My 2016 Resolutions

I am posting my 2016 Resolutions a couple days early!  At our church every year we are encouraged to write down our goals, and then we consecrate them and pray over them at one of the services.  This year the service is tomorrow, Dec. 30, so I am making sure I have my goals ready to go prior to the service!

1)  Make gluten, sugar and (mostly) dairy free eating my normal lifestyle.  I have never been able to lost weight as an adult with diet and exercise except by literally starving myself (1000 calories or less a day)--and the one time I did that I suffered all kinds of digestive problems as a result.  This year I went gluten-sugar-dairy free for a couple months without increasing my exercise, and the pounds melted off!  Then I fell off the bus for a week and gained back 5 pounds.  In one week.  Part of my thinks this isn't fair!  I eat healthy, I make my food from scratch, I eat homemade bread...and it still makes me fat!  But I want to fit in my clothes, I want to be able to run around the yard with my kids, I want to be able to go hiking and camping with them in 10 years, and to do that well, I need to lose weight.  So I will give myself "cheat days," which is a whole day here and there where I can eat whatever I want!  These will mostly coincide with holidays or special occasions.  And the rest of the time I will not cheat.

2)  Get ready to homeschool!  We have pretty much made the decision to homeschool for the first few years (it was initially a financial decision, plus God really pulling on my heart).  I was thinking that I would start Laurel at the pre-school level in the fall, but as I've looked into it, I feel like she has already accomplished much of what would be taught at that level!  She knows all of her letters by sight and know what sounds they make.  She can write her name.  She can tell you what letter words start with.  She recognizes numbers by sight.  She is obsessed with volcanoes.  So I am considering starting her with Kindergarten, and see how it goes.  She'll be 4 1/2, so if I need to, I can take more than one school year to finish it!  So my goal for this year is to plan out a full school year of K for Laurel, and "pre-learning" activities for Nicolas for during the school day.  I know some homeschool parents will scoff at my desire to have a whole school year planned in advance.  But that is how I roll.  I plan an entire month's worth of meals at one time.  I have a 2 year calendar in my purse.  I like to plan in advance.

3)  Read my Bible and write in my prayer journal at least 4 times a week.  This past year I failed miserably at the "read it every day" goal, so I'm making it something more achievable.  And if I over-achieve, that is great!  I'm going to schedule Bible time into our homeschool day.  :)

4)  Read at least 7 of our devotional books.  Last year I aimed for one a month and failed at that, so again, I'm making a more achievable goal.

5)  Exercise!  When the weather is nice, I want to be out riding the bike once a week (as long as both kids fit into a Burley), and do the entire bike trail most of the time!  Also, go hiking, go on walks, play outside with the kids, play at the park...and work some body weight exercises in when doing so.  Why not do push-ups and squats while watching the kids at the park?

6)  Improve my reaction to being ignored.  I HATE BEING IGNORED!!!!  There, I've said it.  When I say something to someone and they do not give a verbal response, my anger level rises quickly and dramatically.  I am tempted to explain the many reasons why not responding is not good, but doing so right now would only serve as an attempt to justify my anger at being ignored.  I'm annoyed just thinking about it! *deep breath*  I live with a 3 1/2 year old and an almost 2 year old.  Guess how often they verbally respond when I tell them something?  Not very often.  I also live with a man of few words who doesn't always respond verbally.  Does my getting angry and immediately annoyed help the situation? NO! I'm not saying that in 2016 I'm going to believe that not responding to someone is ok.  But I am going to work hard to improve my reaction to it.  I will not get angry at my daughter and yell at her when her imagination is stronger than her ability to listen.  I will not mutter under my breath when my husband does not immediately answer a question.  I can only control myself and my own reactions.

7)  Make money doing crafts.  As a stay-at-home mom, I have re-discovered how much I like to make stuff!  I do crafts with the kids on a regular basis (Laurel asks me almost daily if we can do a craft!), and I have taken up crochet recently.  I don't think I have the time or wherewithal to make a living selling stuff that I make, but perhaps I can make an etsy shop and sell crochet coffee cup cozies and things made from old books.  I will have to come up with a clever name ("The Caffienated Book Worm" or "Bibliophiles and Beverages") and just start stockpiling small things.  In my dreams some day I could even do bigger projects, but I'm not sure how well that will mesh with homeschooling...

A Review of My 2015 Resolutions

Every year I like to look at the goals I made at the beginning of the year and see how I did.  I try to make my New Year's resolutions things that I truly want to work on and change, and not just something I give lip service to.  I think about them throughout the year and really try to accomplish them.  So it is good for me to see how I did...and to be accountable to anyone who reads this blog.

