And the Race is On

What we have been waiting for has finally happened! Almost.

We are moving! Almost.

We have been delaying our move, which should have already happened by now because our moving plan is somewhat wacky. The plan is that my sister, Kelly and her husband Jared, will be purchasing a house in Pueblo, Colorado. This house will need some work, but they are getting a great deal on it because of that. Jared is a high-school teacher in New Mexico right now, where they live. The promotion ladder requires them to stay in NM for another year, at least, but Kelly is planning on attending the Botany program in Pueblo soon. So, the house will be vacant, but they will "technically" be CO residents, therefore giving Kelly a less expensive tuition rate. Now the question became, "what to do with a vacant house?" That's where we come in.

My family is flat broke and would very likely be unable to qualify for an apartment that meets our needs. My mom is extremely frugal and not exactly rolling in the dough, if you know what I mean. However, she manages her money properly and is not exactly under the same duress that my family is in. One of my other sisters, Karee, currently lives with my mom and will continue to do so. She is also looking forward to going to college in Colorado. Put three frugal (whether by choice or circumstances) together add a vacant house and you might infer what the plan is: we will all combine and share Kelly's house (that she's not living in) for as long as it takes. The plan is weak at best, since we are all of different minds and habits, but it is the best choice for now...you can't beat a $500 mortgage split three ways!

So what has happened to warrant this post? Kelly has heard from the realtor and she should be closing within two or three weeks. Then there is some plumbing and a furnace that needs replacing and we will be moving in! My house hasn't sold yet, but my husband was already going to stay behind temporarily because he is in a deployed National Guard unit and won't be able to move until this summer. He will stay behind and finish up the sale of our house. The debate going on is what will happen once he moves to Colorado. Will we get our own apartment or rough it with my mother? What we will have to do, is play it based on the job availability. Kelly's house is in Pueblo, CO and we want to live in Colorado Springs, which is 45 minutes north. If Eric gets a job in Colorado Springs, we will most likely be moving there. If he is unable to find a job there, he will extend his search to the Pueblo area, but Springs is our first choice. Our tentative move date is the tail end of February to the beginning of March, with dental appointments and moving costs complicating things.

Now the objective is to get packed ASAP and to sell (or give away) whatever we won't need. This has become slightly harry because we will be combining two households and there is no need for two living room furniture sets. Our furniture is definitely in BAD shape, so we will be getting rid of most of it (all of it). This leaves a whole in our living room if we do end up getting an apartment of our own, but we will just carefully add to our house what we need slowly. It should be fun!

Over the next three weeks, I need to:

*organize the entire house, decluttering and collecting "like objects" together.

*sell (or list for sale) most of the furniture. We were thinking that we would try to sell things like our children's bedroom sets for very close to what we paid for them and if we don't get what we were asking for, then we will keep them. We would like to be able to purchase bunk beds for them because we will need to rent only a two-bedroom apartment and both bed sets make for a room that is far too crowded.

*pack everything...carefully! Space is at a premium, so I need to be extremely careful about what I choose to pack and how I choose to pack it. I am pretty handicapped when it comes to organizing things spatially, so this is going to take some serious planning on my part. I am employing the use of those vacuum bags for larger items like blankets and whatnot and will probably use them to pack boxes with clothes in them. I am putting away a lot of toys, since I can't give them away anymore.

*cook from my pantry! I have a large store of things in my pantry and I am going to need to organize and declutter that as well.

Blogging will have to move to a back burner, but hopefully I will be able to post pictures and stuff every week or so. I am looking forward to having this move over with!

Whoops!

So, that's what I get when practicing in my blog- a phantom post. I just love looking at Mary's blog and seeing my own link. It makes me feel so special! However, when I popped over today I was surprised to see the post I had deleted. Apparently, if you post anything, the RSS feeder will update, but it isn't updating your blog, it is updating your "posts" so deleting a post didn't register. Oh well.

