New Year, New goals

Normally I would be tempted to go over the whole year with pictures and descriptions...but I think my Facebook page does a pretty good job of that, and there are so many pictures that would take awhile.  So I will do a grown up thing and put my goals for the year on this public blog, so that I can reference them and be more accountable.

1.  Eat healthier
How you may ask? Eliminate fast food and foo foo coffee.  And chocolate.  Pack my lunches and snacks for work.

2.  Meal plan
On the weekends I plan to plan ahead for the week ahead meals.  My goal is to stick to at least 5 planned dinners a week...the other two can be more spontaneous or leftovers.  I will try and plan for 7 though.  I need to plan some freezer meals and some crock pot meals and I am hoping to get a little of this out of the way this week before I go back to work on the 6th.

3.  Read more.  The last 2 years or so I haven't been reading as much.  I've been stressed and exhausted.  I'm not sure why...but I think reading helps my stress level so I am going to try and read more and Facebook less.

4.  Plan real adult interaction
How you may ask?  Call and/or email friends and set up more time with them, movie dates, coffee dates, play dates, whatever.  I miss talking to my friends

5.  Get back into Bible study.
How: I hope to go to one that I have been invited to but haven't made it to yet.  Hopefully my kids' schedules this winter and Spring will allow it.

6.  "File it, don't pile it" my grandma always said this and even gave me a boook with handwritten tips and poems when I got married.  I need to follow this advice more and teach it to my kids.  It is tempting to throw the mail down on the desk as well as my purse and my jacket.  I would like it to be autom atic that we all hang up and put away our things when coming home without having to be reminded.

I hope everyone has a blessed year!

Painting the interior of our new home

I started painting the downstairs during Christmas break last year and finished up over the summer.  It took many hours especially with all of the different colors that we used.  I am happy with the results!  I do still have some minor touch up's to do on the ceilings.

We bought most of the paint at Home Depot

Allie chose the colors and the color the chalk board paint for her room

here I was testing the red in the kitchen

The breakfast nook was almost done here

Here the breakfast nook is completed

Kitchen cabinet area completed.  The beams were the hardest part and keeping the three colors separate, yikes

view of the kitchen from the front entryway hallway

Kaylee chose BRIGHT colors for her Tween room

Bye, bye summer 2013

We had a great summer.  But it is over, and now we are back to school, rain, back to work, and back to busy schedules.

Here I will highlight some of the things we did this summer. We took a couple of trips to the beach, played in the sand and ate at Mo's.  We camped at the beach and near lakes in our new tent trailer.  For Sports, Allie tried out swim team and loved it!  Kaylee will join her next year, she was hesitant this year and by the middle of the summer she wanted to join.  The girls did gymnastics in June and July and we took August off from All sports.  We did go to Family camp at Triangle Lake in August and Kaylee went to Tadmor with her friend Sam.   I spent most of the summer organizing, cleaning, canning and preparing and cleaning up after the camping trips and summer fun.  OH and most importantly, Allie accepted Jesus at church soccer camp in August, and was baptized a couple weeks later at the park when we had "church at the park."