1)  Read my Bible every day.  I was very consistent in this before I got married, because I did it at night when I was going to bed--there was nobody around to distract my, I was on my own time.  Since I got married, and especially since having kids, I have struggled to find a consistent time to do this.  Right now Nicolas wakes up at 6:16am every morning, which is much earlier than I would prefer.  BUT, it gives me an opportunity to read my Bible while he is playing and Laurel is still sleeping.   I did this pretty well for about the first half of the year, mostly because I was getting up early with Nicolas, who was not as active then.  And because I was babysitting another kid who got there at 7am, so I was up and showered prior to his arrival.  However, he started pre-school and stopped coming, and Nicolas became an early morning active person, and my Bible reading slipped to the wayside.  I regret that.  I want to change it.

2)  Read our devotional books.  We have a bookshelf full of devotionals and Christian living books, but I hardly ever read them.  Yet, if I pick up a good YA fantasy novel, I can easily finish it in 2 days.  Priorities!  My goal is to read one full devotional plus part of another one each month.  This also did not happen.  I did make it through about 6 or 7 devotional books, so that makes one every other month.  I will try to build on that.

3)  Cut sugar and desserts.  Over the holidays, I have not restricted myself.  A cookie for a snack, a cookie after lunch, coffee cake for breakfast, cake afternoon, and one of each dessert available after supper...that's not too much, right?  Seriously.  For January, I am going to only have 1 dessert per day.  Then in February I'll reduce down to every other day, then down to 2-3 times a week.  I think my final goal is 2 desserts a week.  I know I should cut sugar out entirely, but I want a goal that is realistic for me, and I just really, really, really like desserts. I was up and down on this goal.  Then, in October, I decided that I wanted to be able to fit in my pants again, so I did a 10-day detox where I was gluten, sugar, and dairy free.  I actually lost weight doing that, and kept on with the diet for about 2 months, with a few "cheat days" thrown in, and I lost about 12 pounds.  I did OK during the Thanksgiving holiday, but then in December I got lazy and ate "normal" for about 2 weeks ("normal" being eating gluten, but not pigging out), and gained back 5 pounds in 6 days.  I guess if I want to weigh under 200, I will have to be gluten and sugar free for the rest of my life...with some "cheat days" thrown in.

4)  Cut out processed foods.  This is a continuation of last year's goals.  I am doing well at it, and as I finish a "processed food" product that is already in the cupboard, I do not replace it, but instead make something from scratch.  Specifically, this year I am going to start shredding my own cheese (instead of buying it pre-shredded), and also making my own body care products.  Since I am not out of the house working, and the kids are no longer infants needing to be held all the time, I am able to spend time in the kitchen doing things while Nicolas and Laurel bang pans on the floor.  I'd say this goal has been a success!  I eat very little processed food, and have switched to homemade lotion, face wash, soap, shampoo, and toothpaste.  I have not gotten my husband on board with the body care products.  And the kids are too picky eaters to cut out all processed food for them...they would starve.

5)  Daily exercise.  I have been following a guy on facebook who does a 30 day fitness challenge every month.  I think I've done it 5 months in a row, and even persuaded my husband to join in last month.  I will continue to do that on a daily basis.  During the winter months, I also want to get on the elliptical twice a week.  When the weather is nicer, I am very goon about going on almost daily walks with the kids, around town and to the park. I did well on this for most of the year, especially when I could go outside.  I had issues with carpal tunnel in my wrists and really sore knees this fall and took some time off from the fitness exercises, and have struggled getting back on board.  

6)  Go hiking!  I love hiking, being outside, enjoying God's beautiful creation.  Mahaska County Conservation has a number of sites that I have never visited, and they do a lot of outdoor programs.  My goals in 2015 is to go to every site in Mahaska County. I did not accomplish this, but I did go on lots and lots of bike rides!

7)  Don't yell at my kids.  It is so tempting to just go right to yelling!  I can say something to Laurel 10 times in a calm voice and she ignores me, but the second I yell, she immediately obeys.  But then the next day I find Laurel yelling and screaming at Nicolas and other kids!  When I start yelling more, the kids are on edge and less obedient, and I find myself just being angry all the time.  It takes more effort on my part to not yell, and I have to get up, take kids aside, talk things through, make sure they get it, enforce, re-enforce, etc...but it is worth it. I have worked hard at this, and while I am not 100% perfect at not yelling, I don't default to the yell.  I still have days where I am extra crabby and yell too much, but I have done pretty well at this.