Must See Movies

I saw this movie on Team Bettendorf's blog and just thought it was amazing!!! It would not be a good thing to preface it too highly, but just know that this movie is an essential movie to watch. I have included a link for both parts 1 & 2, but you can very easily link to part 2 after viewing view 1. It is about a hour total and worth every minute.

Ugh...Antibiotics...

So I have some serious dental work coming up next week. What I thought was a root canal is now an extraction and then I have another root canal on the opposite side. Then (after our move) I will be getting braces to pull my wisdom teeth forward to cover up the gap left by the extraction...what a mess!

Anyway, because my cheeks are tender, they thought I was getting an infection and anxious to keep my mouth as healthy as possible, they decided to blast everything inside me with a week's worth of Clindamycin. Oh, joy. I have only taken one and I am starting to feel nauseous already...next time, I am taking it with crackers! In between doses I am eating yogurt. Any other suggestions on how to not destroy my body while still taking this poison?

My Not Blogging Break

I am not taking a blogging break. I hate it when bloggers that I love take a break and leave me, their loyal reader, without my favorite fix! :) Obviously, I understand that blogging just doesn't come first for some people and, if you twist my arm hard enough, I might even agree that it is wrong to put a blog first, but stop twisting already, I am feeling guilty enough!

The plan that I am hoping to follow is a simple reduction in the time I spend on the computer, reducing it to only TWO HOURS A DAY. Think I can manage it? I don't either, but I have to. For too long, I have been stalking blogs, waiting for them to post something new so I can read it. I have taken to reading archives of my favorite blogs to see what happened before I found them. The problem is, the computer doesn't make for a good multi-tasker, at least not when it comes to housework. Not too long ago, I posted pictures of my perfectly clean house...it's not clean anymore! How pathetic? Can't even last a month? Granted, it is better than before, but not by much...

So, the deal I am making with myself is one hour during naptime and another hour in the evening. I will even splurge and allow myself an extra evening hour if I have everything done. I have a never-ending pile of sewing that I want to sew and yet the computer just absorbs me. It has to stop. I know that I can still enjoy things like TV and blogging, but they have to be in the correct order, they have to come after the productive hobbies.

Well, there you have it. And now on to clean up the living room before hubby comes in for the night!

Developing a Homeschool Curriculum

That new CPSIA law has been on my mind a lot lately and is struck me that I had counted on purchasing at least some of my curriculum secondhand and that I would really need to take homeschooling seriously this year. My previous excuse, “she is still too young for formal schooling” has passed somewhat, or will have passed by this fall. At least in my daughter’s case, she is ready for kindergarten. Now, before the delayed-start people jump down my throat, I assure you, I plan to take this very easy. Yes, I have developed a curriculum and I am planning purchases, but I will not force my daughter to do anything she is not ready to do. The thing is, in our house, I need something formal to sit down and “do.” This gives me guidance and the plan helps me realize that I’m getting everything covered that she would otherwise cover in public school kindergarten, minus the gay sex education and whatever other “playground lessons” she would learn. 

So over the last few days, I have been doing some more research into what I would like to buy and why, what the costs are, what the value of the products are (an expensive math text that I can reuse with each student is better than a middle priced consumable workbook), and so on. I have been looking into methods and curriculums and I have come to the conclusion that homeschooling is largely a trial and error type of thing. There is only so much reading about the curriculum and reading reviews will do. Eventually, you just have to pick one and start it. There are several different programs I love. I love the idea of classical education, particularly The Well Trained Mind. I have always liked this method, from the very beginning. Maybe it is because I latched on to it so early on that giving it up seems like a sacrifice too great to bear or maybe it is actually a good curriculum to follow. Next comes Sonlight. I adore Sonlight. They do all the work for you for planning and prepping and finding all the components of a great curriculum and they are already Biblically based, so unlike WTM, they do have a foundation set. Then there are the two runners up: Charlotte Mason and Tapestry of Grace. I like TOG because it combines a little of the Sonlight (pre-planned curriculum) with the WTM (classical education) plus they are also Biblically based and there is some comfort there. CM seems like a good alternative simply because I know of two different online curriculums that are free using this method. It does seem a little bit like classical education and I think I could get used to it, but it is not my first choice.

