2012 Resolutions

Yesterday, while the kids were working on their chores (and they did a very nice job on them for the most part) Cephas came up to me and was asking about resolutions. He said that he wants to make some for this year. Miss Lil Oralee already did make two, which she shared with me, and it got me to thinking that I should make some as well. I have my goals for Organizing My Life and a number of those goals actually directly correspond with some of my resolutions.

But without further ado, here are (some of) my resolutions:

1. Improve my health.
a. I plan to do this by getting into a consistent sleep schedule. I want to be able to have more energy to spend on the things that really matter and that requires me to get adequate sleep. It would also improve my health and wellness.
b. Another way that I plan to do improve my overall health is to start exercising on a more consistent basis. Sadly, I do not even walk on a daily basis.
c. I also plan to eat balanced meals, at home, at the right time of day, so that it has the best possible effects for my body.
d. I would like to lose 90 pounds by this time next year. I bought a scale yesterday. That is the first step. (Get it, step?! I crack myself up!)

2. Improve my spiritual life.
a. I plan to pray specifically and to journal those prayers and answers on a regular basis.
b. I plan to read my Scriptures daily and to continue to journal about the things that I am covering in my reading.
c. I have also accepted a teaching position at church and will be spending time once a month (at minimum) teaching others and being there for them.
d. Attend church every week.
e. Read the Bible with my children daily.

3. Improve my homemaking skills.
a. The kids have their regular chores and they are fairly good about doing them. I need to be better about doing my own personal chores though as well.
b. I need to be able to say no to things that would interfere with my own goals of what I want my house to be. My home needs to be a higher priority.
c. Continue to teach my children how to thoroughly clean a home so that they are able to do this when they become adults and don't have to struggle with it the way that Hubby had to.
d. I need to develop a regular cleaning schedule that works for me and for my house and my life.
e. I have a vision and a goal of what I want my house to look and feel like and I will know that this has been accomplished when my house feels and looks the way it does in my head.

4. Continue to build new relationships.
a. I have started building new relationships and have been rebuilding some current relationships. I have found this to be most pleasing overall and really want to be purposeful about this.

5. Improve my education.
a. Ideally, I would love to continue to work on a degree, but honestly, I don't foresee that happening at this stage in my life. I am okay with that though. Or mostly okay with that at least.
b. There is a plethora of online resources for learning and I plan to utilize these to increase my education this year.

6. Improve our financial well-being.
a. This is an interesting thing for me to list in here, as I have actually stopped working regular hours and am just on PRN status with two different families, but maybe that is also while it is even more important.
b. I want to get all of our bills caught up and current within the first 3 months of this year.
c. Beginning in March, I want to pay off every bill IN FULL that we receive every month.
d. Beginning now, I do not want to accumulate any additional debt this year.
e. I also want to start putting money aside every paycheck (maybe 10%) to begin building a nest egg for a rainy day.
f. I want to get rid of our storage unit by March as well. That is money that we are spending each and every month that serves no real purpose for our lives. I do need to go through it and make it work into the space that we have available for long-term storage or make some tough decisions.

7. Get rid of 2012 items in 2012.
a. I have seen this on people's blogs this year and I would like to do that this year. It goes along perfectly with Resolution #6, part F, don't you think? I love it when things work together like that!

I think that is it for this year. I may come back and add more or even do a new post in which I change them or add to them or whatever, but I feel good about this list. I expanded on general goals and clearly defined what I want to happen. I will check back in with you all and let you know how they are going.

Organizing My Life - Week 1

You all might remember when I first introduced this idea here and if so, you can see here and now that I remembered this and am still planning to stick to it. And for day numero uno, I have succeeded. I am awake and present and accounted for by 7am. It feels good to accomplish this goal already this morning! Yay for a good start to the year!

New Year's Eve!

