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Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Friday, February 6, 2015

How the heck is it the year 2015 already?


Posting my goals for 2015 at the beginning of February (instead of the beginning of January) is totally me. I've thought about my annual goals and have been slowly adding them to my Notes on the iPad. I just haven't sat down and really thought about them.  Life is busy.

And so here I am a month into the year already.

January 1st is just another ol' day on the calendar anyways, right?

I didn't forsee posting my 2015 goals for all of the world to see (okay, not the world, but the 50 or so people that actually read my blog). But I figured if I post them on here then maybe I'll feel more accountable and be more likely to complete some of them? If my mom sees my goals/Matt sees them/friends see them, then maybe they'll help keep me pointing in the right direction if I start to swerve?

In my mind I have hundreds of goals I'd like to accomplish. But in reality I'm only going to write down the big/important/possibly attainable ones that I actually would like to accomplish over the next months. So here they are:

Personal

1) Get more consecutive hours of sleep. I can count on one hand how many times in the last ten months I have slept for 5-6 consecutive hours. I know that once I'm done nursing Chloe in the middle of the night that my sleep schedule will become more normal again, but in the meantime I'll try to get to bed a little earlier each night. And continue to persuade Matt to take turns "sleeping in" with me (sleeping in for us is often 7:00am).
Shirt via Zazzle.com
2) Get out of the house at least once a week without the kids, completely by myself. When I go to Zumba that does not count (I'm with other people). When I go to Crafty Club it doesn't count (I'm with other people). I mean STRAIGHT UP BY MYSELF. Either wandering the aisles of the library or wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby. Or sitting in my car with an ice cream cone. So be it.

3) Keep incorporating exercise into my life. I'm not the gal that works out at a gym. I never have been and I'm pretty sure I never will be. But if I can golf on a golf course with a beer in my hand or walk with the kids to the lake, or play softball on a team, or garden in the yard -- that's the kind of exercise I'm talking about. I feel like it's attainable to me. So I will continue to do my Zumba (I've been doing it for a month and it feels like I'm dancing instead of exercising) and maybe sign up for once-a-week-yoga as well. And once it warms up outside I hope to walk a LOT with the kiddos all over the place. 

4) Delete emails after I read them/delete junk emails right away. This is how many emails I have in my inbox right now:
This is not a joke. I organized my inbox right before Chloe was born last April. So this is ten months of deletion procrastination 

Family

1) Be way, way nicer to Matt. I've been so flipping crabby lately. I complain all of the time. I shouldn't complain. But guess who gets to hear me complain? Matt. And because he works from home he EVEN gets to listen to me complain during lunch. Lucky him! I need to adjust my attitude somehow. I'm hoping that if I can accomplish Personal Goal #1 (more sleep) then maybe it will help in the crabby department? I hope so. Because I know I'm driving him nuts.

2) Reinstate 'No TV Tuesdays' in our house. We tried this a while back and it was nice. Matt and I would work on a project in the basement or outside instead of watching the boob tube at night. We got away from it. And we decided we'd like to try it again.

3) Kiss and hug everyone in my family every day. I kiss and hug the kids countless times a day, but Matt and the cats get the shaft. How's that for honesty? 

4) Start going to church regularly. I'm not saying that we can commit to going every single Sunday at this point in time (it's been so hard to get up and going with the kiddos on Sunday mornings), but we will try to make it twice a month. We recently found a church that we're really into too (great pastors, friendly people, a nursery/childcare for the kids during church, a feeling of community) so we really want to put some effort into this.


Kids

1) Stop freaking out and yelling at the kids for no reason. I also think this is caused by lack of sleep. So this is another area where accomplishing Personal Goal #1 will help! I just lose it sometimes. I'll be fine. And then Liam will poop in his pants and then roll around/play on the floor (those do not mix well) and will not let me take him to the bathroom. He'll start screaming and kicking. Then Chloe joins in on the screaming. And I lose it. I need to not lose it so much. But it just happens! I absolutely hate yelling in front of the kids. I wonder if more sleep and getting out of the house will help with this too?

2) Get Liam completely toilet trained.  We have been laxly working on this since he turned 2. He will be 3 in a couple of weeks. It's about time we get this thing done. But it's hard. I really don't think he's completely ready yet. But we will keep trying. We're almost there. I think I see Liam sitting on the big boy toilet the light!

3) Love them, love them, love them. I already do this like crazy. But I want to remember to continue to just love them insanely every single day, because I know that time passes by oh too fast.


Home

Oh my, this list could be so much longer. I will never be done with house decorating/repairing/yard work/etc. That's part of the joy of owning a home, right? But here are my top 4 goals at the moment:

1) Finish the stairway/entry.  Now that our stairway is freshly painted I want to try hard to actually finish something in a timely manner! I'd really like to get it decorated and get our artwork and photos back on the walls. Also, I'd like to make new curtains and recover the window seat. And figure out what cool thing to do with the large landing at the top of the stairs (reading nook? storage shelving?)