So, my "curriculum" for this summer, yes you read that right, is going to be Sonlight's P4/5 Core. I want to try to do this on my own, but Sonlight's book selection and early development handbooks seemed too good to be true, so I am going to try it out and see if it it just perfect for our family. If it is, then I will consider purchasing their Core K this fall. Otherwise, I have selected:

Bible: The Children's Illustrated Bible and the CM Method of Bible Memory

Reading: The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and the Bob Book collection (along with plenty of library visits)

Read-Alouds: I have a very large list from several different sites and will just pull off from that list a week or two at a time. This is truly going to be the bulk of our homeschool time.

Writing: Zaner-Bloser. This font is just soo pretty, but if Jordyn can't handle it, then we'll switch to Handwriting Without Tears.

Math: Saxon K with manipulatives and these wooden pattern blocks. (Yes, this is an optional activity for my daughter...no pressure here. REALLY.)

Science: Everybody Has a Body: Science from Head to Toe and Mudpies to Magnets. (I think Jordyn will like these, but again...they are completely optional)

Other/Character Development: Polished Cornerstones, a character development for young girls, and Hymns for a Kid's Heart (all four sets)

So there you have it! I also plan on getting out of the house weekly. Library trips are a good start and we'll search out other field trips as time and budget allow. I think this is a particularly good start for homeschooling and a good test for me to see how well I'll do with a multi-subject curriculum. I am looking forward to doing all of this and I know that Jordyn is too. If you have any recommendations or cautions, let me know...

Chili Recipe, with Photos!

Okay, so I have a chili recipe that I absolutely love and wanted to share. So, I took pictures of it as I was cooking and thought I'd share them. Here goes:

Recipe:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey

1 small onion (I add a green pepper and some celery)

3 cups water

12 oz. can tomato paste

12 oz. can tomato sauce (I also add a can of petite diced tomatoes)

2- 29 oz. (large) cans kidney beans (I add an extra small can of pinto beans)

4 tbsp. chili powder, this makes a nicely spiced dish. If you REALLY don't like spice, decrease it slightly, but even my kids are okay with it. You can add more chili powder to it (which I like) but it is a lot easier to add spice if you want it and nearly impossible to get it out.

2 tsp. sugar, don't leave it out!

1 tsp. oregano

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

So that is the actual recipe, but as you will see in the pictures, I deviate quite a bit. That is actually one of my favorite parts about it- there are so many ways to change it up if you need/want to.

Step 1:

Chop (dice) onion. I also dice a green pepper and 3 celery stalks, but if you don't have them on hand, no biggie. You might want to experiment with other veggie choices, but these are my normal stand-bys.

Step 2:

Add a tablespoon of coconut (or olive oil or butter) to a large skillet. If I am only using the onion and no other veggies, then I don't take this extra step, I just toss the onions and ground beef in together; it's faster and you get about the same results. It doesn't work as well when you have this many vegetables though. Since I don't always let it simmer all day, it is good to make sure your veggies are already tender.

Step 3:

Saute vegetables until tender.

Step 4:

Add the ground beef. This recipe is really good with fresh ground turkey and if you are a little short in the quantity, it doesn't matter; it's all a matter of personal preference. I have even used a 50-50 mix of turkey and beef before. You couldn't really tell. I imagine that this would work equally well with any ground meat.

