There is subject matter in this post that I have not revealed before, not because I was hiding it, but because it wasn't relevant to my topics. However, for this topic, it is indeed VERY relevant and I appreciate your kind words.
On Saturday, my oldest son, Cephas, will turn twelve. We are members of the LDS church, which means that this is a monumental birthday for him. When a young man turns twelve, he is ordained with the Aaronic Priesthood and is able to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. It's an incredible gift that he will receive. However, usually boys will turn twelve, have their interview with the Bishop (the head of our group, kind of like a pastor in other religions) and will then be sustained by the congregation as a member of the Aaronic Priesthood, after which he will be ordained and will receive the Priesthood. At that point, they are free to go to the temple and participate in ordinances there. Well, Cephas just so happens to be turning twelve on the exact day of our ward's youth temple trip. He had his interview last Sunday with the Bishop and then in Sacrament Meeting, he was sustained by our ward and so this Saturday, he will be ordained as a Deacon and actually receive the Aaronic Priesthood at that time. Five minutes later, he will leave and be on his way to the temple. It is such a cool way to spend his twelfth birthday and I am so excited for him!
A great friend of mine, who also happens to be my co-teacher in our Nursery class as well as one of the women that I visit teach each month, offered to stay back from the trip and babysit the other kids so that I could go and be with Cephas for his first experience at the temple. As much as I would love to go and be a part of all that, it's not going to happen, because I don't have my temple recommend.
A temple recommend is something that you need in order to be able to enter temple. For youth 12-17, that happens after a meeting with the Bishop. When you are an adult (age 18), you need to have an adult recommend, which I believe happens after an interview with first your ward Bishop, then the Stake President. There isn't time for me to get a temple recommend for myself, so I will sit this one out. But I will be taking those steps towards receiving my temple recommend so that maybe on the next trip, I can be there as well.
I do have a meeting set up with the Bishop for later today about getting my recommend as well as receiving my Patriarchal Blessing, which is an inspired prayer given by your Stake Patriarch. I don't really know a whole lot about it, but I am anxious to receive mine. Quite nervous, but excited nonetheless.
I kind of went off on a tangent there and I apologize for that. That's just the way my mind works.
So on Saturday, Cephas will have to be up super early in the morning so that he can get ready to go and be at the church by 6:45, so that he can be ordained by the time that they are planning to leave, which is 7:00. Reality is that they probably won't leave until closer to 7:30, but 7:00 is the planned time for departure so we will be there at 6:45.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Climbing, Unearthing and Tackling - Challenge 2013
I don't know how else to phrase it, but I have a ton of work to do around the house. I have totes that need to go out to the shed filled with Christmas decorations, wrapping papers, trees, etc. I have filled boxes that need to be donated, I have filled another box that needs to go to my inlaw's house, I have another one that needs to go to my best friend's house, I have a cooler that needs to go to my Relief Society president's house (because in all reality, it is her's! It just so happens that I have had it for about six or eight months), I have toys to donate to our church nursery. I also have clothes for every.single.child. I take care of. (Boys ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and girls ages 3, 4, 7, 8, 12) Plus, I have additional clothes that I just need to donate. Right now, all of these items still taking up space in my house is driving me just a little bit slightly insane! It's time to start a new project on here, one that I started and completed last year, but just did not blog about in it's entirety. And now, I'd like to present:
Challenge 2013
The challenge is to get rid of 2013 items in 2013.
You know, like, apart from regular household waste. This is the stuff that is taking up residence in your residence that you'd rather have used for other purposes. The rules are pretty loose. You can count individual items or you can count boxes or bags. But the idea is to get it OUT. We live in a society with so much excess that we don't even realize how much extra we have!
For instance, somehow this past winter, I went from having one set of dishes to having five sets. We have our normal set of dishes that we use everyday, but we were wanting something that was white and simple, so we found these plates at the Dollar Tree that we really liked and we bought 12 of them. $12 for 12 plates, not bad. But then, I found this other set of dishes that someone locally was selling for $10. Two complete dish sets (service for 8) for $10. Even better, right? Then, my mother-in-law bought us two complete dish sets (also service for 8) for Christmas. And then our friend who was moving out of state decided that he wanted to give us one of his dish sets. So now...if I need to plate, oh, let's say somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 meals at once, I could. But here's the crazy reality - I don't need to. The most that I need to plate at any one point in time is like 20, give or take. And most of the time, it's not more than 10. So I have decided to keep the plates that we got new for Christmas, the ones that we were using full time anyhow (at least until they all break or something) and maybe the simple set of 12 plates from Dollar Tree. I really do love them! I plan to sell or donate the set that I bought for $10 and to keep one of the plates from our friend to use on my plate rack. So, that would leave us with roughly 30 plates. Still more than we need, but in all reality, we lose one plate from our regular plate set about every month or so. We have kids and lots of extra kids around. They get used a lot. It happens.
