2010: The Year of Miracles

This week my husband and I are starting a 10 week seminar to continue the work we started in our Landmark Forum. Landmark was pretty amazing for me, simply because it helped me open my eyes about all the non personal things I was taking personally (Okay that's a super-simplification, but all the same, it was great for me.)

The seminar leader told me last fall that he is calling 2010 the year of miracles. I could use some miracles this year! I see amazing things coming our way this year, really. But I definitely have some work to do. So in the spirit of the new year, I've decided to reevaluate the tasks I refuse to compromise on, as well as set a couple new goals to work on.

The last time I reevaluated my tasks, I came up with these three: Listen to my Seed Capital CDs (a set of instructional discs I really needed to listen to), workout on my lunch break and update the wiki my ex-husband and I use to communicate regarding our sons homeschool progress. I had set a standard for myself that I would be bigger than any of my reasons or excuses and do each of those things every single work-day. And my goals served me very well. Until I left eBay in November, I was very good about keeping my commitments. But now that I've finished the CDs (several times) and am no longer at eBay, I think they need a little retooling.

So what am I going to be unreasonable about now? What will I do each day no matter what kind of small reason (read: excuses excuses) comes to mind? Well, my larger goals tend to influence my daily tasks since I like to look at the overall things I want to accomplish, then break them down by what I need to do each day in order to reach my goals.

So what are my big-picture goals? Hm... that's a good question.
I'm in the middle of my clutter-purging project, so it would be great to get the main floor of my house done in the near future. It would also be nice to have all the walls painted. Right now, we have a room here or there done, but completion would be awesome.

I still have my book half done. And of course it's not going to finish itself!

We started a new school curriculum late this year so we will likely finish in mid-July unless I can really steam through all this material with Dante. That includes not missing any available school days, not having any "light" days with fewer lessons, and skipping anything optional or redundant. Dante's language arts skills are a bit below where they could be so he tested into LA4 instead of LA5 (he's in 5th grade this year). But that means, while a lot of it is new to him, several of the lessons are on things he already knows. So we should be able to complete the rest of it in time for his summer break if I can keep us on task all year.

To clean up our house, we broke it down into small sections and assigned one section to be cleaned and organized each day. A shelf, a table, a dresser drawer etc. So Anthony and I are going to do the same for the main floor - split it into manageable portions and do them one day at a time. Sometimes it's hard to just keep up with the regular dishes, laundry, toys etc that need picking up each day, but I'm going to give up all my reasons and excuses and make sure the one assigned extra thing gets done each day. Before March, my house will be ready for painting.

I'm going to write 20 minutes every day, no excuses.

I'm going to be uncompromising on our school lessons each day. If the lesson is scheduled, it will be completed. By mid-June we'll have well over 80% completed and can easily move on to the next levels in the fall He's starting 6th grade math this month already so that's one I don't need to worry about, and Science and History are on track - I just wish there was a way to catch him up in his LA courses... I'll continue to think on that but at least we can ensure that despite our late start last fall, he will be ready for summer break on time!

I also want to join my husband in one of his goals. He exercises with Dante a lot of days but we also do yoga pretty regularly and I think any night he does yoga, I'll join him in that. It's good for me and I love it.

Also, there are a couple of social events my BFF and I have begun to organize pretty regularly and I'd really like to continue with those. So I want to commit to continuing the monthly dinner-party we've been hosting over here, as well as organizing the next of our Mutual Facebook Friends Girls Brunch. It seemed kind of a trivial goal to me at first, but I am naturally a homebody and pushing myself to spend time with my larger social circle is really good for me emotionally.

It really is going to take a small miracle to get my closet cleaned out, but I'm ready for the challenge!

So here's my list:

1. Complete 1 task beyond the usual house-cleaning chores each day.
2. Write 20 minutes on my manuscript each day.
3. Complete each days scheduled lessons in History, Science and Language Arts.
4. Join Anthony for Yoga.
5. Continue to organize a dinner party each month and plan our brunches for January April, July and October.

There are some things that may seem to be missing from my list. For instance: we wanted to move out of this house a while ago but things seem to be moving more slowly than we would like and at this point it feels more reasonable to work at being ready to move (all this house cleaning and painting is really a step in that direction) and just take it when it comes.

It's going to be a good year!!!

Deed Is Done

So I got tagged in a little housekeeping photo-blog yesterday by my friend Sus. Lucky for me I didn't catch up on my reading and see it till this afternoon! Noah has been sick & needy for three days so my house is kind of a mess. But again, lucky for me, last night was my night off and I did a couple dishes! lol So I have taken the pictures, the deed is done. Now I shall post them here and then you can be sure I'll spread the love. Hehehe

The rules are to take the pictures just as they are right now. If I'd had creamer for coffee today I'd have taken pictures of an unmade bed and a girl in PJs.

1. My Kids

Like I said Noah is sick so he's a little cranky and just wants to watch Playhouse Disney shows on DVR. Dante is taking an afternoon break from his school work to keep him company while I take pictures. Yep Noah is clutching a mini-Mater in his hand. He Looooves Mater.

2. My Closet

My closet can only be seen in halves so here they are. I need more hangers. Most are holding two or more shirts each! Do you know what this many visible hanger ends says? It says We are all sleeveless shirts and we belong in California or Las Vegas!

3. My Favorite Shoes

This is SO hard. I'm a girl - I love love love shoes. But of the dozens I own, the "favorites" are probably at the top of the heap so let's have a look. You can see my Sketchers slip ons the third pair I've owned and loved since nursing school, a pair of black leather lace-up boots I got these from the Gap over 10 years ago and wear them all the time, my silver dancing shoes HAHAHA Where did those crawl out from! I don't know the last time I went dancing LOL, my tiny thin flip-flops these feel like I'm not even wearing shoes, my memory-foam slippers since I teach and work at home, I wear slippers a lot.

