Oh dear.

And here I am, thinking we had a few years at least before we had to worry about "stuff" like this! :-)

Just kidding!! Apparently, this is just a good way for him to hold his arm steady as he sleeps.

Spring may have sprung

I think that sprink has hit VA. The weather has been warm...well, warm for February by my standards. Most of the snow that we got at the beginning of the month has melted. And melting snow means MUD. We no longer have a driveway....it's now a "muck-way". Yuck. Oh well, I'm thankful that I was able to enjoy the winter that we had and now that spring has made a slight appearance, most of the people around me are quite happy too.

Hope life is treating you all very well!

Frustration

Have you ever been so frustrated with a certain situation that you feel the need to be totally alone for hours? Today feels like one of those days. And having the snow falling outside just makes me want to go out for a long walk, in complete solitude, in the snow. I don't care about the cold. I don't care about getting wet. I just want to be alone and living in a house with other people doesn't allow for that. NEVER allows for that. So, out of curiosity, what do YOU do for solitude?

Not Doing So Well On The Weekly Updates

Wellllll....as I said in the post about my New Year's Resolutions, I'm not so good at keeping them...as evidenced by my lack of posting on my blog. Anyhow, I have been enjoying the Virginia weather for the last week. We have SNOW. Last weekend, we got about a foot of snow - enough to close down the state for a day. Work closed, restaurants closed, schools closed. It has been FANTASTIC in my opinion. Douglas & I have spent plenty of time outside playing in the powdery white stuff too. He's been waking up in the morning, going to the back door, grabbing his boots & snowpants, and basically begging to go outside to play. I think he would do very well in the Midwest! On another great note, they are forecasting more snow for this weekend. I have heard varying reports - anywhere from an inch up to four feet. I HIGHLY doubt that we will get four feet but even just a few more inches will just add to my joy. I was telling my mom the other day that I believe I am a true snow-bunny. I may not go skiing or snow shoeing or ice fishing or even ice skating, but just seeing the snow and the world covered in white brings a smile to my face and a calmness to my heart that nothing else seems to be able to. I live for snow the way most other people I know live for the sun and/or the beach. The snow for me is tranquility!

Hope you all are doing well!

My snow angel. I taught Douglas how to make them but his didn't photograph very well....they just looked like someone rolled in the snow.....perhaps that's because that's really what happened.

Douglas really is all bundled up to play outside -- a t-shirt under a hooded sweatshirt under his jacket, pj pants under his jeans under his snowpants, 2 pairs of socks on his feet with his pants tucked in to them so they don't ride up, BOOTS (thanks mom!), a pair of socks on his hands under his mittens (because the mittens were kind of small), and a hat over the hood on his sweatshirt & under the hood on his coat. He is TOASTY warm!

The icicles hanging over our front porch. I have never seen icicles this big in Virginia before...made me want to snap one off and eat it. :-)

CRAP-tastic!

Crap-tastic happens to be one of my favorite words. It's worse than bad but not quite "down-right poopy". It just so happens to be how I feel about today. Today was just one of those days where no matter how hard I tried, I was just straight up aggitated all freaking day. Douglas was not helping either...he woke up early, refused to go down for a nap, chucked all of his toys around, played movie after movie after movie (mind you, each movie only lasted for about 2 minutes), screamed, hit, jumped on the furniture, begged for milk, threw all of his books around, tore his sheets & blankets off his bed.....need I go on? These are fairly normal behaviors for Douglas...and normally I can handle them but today was just such an off day for me that it drove me bonkers. I attempted to clean...didn't help. I attempted to do laundry...didn't help. I attempted to read, do homework, wash dishes, all kinds of things. I have been attempting lately to keep a positive attitude about life, about the choices I have made, about my family & where we are living....but today just, well, sucked. I can only hope that after a good night's sleep, tomorrow will be brighter & better!

Wildtree

Back in December, a gal I work with hosted a Wildtree tasting party. That may not make much sense if you don't know what Wildtree is so let me give you a tad bit of background. Wildtree is a food company that puts out healthy, natural, tasty food. Their products have no additives, preservatives or MSG. And in case you didn't catch it earlier, they are VERY tasty! Most of you know that I have issues getting Douglas to eat much of anything - especially fruits or veggies. He won't even eat banana bread! However, at this tasting party that we went to, he kept sneaking back into the kitchen to steal pumpkin pancakes & pumpkin cookies off the counter. I mean, he was SCARFING this stuff down! I couldn't believe it! I didn't have any extra money at that time to buy any of the kits, so I decided that if the opportunity arose to host my own party, I would. Well, the opportunity has arisen! I am hostessing a party on Wednesday, January 27th. I know you won't be able to attend since most to all of the people who read this blog live far, far away but if you are interested in learning more about Wildtree, and I highly recommend that you do, here is their website: www.wildtree.com

Also, if you do decide you would like to order anything, let me know & I will pass that along to my "sponsor"!

Nothing & Everything -- All Rolled Into One!

So I made some resolutions this New Year's Eve. Most people do. I however, usually give up on my resolutions faster than anyone else I know! One of my resolutions this year was to update my blog on a weekly basis....since today is the 12th and this is the first post I've made in a few months, well, you can see I'm not starting off on that resolution so well......