I also inherited about $900 worth of yarn recently from one of my husband's co-workers. His mom had been a stockpiler and had purchased SO much yarn! Most of these skeins of yarn were probably about $3 each, so I ended up with roughly 300 skeins of yarn. Plus sewing patterns, supplies and notions, crochet patterns, stuffing for toys or pillows or something, Just lots and lots and lots of crafting materials. I had Bree come over and I sent her home with all but one (minor) sewing project, all of the crochet patterns and half of the yarn. But that also means that I still have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 skeins of yarn. I do plan to make LOTS of scarves and hats this year to donate to the those who are on the tree at our church at Christmas time. And if I make enough, maybe some to give to a facility for seniors in our area. I'm not quite sure yet, but I do have lots of ideas! But whatever I haven't used, I plan to donate at least 50% of it to an organization that can use it. I might even make some prayer shawls a hospice facility that I am familiar with and which is very dear to me.
There are lots and lots of other items that I am wanting and needing to get rid of, because in all practicality, we don't use these things often, if at all and I'm just done with it. I don't want our home to be overloaded or for me to be overwhelmed by caring for all of this stuff that doesn't really matter.
So, here I am starting this challenge for myself (and for any who may want to join in) of making 2013 items disappear from my home this year. Although, in actuality, I would strongly prefer the number of items to be at least double that figure. If you're in and would like to participate, leave me a comment and I'll make a button (I'll make one anyhow, most likely) for you to place on your page as well, if you want to join in.
Challenge 2013
The challenge is to get rid of 2013 items in 2013.
You know, like, apart from regular household waste. This is the stuff that is taking up residence in your residence that you'd rather have used for other purposes. The rules are pretty loose. You can count individual items or you can count boxes or bags. But the idea is to get it OUT. We live in a society with so much excess that we don't even realize how much extra we have!
For instance, somehow this past winter, I went from having one set of dishes to having five sets. We have our normal set of dishes that we use everyday, but we were wanting something that was white and simple, so we found these plates at the Dollar Tree that we really liked and we bought 12 of them. $12 for 12 plates, not bad. But then, I found this other set of dishes that someone locally was selling for $10. Two complete dish sets (service for 8) for $10. Even better, right? Then, my mother-in-law bought us two complete dish sets (also service for 8) for Christmas. And then our friend who was moving out of state decided that he wanted to give us one of his dish sets. So now...if I need to plate, oh, let's say somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 meals at once, I could. But here's the crazy reality - I don't need to. The most that I need to plate at any one point in time is like 20, give or take. And most of the time, it's not more than 10. So I have decided to keep the plates that we got new for Christmas, the ones that we were using full time anyhow (at least until they all break or something) and maybe the simple set of 12 plates from Dollar Tree. I really do love them! I plan to sell or donate the set that I bought for $10 and to keep one of the plates from our friend to use on my plate rack. So, that would leave us with roughly 30 plates. Still more than we need, but in all reality, we lose one plate from our regular plate set about every month or so. We have kids and lots of extra kids around. They get used a lot. It happens.
I also inherited about $900 worth of yarn recently from one of my husband's co-workers. His mom had been a stockpiler and had purchased SO much yarn! Most of these skeins of yarn were probably about $3 each, so I ended up with roughly 300 skeins of yarn. Plus sewing patterns, supplies and notions, crochet patterns, stuffing for toys or pillows or something, Just lots and lots and lots of crafting materials. I had Bree come over and I sent her home with all but one (minor) sewing project, all of the crochet patterns and half of the yarn. But that also means that I still have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 skeins of yarn. I do plan to make LOTS of scarves and hats this year to donate to the those who are on the tree at our church at Christmas time. And if I make enough, maybe some to give to a facility for seniors in our area. I'm not quite sure yet, but I do have lots of ideas! But whatever I haven't used, I plan to donate at least 50% of it to an organization that can use it. I might even make some prayer shawls a hospice facility that I am familiar with and which is very dear to me.
There are lots and lots of other items that I am wanting and needing to get rid of, because in all practicality, we don't use these things often, if at all and I'm just done with it. I don't want our home to be overloaded or for me to be overwhelmed by caring for all of this stuff that doesn't really matter.
