Just a Few

I taught a lesson in Young Women's this last Sunday that I think resonated more with me than with the girls I was trying to teach. It was about setting goals, and how the things that we do now in life can get us to some of the more major goals we have for the future. For example, what do these girls want in their lives in one year? What about in 5 years, or 10 years? (They were all freaking out about that: "In 10 years I'll be 24! WEIRD!") And it is pretty weird to think about-in 10 years I'm going to have 3 teenagers, one of which will be dating and driving!

I loved this quote: No plan. No objective. No goal. The road to anywhere is the road to nowhere, and the road to nowhere leads to dreams sacrificed, opportunities squandered, and a life unfulfilled. -Thomas S. Monson

Anyway, some years I've made New Year's Resolutions, and some years I have not. When I was younger, I'd always have a huge list of things that I would be better at or would want to be doing, and of course January 1st I'd try to do all of them, and fail miserably. Sunday after my lesson, I sat down and wrote the things that I want to do this coming year, whether it's a habit I want to implement in my life, or a project that I want to get done. I also wrote down specific things that I want to do in order to accomplish my goals (a point my lesson made). And hopefully, as I implement some of these things now, it will help me as I get into what I want in 5 or 10 years from now.

So without further ado, some of my goals/resolutions:

Learn how to make freezer meals. I never know what will freeze well, or what to do when I want to actually use that meal (thaw it out for a couple of days? just put it in the oven for longer?) So I want to learn this fine art, and implement it in my life. That way, on the days I don't want to cook, we won't be tempted to eat out at yucky overly-salty McD's.

I want to scan in all my old scrapbooks into my computer. I don't know if at that point I'll make CDs of them, or if I'll keep my scrapbooks or get rid of them, or what, but I'll figure that out as I go along, I think.

I want to have Ivy potty trained some time in 2010. My friend told me about this book, of potty training when your child is 22 months old, and in 3 days. She did it with her triplets, and she said it was literally 3 days and they were all trained. If I train Ivy when she's 22 months old, that means March. (I get little flurries of excitement just thinking about how awesome it will be to NEVER change a diaper again!)

Scrapbook-digitally-the years 2008 and 2009. When I had done some of 2008 before my computer died, it didn't take me all that long to do. So hopefully...

Reading the Book of Mormon with my kids every night. We're really good about saying prayers every night, so adding reading to that shouldn't be too big of an adjustment.

Getting up before my kids do. I was doing awesome at this before my surgery, but after it was all I could do to get up with enough time to get Jake out the door.

Build up food storage. We have a bunch of "store and ignore" (food that's sealed and will stay good for at least 30 years), but I want to build up a supply for meals that we eat regularly. I have a little bit, but sometimes it's only part of the meal.

I could go on and on, but I don't need to re-write all my goals that I've already written down.

Happy New Year, everyone, and may you reach your goals and live the life you want to be living!

12 Things of Christmas*

*Kind of like the song. But less repetitive. And with fewer birds.

The 12 things of our Christmas that were so cool to me:
12 luminaires a-lighting,


11 Bakugans a-brawling,

10 piles of garbage growing,

9 more days' vacation,

"8" some yummy goodies, (get it? 8? ate?)

7 DVDs a-watching,


6 spoons a-swapping,

5 Transformers!!!!!


4 spoiled kids,

3 cool guns,

2 Buzz Lightyears,
and 1 mangled Christmas tree!!!

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Bits of Heaven

This is a raspberry filling cream cheese icing donut. YUM! Oh, my mouth waters just thinking about how scrumptious it is. I got them from Walmart, but they don't make them all the time. (Otherwise, I'd be buying them all the time.)

And how cute is this note that Jakob wrote to me and Pete? I think it's pretty clear-cut, so I won't translate, though I will explain that this week Jakob is the star student in his class, where he makes a poster about himself, and gets to bring something for show-and-tell.

Also, I've been actually accomplishing things on my "to-do" list. Like, actual projects. For instance, I wrapped all my Christmas gifts yesterday. Of course, then I had to hide them because the kids kept trying to sneak peeks in the ones in bags. So they won't be under the tree until, oh, probably Christmas Eve night, I imagine.

I also made these little window hangy things. Sure, it's a project that little kids could probably do, but I did 'em! And they're pretty cute. The gingerbread man looks like he has a sweat band on his head instead of frosting, but I'm okay with that. More things keep getting added on to the "to-do" list, but it's mostly things to go to rather than things to just do. It's nice to be able to actually cross stuff off.

Troy has done tremendously with potty training. He takes himself, and really doesn't care anymore about stickers or treats for going-he just likes to be able to go. I think I'm ready to move him to the real Big Boy undies.

Also, I have Coke. Ah, heaven in a bottle.

What have been your bits of heaven lately?

Fragments

Brain scattered.
Back hurting.
No drugs for three days. (Hooray!)

Ivy three stitches on chin/lip.

Bonked on couch.
Trooper.

Progress with potty.

More stickers than shown.
Very few accidents.
Still glad in Pull-Ups for now, though.

New blinds finally put up.
After 2 months.

