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Snowing outside.

Cozy inside. 

The tree comes down today. 

But first, a little football. [Go Huskers]

This IS the year

I did it!

I said in my resolutions post yesterday that I wanted to make a framed reminder like Swistle's, so I did.
Perfection is out the window, just as she suggested. So there's a smudge on the first word. So my numbering is crooked. I got it done and now just need to figure out where to place it (which is why it was photographed on the steps...).

I don't want to keep it by the computer, I've got this third grader who would be very happy to check in on these and I want to keep these personal. As personal as it gets, posting them here!

So I'm going to tackle them one by one, and hopefully will be able to see by this time next year that I set a few goals and followed through.

Wouldn't that be a nice change?!

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Resolutions

I wasn't going to write resolutions because they are the same every year. And every year, I say - THIS IS THE YEAR!

---> I have the same 30 lbs. to lose.
---> My house is not ready for a magazine spread.
---> I have not managed to follow a routine or schedule to maintain productivity.

That being said, I still want to.

So...I will be resolved once again. Even if I am 10 days late to the party.

*use my Wii fit, go to the Y and take a class (yoga on Thursday!), take some walks
*make a new vegetarian recipe every week (we are not vegetarians...but I like the idea of trying new things)
*mail one note/card/letter per week
*follow that beautiful routine/schedule that I made last year (housekeeping routines etc)
*give my kids undivided attention every day...listen, learn, converse with them
*teach Bee and Buddy how to cook
*teach the kids about money and use a save/spend/give approach with allowance
*follow the save/spend/give approach myself

I have everything I need to make these happen...I may have to follow Swistle's example and make a pretty, framed version to remind me. Because THIS IS THE YEAR! No really! It is!!

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Cheers

I don't know why I reserve champagne drinking for New Year's Eve? I should do more of that this year.


More champagne drinking.
More glass clinking.
More celebration.


Resolution made.

Happy News Year

My mom said yesterday that she's calling this happy news year, as in we will have happy news all year long. I like that.

I don't write as much here as I used to, but still enjoy the reflections that it provides. Moments in time, saved here for me to read.







2011 ~ in reverse
December: Saying goodbye to my dear grandfather. What a mighty good man. Goodbye.

November: One post. ONE. But a good one all the same. Gratitude.

October: My kids' school is a really great place to learn. The plant feast was a lot of fun. Science in Action.

September: Again with the one post. Working outside of the home again has cut into my blogging. A Good Reminder to Obey the Law.

August: First day of school! I love the first day of school. Time Flies.

July: My B turned eight. Birthday posts continue to be a favorite for me. Eight.

June: Father's Day. Sniff. Dear Old Dad.

May: A start to our summer, what a terrific weekend we had. Memorial Day.

April: My Buddy turned five. Five.

March: Pondering what this blog is...what I write...and still haven't really figured that one out. The thing is, I am okay with it. I like my comfy little blog. No Niche.

February: While I do enjoy reading about Valentine's Day very much, the big news was finally selling our home in Omaha and making ourselves permanent residents of Kearney. What an exciting time! What's Up.

January: Though I'd like to forget, I never will. My friends endured the worst and I was only able to watch from 3 hours away. What a tragedy, I hope that they can enjoy a new year filled only with good news. It is happy news year, after all. I'm Fine.

On to 2012. Our happy news year. Happy News Year to you!

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Here We Are Again...

Our New Year's Eve was much the same as it's been the past two years. A new game to play with the family (this year - Jenga!), a movie, and toasts. I love making toasts as a family. The kids drink their sparkling juice in fancy glasses, Hubs and I enjoy a glass of champagne. To family! To another great year! To selling our house in '11! We also toasted to goals in the next year, the kids even made goals for Mollie, our family dog. Apparently she's going to get more exercise and pee ONLY outside.

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When I started writing here in 2006, it was just in time to make a list of resolutions. I feel like I've kept those same resolutions year after year, because really, they are not the kinds of things you can do and then be finished with? They are mostly just a list of things I want to be doing all the time as a functioning member of my family, so plan to keep doing now, four years later.

I have some resolutions for TODAY.
* Take down the Christmas tree and put the storage containers in the basement.
* Finish 2010 photo book, which is my annual new year's tradition.
* Make lasagna.
* Eat lasagna.

