Wednesday Hodgepodge

Finally joining Joyce's Wednesday Hodge Podge.  Here are her questions this week:

1. Will you watch the Super Bowl? If so who will you root for? If you are outside the USA what is the 'big deal sporting event' in your own country?   We'll probably watch this year.  It will be like watching a Super Bowl rerun or highlight clip from the 70's.  Steelers and the Pack!  How cool is that?  It'd be cooler if it was Steelers and Falcons but ... oh well.  Who will I root for?  Hmmm...I don't really care but it might be easier to swallow our (the Falcons') defeat if we lost to the guys who win it all.... so I guess I'm cheering for Packers.

2. Is ignorance bliss?  I'm going with ... sometimes Yes?  But I don't know, really.  There are definitely some things I would rather I didn't know and there are some things that I am glad I know about because, otherwise, how would you be able to help if you didn't know about it?  Am I being too ambiguous?

3. Which of the seven dwarfs are you? (and just in case your Disney is a little bit rusty, here they are-Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy)  I think I'm all but Sneezy.   Bashful is afraid to speak up and sometimes I feel the same way.   Doc stumbles over his words - so do I.  Dopey is sweet and lovable but a little slow - me again.  Grumpy - well, I can be too.  Happy - this is me most of the time!  And Sleepy - goodness knows I could use a nap!  

4. When you are riding in the car with another couple how do you organize the seating? (Men up front? Women up front? Couples sit together?) And thanks to Lori at Mountain Woman at Heart for the question! Everyone go say hi to Lori.  Depends on who we're with.  Most of the time it's couples but occasionally it's men up front and women in back.  It's rare that we're in the car with another couple, though.

5. What is beauty?  Everything.   No, not everything.   There are a lot of ugly things too (this could be a reference to question #2) but beauty is almost everywhere.  It doesn't need to be defined ... just found.

6. If someone asks you to bring an appetizer or a dessert to a party in their home, which would you choose?  I usually choose dessert.

7. What is your crowd pleasing go-to appetizer?  Gosh!  I wish I had one.  Cheese dip?  Can't go wrong with cheese.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  I sent Brian a link to Ann Voskamp's post today and he sent me this in reply.  Tissue warning!  And, by-the-way, He was 26 and I was 21 when we got engaged but we still got the "you're too young" comment from one or two people.

Law of Averages

I'm bored.  January Blahs.  Blech!  Patooey!  Rain and clouds, meh.  

I've been feeling less than stellar over the last couple days.   January started out so promising.  But I get easily discouraged and I'm horribly impatient.  

I feel like I am mediocre.  Average.  Sometimes a little less than average. 

I often feel overwhelmed at the amount of knowledge or talent or charm that I do NOT possess.  Like it is the Kilimanjaro of a learning curve and all I'm equipped to climb with is a pair of flip-flops and a water bottle.  

That won't get me very far.

But there are days where I feel I can DO more, BE more than I am even capable of imagining.   That God has great BIG gnarly plans for me.

Today just isn't one of them.   *fizzle*

This feeling will go away though.  Soon enough.  It's good to know that it's just the January Blahs that I'm feeling and that it isn't permanent.  I need sunshine and to get out of the house.  

It helps that I've spent so much time with friends lately.   I had coffee and went to IKEA with my friend Callie on Thursday.  I met Elisha for lunch on Friday.   Kristie came over for a few hours on Monday.  On Friday I'll go over to Callie's house for "Muffins and Makeovers"!  *can't wait!*   And Saturday night I have a "girl date" with Kristin!  Don't know what we'll do yet but it won't matter 'cause just sitting in a parking lot eating  a hamburger with Kristin would be fun!   Now I just need to figure out how to get all these gals together in one place now and then and throw in some of my other favorite girls into the mix!  I foresee a girls' getaway in my future.  

But I will try to do more with this here blog or Shana will pinch me again to get working on it from 10,000 miles away!   Love you, lady!   LOTS  and   LOTS!!!

All these mediocre pictures were taken in the last 14 days.  Enh.  *1/2 shoulder shrug*

Maybe I Should Break Out My Skates

Here's what it's been like down south, y'all.  Sunday night we had a neighbor go downhill skiing in front of our house and yesterday this was recorded in Midtown Atlanta.

Peachtree St. Ice Rink in Midtown from A.Nendel on Vimeo.