I began the early part of today in the hospital with Jeriah. Last night when we went to pick the kids up from a day at Grandma's house, I noticed that Jeriah didn't seem like himself, was warm to the touch and had a scratchy voice. Once I began observing him, we noticed that his lungs sounded off as well. It sounded quite a bit like he was growling from deep within his chest with each inhalation. I took his temp (axillary) and I know it wasn't on there for long enough because I was using an old-school mercury thermometer (both of MIL's digital thermometers were in need of new batteries) but even still, his temp read at 100.2, which I am quite certain was a full degree less than his actual temp.

I called our doctor's office to get the procedure rolling so that I could get a first thing in the morning sick appointment set up with our pediatrician. The office uses a nurse line so I called that and after the nurse had gotten my information from me and then also listened to Jeriah's breathing over the phone, recommended that we call an ambulance to have him transported to the nearest emergency room. I declined the ambulance and told her that we weren't far from "West" (the nickname for one of our three hospitals) and she then suggested that we go to "East" instead because "West" doesn't have a pediatrics ward should he be admitted.

So, I drove him in. The wait was FOREVER long but they were very friendly and even gave Jeriah his own crayons and coloring book to color in and take home with him. In Triage, we discovered his temperature was actually 102.5. Shortly thereafter, we were taken back to a room and they were pretty prompt at getting him checked out. The P.A. who saw him was AMAZING. She doesn't like to use antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. We have a lot of the same beliefs regarding medical care and what/how to treat/not treat certain things. For instance, we don't generally medicate for fevers unless they are greater than 102. We are more likely to medicate for a child's comfort and ability to sleep while sick than for fever. And we also generally take a "wait and see" approach before using antibiotics.

They gave him a dose of Motrin since it is also an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) to reduce his fever and also because of it being an NSAID to reduce any potential swelling that he might have had going on. They also gave him an oral steroid to help out with his lungs and his breathing situation. His oxygen saturation level was 94% following that, which was an improvement over what it had been when we first got there (around 92%) and he was just laying there sleeping soundly. His fever actually went up even more before they got it to go down. They ended up giving him a dose of Tylenol as well and when we left, his temperature had dropped down to 101. Normally, they keep kids there until their fevers are down to less than 100* but I was comfortable with his fever so we were able to leave prior to their standard protocol.

And then it was one of Hubby's bosses last day at work, so after dropping a sleeping Jeriah off with Hubby, I went over to the restaurant and spent some time with the staff and management and got to say goodbye. Hubby had already had an opportunity to do so while he was at work.

I got home, went to bed and then got up with the kids in the morning when they got up. They actually all slept in until 8:30, which is unheard of around these parts.

We had plans for the day but most of them were cancelled with Jeriah being sick so we just had a low-key day. I let the kids just do their own thing with playing video games and watching movies. It's not something that they get to do very often, so they thoroughly enjoyed it. And after the LONG, LATE night I had, I needed the time as well.

Tonight, they are watching a movie for our regular "Saturday Night Movie Night" and Hubby is also watching it with them. We rented Kung Fu Panda 2 (I believe) and they all seem to be enjoying it.

Tomorrow begins our new chore chart and rewards system that I spent WAY too long today working on. The kids actually requested to go back to this system again because it is by far their favorite chore system. I'm definitely okay with it as well.

Tomorrow is also the day that we will be spending with my mom and brother for Christmas. We were going to do it today but since I had a long night and Jeriah isn't feeling very well and my mom and my brother both smoke (though not inside my house), we felt it was best for his lungs to have a chance to recuperate for an extra day before being exposed to that.

Tomorrow is also the day that I begin my new plan that I started <a href="http://catalina-at-home-at-work-at-play.blogspot.com/2011/11/organizing-my-life-intro.html">here</a> back in November. I cannot wait! Although, admittedly, I would prefer to sleep in a little bit tomorrow. Ah well, it'll be okay.

You can see some of my New Year's Resolutions in that link there.