Lofty goals for this cold winter's day.

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A New Year

We were supposed to go back to school on Wednesday, but it was not to be. Looks like second semester will start on Monday. School's been cancelled for three straight days due to cold and snow. So it's our second three-day snow break this year. Craziness!

For the new year we spent our time at home this year. We had gone to a morning matinee of Sesame Street Live and had lunch out. Then we just hung out at home after B and I got our hair cut.

One of our traditions now is to get new year's poppers, we got them last year and now our B insists that we must have them for new year's. Ours this year didn't quite pop, I'll have to look for higher quality ones next year.

At supper, we enjoyed some sparkling grape juice and took turns making toasts. Good times with small children, you should try it some time.

The poppers contained one of those whistle thingies! And a tiny parachute man! Treasures galore!

General silliness has been the rule. We've spent a LOT of time at home, a LOT of time together.

We got Christmas decorations put away on New Year's Day.

And then went about getting ready for school to start.

But it didn't.

So we're just home. Staying warm and being grateful for our trusty old furnace. Thank you Furnace!

See our patio chair? It's in there.

Might not want to sit there right this moment, it may be a bit chilly!

Goodbye '09

Looking back at a decade, it's been quite a ride.

I remember distinctly the night before this decade began.

I was 22 years old. Thin. Single. And out to party. PARTY! I also had a horrible cold and didn't consider how my tylenol cold tablet would mesh with champagne. I should have. It was a fun night overall, but let's just say I'm glad someone else drove us home.

Then that February, I met J. Graduated in May. Married J the next June. Of 2001.
2002 - Settled into and fixed up our first house. Got a dog.
2003 - Had a baby. Named her B.
2004 - Started grad school. Decided to become a teacher.
2005 - Got a job in Omaha on a provisional teaching certificate. Moved to O-Town. Found out I was   pregnant with #2, not planned but totally wonderful news.
2006 - Had the little man in April. Started my second teaching job at a different school. Graduated with my Masters in Special Education.
2007 - A horrible, horrible year that I may never speak of again.
2008 - My B started kindergarten! We all had a much better year.
2009 - Finally feel like a grown up. Or more like a grown up.

Still haven't figured out how to lose these last 25 lbs.
Still haven't figured out how to be everything to everyone.
Despite my best efforts.

What I have learned?
*How to pray.
*How to love.
*How to breathe, really breathe.
*How to stay calm, even when I don't feel calm.

Two thousand ten holds much promise, of that I am sure.

Happy New Year!

*This is my favorite time of year to read blogs. Can't wait to read everyone's reflections and resolutions. I may post mine tomorrow.*

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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.

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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Chronology

How do you sum up a year? For whatever reason, it is really important to me to catalog my years on this planet. I've got diaries dating back to '86. I keep scrapbooks for my kids. I take pictures like a crazy person.

I'm a sentimental fool. One might say.

Something I started in 2006 is making an annual photo book for our family album. They are slender, sleek, beautiful printed photo books that keep all of the memories I am so desperate to preserve. I use Kodak Gallery, because it's the first site I used and I'm a creature of habit. I know many sites offer it and there are many to choose from.

I just finished my 2008 book today and will look forward to it arriving next week some time. I ordered it in green this time.

I picture myself an old woman, with a shelf full of these books, pulling them down one by one for my great grandchildren to look at.

Would that I may be so fortunate.

Happy New Year!

One More

So the Hubs and I made a deal after Christmas.

No "purchases" until March 1. That means no toys, no DVDs, no "extras", no clothes, no gadgets. We told the kids no toys until Easter. We decided we needed to eat out less. To stay home more. We need to tighten the belt and pay down the debt. We are living outside of our means.

We want to do better.

Then Mad Hatter shares this challenge. It is such a happy coincidence. And now it feels like a competition? It at least makes me more accountable because I've got to report back how it's gone.
So go read about the challenge and read Mad's post.
I'm saying ME TOO!

Between January 4 and Feb 31, I will only purchase essential items for myself and for my family. This includes groceries/consumables, gas, basic hygiene (shampoo, soap, not cosmetics), medicine and essential clothing.