8)  Get to know more friends here where I live.  I have lived in this area since 2008, but usually when I think of the people I do social things with, my mind is set on the people I was social with before I was married.  I am not giving up those friendships by any means, but as a stay at home mom, I really need to have friends who are close by and in the same situation!  One way I am going to try to accomplish this is to start going to the park once a week for a picnic, and invite people to join me.  I have started doing more social things on a regular basis (book club, Bible study), but they have not really been with people who live here.  But I am content with my social life, for the most part.

9)  Sacred Marriage/Sacred Parenting.  Last spring in my small group we read and discussed the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas.  The premise of the book is that the goal of our marriage is not to make us happy or to fulfill me or my husband; the goal of marriage is to make us holy.  The common idea is that I treat my husband with love and respect so that he will reciprocate and treat me the same way (aka: "The Love Dare).  However, Thomas says that we treat our spouse with love and respect because that is what God tells us to do, and in doing so we are serving our Lord.  Our spouse may not reciprocate, our situation may not magically become perfect, but we still obey our God.  I am not driven by my desire to have my husband act a certain way; instead, I am driven by my desire to be more like God.  This is a huge attitude shift for me!  I am currently reading another of Thomas' books called "Sacred Parenting," which is the same premise but in relation to parenting.  My goal is to be a wife and be a parent in order to love and serve God better.  There aren't many definable goals for this, but believe me, I can tell when my attitude is not where it should be.  And I think my husband and kids can also tell when my attitude is not where it should be. I am not sure if I can say I had success or failure at this.  I continue to obey God and try work on relationships in a way that serves God.  But I am not sure if my "success" can be measured by the health of my relationships, or if I can only say that yes, I tried.

Christmas with the Platts

We have enjoyed our Christmas season!  We debated whether or not we would put up the Christmas tree.  We knew the kids would like it, but we also knew the kids would never leave it alone, and I would spend half my day chasing the kids away from the tree or putting ornaments back on.  Plus, I babysit 3 other kids in the afternoon, so that makes 5 kids under the age of 6 in the house at one time!  In the end, we decided to put it up with lights and minimal ornaments.

The kids made snowman out of balls while we got the living room ready

Laurel helped Dad put the star on top of the tree.

Nicolas also enjoyed putting on ornaments.

Scott decorated the railing by the stairs as well, and we hung up our stockings there.

 Laurel was in the Christmas program at church.  She was a sheep, and basically she sat on the steps through the whole thing, then stood up and sang a song.  Based on her behavior at the rehearsals, I was worried that she would be the kid walking all over and being naughty.  But in the actual production she did a great job sitting on the steps!

Laurel and the other sheep on the steps.

After the service Nicolas tried on the sheep horns

Family Christmas photo

 Scott took Christmas Eve off this year, so we just hung out at home as a family.  I planned a "picnic" supper, and we ate on a picnic blanket on the living room floor and watched the movie "Elf."  The kids pretended to be Buddy the Elf for the rest of the weekend!

After the kids went to bed, we filled stockings and brought their presents upstairs.  They were pretty excited to wake up on Christmas morning and find presents under the tree!

We opened stockings right away, but had to wait until we were dressed and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jim came over to open the actual presents.

Have a Merry Christmas!

I sewed a mermaid blanket for Laurel, and she loves it!

We gave Nicolas more dinosaurs with a Dino Truck.

Scott bought me a very nice immersion blender...just what I wanted! 

We will be having our Christmas gathering with the Evenhouse family on New Year's Day.  After that, I suppose we will take the tree down and put the house back into normal mode.

Volleyball Sister's Weekend

My sister Carrie was able to get great tickets to see NCAA Regional Volleyball Championships in Des Moines through her work for a great price (and great seats!), so my sisters and I decided we should have a sister's weekend!  Our husbands agreed to being in charge of the kids, and our parents used some of their points to get us a free hotel room, so we were set!  The Regional semis were on Friday night and the finals on Saturday, so we met at our hotel late Friday afternoon, ate some Papa John's pizza, then watched a couple volleyball matches.

Warmups for Illinois vs. Minnesota.  Our seats were in the second row!  Minnesota won this match,.

The second match was Penn State vs. Hawaii.  I expected Penn State to win this one, but the unranked Hawaii team came in ready to play and won the match in 3!  It was fun to watch and the Hawaii fans sitting next to us were infectious.