Anyhow, also on my list of resolutions for the year were the usual suspects - lose weight, get in shape, save money, declutter the house, etc. The difference between this year & other years is that I actually have plans to achieve all of those goals!

First - save money. I work part-time. VERY part-time but that's OK because I'm really only responsible for 2 bills - my phone (which is prepaid) and my credit card. All of my other money is mine to do with as I choose. However, I do most of the grocery/household shopping here too. I find that each time I go out to the store to buy the groceries, we end up with a bunch of stuff that wasn't on the list or stuff that ends up sitting in the cupboard for months & months & never gets used. For example, I found a recipe this past summer for tuna salad that called for pineapple. I like pineapple so I figured that instead of buying just one can of pineapple, I would buy a box of cans. Guess what? That box full of cans of pineapple is still sitting in the lazy susan...unopened. Yep, that's the kind of waste that I am talking about. My Aunt Cathy did this challenge called "30 Days of Nothing" back in November...basically (and I'm REALLLY summing it up here), she was able to go 30 Days without purchasing/buying/spending money on stuff that wasn't absolutely essential. Her 30 day journey really inspired me and I decided to try it this month. So far, I'm not doing so hot. I haven't exactly spent money.....but I've spent gift cards. Which to me is the same thing. I may still have the same amount of $$ in my bank account, but the consumerism is still there for me. Me thinks that I will give this challenge another shot starting in February. There is a lot that can be learned about what we find to be "essential" when we do without it.

Secondly - lose weight/get in shape. This has become a yearly challenge for me. It seems that I am one of those folks who are on the constant weight-coaster. I go up, I go down, I go farther up, I go not quite as far down....It's a very dangerous cycle to be on. Anyhow, the mom's group that I am a part of decided to do a "Biggest Loser" challenge this year and I am participating. I have reached my heaviest weight...even heavier than I was when I was full-term with Douglas! But instead of going "balls to the wall" and trying to tackle everything at once (drink water, eat healthy, exercise, etc., etc.), I decided to do things in phases. I have confidence that I will be able to handle things better if I do it one step at a time - thanks to Shannon for giving me that advice! In any case, the first step I decided on was to get in the habit of drinking water. Mostly, I drink coffee, soda, juice, soda, milk, soda....and NO water. So....for an entire week, I kept myself drinking one or two cups of coffee each morning and water for the rest of the day. And guess what happened! I lost 5 pounds! Just knowing that I made one little change and it caused the numbers on the scale to go down was quite encouraging for me! I also had an epiphany the other night. There was some commercial on - I forget now what it was for...maybe Activia yogurt or something - and the lady in the commercial made a comment along the lines of "I need to take care of myself." This of course got some thoughts running through my head that started with, "Well isn't THAT selfish!"....but as I thought on this line more & more, I came to a lightbulb moment. If I am unable to care for myself, then how on earth will I be able to care for my son or my husband? If I can't treat myself like I am a decent human being by eating right and using my body by exercising, then how can I expect that my son will grow up to be able to take care of himself? I know that I have been placed here to be an example & a leader & an instructor for Douglas. By taking care of myself - getting myself into shape, eating healthy foods, eating proper portion sizes - then I am being an excellent example for Douglas too. In years past, thoughts like this would have depressed me but when I was thinking on this the other night, I became very encouraged & excited! I realized that I can do this - I can take the time & put in the effort to take care of this body that I have and in doing so, I will be an better example for my son! Yippeeee!!! :-)

Thirdly - decluttering the house. Allen & I are young and we haven't been married all that long so you wouldn't think that we would have clutter....oh, but we do! Stuff seems to just pile up around here. Every room in this house - bathrooms included! - has amassed clutter. Stuff that just sits there for months & months & in some cases, YEARS, and we never use it, move it, touch it. So, I decided that this year, I am going to declutter this house. I don't want to end up on a show like "Hoarders" or "Clean House". I want to feel comfortable having people come to visit and not worry about how badly they are judging me for my messy house. So, I started in the kitchen. We got LOTS of new Rubbermaid storage containers for Christmas (THANK GOODNESS!) so I pulled out all of the old "tupperware" containers and put them in a box to donate to Goodwill. Then I realized that we have an extra set of silverware - the silverware that Allen had prior to us getting married. It has been in a plastic bag stuffed in a cupboard for almost 3 years now. I put IT in the box for Goodwill. Then I realized that we also have an extra set of pots & pans that we can no longer use. A little over a year ago, when we redid the kitchen, we got an induction cooktop which requires our pots & pans & anything we use on it to be magnetic. Well, the teflon pans are not magnetic....but they have been sitting in the cabinet taking up space. Sooooo....they got pulled out & will be donated too. Let me tell you, doing just that little bit in one room was quite liberating. It was like each item that I put into the donation box took a little bit of weight off my shoulders and made me feel just a little bit better about our house! Keep it up & soon enough, I will be hosting parties here! Well, probably not, but you see what I mean.

So that is my update for right now. The New Year has started and life is moving along with it. I'll keep you posted on how things progress!