Step 5:

Add all the other ingredients to the crockpot, or if you don't use one, a large soup/stock pan. Since I am using canned beans, this is really a quick meal, because you only need to cook it long enough to allow everything to warm up and mesh together (about 30 minutes) or you can let it simmer on low all day long. If you choose to use dry beans, it would probably be best to soak and completely cook them before using t his recipe since I hear tomato products inhibit the bean's ability to rehydrate and cook properly. I like kidney beans, but I am sure this would work well with any other bean. Maybe a pinto/black bean combo would be good. I also normally make this a "bean-heavy" dish, meaning that I double up on the amount of beans I am supposed to have. It stretches this meal even further.

Step 6:

Add drained ground beef to the crockpot and stir to combine everything. You can see the plastic liner I have on my crockpot. I don't always use them, but when they work, they work well. I am not sure how I feel about cooking my food in plastic though...this was my last one and I won't be purchasing them again.

Step 7:

Cook as long as you want. I prepared this at night, after dinner and let it cook on low for a couple of hours. I am going to store it in the fridge tonight and let it reheat in the crock for several hours from lunch until dinner. I take the chance to cook whenever I get it. I easily could have done all this at lunch tomorrow for dinner that same night, but this chili really is better the second day. About 10 minutes before you serve it, mix in the can of tomatoes, I use petite diced.

Step 8:
Serve! We like to eat this with whole wheat saltine crackers. I dip them in, my husband crackes them up and mixes them in. (Which probably decreases the spice a little for him...ketchup is spicy for him...:) ) We also top it with some cheese. This would be a good baked potato filling too. Next time, I am going to try it with pintos and black beans and make a "frito pie" out of it...yummy! This recipe fills my large oval crockpot (I think it's 5 quarts?) so we usually eat it once and then I save a small amount for leftovers and freeze the rest in individual servings. It is really easy to reheat and doesn't lose any flavor!

Simple Woman's Daybook

Yet again, I am not doing this on Monday, but it is really the beginning of the week for me because of my strange schedule. If you like this idea, you can get all the information here.

TODAY IS TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2009.

Outside my window...a storm has been coming and going the last few days. Its frosty and frozen out, but then the sun comes out and melts it. Even though it is after 8:00am, the sun is still struggling to make its presence known.

I am thinking...about making radical lifestyle changes, slowly but surely; starting with a lesser dependence on electricity and working toward Biblical agrarianism.

I am thankful for...my husband. These last few days, he has gone back to his job of installation and it has been a difficult adjustment. He has been struggling and yet he goes and faces the giants every single day. He makes me very proud.

From the kitchen...hmm…consideration about dinner before the dinner hour? I might just make meatloaf, with mashed potatoes and cheese smothered on top of the cooked loaf. I make a double batch and cook it in a 9 x 13 dish so you get equal amount of cheese and meatloaf. This is my mom’s recipe and has lots of BBQ sauce in and on it (the secret to her success). This is one of my husband’s favorite meals and it’s super easy because I can make it ahead of time and just pop it in the fridge to wait for an hour before dinner. Yum…maybe I will post the recipe later!

I am wearing…my PJs…again, still. I plan on getting in the shower in the next few minutes. [Mental note: I need a better plan for the morning…] I will wear my long khaki skirt and a pink tunic shirt. I need to wear extra long shirts with that skirt because I put in a snap-fly and I didn’t do it properly so now it gapes open when I move. Most of my long shirts cover it, but I am looking forward to either losing weight and/or replacing it.

I am creating…my fall and winter wardrobe, still. I have enough material to make a complete wardrobe because my trip to Goodwill did not produce anything for a plus-sized woman. When I am done sewing, I will have 5 dresses, 3 skirts, and a brown corduroy jacket. I also bought material for matching outfits for our family for a nice Christmas picture, which I still haven’t made. Looks like I am going to select a few fabrics and vacuum seal the rest into bags for later storage. (I am getting more “SpaceSaver” bags and cubes for this purpose…I love those things-they are better than plastic storage containers for soft stuff)

I am going…to do some essentials shopping and then cleaning the bathroom and master bedroom, plus laundry…always doing laundry!

I am reading…my King James Bible, in Genesis. I love how this book comes alive for me. I always thought of it as a “boring” book- but I love it this time through!!!

