in new ways. I'm a huge believer in turning crappy circumstances in a way to bring glory to God and I can definitely say I have some new material after this summer. I also have friends who encourage me to write again. I had almost given up on blogging because I felt that I didn't really have anything to share. I am seriously a blessed woman when it comes to friends.
Proverbs 27:9 - The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.
I held this scripture close to my heart as well. If you are blessed with godly friends, you are indeed a blessed person.
If you could learn anything from me and my experiences, here is what I'd like you to take from this. God never stops caring. Never. He was with me through every single bit of this. Not once did it feel hopeless. Well, if it felt hopeless, it didn't last more than a day. Scriptures tell us that the very hairs on our head are numbered. (Luke 12:7, Matthew 10:30) I mean if God knows how many hairs I have on my head (and I shed a lot - so this number changes often), He most definitely cares about my health issues, my finances, my stress level, and so on. Nothing is too small to take to God. We are never alone.
So all of those things have distracted me way too much this past summer. It was ridiculous. However, I'm done. I'm done allowing them to be distractions. I am ready to move on to my next chapter in life. I know that many of us have been there. It is okay to be there. But don't stay there. God has big plans for you and they aren't going to happen while you wallow in your own distractions. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Grow from your experience and move on. That is precisely what I'm doing.
Shortly after my abdominal and pelvic pain, I injured my knee. I have no idea what I did to it, but it hurt all of the time. If you know me well, you know that I have an incredibly high tolerance to pain. This pain was so bad, that I immediately called an orthopedic doctor. Ten years ago I had some knee issues, but weight loss helped tremendously. I went through a series of cortisone shots and nothing provided relief. A MRI showed what my doctor thought was a torn meniscus. My surgery was scheduled for July 10th.
Now if you know my family, you probably know that we decided to move this past summer. We had outgrown our home. We decided to move out and start working on our house to get it ready for the market. We moved into my mom's house, which is large enough for us each to have our own room. This was good on both ends - because my mom lives on a lot of land and since she has become a widow, it has been really difficult to upkeep the property. This moved literally dragged on for several months. We moved half of our things prior to my surgery. We didn't have the resources to hire movers, so we were doing most of it on our own. Remember that I have a bum knee. This is the greatest factor contributing to why it took us so long. We started moving the other half a few weeks after my surgery. Other than what is in our basement, we have most of it moved.
Of course when life happens, it happens. We had lots of unexpected financial things occur this past summer and limited resources to handle most of it. My van A/C stopped working. The A/C unit in our bonus room of our house stopped working. My surgery. You get the idea. We finally got in to see a developmental pediatrician for Harrison. We've been going through lots of tests so we can get a better idea of how to proceed with his treatment plan. Unfortunately some of it isn't covered by insurance, so we have to figure out how to make all of that work.
So the point in this story is to tell you that I've been distracted. I've been distracted with pain, injuries, surgery, moving, financial stress, treatment for Harrison, physical limitations due to my surgery, and our insanely busy schedule.
I've been a terrible friend. I have almost zero time for socializing. I've been a scrambled and scattered mess. I feel like I'm in a hamster wheel and I'm just running in circles. Things are looking up, but I feel like I've lost time. I wasn't able to enjoy my family as much this summer due to my physical limitations. I couldn't go on hikes or do many fun outdoorsy things. I can't seem to find my rhythm as far as homeschooling and school year schedules. I can't get our home organized and I can't stay on top of my housework. I'm going to be honest. I didn't handle the physical limitations well. I'm a terrible patient. I don't really follow doctor's orders. I do stupid things and pay for them by having days of pain afterwards. I've been grouchy. So incredibly grouchy. I am not myself.
In the midst of my very small storm, I have been blessed by some fabulous people. I have some dear friends who never let me sink. They know exactly when I need encouraging words, hugs, or the opportunity to cry. God has revealed Himself to me this summer in ways that I never quite knew Him. I really allowed myself to be vulnerable and see Him in new ways. I'm a huge believer in turning crappy circumstances in a way to bring glory to God and I can definitely say I have some new material after this summer. I also have friends who encourage me to write again. I had almost given up on blogging because I felt that I didn't really have anything to share. I am seriously a blessed woman when it comes to friends.
Proverbs 27:9 - The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.
I held this scripture close to my heart as well. If you are blessed with godly friends, you are indeed a blessed person.
If you could learn anything from me and my experiences, here is what I'd like you to take from this. God never stops caring. Never. He was with me through every single bit of this. Not once did it feel hopeless. Well, if it felt hopeless, it didn't last more than a day. Scriptures tell us that the very hairs on our head are numbered. (Luke 12:7, Matthew 10:30) I mean if God knows how many hairs I have on my head (and I shed a lot - so this number changes often), He most definitely cares about my health issues, my finances, my stress level, and so on. Nothing is too small to take to God. We are never alone.
So all of those things have distracted me way too much this past summer. It was ridiculous. However, I'm done. I'm done allowing them to be distractions. I am ready to move on to my next chapter in life. I know that many of us have been there. It is okay to be there. But don't stay there. God has big plans for you and they aren't going to happen while you wallow in your own distractions. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Grow from your experience and move on. That is precisely what I'm doing.
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