Oh - and my new favorite hardware store has an AMAZING sale going on tomorrow as well, which I fully plan to stop by and take part in. There are a number of things that I am planning on picking up and it will be so wonderful to get some much needed items to do household projects with.

Speaking of household projects, when we moved to this house, the previous owner, Allison, had these really nice sheer chocolate drapes hanging up in the living room and front room. I found out where she got them and they are SO much cheaper than I had anticipated. They are definitely in the budget now, so that is one item on my to-do list for this first week of 2012.

I have also decided that I want to do a couple of things this year in addition to the other blog post. I want to get rid of (minimum) 2012 items this year through donation, consignment, gifting or trashing those items that need it.

I also want to do a household task each week, whether it is decorating, cooking, cleaning, whatever the case may be.

Week #1 - Buy and hang new sheer drapery panels for the front room and living room.

Last Company Coffee of 2011

Today is the day for the last Company Coffee for the year and I am so excited about Rachel's Small Things coming up this year. And also for the big things that we will be doing as well! Yay! I haven't really tried to create as much Sanctuary here at our new place as I did the at old one. And we moved in July. Yeah. I think that pretty much sums it all up.

As it is right now, my house is in major need of a thorough deep clean, I have window treatments that need to go up. I finally did find some that are in our budget and much like the ones that were already here when we moved in, so that is exciting for me. Now I just have to wait til Hubby gets home after work today to show him.

Although the Sanctuary aspect of our home is missing lately, the kids have definitely enjoyed our little projects and work times together this semester break. We have made and decorated Rice Krispie treats (as opposed to cookies) and we have plans to make and decorate sugar cookies and gingerbread houses. These are projects that we work on while Hubby is at work because they stress him out and the kids and I would prefer to not stress him out.

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did as well. We have had three Christmas celebrations so far. One for Hubby's mom's side of the family, one for Hubby's dad's side of the family, and then our own little family. Tomorrow, we have one more with my mom and brother. I don't know yet if we are going to my mom's house or if they are coming over here but either way, it should be a great time as well.

We have a very full month. Four family Christmas celebrations, two violin performances, one piano performance, Wolf Scouts, Webelo Scouts, Daisy Scouts, working in the classrooms, field trips, illnesses, company in from out of town, you name it. And I love it!

So without further ado, I will turn you over to the other ladies at Company Coffee! Go check them all out and maybe link up yourself! It's a great chance to get to know some great ladies! Have a very Happy New Year!

Wedding Prep - Flower Girl Dress Shopping - Take 1

As promised, I am back with photos from the dress shopping for a flower girl dress. I have decided that I am going to use this photo (to the left) in every post about the wedding. Because it is a picture that the bride-to-be loves and is a flower that she had wanted to use in her wedding until she discovered that the image was a created one, not a photograph.



 But moving on to the pictures now. I cropped the pictures down to just the dress which is something that I wish I had thought of doing before. It really allows me to see each dress individually instead of looking at the smile that my daughter is surprisingly NOT wearing in most of the photos. You'll have to trust me on this. She was tired and hungry and a little bit shy. Which apparently adds up to not smiling when the camera is near her. Away from the camera, she was bouncing and skipping and twirling. Children.

Okay, this is the dress that we are most in love with at this point. It's gorgeous. And the beading on the sash really closely matches the beading on the bride's dress. I am in love with this dress and am really hoping that this is the one that we end up choosing. In the end, it's up to the bride, but at this point, she is also in love with this dress. I will just have to remind her how much we love this dress when we go to look at other ones. We are planning on shopping other stores over the next few months to have Oralee try on dresses and decide which one we absolutely love.

Oh and yes, you do see a veil in the back of this photo. My mother-in-law was holding it above Oralee's head and trying to get her to smile for the picture. But obviously, Oralee will NOT be wearing a veil (although I totally think she could...)

  

This is another dress that we liked quite a bit. I personally love the thick piping around the bottom hem of the tulle, but my mother-in-law and future sister-in-law were not fans of it and that's okay too. Especially since we are all smitten with the dress above.

