Tagged!

Joyce tagged me in a 7 Random Things Meme...I decided I better get my randomness out there before I forget! Here's the rules:
Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog
Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
1) I seem to have no nose nerves. I don't remember having them! It's great for changing poopy diapers and gassy husbands but not so great when you have a gas stove.
2) I got bit by a dog in high school. I got bit in the face. Consequently I had stitches on the bridge of my nose, but I have scars in my mouth, in my nose and under my nose too.
3) I wear a lot of skirts to church w/crazy long socks. I don't like to wear my shoes during worship and plus, if I work in the nursery we can't wear shoes anyway. I love socks and used to wear tights but I'm too old for that now I think. Anyway - socks work in whatever weather!
4) I dated 4 Jasons. In a row. I married a Dave.
5) I used to eat Cheerios every single day. Every. Single. Day. You think you know what I mean but maybe you don't. I am 31 years old and I can probably count the days when I didn't eat Cheerios. Sometimes my mom would make oatmeal. Sometimes on vacations I suffered through Rice Krispies. And once my mom tried to buy Oatios or whatever but I think I gagged. Not only did I eat Cheerios every day, I dunked them first. I was a little AR about dunking them! So much so that people noticed and commented. I'm just weird.
6) The high school I went to had 2 different schools in the same building. We had 2 sports teams, 2 sets of clubs, 2 offices, 2 cafeterias...etc. But our classes could be on either side w/a mix of kids. So of course I had friends from both schools! Which was weird b/c graduations are separate and for 25 years we played each other for homecoming. The other thing is there was one band. Yeah - at the homecoming show we tried to cheer for our separate teams but look unified as a band. There were so many lectures against showing any signs of which school we went to, you would think we worked for the UN or something!
7) Totally random. I can't find my bottle of the best hand lotion...well, not that random I guess. You all already know I'm a clutterbug! My MIL got this hand lotion when she went to the Holy Land and I love it - really love it! I don't use much lotion anymore and I always grumble about how they don't work and this stuff is so awesome...it works really well! Ahava. That's what the bottle says. I know it's in one of my many bags I use, but I can't seem to find it. Anyway. Random. I will find it. But if you ever get a chance to use some or buy some, I strongly recommend it!
Now for the lucky seven...(I have 8!!)
Tracy
Amy
Aimee
Jenni
Revka
Holly
Sam
Dawn
Wild card - anyone else reading want to join in? Leave a comment and direct us to your blog...
I don't have time to go comment to those peopleI named right now, but I will do it. If you are one of those people - sorry I didn't get to it yet! But I'm looking forward to your randomness =) Enjoy!

The big one

Well, I have not been ignoring the 'resolutions list' or whatever I called it. I've given it a lot of thought and not had much time to blog. But I did come up w/a yearly goal...something I have talked about a bunch lately, so it was right in front of me and I was kind of avoiding it. This goal could apply to so many areas of our life right now!! Drum roll please.....

Discipline

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What a long strange trip it's been

"You're sick of hangin' around and you'd like to travel;
Get tired of travelin' and you want to settle down.
I guess they cant revoke your soul for tryin',
Get out of the door and light out and look all around."

Ok I know that song is about drugs or whatever but sometimes the lyrics stick. We have been w/o internet for a while now and it's back! I have all these posts I have written in my head...I guess I could have written them on Word or whatever and then just posted them, but I didn't. So! Hopefully I can crank out a few in the next few days. The biggest thing going on around here is COLD winter fun! We've had some bitter (regular temps 10 below zero!!) cold days and it's been mildly cold the past few. It sounds like the bitter temps are coming back...but anyway! The past few days we have gone outside to blow bubbles, check on the concrete animals at the neighbors, and climb the 'mountains' of snow plowed up against the fence at Dave's school. Do you see this poor deer? Moses was concerned that he couldn't see...nevermind the fact that he's almost totally buried!!! I like how his tail peeks out...
The other fun thing we found was these snow boulder sculptures! There's got to be at least a dozen of them around their driveway! We all laughed at them...


