I don’t usually do the “R” word around this time of year, but I figured some introspection of what  I might put on one wouldn’t hurt.  So here’s my list.

1- Be in bed at 10:30pm and get up at 7am.  I’ve been staying up later and later doing nothing and being tired. Then I don’t get up till the kids do and I hate hitting the floor with my feet running. So there you go.

2- Go outside everyday.  Rain, snow, heat, figure it out.  My rambunctious boys need it.  And so does my sanity.

3- Somehow John and I save money this year – like in an account.

4- Learn to let go of my “systems”.  John told me recently that I need to relax and kinda let life happen I guess.  Try not to control things too much…I don’t even know what that means for me exactly yet.  I did listen to this sermon Matt Blazer did at church and it made me think.

5- Of course, do some sort of exercise…maybe walking with a friend a couple times a week.  We’ll see.

6- Learn the art of being fully present.  I’m having a hard time focusing on activities as well as people.  For example, if I’m doing something with JJ at the table, not to be thinking about what’s for dinner or how I can pacify him for a couple minutes while I get something else done.  Just BE with him.

7- Create something everyday.  Even if it’s something little.

8- Maybe stop drinking coffee.  Please note the maybe.

9- Intentionally connect with John everyday.  Sit down,  talk,  no distractions,  about whatever or nothing.  Why does this seem like it would be harder than giving up coffee?!?!

10- Learn to embrace my humanness. Yep -  I don’t know what this looks like for me yet either, but I know I want the freedom it entails.

Happy New Year!

I put most of Christmas away this afternoon.  I do feel a little scroogey, we usually keep it up till after New Years.  But I couldn’t take it anymore, I know I’m a bummer.  My state of mind is so  a reflection of the stuff on my counters, you know what I mean?  I don’t know if that is a normal thing or not.  John was very supportive though, especially considering he just told me how much he loved to keep it up until this weekend.  I did keep out my snowmen pillows (one of my favorite Christmas things) and hot chocolate mugs, so I have a little spirit left.

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We have been having so much fun doing the Christmas Book and Activities at the Crafty Crow.  She basically picked 12 Christmas books and put fun crafts to do with them.  We requested and checked out at the library whichever books on her list that were available.  Yesterday we did two, The Gingerbread Man and Mr.Willowbys Christmas Tree and today we did Petunia’s Christmas.

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I read this in the January Editor’s Letter from Parents magazine and loved the reminder:

“Sometimes the best things happen when you stop pursuing perfection and embrace uncertainty.”

Read it again. So true for me. What does this look like for you?

The only reason I would want to be Oprah is to have the ability to shower my friends or random strangers with fabulous things that I love.  The things would probably not be as extravagant as Oprah’s and actually once I began compiling my list, a lot of them ended up not being things at all.  I realized more than half of my list was experiences.  Interesting, and some experiences you can’t really give, so I guess I would need some of Oprah’s people to figure out the details.   So here you are, family, friends and random people consider yourself gifted with my favorite things and I hope you get as much joy from them as I do.  (please let me know if any of these items magically appear under your chair)

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We are trying to get out of town and I’m doing everything I can to not nag John.  I feel like we are cursed whenever we try to leave town.  No matter how much planning we put into the leaving part, something ALWAYS comes up.  Mostly something at John’s work pops up, but other times, including today, we have a car issue.

So let me tell you how excited I am for our little getaway.   Every year since we’ve been married (that makes it sound so long – 5 years), we take a December trip the 1st weekend of December. (I know it’s the second weekend this year)  The purpose originally was to make that our goal to get Christmas shopping done (not all done this year) before we leave town and get away to connect as a couple.  Only a weekend, no kids and no agenda.

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We had our first snow and only two pictures left on our memory card.  JJ and Henry went outside first thing after breakfast and I fed George looking on from the front window.  For real, one of the best things I ever bought were snow suits for the boys and the pair that was given to me.  Otherwise, I’d be a scrooge mom and procrastinate all day about letting them go play in it b/c it’s such a pain to get them ready and then undressed for a total of 10 to 20 minutes of play time.   I think we got the last snow suits for them at Once Upon a Child after snow season.

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