So, here I am starting this challenge for myself (and for any who may want to join in) of making 2013 items disappear from my home this year. Although, in actuality, I would strongly prefer the number of items to be at least double that figure. If you're in and would like to participate, leave me a comment and I'll make a button (I'll make one anyhow, most likely) for you to place on your page as well, if you want to join in.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Menu Planning 1-7-13 to 1-13-13
Jan 7 (Hubby home, I'm at work)
B - quick shake
L - at work
S - Beef Stroganoff
Jan 8 (Hubby home)
B - quick shake
L - leftovers
S - Baked Swiss Chicken
Jan 9 (I'm at work, Scouts night)
B - quick shake
L -leftovers
S - Pork Teriyaki
Jan 10 (Scouts night)
B - quick shake
L - leftovers
S - Raspberry Chicken
Jan 11
B - quick shake
L - leftovers
S - homemade pizza
Jan 12
B - cold cereal
L - grilled cheese and tomato soup
S - Vegetarian Penne
Jan 13
B - ham egg and cheese bake
L - bean and cheese burritos
S - Herbed Slow Cooker Chicken
B - quick shake
L - at work
S - Beef Stroganoff
Jan 8 (Hubby home)
B - quick shake
L - leftovers
S - Baked Swiss Chicken
Jan 9 (I'm at work, Scouts night)
B - quick shake
L -leftovers
S - Pork Teriyaki
Jan 10 (Scouts night)
B - quick shake
L - leftovers
S - Raspberry Chicken
Jan 11
B - quick shake
L - leftovers
S - homemade pizza
Jan 12
B - cold cereal
L - grilled cheese and tomato soup
S - Vegetarian Penne
Jan 13
B - ham egg and cheese bake
L - bean and cheese burritos
S - Herbed Slow Cooker Chicken
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Exciting News!!!
Okay, so I have told you all about Calla, my best friend's daughter, who is like a niece to me. Well, she was over to our house yesterday while her dad was at work and I got some SUPER exciting news!
About a week ago or so, my best friend's dad posted a picture on his facebook page of his new granddaughter. He has three children. My best friend is the oldest, then there's little sister and baby brother. Little Sister isn't THAT little - she's almost 25 and Baby Brother is like 20 or 21. Well, anyhow, the picture was posted of a new granddaughter and I knew it wasn't Little Sister's baby, so I assumed it was Baby Brother's baby. This "new" granddaughter is six months old. As it turns out, even Little Sister initially thought that the new baby was Baby Brother's. But it's not. It's my best friend's newest baby. Squeal!!!
Okay, I know it sounds crazy to be THIS excited over my friend finding out that he has a baby that he didn't know about. But, he and the baby's mom get along really well and he has seen the baby every week since he found out that she was indeed his. He has a great girlfriend and a stable life (the most stable that I've seen him have in probably 13 years or so) and I'm just so excited for him!
Not to mention, that also means that I have a new baby "niece" to dote on and I cannot wait to meet her! She is such a beautiful baby and Calla tells me that her new little sister looks a lot like she did when she was a baby. I don't know what Calla looked like when she was a baby so I'm taking her word for it. Calla is like exactly 50% like her mom and 50% like her dad.
So that is my exciting news! I told best friend today that once he works out his visitations with the new baby, if the need should arise, I would totally be willing to babysit for him. Now to plan for things to make for this new wee one. Swoon! I'm thinking blankets and hats and sweaters and all kinds of fun stuff and then for this next Christmas, when she will be almost a year and a half, I'll make her lots of other fun stuff too. I think it's time to learn to knit or needle felt toys for a toddler! I have nearly a year to do it! And of course, there is her birthday as well. Oh, I'm just so far beyond excited! I love babies anyhow, but I love this particular one even more because she is the daughter of my best friend.
About a week ago or so, my best friend's dad posted a picture on his facebook page of his new granddaughter. He has three children. My best friend is the oldest, then there's little sister and baby brother. Little Sister isn't THAT little - she's almost 25 and Baby Brother is like 20 or 21. Well, anyhow, the picture was posted of a new granddaughter and I knew it wasn't Little Sister's baby, so I assumed it was Baby Brother's baby. This "new" granddaughter is six months old. As it turns out, even Little Sister initially thought that the new baby was Baby Brother's. But it's not. It's my best friend's newest baby. Squeal!!!
Okay, I know it sounds crazy to be THIS excited over my friend finding out that he has a baby that he didn't know about. But, he and the baby's mom get along really well and he has seen the baby every week since he found out that she was indeed his. He has a great girlfriend and a stable life (the most stable that I've seen him have in probably 13 years or so) and I'm just so excited for him!
