First Family

I've felt pretty calm through the week. It is a great time to be a teacher, a great time to be an American. I watched President Obama's oath and inaugural speech on the big screen at our school with hundreds of teenagers. The hope and applause was a lot to take.

But I was calm.
[I tend to cry like a baby at such things, but not that day.]

Then there was this. I was looking at just now.

And bawling. Like a baby. Tears and tears and tears.

This gorgeous family. These beautiful girls. Just the family for this time.

It just feels right.

In a Word

Jen at Sabbatical Mom recently posted her word of the year: Faith. What a beautiful word.

This inspired me to do the same. To think of a word that sums up what I have in mind for 2009. It's a challenge, a one word resolution.

My word for 2009?

Energy.

en⋅er⋅gy 
1. the capacity for vigorous activity; available power.
2. an adequate or abundant amount of such power.
3. Often, energies. a feeling of tension caused or seeming to be caused by an excess of such power.
4. an exertion of such power.
5. the habit of vigorous activity; vigor as a characteristic.
6. the ability to act, lead others, effect, etc., forcefully.
7. forcefulness of expression: a writing style abounding with energy.
8. Physics. the capacity to do work; the property of a system that diminishes when the system does work on any other system, by an amount equal to the work so done; potential energy.

Why energy?

• to keep a peaceful, tidy home
• to pay bills on time and meet our financial goals
• to keep up with a two and five-year old
• to exercise 5 times a week
• to menu plan and make healthy meals
• to teach 20 teenagers with special needs to become responsible, employable young adults
• to walk my dog
• to catch up with old friends
• to travel to Orlando with my Hubs and a high school band
• to spend a memorable summer with my kids doing more than eating popsicles and blogging
• to fit into my skinny(er) jeans
• to attend church every Sunday and Bible study on Mondays
• to finish the book(s) that I am reading

While I'm never short on ideas, I always fall short on energy. In 2009, I plan to make my own through diet, exercise, vitamin supplements, and prayer.

This year will be different because I am choosing it to be.

Tip Junkie's got the list for other bloggers' word of the year.

So Glad I Came

Tonight I was reading through old January posts right here at Omaha Mama.

And fell in love with blogging all over again.

This post. Made me smile a big smile. My kids and I have just finished another great Thursday (dancing to my newly acquired Mamma Mia Soundtrack on the computer - woot!) and then I got to sit down and remember the insignificant Thursday from that post.

What joy to picture my little man as a 9-month old. And remember my now Kindergartner in a time when I marveled if she watched a movie for longer than five minutes.

These beautiful memories. They would not be there...or here (pointing to my head now).

If it's that precious now, just two years later. Can you imagine how I'll feel when these crazy kids have grown?


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Twelve Introductory Sentences.

A fun little meme. I have no idea where it started and haven't been tagged or anything. I just thought it looked like a good time while I was reading others'. So here is the first sentence from the first post of each month of 2008. The best part being the remembering part. Where I was. What I was thinking. Which is why blogging is so great. That, and my prerogative to start all sentences with conjunctions, prepositions and other inappropriate sentence starting words. :0)

January: My resolutions are exactly what they were last year.

And I didn't really achieve them again, so yay me!

February: I formulate blog posts every day at school, walking in the halls.

I don't really spend my WHOLE day thinking about blog posts. Really!

March: It's March!

Wow. Great observation, me. I can read a calendar!

April: I like to watch TV shows about keeping house.

Too bad I don't actually keep my house clean.

May: I remember being this busy last year.

There's more to the post. It's not really so boring as the first sentence would make it seem.

June: We returned for Florida this morning at about 1:15.

Ahhh, Florida. I want to go back! NOW.

July: We were at my parents' yesterday, for an Independence Day celebration in the country (pictures later).

Did I put up pictures? Now I can't remember.

August: I think that the flylady and I have broken up.

We really did. And didn't even try to reconcile. I think it's over for good. Sniff.

September: Our little B in her little nursery.

The crib post. It's still in the garage. When I want to put grandbabies in it (in 25 years) it will smell like gasoline.

October: It's not even Halloween yet, and I'm thinking Christmas.

I thought I'd be more organized this year. I wasn't. And it all worked out.

November: As the years pass us by, we remember where we've been and eagerly await what's ahead.

Years? Hmmmm.

December: We went to the mall last week for jeans (both kids are growing, what'dya know).

And saw Santa!


Well. There it is.
I enjoyed myself, looking back over the past year. You should do the same, I want to come read!

Ringing It In

Last night we had this great party, just the four of us. We tried out our new Hungry Hippo game, a big hit (although a little difficult to play with a two-year who insists on grabbing up all the marbles and shouting that they are HIS!).










A little later in the evening, we cranked the tunes on the computer and had a dance. This, after we watched Horton Hears a Who and pulled apart our festive poppers (the clips in B's hair were from one of those poppers, each one with a plastic trinket inside, oh joy). We didn't keep the usual bedtime and those kids did not give in and go to sleep until nearly 11. They were party animals!









Then today B was helping me fill in my '09 calendar, coloring in little drawings I put on the holidays, asking if she could draw on her birthday, etc. Then she decided she wanted to MAKE a calendar. I told her we could go buy one on sale, maybe a kitty one, but oh no - she wanted to MAKE hers. So I printed blank calendars from Microsoft Publisher. We filled in things from her school's website, birthdays, and some holidays. We fixed them to a 12 X 12 piece of scrapbook paper with some left over scrapbook brads, made a heading, and hung it on the side of her dresser (where hopefully that two-year that lives here won't notice it and tear it down). She was terribly proud, it is quite festive (I let her use some left over seasonal stickers on some of the months to jazz the pages up), and I will admit it ended up being a lot more fun that just going to buy one. She read the months to me and will hopefully learn to find the date as she gets more skillful at reading a calendar. Educational and fun, so it's a win-win.

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Now we're(and by we, I mean me - and maybe Hubs) getting ready for tomorrow. B is having some friends over - I think three - for the day to celebrate the last weekday of break. We're making English muffin pizzas, maybe coloring pictures or playing playdough, and trying out the new V-Motion game the kids got from their grandparents. It should be a great way to wrap up what has been a terrific winter break.


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