I have always been a practitioner of retail therapy. Even in high school, I would take the tip money I had earned as a waitress and treat myself to a new pair of shoes or a new t-shirt to cheer myself up. This is a bad habit that has gone on for years. The Hubs and I both do it. I figure it's time for us to find joy in our family, in each other, rather than at TaRgEt (Swistle, I'm sorry for putting down your boyfriend!).

I'm planning to track my expenses more closely during this time. I'm pledging any extra money to our debts, which we desperately need to get paid down. I'm also pledging to give some to our church, because we often leave that needed offering unpaid.

This is a pledge. Another resolution.
Oh, I love a project.
Add it to my list.

Resolute

My resolutions are exactly what they were last year. Go here and then come back.

See? Good ones, right? Of course, I haven't figured out how to do all of that, or I'd have a book deal and my own talk show by now. So I'll give it another go.

I've mentioned that 2008 is going to be a better year. I'm banking on it. The fact that I'll come closer this year to meeting these goals than I did last year. And I really did okay last year.

I don't make the resolutions with the intention of meeting every single one. It is more in the pursuit. For I can always be a better person. That is why I make resolutions. Why I give myself a fresh start every year.

Until I am perfect (I'm oh, so close...), I'll resolve to do better.

New Year's Eve

When I picked the four fave posts in my blog-iversary post - I knew I'd leave out posts that I liked ever better. 187 posts in a year - that's a lot of deep thinkin.

MBG picked Permanent Color, which I liked too. Facing It was filled with introspection.
Then there were the stories of the kids' shenanigans.

I will remember 2007 as a really hard year.
But also one that forced me to grow as a person.

Excuse me while I proclaim a bit of my faith: I heard a pastor once describe how God cherishes people's pain because it is when His children cling to Him the tightest. When we have to let Him carry us through. The same way we do for our own family. That image has gotten me through the past six weeks. I am grateful for that.

With that, I wish you a very Happy New Year. My brain has been swirling with resolutions, which I will publish within the next day. Whether I accomplish them or not, sometimes it just helps to put it out there.

I am optimistic for the coming year.
It holds many oppotunities unforeseen.
I am confident that I am up for it all.

Make it to midnight?

So it's almost midnight...well, midnight is 47 minutes away anyway. My husband I were just enjoying (I use that word loosely) banter about making it to the gym this year. He offered a pinkie swear, an unbreakable agreement in our 7 year relationship, to each promise to work out (and for me, that means actually going to the gym I belong to) at least 3 times per week. 

We're off to weddings in Estes Park, CO, and Cheyenne WY, this summer - and would like to be back in shape!

 SO...to the gym I go - laughing all the way...ho, ho, ho. I'm just proud that I'll be awake for the actual new year, for the 1st time in a few years. Seems I've been pregnant for two of the last five, and lazy for the rest. We never go out - and we're always home. Just seems we always doze off. This year I perked back up because our 8-month old woke up for a bottle - got my second wind. Before that we've been watching the Seinfeld marathon and downing some local microbrew. I know it's probably not cool to watch Michael Richards' show - but he's not the 1st crazy actor we've loved. And Kramer didn't do anything to tick us off. So I guess I'm going to go see which episode they're airing when midnight comes to Omaha. We sure know how to party at my house!!!

A New Year...Again

So it's resolution time...

This year - I resolve to keep my resolutions. And it would seem there are many.

This year, I want...

1. To play with my kids more.
2. To watch less TV (see #1).
3. To eat less junk.
4. To eat more veggies, fruits, non-junk food.
5. To be a better wife, teacher, neighbor, aunt, daughter, church member...you name it.
6. To exercise.
7. To take my vitamins.
8. To spend less money.
9. To pay attention to the news so I can make an educated vote in '08.
10. To smile more.

It doesn't seem all that unrealistic, yet it does. I get tired, grouchy, sick, hungry, human...and I do none of the above things. I plop to watch TV, I eat some tortilla chips, I ignore my husband and/or my kids, I don't go to the gym, I don't take care of myself...if I could do less of that - I would so be on the right track.

AND SO - If anyone has the magic answer - the solution to the timeless issue of there not being enough of me to go around...please post it here. I am dying to know. Until then, I guess I'll just keep writing resolutions...and trying to keep even just one of them.

I'll let ya know how it goes. ~Melanie