Not to mention, that also means that I have a new baby "niece" to dote on and I cannot wait to meet her! She is such a beautiful baby and Calla tells me that her new little sister looks a lot like she did when she was a baby. I don't know what Calla looked like when she was a baby so I'm taking her word for it. Calla is like exactly 50% like her mom and 50% like her dad.
So that is my exciting news! I told best friend today that once he works out his visitations with the new baby, if the need should arise, I would totally be willing to babysit for him. Now to plan for things to make for this new wee one. Swoon! I'm thinking blankets and hats and sweaters and all kinds of fun stuff and then for this next Christmas, when she will be almost a year and a half, I'll make her lots of other fun stuff too. I think it's time to learn to knit or needle felt toys for a toddler! I have nearly a year to do it! And of course, there is her birthday as well. Oh, I'm just so far beyond excited! I love babies anyhow, but I love this particular one even more because she is the daughter of my best friend.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Small Things
Rachel Anne Ridge from Home Sanctuary is starting her daily Small Things again. Today's Small Thing is super easy. All that I needed to do was to print off a Tally Blank Sheet for 40 points. This month the prize on top of bringing Sanctuary into my home is the possibility of also winning a Kindle e-reader. Not a bad prize for just doing a few extra things around the house.
Today's total: 40 points
This month's total: 40 points
Today's total: 40 points
This month's total: 40 points
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Menu Planning 1-1-13 to 1-6-13
Okay, so here's what we came up with last night for our monthly meal plan:
Jan 1
B - cold cereal and milk
L - leftovers
S - Slow Cooker Mac 'N Cheese (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
Jan 2
B - Sausage Egg Bake (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
L - Beef Tenderloin with Potatoes (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - Asparagus Swiss Quiche (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
Jan 3
B - Best Banana Pancakes
L - Cranberry Waldorf Salad (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - Pineapple Mustard Ham (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
Jan 4
B - cold cereal
L - Beef and Noodles (link coming later)
S - leftovers
Jan 5
B - Start Your Engine Fruit Shake
L - Mile-High Shredded Beef, Glorified Hash Browns and Hoagie Buns (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - bean and cheese burritos
Jan 6 (Fast Sunday - nothing for breakfast for me, Cephas or Koren)
B - cold cereal and milk
L - Beef Stew for a Crowd (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - leftover stew
Jan 1
B - cold cereal and milk
L - leftovers
S - Slow Cooker Mac 'N Cheese (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
Jan 2
B - Sausage Egg Bake (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
L - Beef Tenderloin with Potatoes (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - Asparagus Swiss Quiche (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
Jan 3
B - Best Banana Pancakes
L - Cranberry Waldorf Salad (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - Pineapple Mustard Ham (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
Jan 4
B - cold cereal
L - Beef and Noodles (link coming later)
S - leftovers
Jan 5
B - Start Your Engine Fruit Shake
L - Mile-High Shredded Beef, Glorified Hash Browns and Hoagie Buns (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - bean and cheese burritos
Jan 6 (Fast Sunday - nothing for breakfast for me, Cephas or Koren)
B - cold cereal and milk
L - Beef Stew for a Crowd (Taste of Home Annual Recipes 2003)
S - leftover stew
Monday, December 31, 2012
Not Resolutions, per se...
But there are changes that I'm wanting to make, ones that I have been contemplating for a little while and that I would have been implementing regardless of the date, so here they are:
My best friend, Bree, and I are planning to do Scripture study together and separately. We plan to do Seminary reading assignments and then meet up together once a week and discuss them. We're hoping to get a couple more friends involved in it as well. It should be quite a bit of fun and teach us a lot.
I rearranged my house this past week. Partially to accommodate a few Christmas gifts and partially to change things up and get areas neat, straightened and organized. I plan to continue to purge (a MAJOR part of what I did this past week) and to continue organizing as well. I plan to tackle a particular area of the house each week. I think the first week will be the den, as that is where Hubby and I spend most of our time. We got the furniture rearranged in here, but now there are some items sitting around in piles that are now, well, homeless. And they need homes. They deserve homes. I'll post more about this tomorrow, complete with pictures.
I also plan to start doing meal planning again. It works out so well but lately I have really dropped the ball when it comes to doing it. I mentioned in my post from the early morning hours today that I plan to have the family sit around and pick out recipes that they'd like to try and we will incorporate them into a monthly meal plan. This way, I can set a meal plan for the whole month. We can always tweak it a little bit based on changes for that day, but even still, it's much more helpful to have an actual plan in place.