I am praying…for my husband’s strength on the job and that our move will go smoothly. We still don’t have a date when we can move. I praise the Lord that our house has an offer and we are only waiting on our bank to approve the short sale. We are very short on funds and my dd Jordyn has a dentist appointment on the 13th to fix all of her teeth.

I am hearing…the sound of my washing machine spin the clothing. The freezer filling the automatic ice cube tray, the constant noises. Of course, the TV is on, but if it were off, I would still have music playing in the background. I found a new book I want to purchase called Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, which includes a CD of children singing the old hymns. Since I don’t know any of these hymns (except a few of the major ones), I really want to get my kids interested in singing them.

Around the house…the boxes need to be packed, but there is always the question of what to pack ahead of time and how to deal with the boxes once they’ve been packed. We do need to begin to pack in earnest though. Once the bank approves the sale, we will have 20 days to close escrow!

One of my favorite things…is the light from a lantern at night. It is so calming and nice. It really feels restful to walk into a semi-dark room. I could do without those noisy energy safe lights!

A few plans for the week…I plan to get some sewing done, really! I also want to get this house completely cleaned up so that I can be very careful and size-conscious about how I pack, we have a very limited amount of space…. ooh, I also want to prep some of our larger items for sale, like our gi-normous TV entertainment center.

A picture I am sharing...Noah eating snow...and not liking it.

Lantern Light and Laptops

I found a cheap oil lantern and oil at Wal-Mart the other day and my husband filled it up for me this morning. Upon realizing this evening that he had done so, I decided to light it.

I have had a very bad day. Not only was I feeling under the weather (I had a migraine and resulting severe nausea) but, despite the fact that it is Sunday, my husband has returned to his "Friday's off" position and was not at home. To top it all off, I woke up in the middle of the night with a screaming tooth ache. I really need to see a dentist, immediately. [Ironically, it didn't bother me much during the day...] Because I was feeling ill, we stayed home from church and I spend some time reclining in my bedroom while my children "watched TV" in the other room. I put that in quotes because that is what they were supposed to be doing. What they were really doing was playing with my flour. I have a gigantic container of whole wheat flour (probably about 10-15 lbs worth), a 5 lb container of unbleached bread flour, and a smaller container of corn muffin mix (from bulk, maybe about 4 cups worth) stacked right in front of the pantry. They were not inside the pantry because there isn't much room, but if I reorganize it there probably  will be, but I hadn't done it yet. First mistake. Anyway, the kids had dumped in some of the bread flour into the large container of WW flour and then poured a bottle of red juice into it and then added a bag of 6-7 apples and covered it with the rest of the bread flour. Of course, their aim was off and several cups of flour hit my carpeted floor. The entire container of corn bread mix also hit the floor, though a small amount made it to the bucket. My daughter had flour in her hair, that's how I knew that they were up to something. Of course, wonder child that she is, she blamed the whole thing on her brother. I was too upset to deal with them, so I sent them to play in their room while I figured out how I was going to go about salvaging what I could from their cooking disaster.

While they were in their room, they took about half the clothes off the hangers and their bedspreads off the bed. What little toys they have in their room were also in the middle of their room. They helped me straighten that (minimally...remember, my head was throbbing and I had the awful feeling of morning sickness, without the pleasant reminder that I was pregnant...) and I put the TV on again only this time, I was watching with them. They wandered around and started playing again, so I flipped it to something a little more stimulating for my adult brain. One can only take so much Dora. It was around this time that they dumped a cup of water onto my bedroom floor (also carpet) but I didn't realize it until several hours later when I stepped on the soggy animal cracker that was also dropped. They also stole and ate an entire can (small) of almonds. I was ready for naptime by now. I got out those Uncrustable sandwiches (you know the frozen PBJ sandwiches...how much more convenient can you get than frozen PBJ...you don't even have to slather on the PB, just open a plastic wrapper...all for the low low price of...nevermind, they are ridiculously expensive and only about half a sandwich, plus they are on white glue, errr bread, but the kids like them and they are a special treat). Then it was naptime.

