Goodbye 2008...

I can't say that I'm too heartbroken to see this year come to an end, it was one of those hard, wear you out, test your strength, and grow in wisdom years. One of those years that are so necessary for the refinement of our souls but are so heartbreaking and consuming. However, amongst the trials there are always blessings...my 2008 blessings:

blessed by a happy soul

blessed by a perfect 6th birthday

blessed by a mother/daughter weekend!

blessed with a new niece!

blessed by our freedom

blessed by joyful moments

and carefree moments

blessed with sweet fellowship

blessed with a new sister

blessed with the new ages and stages of life

blessed with a rock solid, God fearing husband

and finally we were blessed with indescribable love

and the blessing of countless others whose images I did not use b/c I didn't have expressed permission!

Resolution update

So week one of my resolutions:
To read a complete list of my resolutions click here.

My Bible Study: I have not improved in this area this week. It is really depressing and I need to just do it. It seems as if we are so busy, I learned a really great acronym for busy this week: being under satan's yoke. If we are too busy to stop and spend time with God it is all for naught. On top of that, I only have my children in my care for such a short time, in no time at all they are grown and gone. What impact am I leaving on them. This week will be better.

My finances: So this month I have started couponing. I did really well at CVS and at Wal-Greens at both places I bought 70 dollars worth of merchandise for $32.00. I hope to get this down even further as I learn more tricks. As an added bonus, couponing has led me to focus more on others. For example, I had a buy one get one free coupon for sugar free candy. I don't eat sugar free, but my husband's grandparents are diabetic. So I picked up the bags to send to them for Valentine's Day. Also I had a $20 off coupon for a new dia.betic bl.ood monitor, we are not diabetic but I picked it up to pass along to someone who did need it. That was an added bonus that I just didn't expect.

My Diet and Exercise: We did our circuit training twice this week. Next week I want to add another day to this. I have not had a Dr. Pepper this week and yesterday was the hardest day of all trying to not crave it. Slightly sweetened iced teas have helped but that isn't helping me reduce white sugar in my life. I have been diligently working on my sour dough spelt bread. I should be able to bake it tomorrow.

My Home: Uhh, yeah we will try again on this one next week.

My Marriage: This one isn't really hard as hubby and I have a pretty solid marriage, but yesterday I did ask him if there was something he wanted done and ashamedly it did not get done.

My Children: We are focusing on not whining with the little ones this week and good attitudes with the big ones. It isn't really that big of a deal around here, but occasionally it is nice to really crack down when it seems as if it is getting out of control. ALSO my dear little 2 year old is POTTY TRAINED!! We did get that accomplished this week! Yippee.

Next week is a new beginning to try again. What are you working on?

Lest I forget finances...and other ramblings

I posted my resolutions for 2008 and did not even mention one utterance of money. Hmmm....ostrich in the sand - maybe. No but seriously my goals for 2008 are to pay off our travel trailer and to replenish our savings that were depleted from the year in the valley (otherwise known as 2007). One day I will post about the year in the valley, but we need to get out of it first. Every time I think about writing about it my stomach hurts, but we learned some very poignant things this year, not the least of which is being transparent. Anyway, more on that later. We just finished out 2007 taxes and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At least it is done - Yippee!

New years resolutions...

So, I told you all that I was starting my new year's resolutions today. When I evaluate my life there always seems to be so much to learn, but the good thing is that if we work hard we can get much accomplished in a day. It always surprises me what a good day with great effort can accomplish. So without further adieu, my 2008 resolutions, 3 weeks late:

My Home:

I want my home to be a haven so I'm purposing to do one thing each week to make it more of a haven.

I want my home to be more efficient, so I'm purposing to do one thing this week to make my home more efficient.

My Bible Study:

I want my soul to crave God more and more each passing day. So I'm trying to read at least 4 chapters a day as well as MAKE time to do our devo each time with the kids (it embarrasses me that this is still a resolution, it should be a way of life!)

I want to improve my prayer life and make it more meaningful conversation and not a wish list or as my bestest friend says, "God is not a vending machine!"

My Diet and Exercise:

I want to lose weight so we have done some kid friendly circuit training.

I want to eat healthy. I REALLY want to extract white flour and white sugar from our diets. I think that they are the enemy of good health. I have given up Dr. Pepper, oh 2 days ago - so I'll let you know how I am doing. Right now I'm working on a spelt flour sour dough starter. If it turns out well I will let you know.

My Marriage:

I want to purpose to love my husband more each year. This is the same resolution every year, not because it doesn't happen but because we can all continue to die to self and live more to serve. I want to put into practice to ask him daily if there is anything that I can do for him that day and put it at the top of my list for that day.

My Children:

I want to continue to train them so they were able to grow as Jesus did:
Luke 2:52
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.


So those are my resolutions for this year. Each Friday I will let you know how we are doing. What are your main resolutions for this year?