2010 and 2011 New Year's Resolutions

I love the new year, and I love the opportunity to "start fresh" with my goals and plans. In 2011, there are tons of things I want to do, ranging from time poured into my children to starting new ministries at church. I try to limit "resolutions," however, to strictly personal things. As such, for my 2011 New Year's resolutions, I think I'm just going to tweak my 2010 resolutions:

1. Run 150 days a year, and at least 12 times a month.

I did this in 2010. The hardest part was not the 150 days (I actually ran 171), but the monthly quota. Months like June and December were especially hard to squeeze in 12 runs. Traveling and sickness were my biggest obstacles. But I did it, although sometimes it was by the skin of my teeth.
To inspire me in 2011, I downloaded a free app called micoach. It measures my time, distance, and calories burned. Unfortunately, the first time I used it, it informed me that what I thought was a two mile run was really more like 1.72! So I elongated my course to a little over 2 miles. That will be my new challenge in 2011.

2. Be more mindful of what I eat.

In 2010, I cut out shredded cheddar cheese, unless it was in recipes. That, along with a general sense of mindfulness, helped me to lose close to ten pounds by June. However, I inched slowly back up in weight, and when the holidays set in (which starts in October at my house), I lost even more ground. Now, I'm only a few pounds under the weight I started with! That was a bit frustrating.
In 2011, I have a goal weight, which is about 8 pounds less than I am now. One of the little things I'm doing to inspire myself is to try out herbal teas. I love hot drinks, and my cup-a-day coffee habit has become two-cups-a-day. I'm hoping that herbal teas will provide a good substitute for my cream and sugar-laden coffee!

3. Do crunches on a regular basis.

This is my one resolution that crashed and burned. I did well for a month or two, and then gave it up.
In 2011, I'm making the resolution more specific: do 15 minutes of toning exercises at least 3 times a week. I found a great 15 minute workout in an old magazine, and all I need is an exercise ball. To inspire myself, I bought a new exercise ball, b/c my old one was very worn out (2-3 years of bouncing babies to sleep on it didn't help), and besides, I learned that it was too small for my height.

4. Read through the Bible in a year, and blog about it daily.

I started out in 2010 with both excitement and trepidation about this one. After I completed my first blog, I felt both exhilarated and terrified. I was exhilarated b/c I loved putting my thoughts down and getting feedback, and I was terrified b/c I could not imagine doing it 364 more times! I felt a similar terror at the end of January, knowing that I had 11 more months ahead of me. But I loved taking the time to process my thoughts about Scripture. Also, I hadn't missed a day in January, so I began praying that God would help me not to miss a day all year. And He did. This was the first year in a long while that was puke-free for me:)--no debilitating viruses or illnesses made me get behind. In addition, I did have the circumstances to blog every single day. And so, just earlier today, I completed my 365th consecutive daily blog on the Bible.

I consider reading the Bible to be metaphorically akin to sailing around the world. When I started out, I was a part of a flotilla of loyal blog readers, whose comments and feedback would buoy me through the early months of travel. By the time I limped into port 364 days later, I had two companions with me: a middle aged Christian man from Australia, named Woody; and an atheist from Washington state, named Erika. I knew neither of these people starting out; I met them on my journey. One was a perpetual enthusiast, the other a perpetual "devil's advocate," but I can't imagine my journey without either of them. They helped me in very different ways.

I grew so much from my journey through the Bible. Even though it was my second time, this time was SO much better than the first. I had a chance to process and meditate on each reading, to seek feedback from people I respected, and ask all the questions that I was thinking. Often, just the act of thinking through it while blogging helped me to answer my questions as I wrote!

However, there are two things you need to know about sailing around the world (or the Bible): it is a hurried journey, and it can be a rough one. You zoom from one place to the next, with not very much time to study or learn about the context of each stop. Indeed, I lost at least one fellow traveler to the rushed schedule. When she disembarked in a particularly beautiful land (Ephesians), she simply refused to get back into the boat and sail away, preferring instead to poke around awhile. And without the proper tools, it can be a rough and confusing journey. There were so many foreign lands that I just didn't understand at all (particularly in the OT), and journeying past them made me realize that I needed a better equipped boat. I needed context and background info and smarter people explaining things to me.

In 2011, I'm trading breadth for depth, and I'm trading my blog for a notebook and pen. Rather than sail around the world, I think I'm going to vacation in the shorter epistles for the year, dedicating a month to each one and really delving. I hope to almost know each one by heart by the end of the month, as well as to understand the backgrounds as fully as possible. I also want to keep up my daily routine, but not just because I "have to." I want to commune more with God during my daily times, instead of them becoming something to check off my list, as they were at several points in 2010. 2010 was the year of physical faithfulness. I hope for 2011 to be a year of physical and emotional faithfulness.

So those are my resolutions in the new year. I write them down mostly for myself, and I hope to write a similar review/resolution blog at the end of each year. We'll see if it happens!

Anyway, whether you make resolutions or not, I hope you have a wonderful new year in 2011!

