New Year's Resolutions

All in all, it's been a pretty awesome 2010. I've seen a space shuttle launch, travelled to Europe, met wonderful new people, deepened friendships with others, watched my children mature, making mistakes all along the way.  I've been a great mom, and wife, and on some days, a pretty horrible mom and wife.  I've transitioned through three bosses at work, worked part time and full time, experiencing great successes and failures along the way.  In short, I've grown a lot this year and learned more about what I am capable and not capable of.

My father doesn't make resolutions.  In fact, he is known for resolving each year not to eat watermelon, which is one of the few foods my dad hates.  So I was anti-resolution until a few years back, but I have thought about a few things I would like to do.

1)Read through the Bible
  I got way behind with this last year, and while I think there is a very good chance of that happening again this year, this is one of those resolutions it just can't hurt to try every year.  I am trying a new reading plan that has you read in 10 different places each day.  I always enjoy some parts of the Bible more than others, so I think the variety will help me.  Don't you feel so much better when you are in the Word every day?  I have been doing a few different devotionals through my You Version Bible app and on the days when I am not reading, I always seem to look back at my day as unbalanced and disconnected.  Since I do not like feeling that way, getting into the Word seems a good way to go!

2)Keep up with the house
  I've been home a lot more this past month, and I've seen that keeping up with the house is more about doing a little bit each day and keeping on top of things than grand cleaning days.  So with the help of another app, I am going to work on being more consistent with the home.  The goal is 15 minutes and a few standard things each day.  Hopefully when I have a fiber flare, I can still do a little, and not be as overwhelmed when I get back to normal.

3)Wash my face every night
  It is sad that I have to make this a resolution.  I love wearing makeup, but I am baaaaaaaad about taking it off each night.  Hopefully, now that I have my new Clarsonic Mia, I will be more motivated to do it.  I love that little face cleaning wonder!  In case you are curious, Each night I put on a little coconut oil (available at your local Whole Foods) before I brush my teeth, wipe that off with a wet washcloth to get all my varied makeup off, remove eye makeup and then wash with a little cleanser and my Mia.  As a side note, did you know that coconut oil has similar antimicrobial qualities to breastmilk, which help acne? If I don't wear makeup that day, like today, then I just do the cleanser and Mia.  I still brush my teeth though.  Because that's important, according to my dentist and mother.

So, my friends, I hope you have had a wonderful 2010, and if you haven't, I pray that 2011 is a blessed year for all of us.  

Merry Belated Christmas, Ya'll!

This was one of those rare Christmases where I got everything on my list. From the practical, to the luxurious, everything I asked for was received. But this wasn't my favorite part of Christmas. 

The highlights:
-Christmas Eve services at my older sister's home church. I haven't attended my home church for Christmas eve in years, so going with Anna and her family with my family is the closest thing I could get, and it was very nice.  The children were well behaved and the music was lovely. Joe even mentioned something from the sermon today, so obviously he was paying attention. 

-Putting out gifts for Christmas morning. One of my favorite things every year is arranging gifts around the tree for maximum impact. I also get to scope out my gifts a little, which is sneaky, but I do it anyhow.

-Watching the kids opening their big surprise gifts. I didn't even know Joe was going to get a video camera, but it was on his list, and I didn't think he was going to get it. Somehow, Kim's aunt found a kiddie camcorder and Joe was pretty excited by it. Julia got the skateboard she was asking for, so she was happy, and the clothes and boots were also a big hit.

-Ok, I admit it, getting the gifts I wanted was pretty awesome. I am currently typing this up on my new iPad, which makes blogging way easier than an iTouch does. 

I hope all your Christmases were full of joy and everything you wanted!  Have a wonderful last few days of 2010 and a happy new year!  

Today was an excellent day!

I woke up, had clean clothes to wear because I actually did my laundry and put it away, and left the house looking pretty cute! Then I passed the torch to my replacement at work and breathed a sigh of relief as I left the office with my coffee cups and pictures of the family and iPod docking station. I came home and got busy cleaning while I waited for Joe to come home from school while watching one of my favorite movies. I was doing crazy Martha Stewart kinds of cleaning. Taking damp cloths and a butter knife and scraping off junk from the floors kind of stuff. Moved things out to the curb for trash I have been meaning to get out there for years. I put on Christmas music and danced with the children in my clean living room. I made dinner. I played games with the kids. I read Christmas books to Joe. I played more games. I felt like supermom. Superwife.