After naptime, I was feeling slightly less nauseous but my head was killing me worse than ever. I rested in my room again. I don't know why because it didn't work the first time, but the kids are usually more interesting in the afternoon TV programming, so I thought it would just work until the medicine I had finally resorted to taking kicked in. (Mind you, I'm still in my PJs). That is about when I realized that my son had my bottle of Febreeze and had succeeded in spraying it all over the place, the hall carpet was literally soaked, there was a pool on one of the chairs (thankfully, wood chair), he "washed" one of the apples in it and then headed to his room. After covering that room in lavender fragrance, he headed into my room which is where I intercepted him. There were a million different times where I stopped a child from doing something they shouldn't have, so I suppose I should rejoice  that it could have been worse.

So, to get to the actual point of why I am writing this...in the evening, I realized that my husband had filled up the oil lantern and the kids were curious what it was all about, so I read the instructions and lit the wick. After enjoying the warm light for about 20 minutes, I told them that we had to turn it off because the living room was too dirty. So, I flipped on the lights, blew out the flame and began to clean the living room. For the first time all day, the kids and I actually worked together. Jordyn and I had done some laundry, she was very excited to get to be the one that actually switched on the machine and put the soap in it. (Hmm...I think I see a daily chore here...). While that was running, we picked up the million different random things that were laying around and the kids did fairly well as "go-fers" and we had it all picked up and vacuumed before they tired of the game. I didn't pick on them when Jordyn decided that she was some sort of animal so every time I told her to put something somewhere, she carried it with her teeth (ouch!) while crawling on hands and knees. I just allowed them to help out whenever they came back into the room and I had a steady supply of things for them to run and do.

Finally, we gathered the candles out of Mommy's room (I love candles) and we put the lantern on the coffee table in the living room and we went around the house turning off the lights. It was late, so the kids didn't get to enjoy the candle light too much, but they still had fun. Now, here I am, sitting on my couch with my coffee table full of candles and one oil lantern, while I type away on my laptop. What a juxtaposition. I remember seeing that exact same thing on one of my favorite blogs, Lentils and Rice. She is taking a blogging break right now otherwise I would link to the post I am talking about. I think I could really get used to this type of lighting. It probably isn't as cheap as a battery-powered flashlight and it definitely isn't as poweful or bright, but I am thinking that in the evenings, when I want to wind down and when I want the kids to wind down, a little lantern glow and the wonderful flickering flames of candles might just be the ticket. I love it.

The lantern and oil combined cost less than $10.00 and the amount of oil I got will last for a long time. I will be doing this again, definitely. Totally worth it!!! Now, I may look into some nice beeswax candles. What a relaxing tone to set for the evenings and a wonderfully peaceful way to end this crazy day.

Am I the only one who cares about communication?

Not having seen a healthy Christian relationship work...ever...I am a bit at a loss to know exactly how husbands and wives are supposed to relate to one another. I LOVE talking. It is how I process my thoughts and feelings and how I get close to another person. It is my "sex" if that is okay to say. The thing is, the person I want to talk to more than anyone else (my spouse) is not a talker.

How to I negotiate this? How do I "get all my words out" and still submit to his authority? Is my desire to discuss all my future hopes and dreams really my own assertions that he can't do the job properly, my way of taking back some control? Or is this just a need that should be met by my husband? Am I being selfish? I definitely can't trust the world's view on this and even in some Christian circles the male/female relationships have gotten convoluted. 