Quick conversation

This morning, while Luke was playing his new Toy Story game.

Me: Oh, cool! You're in a mine!
Luke: No mom, I'm in a whale.
Me: What?
Luke: A way-ull.
Me: Like Jonah was in a whale?
Luke: No.
Me [seeing the tracks for the coal cars]: You mean a R-R-rail? (We've been working on our "R" sounds).
Luke: No, I mean like, "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water?" That type of whale.
Me: Ohhhh, a well!

Southern accents strike again:).

Our White Christmas: Outside Edition

After a very leisurely process of opening presents, we ransacked Gigi and Papa’s closets for warm clothes and then bundled up to go outside:

Luke was a little embarrassed to have to wear plastic bags for shoes, but Gigi tied pretty Christmas ribbons on them:).

Can I just say that we rock at family pictures?

Yep, it’s a gift.

I call this next photo series, “How my Child Got Pneumonia”":

He had his heart set on rolling down the hill in the snow.  Apparently, this has been a lifelong dream.  And it was everything he hoped it would be.  Crazy kid!

Gigi had to rummage to find things to complete our snowman.

Oh my goodness—everyone is actually looking at the camera!  Too bad Greg has his eyes closed!:)

Luke loved riding the disc.

He liked Anna to ride with him, but after he dumped her face first in the snow a couple times, she had had enough.  She didn’t cry; she would just desperately try to get the snow off her face until I came and helped.  After we got her cleaned up, she would shudder and say, “It was sooo cold.”  Poor thing.  After that happened, she would only ride with me.  And each time we would get on the disc, she would say, “I don’t want to get snow in my face.”  Don’t worry—she didn’t:).

Anna went in first, and Gigi warmed her up with some hot chocolate.  Luke took short walk with us through the woods, but soon, he was ready for hot chocolate, too.

After the kids went inside, Greg and I took a walk around the neighborhood, enjoying the beauty of the snow.

What a wonderful Christmas!

(White) Christmas in Murphy

We had a couple of firsts this Christmas. For one, it was the first Christmas for all of us since Uncle Rob died this summer. That was one of the reasons we wanted to spend it in Murphy this year. Secondly, it was the kids’ first white Christmas. It was snowing when I woke up, with snow already sticking to the ground. And it kept snowing all day until early evening. I like to think of those two “firsts” together. Snow is so beautiful and peaceful and comforting. It is also promising, though I can’t explain why. While Greg and I were walking through the woods later that day, marveling at our own little winter wonderland, I remarked, “It’s like God is smiling on us.” I think Uncle Rob probably was, too.

This was the view that greeted us this morning.

Luke woke up way before Anna. She had a hard time sleeping last night, so she slept in. We finally let him go ahead and open his stocking.

One of the things he got in his stocking was a tape measure. Luke is infamous for breaking our tape measures, so he has been banned from using them. It’s too late, though; we have no tape measures in the house. Hearing of our plight, Gigi and Papa gave Luke his own tape measure in his stocking. They also got Greg a tape measure. And I got him two tape measures. I think we are covered when it comes to tape measures:).

Once Anna awoke, Luke helped her along by dumping out her stocking for her.

Groggy, but beautiful.

At one point, Anna started reciting The Pigeon Wants a Puppy to Grandma.

Jill and Victoria put together a calendar for Grandma. She enjoyed looking through it.

And Grandma gave us a copy of a scrapbook she had made about Uncle Rob. I was so excited about this. You know how I am about preserving memories, and I know we will love to read about Rob together. I can’t remember why we are laughing in this picture. Perhaps it is the idea that our Gigi was once a little girl, or perhaps it is because Rob was celebrating his 5th birthday in the picture, and Luke will be celebrating his 5th this year.

Anna now officially owns The Pigeon Wants a Puppy.

Luke had fun playing “Santa” this year. Here, he is delivering a present to Papa.

He was also very interested in what everyone else got.

One present Anna received was a piggy bank that Uncle Rob received while at Rainbow Omega. She also got a box of coins to deposit in it. Needless to say, it was a hit with both her and Luke, and a priceless treasure to Greg and me.

Luke and Anna both got animal slippers from Gigi and Papa. They loved them. Luke’s slippers were puppy paws, which is fitting b/c he pretends to be a puppy on a regular basis!

I like this picture because it is a reminder that it was snowing outside. I just couldn’t get over that.

Uncle Chris and Aunt Jill got Anna this adorable tote from Thirty-One. Apparently, Aunt Jill and I have both discovered that company this year, and we both got Gigi presents from there! (Don’t worry, Jill—they were different:)). Anyway, the message told Anna that this tote was for her special little things. Anna couldn’t read it of course, but before anyone even read it to her, she knew intuitively what it was for. Upon opening it, she immediately headed off to fill it up.

She adores putting things into containers.

Yep.

Last but not least, Luke and Anna opened their “Santa” gifts.

Luke got the monorail from Disney World, and Anna got Cinderella’s castle. It was like they were back in Disney World:).

After we opened all the presents and tried them out, it was time to venture into the snow! But that deserves its own post…