I felt like the Proverbs 31 woman, even if it was only for a few hours.

About my kids...

Julia is my little Anne of Green Gables. She has this amazing vocabulary, and is champion of the underdogs. She has such a sweet naivety despite all she has been through. She writes beautiful poetry. 

Joey is my sweet man. He is genuinely hilarious and makes me crack up every day. He is all boy, but gentle. If I had a dollar for every time he said "mom, look at me do this" I would be rich. 

They are both awesome kids and while they each have their challenges, I am honored God has given me the gift of parenting each of them.

Hi. Remember me?

Ok, so clearly I've been slacking on the blog post front. In my defense I now do all my web surfing on my itouch, which has a great benefit of me spending less ime on the web. But I figure I can crank out a post and let you (Internet ether people) know what I've been up to.

1) Working full time. I took over the scheduler position at work which meant less time with patients, more time at work, and much less time with the family. I finally had to let my boss know this wasn't working for me, and I am due to let go of that position next week and hand it over to another aide. This makes me very happy. I am looking forward to more time at home and getting things in order.

2) In a spiritual wilderness, but I'm out now. I was a sad, dry sponge, but my friend Penny really helped me get out of it. I am in The Word again and entirely much more joyful.

3) I've been in a lot of pain. The fibromyalgia is rearin it's ugly head, but I am hopeful that withess pressure at work and a little time off I can get this under control. I am cheerfully enduring the pain. Which sounds weird, but it's true.

4) I've been thankful. I've spent the month of November really concentrating on thankfulness and it's been very uplifting. I am thankful for my God and the gift of His Son, autumn, sunshine, music, my husband, friends, spices, technology, missionaries, and many other things.

What are you thankful for?

Confession

I have not done my daily Bible reading in a month and a half.

There. I've said it.

And my house is a mess. And I've barely cooked this week.

Reading the Bible in a year update

So I am still chugging along in my quest to read the Bible in a year. I am pretty much caught up, just 3 days behind, but there are days built in for that. I am learning interesting stuff, and reading things I've never read each day. Sometimes I encounter something I have read several times before, because I mark all over my Bible and can tell. I underline, highlight, bracket, and note why I was where I was. I have a bunch of abbreviations like MM for Mike Minter. BM for Beth Moore. Sorry Beth that your abbreviation is the same as bowel movement, but I'm sure you knew that already! SG is for Shepherd Group, and so on and so on. Sometimes I have no idea why I've highlighted or underlined something, but I find it reassuring to know I was at least perusing the Bible when I come across it.

When I went to the women's retreat for RBC this year, a bunch of us played a game called The Bowl Game. I don't know if this was the official title or just one that this group of friends use, but it's a nifty game. Everyone writes three things on different slips of paper. One time we did Bible character, movie and book. You do several rounds with the same words, the first is like Taboo where you can't say the actual words in the answer or variations of it, the second is charades, the third you can only say one word, and the last is like like charades except you use a member of the opposite team to act it out. One of the Bible characters that someone put in was Baal. I had NO CLUE who Baal was, but everyone else seemed to know. (For the record, I put in Peter because I am lame like that) But I finally got to the part of the Bible with Baal in it! I was very excited! Ok so Baal is a god the Israelites worshiped after God kind of made clear that you weren't supposed to worship other gods before Him. Israelites, how you disappoint me over and over! Most of the tiem when I read the OT, I think "Dang it's hard to be a Jew! I'm glad we have Jesus." And maybe that is the whole point of Christians reading the OT. Or at least one of the points of reading it.

I am also through my phase of finding the Psalms to be whiny. Yes I know David was being persecuted and was hiding in caves and all that, but I was in this place where I was just thinking "David you whine soooooooo much." And I would read the Psalms in this whiny David voice which was just exacerbating the problem. Everyone I would tell this to would look at me like I was crazy. So when I would start reading them int he whiny David voice, I began to consciously replace that voice with the soothing voice of Ed Nalle reading Psalms in church. That worked better and I retrained my brain a bit.

But these are the things that happen when you read the Bible for the first time. You have to reconcile your earthly attitudes with a Christian attitude. You have to realize how little you actually have read of the book that is supposed to be your handbook for living as a Christian. It's humbling, but I'm digging the process.