I have been reading some good blogs lately and like I posted in the previous post, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the Christian Agrarian lifestyle and the community that can follow (or does follow if you live in Santa Anna, TX). [See Biblical Agrarianism and Lazarus Unbound and my personal favorite Country Mom, whose blog I follow on my sidebar] These issues that I keep mulling over are the ones that I so desperately want to discuss with the one person that can truly impact these decisions, my husband. He does allow me to talk about them, but the discussion is usually one-sided because he doesn't have any new information to add. It is always a sermon; me giving away information and not knowing how to ask for any reciprocation. I can't jump into this lifestyle on my own besides being completely impractical, it feels out of the bounds of womanly submission. I know that once Eric gets into this stuff, I think he will really like it (which scares me a little bit too!) because he has never been a "city boy."

Argghhh!!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Do I just stay silent, on my knees waiting for the Lord to move in my husband? How much do I say, when do I say it? Ladies, please just pray for discernment on my part. I tend to focus on other people so much (and their flaws...if only he would change...) that I miss what the Lord is trying to show me. Perhaps He is showing me that I should run to Him for discussion on these topics and trust that Eric will be moved in the direction the Lord wants us to go.

Thinking...

I am beginning to think that thinking is a dangerous thing to think about! ;)

So many thoughts have been swirling through that murky brain of mine lately that I hardly know which way to turn. Thoughts on headcovering, seperatism, blogs, homeschooling, agrarianism, moving to Colorado, reading, Bible study, how to spend time with your husband, do my kids know that I love them...I mean really know, baking, sewing, writing...it all intermingles into one gigantic pile of mush and I just can't sort it all out. 

This is why women should not rule the world.

Anyway, lately (when I am not thinking about one of those previously mentioned topics) I have been thinking about conquering sin and how that relates to change. That was sort of the point I was trying to make in the last post but the fuzzy brain had taken over. I'm mulling it over and studying the Bible more than ever...it's a good thing, too.

Hope your New Year is looking bright!

Happy New Year!!!

I rarely make New Year's resolutions...okay, so I mention the million different things I would like to change and I may even make up a very pretty chart detailing how I am going to change...and I am done changing by January 2nd! This year, I am doing things a little differently.

I am setting goals, which isn't the different part. I want to lose a significant amount of weight (60-70 pounds by this summer and I want to begin to try to get pregnant upon reaching a sustainable weight (170 pounds). I figure that I can get pretty close, losing about 10 pounds a month for 6 months...and I'll be at 170 around March or April. I always bite off more than I can chew, so these are the steps I am going to travel to get there (I will be posting this to my other website, FISH, Finally I'm Seeking Health later):

Jan: drink 8 glasses of water/day

eat one serving raw veggies and one raw fruit/day

workout with husband Mon-Sat at the gym for one hour. This is just about the only "quality time" we get- looking forward to it!

Feb: look for new recipes especially for vegetables

institute a vegetarian night

find time during the day for a small workout (ie. walk with kids, trampoline...)

Mar: add another vegetarian night

try new foods

change the workout routine, add a new exercise

look back and see how far I've come and how good I feel

Apr: begin to choose organic food

look for ways to work more in the home, cleaning thoroughly as exercise (gardening too!)

May: try something new

buy new clothes

June: congratulate myself with a dress form in my new size!

The other thing I have decided to do is to cover my head for the month of January. I already have covers and the thing is, I just haven't found enough proof to feel like I shouldn't do it. I keep telling myself it's not necessary, but why do I keep coming back to it? It doesn't take much, it doesn't hurt, it helps keep my hair out of my face (which is something I can't stand anyway!) So, my goal is to attempt it for a solid month and re-evaluate from there.

Other random things:

-I want to create a reading list, which I will post on the blog, with the assorted books I want to read this year. I will probably only pick about 20, even though I know I can read more than that

-I want to continue writing my novel(s). They are fun to write.

-I recently began a journal for my son and daughter and I want to "back-date" them with information from their younger years.

-I want to become a more proficient seamstress. I love sewing.

See, no resolutions here! :) 

Look for more posts soon, my daughter has been ill and I think I might be getting a little bit of it- the head feels very fuzzy right now, just no mental clarity or ability to think or concentrate.