Tomorrow we are going to the winter farmer's market (can't wait for those farm fresh eggs!), swimming and then to a professional soccer game! That was my Christmas present to Dave and Moses. I can't wait to see Mo's face when he sees all the kicks and stuff! I remember going w/my family and one of my brother's friend's family when I was younger. They had 5 boys and then there was my brother so I tagged along on a lot of sporting events over the years! I remember taking homemade popcorn in brown grocery bags to the soccer games and getting excited when the soccer-ball-head mascot would come around...I'm sort of excited to go w/my kid now...I know he's a little young yet but if you know him, you know he loves to cheer! Any time we watch football of any kind he comes running from the other room yelling, "Yeah!!! Go PACKERS!!! Good job guys! Nice tackle!!!" It doesn't matter who is playing or if they even actually are tackling! We laugh...but he really does like to cheer =) The only negative thing he says he learned from me - "Cut your hair!" I can't stand seeing those guys w/these long locks hanging out of their helmets - either they really want to conceal their name and number or they must have stock in hair care products! Well, now I've rambled...ah it's good to be back! I promise a more serious post w/details before the weekend is over! Hope all is well in everyone else's corner...

LISTMANIA

Now that I admitted to being a list maker, I probably will be inundating you all w/some lists! One of the things I really want to do in the New Year is to make more stuff from scratch. There are some things that we eat a lot of and I wonder if I could make a healthier alternative. Here's a list!
-English muffins (we have a bread maker - could it be that hard??)
- ice cream (check! Mo got an ice cream ball for his 3rd birthday! We love it....)
- cereal (made granola. Not as exciting as say, Kashi's blueberry oatmeal clusters...and we already eat oatmeal, eggs, pancakes...)
- Alfredo sauce (I think I found a recipe for this using powdered milk...gotta try that...)
- tortillas (I have recipes for this too, but I'm afraid they will all turn out really thick! Guess I just gotta get over that.)
- refried beans (I know, it's easy. I saw a recipe w/lard *shudder* and I refuse to do that. So I'll try it w/o that...)
- peanut butter and honey (not exactly something we can make at home, but the boys eat a ton of it!!)
- eggs (ok, yeah, maybe someday we'll have chickens...???)
Hmmm....there's probably more. We already make a bunch of stuff from scratch, like sloppy joe/taco seasoning, pizza crust, sauce,laundry soap, dishwasher soap, etc but there's just some things I haven't been brave enough to try yet. If you have any ideas or recipes, please let me know! What do you make from scratch? I'm interested if there's other stuff I haven't thought of yet...

Resolve to revise

Well, I had a day to think about the goals...so here's a few revisions/additions...
Daily:
1 Read the Bible.
2 Drink more water!
3 Don't eat after 8pm.
4 Eat more fruits and veggies.
5 Speak with respect to each other.
6 Put away our clothes.
7 Put away our 'toys' (even adults have 'toys'!).
8 Wash the dishes.
9 Brush teeth 3x a day.
10 Watch less than 65 minutes of TV. (I admit this one is hard for me!)
11 Create something.
12 Eat 6 meatless dinners. (This one was supposed to go in the monthly part...and we're upping it to 12.)
13 Get to bed by 9, 9:30pm at the latest!
14 Take at least 10 mins to log praise and prayer reports, and praying w/Mo doesn't count!
15 Add at least one more item to the 'give to a thrift store' bin.
16 Ask Mo to pray before at least one meal. He can and he will but we just forget to ask!
17 Daily routine for everyone should be completed by 8:30-9am!
18 Practice a Bible verse before nap.
19 Eat dinner together as a family.
20 Dust something.
21 Try to cut down on words we don't want our kids to repeat. Ok, we don't use four letter words, but things like crap and stupid. We both have our replacement words like that...
22 Fold laundry.
23 (9 left. I can't believe this is so hard!)

Monthly:
1 Stick to the budget.
2 Exercise more (3x a week?/20 miles a month).
3 Have a date night, family outing, women's outing and men's outing.
4 Give. (Charitably - of our money, time, and not just the usual missionaries - beyond that.)
5 Read an educational book.
6 Write a goals update post on the blog.
7 Eat 12 meatless dinners.
8 Complete one sewing project. (Ok that's more for me and not the whole fam!)
9 Write 4 actual letters to people like my grandparents, friends who live out of state or just people we don't talk to much. (PS - have I mentioned my penpal from 4th grade on here yet?? Yeah, we still write, just not very often...and now we live closer! Like 5 hrs away...we really should try to get together at least twice a year! Cecilia, if you are reading this...I am working on a letter!)
10 (oooh just 3 more!!)