Better late than never.
LOVE them.

Now curtain rod holes to fix.
Home ownership standard, I think.


Shopping done.
Christmas cards done.
Lots and lots to still do.
New "must do"s coming this way, every day.
Got Coke.
Should be okay, then.

Think It'll Work? (It Will Take A Miracle.)

For the last several weeks, several times a day, Troy's train of thought goes something like this:

"Mom, I'm a BIG boy, and I'm going to pee and poop in the toilet, and then Santa is going to bring me some big boy undies for Christmas. Right now I'm a little boy, because I still have a diaper, but I will be a big boy."

Yes, indeed. It is SO time to train that kid. He poops and instantly has a diaper in hand, wanting to be changed. He got all embarrassed when he pooped while at preschool, because all the other kids are potty trained, and they saw that he had a diaper on.

While my mom was here helping me out after my surgery, she was really good about getting him to at least try to go in the morning and at about lunch time. (Since I've been on my own, though, that's kind of fallen to the wayside. It's all I can do to go through the motions of being a mom. Still. And it's been over 7 weeks. *sigh*)

So, I decided to try the sticker chart route:



I think I'll do a sticker for trying, and a treat of some sort for actually going. It goes until December 24, and honestly, I think we can do it. If I can just get him to sit on the potty and at least try to go 5 times a day, I think he'll be close to being trained, if not all the way trained. Oh, and we ran out of diapers his size, so we can do "little boy undies" (read Pull-Ups, which I totally know is a fancy diaper, but maybe I can convince him that it's a lot like undies so he'll treat them like undies).

Then, if he's close to being trained by Christmas, then maybe Santa can give him Big Boy undies for Christmas. And having him trained would be a super awesome Christmas gift for me, too.

Wish us luck! (And please, send some energy my way, because I really need it.)

They Call Me the Hip-Hop-opotamus

Jakob's Hip Hop class had their first performance during half-time at a high school JV girl's basketball game. I was so proud of him, because he actually performed! He tends to get stage-fright, and won't do things in front of crowds, like sing, or say his lines for the primary program, that kind of thing. On the way there, he said, "Mom, I hope I'm brave enough to do my dance."

So, behold! Sorry about the video quality; my camera tries to "correct" the lighting it's getting, which is why it flips to green all throughout. Good times with that. Apparently my camera thinks we all need to look like aliens or something. And the sound is none too good, either. (They start dancing about 38-ish seconds in - the guy introducing them took a hundred years.)



And here's the video that I got my post title from. Flight of the Conchords rules.

Like a Three-Legged Puppy With One Eye

This is one of the saddest things I've seen. Ever.

Here's a translation:

To Santa, From Jakob. No toys for me! :( I tried to find my Bakugan.

Do you know why there are no toys for me? Because I lost one of my Bakugans.



I seriously wanted to cry when I read that note that he wrote.

He lost his little Bagukan toy randomly, and I know it's somewhere in the house but we can't find it. He even bought it with his own money and everything. Poor guy. We told him that that's not how Santa works, though - not giving toys at Christmas because of losing a toy. He ended up writing a new note to Santa, telling him that he tried and tried to find his other Bakugan, but proceeded to ask for a ton of Bakugan things, including watch and calendar.

In other Jakobisms...

He has to read 20 minutes every school night. So one night he read about 15, and I told him that that was good enough, and I would write 20 minutes on his sheet. With big round eyes he said, "You're going to LIE about my reading time???" I told him, no, I wasn't, because the night before he had read at least 5 extra minutes that I hadn't counted into his reading time, so 15 plus 5 makes 20 minutes. I'm glad he is now aware of lying, and I'm glad that he was going to make sure that I didn't lie, either.

Another time that Jakob lost a different toy (sensing a trend, here), I told him to patiently look for it, and we'd be able to find it. A long time ago I had told him that he can always pray when he needs help finding toys, or if he's scared, etc. So I was in the other room, kind of looking for his toy, and I heard the end of a prayer that he was saying: "...please bless us, that Jakob can find his toy..." It was so sweet, and it made me so excited that his little seed of faith has started to grow, and that he thought to pray all by himself. I also said a little prayer in my heart, not necessarily to find the toy, but to help answer his prayer, so that he knows that Heavenly Father listens to him, even when it's over something that I would deem unimportant, but is very important in Jakob's little world. We found the toy half a minute later. I then told him that Heavenly Father helped him find his toy, and he said, "No, you helped me find my toy." I then explained that a lot of times Heavenly Father works through other people and other things in order to answer our prayers. We then said a thank-you prayer. I loved having that teaching moment.


And, unfortunately, we might have to have another teaching moment sooner than I would like. One night, Jakob asked, "Dad, does Lady Gaga have a lot of sex?" Pete answered, "Well, Jake, I'm not sure. Why do you ask?" Jakob replied with, "Lady Gaga is a hot woman. So she must have a lot of sex." Pete said, "Lady Gaga is not a hot woman. And, I don't think she's married, so she probably does not have sex, because only married people have sex." Aye, carumba. Not looking forward to that talk at all.

Ah, the joys and adventures of raising children.