Ten on Ten - 01/11

Ugh.  I had such a horrible time getting my exposure right today.  I kept fogging up the viewfinder and couldn't see what I was doing!  Oh well.  Here's what I got when my hands weren't frozen.

7:30

We woke up to this:  6 inches of snow in the ATL.

More than I've seen here since 1993.

8:30

Breakfast included hot chocolate

9:30

Out to play just as soon as we could get bundled up

10:30

Boys from neighborhood climbing the hill in front of our house

It makes for an excellent ski slope ... if only you have the right equipment.

We only have pool toys and laundry baskets and they don't work so well.

11:30

I stepped out on the porch for a brief moment for this one

12:30

After my 2.27 mile run in my new sneaks (on the treadmill... inside... where it's warm and dry)

1:30

What can I say?

She always makes it in here somewhere; she's an easy subject.

2:30

Brrrr!

Only out for about 6 minutes but came back in frozen and having flashbacks from my childhood in Detroit.
This wasn't typical soft snow.  I had to punch my feet through the layer of ice on top with each step.
*Pop! Crunch!  Pop!  Crunch!*

3:30

Four-wheel drives don't work on ice, dude.
This looks like slush but it's frozen solid and jagged; if you had run your hand along it you might have cut yourself.

He didn't make it any further than 1/2 way up the hill before he put it in reverse and tried another way - 

an even more steep hill.  Wonder if he ever made it out of the neighborhood?

4:30

Daddy's home, too.

Time for video games

  

5:30

Lasagna!

I Need Structure

Today, on Facebook, I said, "I'm wearing my new daily schedule like Spanx!  It's helping me slim down and manage my minutes like a corset would suck in my lumps!"   I had several friends ask me to share my schedule and, at the risk of boring you all to pieces, I'll go ahead and do it.

In the past I've tried making kind of a general schedule for myself that looked something like this:

Monday - laundry

Tuesday - bathrooms

Wednesday - bedrooms

Thursday - kitchen/living room/dining room

Friday - floors

But that wasn't enough for me.  Instead I would end up wasting hours on end playing on the computer.  I've said many times that I felt like when I spend time on myself doing something like exercising that I didn't have enough time to clean house.  And when I spent time cleaning house that somehow I didn't have time for exercise.  And I was always leaving a daily time of Bible reading out.

I've had very sweet friends say that your devotional time should be the very first thing you do when you wake up and that you just have to suck it up and wake up long before the kids are up to get it done.  I am not a morning person.  Not that I'm making excuses because "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength", ... right?  Well, it just never happened.  But spending time with my God is important enough for me to make sure that it gets done.  And, for me, that means making a realistic schedule for myself and prioritizing that time with Him.  I also need to make sure I'm taking time to exercise and to clean house and well,... read my Goals post for more of what I want to accomplish.  So, here's what I came up with last week and it's working like a charm!

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays look roughly the same:

6-7a - Get kids ready for school
7-7:30 - Quiet Time/Bible reading
7:30 - 8 - exercise
8 - 8:30 - shower/get dressed
8:30 - 9 - eat breakfast/facebook (yes!  I'm scheduling in facebook.  If I don't limit my time it will take over)
9 - 10:30 - laundry/clean bedrooms/clean floors (depending on the day)
10:30 - 12 - work on a project from my list
12 - 1p - lunch
1 - 1:30 - time with Landon
1:30 - 2:30 - computer (blog reading or whatever - again this way I'm limiting my time)
2:30 - 3 - time with Parker (homework/talking about his day)
3 - 3:30 - time with Cameron (homework/talking about his day)
3:30 - 4 - time with Anna (homework/talking about her day/play)
4 - 5:30 - read/quilt/edit pictures (just whatever I feel like doing - the other day it was playing video games with the kids)
5:30 - 7 - making/eating dinner
7 - 7:30 - time as a family
7:30 - 8 - get kids ready for bed
8 - 10p - relax with Brian (T.V., game, computer, finish folding laundry, etc)

Tuesdays and Thursdays look very different because Landon goes to school and Brian is off in the mornings on those days and Anna has dance class on Thursday afternoons.  So each of those days have their own schedules too with some Free Time built in on Thursday mornings for Brian and I to go have breakfast or run errands and bathtime for the kids in the evening.  I've given every minute a name like I should be doing with my dollars (Dave Ramsey).