2) Paint exterior brick and window trim. This has been on our list for the last 2 years. But then kids happened and it just didn't get done. Our house has siding, but there's three feet of 125-year-old brick foundation showing at the base of the house. The paint that's covering it is peeling and there's some tuck pointing work to be done. So in Spring we're hoping to pressure wash/scrape it all and then get it painted. All of the exterior window trim could use a fresh coat of white paint as well.

3) Put grip on our basement stairs. They're wood and they are way too shiny & slippery. I've fallen down them twice. And now with the kiddos being so mobile, I will not let that happen to them. WE hope to paint them (probably a funky color) and put some sort of grip on them. Our current 'scary stairs':

4) Have a garden again. We have a fabulous farmers' market here in town that we love to go to, so we won't go overboard on our garden. But some tomatoes would be nice again, as well as some peas and beans for Liam to pick. And maybe some pumpkins, so the kids can watch them grow and then decorate them come Fall. 


Fun

1) Spend a week straight at our cabin this summer + squeeze in one extra annual trip there. The cabin is heaven on Earth - it's relaxing, fun, rustic and just plain awesome. So we need to spend more time there :)

2) Get away with Matt for a weekend in the Fall or next Winter (if I'm done nursing Chloe by then), hopefully to visit Matt's sister in San Fran. 

3) Get a new raft for the cabin. We budgeted for this, so I just need to make the phone calls and get it done. I can't wait to see Liam jumping off of it and into the lake some day. We're hoping to get one that's similar to this:

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Sorry if this was a super boring post. I wrote it more for myself & Matt so that we can look back at this throughout the year and check every thing off of the list check to see if we accomplished anything. I added a reminder to my calendar at 6 months from now, to check in and see how we're doing:


Wish me luck!

Happy weekend...

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Bustling around

Just a few things that made me smile over the last week and a half...


Both kids napping at the same time!!
That's Chloe's monitor on the left and Liam's video monitor on the right.


My niece playing softball. She made it to first base on this hit, 
then scored a run later on.


My nephew playing in a jazz concert at Fountain Park. 
And Liam dancing to the tunes.


Chloe's first trip to the Farmers Market.


These beauties at the market.


A polka band consisting of high school boys.
(I wonder if they'd play in our backyard for cheap?)


Liam playing outside in some dinosaur underwear. 
Attempting to potty train.


Out for a family walk. A quadruple selfie. Sorry Chloe, can't really see you.


A few love notes from my hubbie left around the house :)


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Monday, July 21, 2014

Seven years in Duet

Matt and I were married seven years ago today. 
Every day I'm thankful to have him by my side.
I look forward to seven more years. 
And seven more after that...


A few photos from the day we vowed to each other "hey, I want to wake up next
to you every day for the rest of my life!" :



Sweet Caroline, you were only seven years old in this photo!



                     
                         







                         


                           


Matt wrote me a sweet little letter, which I read before the ceremony.
                           





Both my mom and Matt's mom had daisies in their wedding bouquets,
so I thought it'd be cool to have some daisies in mine too :)


                       

My mom walked me down the aisle (since my dad was gone already).
I love you mom.







Together. Forever.







Our wedding party.














We gave all of our guests a tree sapling as a gift. 
Many people still have these trees growing in their yards to this day!





This is a good photo to post to represent the 'end' of the reception...


It feels like this was just yesterday...
I love you Matt!


All photos were taken by Lindsey Van Roy Photography. 

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Mr. & Mrs.

I'm a huge fan of putting together gift baskets. I think it's fun to find things that "fit" together when creating a basket. 

Well...my brother got engaged last weekend to his girlfriend Chris (congratulations you two!) so I put together a quick little basket for them today :) 

Somehow, in between nursing Chloe/changing diapers/wiping Liam's booger nose for the 100th time/etc, I found a bit of time to run to the grocery store this afternoon. I got everything I needed in one quick stop. I'm sure I could have found some better things to throw in the basket (had I gone to Target or Shopko) but I did the best I could perusing the grocery aisles...

What's a gift basket without beer and/or liquor?
Beer for my bro. Wine for Chris.

Every future bride needs a couple of these.

I attached some Post Its so she can bookmark things in the magazines that she likes.

Awwwwww.....do you get it???

 I wanted something pink to put in the basket. 
Strawberry yogurt pretzels did the trick.

Chris is a crazy good baker, so i thought it'd be fun to give her a recipe card with
a 'recipe for a happy marriage.' I know...totally corny, right? But seriously, these 
are the little things that Matt and I try to live by in our marriage,  and I wanted to share it with them.

When Matt and I got engaged over 8 years ago my mother-in-law had a little engagement party for
us with Matt's family. She bought these plates and I saved a bunch of them.  I dug a few out of
our 'wedding box' in our closet and stuck them in their basket.

Add a balloon, some heart napkins, etc and you have yourself a quick 
little engagement gift basket.