After the matches we went back to our hotel, ate more pizza (none of us can get Papa John's where we live, which is a real shame), and talked.  We were hoping to amazing sleep since none of us would have small children climbing into our bed or crying during the night, but our AC unit in our room sounded like a small vacuum, so it wasn't the miracle sleep I was hoping for...but I did stay in bed until after 8am, so that was great!

On Saturday morning we drove over to West End Salvage.  I had been there before, but Carrie and Lynn had only seen the show on tv and never been there.  It is fun to walk around and look at all the stuff, but honestly, none of us could afford anything there.  Well, we all got delicious lattes, so I suppose we could afford something!

Heading into West End Salvage

 Next we drove over to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, then headed over to the Valley West Mall area to hit up Kohl's, World Market, and Half Price Books.  That area was packed, so I was happy to be done shopping...I just don't like large crowds.

We decided to eat an early supper downtown at Fong's Pizza.  The place is decorated like a Chinese restaurant, has a tiki bar complete with cheesy ceramic cups, and serves all kinds of funky pizzas.  We split the Pad Thai Pizza, the Crab Rangoon Pizza, and  White Pizza, as well as a girly adult beverage in a lovely ceramic fish.  The Crab Rangoon pizza was the best! 

After supper we headed back to Wells Fargo Arena to watch Minnesota vs. Hawaii in the regional finals.  Hawaii started out a little slow, but then really started playing in the third set and made it a great match.  Minnesota won in 4.

It was a great weekend with my sister watching volleyball and just being together!

Laurel's Hair

I have always loved doing people's hair.  Not my own, though.  I have a nice short hair cut so that I DON'T have to do my hair.  But I digress.  Growing up my sister's both had long hair and I would braid it for them often.  Every time we visited my long hair cousins I did their hair.  On the volleyball team I was the official braider.  Now Laurel has beautiful long hair, but I haven't been able to do it very often because she doesn't like to leave rubber bands in, and because she doesn't sit still to let me do her hair more than once or twice a week.  Here are a few of the fun hair styles I have put in Laurel's hair over the past couple months.

Laurel calls this her Princess Snail hair

This was a bunch of small ponytails that criss-crossed each other across her head.

I had seen a picture of "Viking Warrior" hair and Laurel wanted to try it one afternoon.  When we did it on her hair, we decided she looked like of of the elf maidens from Lord of the Rings.  We now call it her "Elf Maiden Warrior Hair."

This is a series of pony tails with the hair wrapped through

Crafts for everyone

This year for Christmas I handmade a lot of gifts.  I'm proud of my work, but since I haven't actually given very many of them away yet, I can't post them on my blog.  Here area couple handmade items I have made that I can post.

This is a coffee cup cozy that I made for a friend who is moving away

The best place to hang a hand towel in our kitchen is on the fridge door, but it always gets stuck in the freezer.  So I crocheted a towel holder for on the fridge door.

I have also been doing some fun crafts with the kids over the last month.

This isn't technically a craft, but Laurel had seen a commercial for reindeer pancakes on tv and asked me to make them for her.  This is my attempt at reindeer pancakes.

Making Christmas ornament sun catchers

Laurel finger painted a couple cards.

She also painted about 20 pictures and 3 cards using a paintbrush.  She was making "shooting stars" on her paint plate.

I put baking soda in pans, and vinegar with food coloring in the cups.  The kids could scoop the vinegar into the pan and see the bubbles from the chemical reaction.  This would work better if I had a couple droppers for them to use instead of spoon.

Finally, here is a Christmas tree ornament I made as a sample for the craft we did at our ladies Christmas gathering at church.  I put 3 little pieces of crayon (red, teal, and silver) in a glass ornament, then used a hair dryer to melt and swirl it.

Laurel can write her name

Laurel is a talented kid, but I've found that she doesn't like to try doing things that she isn't already good at (she might get that from her mother...).  She recognizes most letters on sight and can tell me what sound they make, but has not been very interested in trying to write them.  I printed off some letter tracing sheets for the letters in her name, and once she realized that "practice writing your name" was one of the chores on her chore chart, she was willing to kinda trace the letters.  But she would never even try to draw them herself.

Then this past week while the kids were coloring, she said she was going to write her name--and she did!  I think she wrote her name 25 times in the coloring book.  Great job, Laurel!

Grapple on the Gridiron

Scott is a fan of wrestling, and is a big fan of Iowa Hawkeye wrestling.  I went to my first wrestling dual with him when we were either dating or just married (I can't remember the details), and we have gone to at least one dual every year since.  I knew nothing about wrestling, but he explained the basics to me, and now between seeing live duals and watching it on tv, I can honestly say that I know enough to actually enjoy watching wrestling!  