I haven't been extremely strict with myself about the schedule this week since there were lots of changes (i.e. a belated preschool Christmas party and the kids were off school on Monday and I helped in Anna's class today) but just having some structure built in helped tremendously!  I worked out 3 times this week, I got all the rooms cleaned except bathrooms, I started quilting and I got some reading done!  That's more than I am used to getting done in a month!  lol

And just as important...I've scheduled this weekend off for myself!  Brian and I will go out tonight, I will go to a hotel and he will go home.  Tomorrow, I get to do whatever my little heart desires and stay a 2nd night at the hotel!  I read this very timely post this morning during my devotional time!  I'm excited to see what I can get done in 2011!

You Capture/Share - 10 Best of 2010

I have no idea how I'll narrow this down to my 10 best but I will try.   *********
Uh oh!  I have 25 favorites!  Time to trim this post! ***************
I'm afraid I've done the best I can at trimming....
I'll try to make it shorter by not using up any more words and let the pictures speak for themselves.  If you have any questions about them then ask in the comments and I'll be sure to answer.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goals

Brian Tracy says, "All successful people, men and women, are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose."

Brian and I had listened to Brian Tracy's Time Management stuff about a year ago.   He said that the first step to successful time management was writing down your goals:  everything you want to Have, Do or Be in the next 5 years.  After you've written all that down then you have to assign a letter to each thing - A, B or C.  The things that you feel you absolutely MUST accomplish get an 'A'.  Things that you would really like to do but aren't as important get a 'B'.   Things that you think would be nice if they happened but you can live without it get a 'C'.  After you've assigned the letters you look at all the 'A' things and give each of those things a number based on priority with #1 being most important.  Then with your A1 thing you write down "action steps" to take to make that thing happen.

I finally did all this the other day.

I broke my goals down by category because I felt like some categories were more important than others and I felt it would be easier to look at them that way:   Keep in mind this is a list for the next 5 years; these are not things I think will all happen this year.  And this list can be added to or detracted from any time in those 5 years.

Spiritual/Relationships
A) Bible reading/devotional time every day
A) Spend 30 minutes with each of my 4 children daily
C) Write a letter a week
A) Family vacation 1x a year
B) Weekend with Brian 2x a year
B) Trip back to South Asia
A) Date with Brian 2x a month
B) Weekend alone or with friends 2x a year

Physical
A) Run 5x a week
A) Lose 15 pounds
A) Run a 5k
B) Run a 10k - Peachtree Road Race
C) Run a 1/2 marathon
A) Get new running shoes

Financial
A) Start photography business
A) Schedule 1 to 2 sittings each month (during the first year)
B) Schedule 2 to 3 sittings each month (during second year)
B) Get a logo made for business
A) Become debt free
A) $1,000 in savings
B) 3 to 6 months expenses in savings
B) Get a 2TB external hard drive
B) Buy a Nikon D7000 or D700 camera body

Projects
A) Paint new kitchen chairs
A) Paint old kitchen table and chairs and then sell
B) Paint Landon's room
A) House cleaning for 1 to 2 hours daily
C) Get new, smaller bedroom furniture
B) Read 6 books a year
A) Learn to speak Spanish
A) Finish Holden's quilt
A) Make a quilt for Howard baby #4!!!
C) Get curtains for dining room, master bedroom and living room
C) Get a rug for dining and breakfast rooms
C) Learn to play guitar
C) Get a buffet/sideboard for dining room
A) Have a family portrait made every other year
A) Organize pictures/picture files and scrapbook stuff

My A1 goal is to read my Bible and pray and have a time of devotion every day.  At first, my action steps to make this happen included waking up earlier so I could do this before the kids had to be up and ready for school.  But I know, from past experience, that this was doomed to failure.  So, instead, I made a realistic schedule for myself for the week making sure to put my priority goals in each day.  Each day looks different: sometimes Landon goes to school and others he doesn't, on Thursday Anna has dance practice, some Mondays I help in Anna's class at school, etc, etc. and so I had to make a schedule for each day.  I couldn't realistically make one schedule that would fit all the days and I think this is going to work much better.

I have been kind of cynical about "resolutions" and things a few times and then there are years where I have  made unrealistic expectations for myself.  Here's hoping that this year I have  learned to be a little more balanced.