4. My Kitchen Sink

I'm just lucky it doesn't ask for a picture of the oven range dirty or the kitchen counter a few more dirty dishes than in the sink!

5. My Fridge

We have no light in our fridge. We replace the bulb and it burns out sounds like a bigger problem than just the bulb to me... I'm hoping for a new fridge in the next year! But with the flash on my camera you can see it all amazingly well. I should just take pictures whenever I want to see what we have!

6. My Laundry Room

as I've said before, hubby does the laundry more than I do so it's all his doing that this room isn't a complete wreck!

7. My Favorite Room

That's the bedroom hands down. I've always loved my room best. And lets face it: all the best things happen in the bedroom anyway!

8. Self Portrait

So I'm gonna tag my friend Val! Let's see it Val. Get out that camera and take some pictures. xo

Precious Moments

My boys are 8 years apart but they're pretty good buds - they'll be 10 & 2 this spring. Dante goes away every month to visit his dad in California. It's been interesting and a little sad to see my baby recognize the absence and miss his "big bubba" each time Dante goes. And there is a definite change in him. I think he likes the alone time with Mommy, but I can tell he misses his brother too.

Today I called Dante to check on him since he was home alone at their condo while his dad worked. We were talking and then I said "Hey Noah, you wanna talk to Bubba?" His face lit up and he reached for the phone, grinning ear to ear. He got the phone to his ear and squeeled "Hi!" which is the first time he's ever said anything to the voice in the phone! Dante laughed and talked to him for a second and Noah answered with some long crazy baby-talk! He even said Bye when I told him to. It was so sweet - the first time he decides to really talk on the phone is with his far-away brother. I cried a teeny bit.

Finding Nemo In My Living Room (and asian cartoon warriors on my front lawn)

So I know I'm a little late with the Halloween post, but in my defense, I came down with an awful flu bug ON Halloween so I've been recovering since then and hey, I can only post so much! So the week before Halloween we took the boys (and my sister and her three girls) to Hogle Zoo for Boo at the Zoo trick or treating. It was a lot of fun, and more crowded than I've ever seen it. My husband read an article that said attendance at the zoo that day hit a record high, breaking the record set years earlier when ZCMI hosted a free-all-day event.
It wasn't a huge costume production for us: we threw their costumes on, tried to leave as many accessories at home, skipped hair & makeup and headed for the zoo. Dante was Inuyasha, Meghan (niece #1) was Mulan, Anna (niece #2) was Sleeping Beauty,

Eloise (Niece #3) was a dalmatian (who didn't like her hood very much)

and Noah was Nemo.

We didn't even worry about hair-combing. And little Anna, my spit-fire niece that reminds me so much of myself, had to wear a shirt under her off-the-shoulder Sleeping Beauty dress or flash the world her little girl chest.

It was a fun day, even if it was so crowded we could barely breathe. At least we didn't get parking tickets like so many others!

For real trick-or-treating, the kids were a bit more polished (I know the date on this picture isn't Halloween: Dante & Meghan dressed up in full regalia for the Utah Symphony event they go to each year and it was the only picture I had since Dante went to CA to see his dad again this year - like every year).
Dante wants me to post this picture because you can see his sword Tessaiga:

But I like this one better because you can see their faces:

Noah didn't love getting his face painted but he seemed to tolerate it well enough. His first night of trick-or-treating was great fun. He started to get the idea about half way through. "Okay, they give me candy and I wave bye-bye and move on to the next house for more candy. I can do that."

He got a ton of candy, most of which mysteriously disappeared while he slept (Wonder-Rachel says as she innocently wipes chocolate from her face), and I think by next year he'll know how to say "Trick or Treat" on his own.
So despite my own flu-bug misery & the near rain we had to worry about, I think the kids had a great time this year.

The Cupcake Charade

I decided to make cupcakes last week for Dante's soccer party. I let Dante & his friend Tyler ride their bikes to the store for cake mix & frosting because when I say MAKE cupcakes I mean by adding oil, eggs and water of course. I'm not my sister after all. And I got the awesome idea of frosting them red since they are Team Inferno with red jerseys.
I hit a snag when I found the box made 24 cups and I had a one dozen pan. So I knocked on a few doors around the neighborhood but no one was home. Except Jill. So I gathered my courage and knocked on the door (Jill and I don't get along ever since she said Dante broke her Santa yard sign and I slammed my door in her face). We played nice like all hateful women do, and I asked to borrow a muffin pan for the boys soccer party (Yeah it helps that Joey is on the team too). Amazingly she didn't have a single muffin pan. Is that strange? I don't know. But she had bread pans galore and was happy to loan them to me. So I took them and decided I'd make do.
Dante helped crack the eggs and they both helped me rinse the dishes.

Noah looks like he got a little drunk on cupcake batter:

And then he got very mad when it was all gone.

There were 12 in my muffin pan and 6 cups nestled perfectly into two large bread pans. After 15 minutes in the oven I pulled out 12 perfect cupcakes and 2 loafs of cake. A dozen round and a dozen that needed to be pulled apart around a bunch of fallen squared muffin cups.

Once they were cooling we set to making red frosting. HAHAHAHAHA! Let me just say that no matter what you do, if you start with white frosting, and you use red food coloring, you're going to get pink. Period.

The good news: not one of the boys at the soccer party gave a damn that their treats were bright pink. I was going to get a picture of them eating them happily to prove my success, but it just happened too fast. I blinked and all the cupcakes were gone.