One other thing that I liked quite a bit about this dress was the sash. It is tulle material but it has a bow and is decorative. When we took the dress off the rack, the bow was in the front center, but the sash is totally removable and when I put it on Oralee, I positioned it to the side to see how it looked and I quite like the look of it that way.






Due to multiple clothing changes, Oralee's hair got quite static-y and I brushed it and was going to put it up in a pony tail to try and alleviate that problem, but no one had a pony tail holder with them. I didn't even have my wallet with me. I was really flying by the seat of my pants! So in a pinch, I did what I could with Oralee's hair, which was a bun with her hair pulled through to secure it. It lasted until the next outfit change and then it was down again. Of course, I couldn't get it back up again after that, but I just loved the way her hair looked so I had to take a picture. I think I am going to do her hair like this more often. How cute is that?!

We had other dresses that we tried on, but I only took pictures of the ones that we liked the best. Lots more dresses to come though! Brace yourself! You will be seeing a LOT of wedding between now and then! :)

Wedding Prep...

My brother-in-law is getting married next year to the most amazing woman. Dan and Jess have been dating for three or four years now and I am so excited for their upcoming wedding! I had been hoping for a couple of years that he'd just propose already and then last year (I believe) he finally did!

So, now we are on to wedding prep. I get to be a part of it, which is super cool to me. Hubby and I didn't have a wedding, so I missed out on all the fun festivities that Jess is planning. And my little Oralee is the flower girl. Tomorrow, we meet with a florist and a bakery and start shopping for flower girl dresses. Of course, we won't actually buy the dress until next year when they are getting married, because Oralee is only five right now and will likely change sizes by then.

I am just so far beyond excited about this whole thing! Jess is amazing and I love her to pieces! She is my sister, even though she hasn't yet become my sister-in-law. We don't hang out (we live about 50 miles apart and we don't travel each other's way very often) but we get along supremely well!

Next year, they are getting married on Koren's ninth birthday. He is ecstatic about it! I mean, how could he not be? He gets to be a part of a HUGE party on his birthday (it isn't his party, but he gets to go to it), he gets to dress up, he gets to stay up late, and he gets his first aunt! ♥ Love that boy!

Hubby has two younger brothers, I have one younger brother. We have no sisters. Jess is greatly needed! :)

And tomorrow, we shop! Can't wait! May even have some pictures to show for it.

Daisy Party

This past Monday was our Daisy meeting. For those of you that may not know, Daisies are the youngest group of Girl Scouts, made up of Kindergartners and First Graders. My Oralee is a Kindergartner. And this past Monday, we met with her other Daisy Scouts and celebrated Juliette Gordon-Low's birthday. Juliette is the founder of Girl Scouts and her birthday is October 31st. She founded Girl Scouts 100 years ago. So this is an important year in Girl Scouts.

We made a card for Juliette and we celebrated all of the girls' birthdays. It was quite a nice time! We also discussed (and earned!) the petals for "being a sister to other Girl Scouts". And the girls also decorated some shirts. It was a lot of fun and Oralee did a fantastic job!

Here is the (VERY!) decorated card that the girls made for Juliette:

I just love the creativity of the girls! They were so into decorating that card! It is quite the change from working with Cub Scouts the last 3-4 years, let me tell you!

Also we got preliminary information on Cookie Sales! We are doing direct sales this year - for the first time! The girls will have cookies that they can sell (and deliver) right away! No more card orders and waiting til March to get your cookies (unless of course, we run out! And even then, we would try to fill the order by getting it from the office or another troop or something. I am really excited about this! Oralee already has probably close to $100 in sales lined up for January 13th. This will be an awesome thing for her! She is so quiet and shy and I think it will really do her quite a bit of good to do the sales and build up her people skills and confidence. She did quite well tagging along with the boys while they were selling popcorn for Cub Scouts.

Very fun and exciting times!