This year the Hawkeyes decided to put together an event to break the NCAA attendance record for a wrestling dual, but Carver-Hawkeye arena does not have enough seats to break the record.  Instead, they decided to host an event outside at Kinnick stadium, the football stadium at the University of Iowa!  They scheduled it for their first event of the year against Oklahoma State, who came into the meet ranked #1 in the nation (the Hawkeyes were ranked #4).

I was really hoping it wouldn't be too cold, and we ended up with beautiful weather--sunny and almost 60 degrees in November!  The kids spent Friday night at my parent's house (although we didn't have the house to ourselves as Scott's brother and another friend who was going to the dual both stayed at our house), and we headed out to Iowa City on Saturday morning.  We picked up our nephew to go along with us, and my sister-in-law was wonderful and agreed to drop us off and pick us up afterward so that we didn't have to try to park.  I took a bunch of pictures on my phone, but unfortunately my forward facing camera is a little big foggy right now.

A football mural in Kinnick

Our first view of the field

Here is the view from our seats!

The Hawkeye wrestlers are coming out to the mat through the flames

The previous attendance record of 15,996 was shattered!

It was a close match and could have gone either way, but the Hawks held on for the win!

Coconut Craft and Turkey Painting

For about a week, Laurel told me she wanted to do a coconut craft.  I'm glad that she makes special requests for crafts, but this seemed strange to me.  Why coconuts?  She watched a Dora episode lately where Benny the Bull is on an island with a bunch of coconut trees, and he had to dance out of the way of the falling coconuts, and I think that she wanted something based on that idea.

When I searched for "coconut crafts" on Pinterest I came up with pretty much nothing.  I really tried to think of a way to make something where the coconuts fell out of the tree, but didn't come up with something that wouldn't make a big mess.  So I waited until we finished a roll of toilet paper, then told Laurel it was time for her coconut craft!

I cut slices off the edge of some paper plates, and had the kids color them with crayons.  Then I cut a bunch of flaps on the bottom so they would be like palm tree fronds.

We used a brown tissue paper for the coconuts.  I had Laurel crumple little squares into balls.

Then I used the hot glue gun to glue my paper plate palm fronds into the toilet paper roll.  I then glued the tissue paper coconut on, and voila!  We have a coconut tree!

Last week I put together a craft for my kids as well as the kids I watch in the afternoon.  I don't have any pictures of us actually doing the craft, because it involved 5 paper plates with paint all over them, and 4 kids under the age of 3 doing the craft at once, I did not feel safe backing away from the table for even one second to take a picture.

I had Laurel help me put names on the top of card stock with foam letters.  This was also good alphabet practice for her (she can identify pretty much all the letters now) and good fine motor skill training, as she peeled the paper off the backs and stuck them to the paper by herself.

Once the kids were all awake and ready, I put 5 different colors of craft paint on to 5 paper plates.  Then one kid at a time, I helped them put their palm into the paint and then stick it on the paper with each color.  This was supposed to be the tail feathers of a turkey.  In the process I discovered that Nicolas really freaks out when he has paint all over his hand.

I let the paint dry overnight, then the next afternoon had each kid put a brown hand print upside down in the middle of the paper to be the turkey's legs and head.  After the babysitting kids left, I painted a beak, legs, and that thing that hangs down (ok, I had to google it.  The part hanging from the next is called a "wattle" and the part hanging from the beak is called a "snood").

Indian Summer

It would not be unusual to have snow on November 15 in Iowa.  However, this year has been the opposite, it has been an Indian Summer!  A week and a half ago, we set a new record high for that day at 79 degrees.  Who would have thought we would be running around outside in shorts and a tshirt in November?  Even last week it was still in the 60's, which is definitely warm enough to play outside, even if you need a jacket.  Here are some pictures of our outside time so far in November.

The kids were picking clover flowers.  Does removing the flowers keep the clover from spreading?  I hope so!

Playing on the swingset

I babysit some kids for a couple hours in the afternoon.  It's hard to get two 3-year-olds and two 1-year-olds to all sit still for a picture!

The kids love it when I run around the yard pulling them on the sled.

Swingset time as a storm rolls in

One evening after supper Laurel wanted to be on the deck, but it was a little cold.  She wrapped up in a blanket, sat on the chair, and said over and over "I just love to be outside!"

Nicolas playing on the swings at the park

The leaves in the ditch are about a foot deep coming back from the park, and Laurel likes to walk through them.