Year:
Still not sure on this one.
Ok, I think that's all I have for now...I need to go back to folding laundry!

And the beat goes on

I just have to write this post, more for me to remember than anything else, but it's exciting and fun to share! Our foster son has been w/us for 3 months now and he is 16 months old. He is really developing quickly, learning new words and 'tricks' almost every day! I taught him his first official word - football. But he says it like this - 'fot bawl'! He says CHEESE (for the camera!), up, no (of course), hot, hat, si' down, and a few other things that seem close but are probably not really words yet. He signs milk, please, more and all done. Apparently, from watching Mo he now play sleeps, making these loud snoring sounds and laying his head on a blanket! It's sooo funny, I need to take a video of that =) He loves to play chase and dance...if I haven't said it already he is a really easy kid. His last 4 teeth are coming in!!! There are 3 visible and the 4th has yet to pop out. He really isn't too crabby about it...I thought today about how sad I felt not having a baby book for him. Sometimes I ask myself if that would happen if he was just my own kid, my 2nd, that's natural...or did I just not think of it b/c he's a foster kid? Today I am reflecting on it a little bit more...we were under the impression that he would be back w/his mom by now and he's not. Enough said about that - but please pray about the situation. The other reason I'm thinking of it today is b/c we got a message about another foster kid...I left a message for the SW hoping to get more details tomorrow. So far all we know is that it is a much older child...we'll pray about it when we know more, I guess, and see if it would be a good fit for our family. But anyway - I just think about having more kids and how much we wanted that and how much I want to remember, even if they get back w/their families, how much I want to remember the sounds of kids (plural!) in this house and all the goofy things they say or do. So I guess I should start a notebook (like yours Mom!) and just write little notes when I can. I think it would be ok to write some things on the blog, but not that much...anyway - sorry to blurb all this out there....now you know and you can pray for us! We appreciate that!! Moses knows how many people were praying for him before he came, he loves to hear that Al W. prayed for him by name at worship team practice, and we tell him how many people still pray for him! I know those same people pray for our foster kids too...thank you. It means so much to us =) Ok, before I cry I need to wrap this up...looking forward to adding a few more details (and maybe another foster child?) tomorrow!

True Confessions: I make a lot of lists!

If you didn't already know, I am a list-maker. An obsessive list maker. They are all over my house!! I keep thinking that we should put up a list of resolutions or whatever...things we want to work on. I know that if we write them out and post them, we are more likely to actually do them! So...I read somewhere (sorry I don't remember where!) about making 31 daily goals, 12 monthly goals and 1 goal for the year. I know that sounds weird but I thought I'd just start typing and see what comes out.
Daily:
1 Read the Bible.
2 Drink more water!
3 Don't eat after 8pm.
4 Eat more fruits and veggies.
5 Speak with respect to each other.
6 Put away our clothes.
7 Put away our 'toys' (even adults have 'toys'!).
8 Wash the dishes.
9 Brush teeth 3x a day.
10 Watch less than 65 minutes of TV. (I admit this one is hard for me!)
11 Create something.
12 Eat 6 meatless dinners.
13 Get to bed by 9, 9:30pm at the latest!

Monthly:
1 Stick to the budget.
2 Exercise more (3x a week?/20 miles a month).
3 Have a date night, family outing, women's outing and men's outing.
4 Give.
5 Read an educational book.
6 Write a goals update post on the blog.

Year:
WOW - this is harder than I thought...I think that lately I have been trying to 'upgrade' our eating habits. When I make a random list about things we want to change this year, things like continuing to keep HFCS out of our house, eliminate convenience foods, eat out less, eat more whole grains, etc keep coming up. Another thing our family has been talking more about is what we, as Christians, should really be doing in this world. The first book of James, our new pastor's current sermon series and just some thoughts about how we are living the good life and able to make others' better are affecting some decisions in this house. So I don't know that I could really make a single goal right now.
I guess I need to come back to this list and add to it obviously....
Do you make resolutions or goals? Any suggestions? What would your goal for the year be?