Productive day

7:15: Got up and got dressed to my shoes. Make-up done

Made Breakfast-homemade wheat pancakes and a green smoothie

Things accomplished:

Made a huge bucket of liquid laundry detergent

Washed two loads of laundry

Made dish detergent

Ran to the store and picked up 40 lbs of chicken--1.28 lb!!!

Cleaned out my closet-two big bags of clothes and shoes

Cleaned off the back porch

Paid bills

Cuddled my baby while he napped

Got the highchair out of the garage and washed it down

Washed out our trashcan

Washed out our heater filters

Started a batch of chicken

Cut up chicken to freeze for main courses and chicken nuggets

LUNCH

Put Claire down for a nap

Washed out and sanitized 7 pop bottles for water storage

Spent two hours on the phone with Straight Talk trying to figure out our phones

Started another batch of chicken

Played Just Dance

Made two loaves bread

Made potato leek soup for dinner (yum)

Cleaned the kitchen

Put away 3 1/2 loads of laundry

Showered

Ran to the store for paper towel and cocoa

Talked to my mom

Ate a brownie

Put the kids in the bath

8:00 Bedtime!!

Whew. We had a good day!

Provident Living

My mom is starting a Provident Living class with the people in her ward. They are meeting twice a month. Man, am I jealous. I wish we had something like that in our ward! If you want to get some great tips and recipes and some random stuff here is the link

http://www.searcyward.blogspot.com

There is always something we can work on!

(The black bean burgers were delicious!)

Guess who...

is CRAWLING!!

Whoop whoop! I'm so proud!

(he actually started a couple of days ago but I wanted to wait to get a video up but thought he might be walking if I waited for that haha)

2011

I've given a lot of thought to 2011. I've decided that my word for this year is going to be "Order". A lot of things have ran though my mind and it's hard to put on paper but I kept coming back to the scripture in D&C 88:119

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a ^bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God

1) Organize yourselves: I will be going through everything when I get back home. I'm going to whittle down things we have, throw some out, give some away, craigslist others. Everything is going to have a space. I don't want our lives to get cluttered up with useless things. We also will be doing our will.

2) Prepare every needful thing: My goal is to "finish" my food storage this year. (Ak! This one is hard!) Our family goal is to finish Dave Ramsey's baby step 3 and start 4 and 5.

3) A house of prayer: We will be holding family prayer morning and evening. We will say prayers over our food. We will have individual prayers. I will help Claire have hers before bed. There is no time like now to get her in the habit and to help us get back in it.

4) A house of fasting: It's been a long time since I've fasted, since I've been pregnant or breastfeeding straight for over 3 years. But I don't think a house of fasting is just talking about not eating. The other part of fasting is the fast offerings, of charity, of helping those who don't have what you have. We will be giving more this year. It doesn't have to be more money, but maybe babysitting, or delivering groceries, or bread or cards.

5) A house of faith: More trying to listen to the spirit and do His will. To trust more. Having kids makes it seem even more important. I need faith that He will help me not mess them up!!

6) A house of learning: We will be having family scripture every day and Family Home Evening every week. I will read a scripture with the kids in the morning. I am going to get a picture every few days from the gospel art kit and putting it up on Claire's wall and we will talk about it. I am going to spend more time reading books with the kids. My goal is 1/2 hour a day at least.

7) A house of glory: Teaching the kids to obey and be honest. I'm going to get a book called Teaching Self Government to help facilitate that. I need to be more calm and Christlike with the kids.

8)A house of order: Routine. I've been thinking a lot about routine. I need to get out of my pajamas every day. I just feel better when I do. I'm debating about having a laundry day again where I only do it once a week. Jack is doing less poopy clothes so maybe it will work again. One thing I'm going to try that I'm excited about is have a baking day. The Saturday before Fast Sunday I am going to bake for the month. I will make the wheat bread, biscuits, english muffins, bagels, and then do mixes for white bread and pizza dough to keep in the fridge. I decided on that Saturday because that is our one eat out day for the month. We thought it may make fast sundays more special if our eat out day is that Saturday. Who knows? lol I know I will want to be eating out after doing all that baking!

9) A house of God: My number one goal for 2011 is to make our house more of a house of God. That is the most important thing I can do.

So those are my "resolutions" for 2011. Will we get them all? We can try. Will we have bad days. Yes. But I figure it's like a diet instead of a broken resolution. Get up and carry on. I love my family and I want to be a better person for them and I want to help make our family the best it can be.

A new quote

Between stimulus and response there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.

In that response lies our growth and happiness.

Stephen R Covey

I memorized this quote and it has been helping me a lot. Sometimes I'm short with my sweet husband . Sometimes I have to be in control. Sometimes I over analyze everything he says or does. Sometimes I'm (very) demanding. Sometimes I get offended by his tone and feel like he is judging me. Sometimes a little feminist voice pops up in my head and tells how unfair it is that I have to do this this and this...and if I let it go he will walk all over me. If I don't insist on that he will take advantage. What he does dictates how I feel and how the entire day will go. Gosh, don't I sound awful? I promise I'm not like that all the time. I'm slowing down, thinking of what I say and how I say it. I have the power to make things smoother or to blow something up. I'm trying to release my pride and be more loving. I'm trying to let go of my illusion of control. When I do things for my husband and put him first he puts me first. And life is so much better when we think outside ourselves. Luckily he is very forgiving and loving. I know doing this is what the Lord wants me to do. Life is not always perfect and I'm sure I'll slip up. But I will always try a little harder, and he will forgive me and the Lord will forgive me. When I get discouraged I'll just remember we are only X amount (now 4 years) into an ETERNAL marriage. Life is a learning experience. We'll get there. :) I'm lucky to have him.

Wow

I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted anything! I promise I'm not pregnant. lol. We are in Arkansas visiting my parents. They came to visit for Christmas so the kids and I drove back with them.

Christmas was great. Claire really enjoyed it. I didn't put too much thought into it so I've been thinking a lot about what I want Christmas to be for our family. Less gifts...more giving. More service and Christ. I think we will only be giving three gifts to our kids. I want them to know what to expect for Christmas. I don't want them to feel entitled to get more and more. I like the idea of three gifts--1.) something fun (maybe Santa's present) 2) something educational like a book 3) something to wear. I'm still working on it. I just want them to be grateful and gracious because they are luckier than a lot of children. Besides, we will always have family financial goals that are more important than plastic under the Christmas tree.

The kids did amazing on the drive down. We had two 14 hour driving days. Phew. It was rough the last night. I nursed a lot while we were driving...(with Jack sitting in his seat). We were glad to get there.

My grandma and aunt and her kids came down for a few days to visit. It was perfect because my mom and brothers had two days off of school while they were here from the huge storm that came through the south. We had lots of fun, complete with games of Just Dance at the church.

Zeb and Claire had fun playing. He is so funny

We are having lots of fun here with Grandma and Grandpa. Brian is here too. He had a conference in Florida last week and flew here Saturday. We leave Sunday to go back home and it's sad. lol.

Well, I'm back on the blogging boat with lots of posts swirling in my head. :)