And I have been working hard to set aside some money for savings. I have a goal this year to save up $1200, which isn't so bad. That's a mere $100 per month. I know that I can do it! And the idea is to not dip into it for any reason at all. So far, I have $300 saved up, which really isn't much. But this new goal to save $1200 would put us at a savings amount of $1500, which would be wonderful to have on hand just in case we should need it.
Our chore system is going well. I have tweaked it here and there and may need to slightly tweak it again here soon, but it will be after some additional thought and evaluation and a discussion with the Hubby to see what we like about it and what we want to change about it. But overall, the kids have done extremely well with it.
We have skipped the gym and all associated activities with our membership since, oh, I don't know, July maybe? Something horrible like that. We fully intend to use our membership at least once a week starting this week now. I would seriously like to lose 40% of my body weight, but probably it wouldn't be practical nor safe to lose that much in a year's time, so I'd settle for losing 2% per month, each month from now until I am at that 40% lost mark. That's a goal that will take 26 months to accomplish. Just over two years. I'm okay with that. I have to be. It took me awhile to get to the point where I am now and it will take me awhile to get back to where I was. At the end of this year, I should have lost (according to my goal) around 12% of my body weight. Regular gym activities, eating more meals prepared at home and as a family and cutting out soda (even diet soda) should help these things out tremendously.
So that's my New Year's "Not Resolutions, per se" post. Tonight, we are going to have dinner, pick out some recipes, maybe bake some banana bread, then curl up on the couch with our pajamas on, watch a movie, eat some popcorn (none for me, thanks, I'm not a fan) and just spend time together as a family. Sounds like a wonderful way to start a new year!
My best friend, Bree, and I are planning to do Scripture study together and separately. We plan to do Seminary reading assignments and then meet up together once a week and discuss them. We're hoping to get a couple more friends involved in it as well. It should be quite a bit of fun and teach us a lot.
I rearranged my house this past week. Partially to accommodate a few Christmas gifts and partially to change things up and get areas neat, straightened and organized. I plan to continue to purge (a MAJOR part of what I did this past week) and to continue organizing as well. I plan to tackle a particular area of the house each week. I think the first week will be the den, as that is where Hubby and I spend most of our time. We got the furniture rearranged in here, but now there are some items sitting around in piles that are now, well, homeless. And they need homes. They deserve homes. I'll post more about this tomorrow, complete with pictures.
I also plan to start doing meal planning again. It works out so well but lately I have really dropped the ball when it comes to doing it. I mentioned in my post from the early morning hours today that I plan to have the family sit around and pick out recipes that they'd like to try and we will incorporate them into a monthly meal plan. This way, I can set a meal plan for the whole month. We can always tweak it a little bit based on changes for that day, but even still, it's much more helpful to have an actual plan in place.
And I have been working hard to set aside some money for savings. I have a goal this year to save up $1200, which isn't so bad. That's a mere $100 per month. I know that I can do it! And the idea is to not dip into it for any reason at all. So far, I have $300 saved up, which really isn't much. But this new goal to save $1200 would put us at a savings amount of $1500, which would be wonderful to have on hand just in case we should need it.
Our chore system is going well. I have tweaked it here and there and may need to slightly tweak it again here soon, but it will be after some additional thought and evaluation and a discussion with the Hubby to see what we like about it and what we want to change about it. But overall, the kids have done extremely well with it.
We have skipped the gym and all associated activities with our membership since, oh, I don't know, July maybe? Something horrible like that. We fully intend to use our membership at least once a week starting this week now. I would seriously like to lose 40% of my body weight, but probably it wouldn't be practical nor safe to lose that much in a year's time, so I'd settle for losing 2% per month, each month from now until I am at that 40% lost mark. That's a goal that will take 26 months to accomplish. Just over two years. I'm okay with that. I have to be. It took me awhile to get to the point where I am now and it will take me awhile to get back to where I was. At the end of this year, I should have lost (according to my goal) around 12% of my body weight. Regular gym activities, eating more meals prepared at home and as a family and cutting out soda (even diet soda) should help these things out tremendously.
So that's my New Year's "Not Resolutions, per se" post. Tonight, we are going to have dinner, pick out some recipes, maybe bake some banana bread, then curl up on the couch with our pajamas on, watch a movie, eat some popcorn (none for me, thanks, I'm not a fan) and just spend time together as a family. Sounds like a wonderful way to start a new year!
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