January Continuum, Yoga X & Knoxville

If this is any indication of how hard it is for me to carry over January's goal and add in February's while maintaining my life...well, y'all just hang in there with me when I get to March, April and all the way through December.  So far so good though at least in checking off my decluttering list.  This week I had to catch up on my weekend decluttering tasks because we were out of town.  Saturday's activity was cleaning out the fridge.  Remember when I said I dreaded doing this?  It was of course, not as bad as I had feared - but I did take every shelf and drawer out and Emerson helped me wash them all off in the sink.  She was a good helper, and we are all loving how sparkly the inside of our fridge is! February's 'goal' is yoga everyday.  So far, so good - even while out of town!  I am doing the P90x yoga DVD - Yoga X which is intense and long and good.  I have really loved it.  30 days in a row of it seems a little daunting, and I'm still balancing when the best time is to do it - but some days have been morning and some have been night.  Have any shorter favorite yoga DVDs you want to share/pass on to me to try?  30 days of this same thing could get monotonous!

So this weekend, we were out of town in Knoxville for Bella's baptism & dedication at church.  Emerson was looking forward to the trip all last week, and I was looking forward to being there - but not about the drive.  I have gotten crotchety and like a cliche woman in my old age.  I never drive on trips anymore, so I don't love driving on trips on my own at night anymore, it makes me a little anxious.  This feels comical for me to even write considering how many countless hours I logged in my car in college and beyond in long distance relationships and on random weeknight or weekend adventures.  No wonder my mom always worried about me!  Point being, I don't enjoy the drive to Knoxville at night because of the stretch through the mountains between Asheville and Knoxville.  Clearly I had prayed plenty about my anxiety with that part of the drive because there was a rock slide that afternoon that closed that stretch of I-40.  Awesome.  Note to self: remember to pray for safety and the Lord's will instead of detours.  I took a back detour that wasn't the one the highway patrol was suggesting and it made it not as out of the way, which was nice.  And I wasn't anxious, which was really nice.  The girls had such a great time together.  Saturday morning, they lounged around the house in their robes, reading their Bibles.  Yes, seriously.  All by choice.  They started in Bella's room with Jingle, the new puppy, moved the couch, and then followed me into the bathroom while I dried my hair.  It was really fun to see them excited to see each other, wanting to play together, and really loving on each other on this trip.

We spent the weekend just hanging out with no real plans, which was really nice.  We helped get things ready for Bella's party on Sunday by making crafts and taking a trip to the grocery store where we all got our own carts.  Sunday was exactly 2 years to the day that Molly brought Bella home.  What amazing timing to get to have her dedication and to celebrate her life.  I am so thankful for that little girl, and truly adore her.  We were thankful to get to be there to 'stand with' Molly as she committed to raising Bella up in truth and love.  While in the grocery store, we saw one of Bella's friends from school and it melted my heart that the kid and the mom both knew who "Emmy" was as Bella proudly showed off her best friend as she called her - to people who have already heard of my Emerson because of how Bella talks about her.

(Sidenote: look at the determination in Bella's face here!  She took her job very seriously!)

Saturday night, before Gigi, Molly's mom, came over so we could go out to dinner, we gave the girls a bath and got them ready for bed.  Emerson LOVES when she gets to take a bath with Bella because we always let them close the curtain and splash to their hearts' content.  Their is some serious belly laughing that goes on during this splash fest.  But this time around, she learned a new reason that she might like taking baths with Bella - popsicles.  I guess I have never given Em a popsicle before, because when Molly gave it to her, she tried drawing on the tub wall with it and running it under water until she realized she was supposed to eat it, and then...well - you see how excited she was: 

Don't worry, Bella was equally excited - I think she was just trying to figure out why Emerson had been painting with her popsicle in the first picture.  And then once Emerson caught on, she was much too busy to take time to look at the camera:

More pictures and a continued post later when I get the rest of the pictures from Molly off her camera of the dedication and some priceless ones of the girls together from Sunday.  These were all I had on my phone and needed to be done separately from the ones I got of the girls after lunch Sunday anyway - you'll see that they deserve a post of their own!  

Here's to finishing up week 2 of the January/February challenge and to better balance with the rest (as in respite/relaxation) of this weekend and a fresh start of next week!  By the way, the 'pattern' I am trying to follow of my monthly goals is to remove something one month and add something the next.  I'm also trying to alternate that these be things for my family and things for me.  Decluttering was 'mostly' for my family...but equally for me.  Yoga is mostly for me...but hopefully my family is going to benefit from me taking this time for myself also!  Emerson did do a few poses with me last week which was precious and hilarious - another time I'll try to get her on video with me!

Little Things

Here I am, Wednesday morning, reminding myself to be filled with joy in little things.  I've never been one to make much of a 'deal' of Valentine's Day - or really holidays in general, but I am trying to be more crafty and creative with this for Emerson to have memories and traditions.  We found a cute mailbox in the $1 section at Target recently that we are using for love notes until Valentine's Day.  More on that later in a separate post, but I hope it will remind me to be intentional and purposeful, and to really think on why we celebrate love and how we love others.  Semi-along those lines, here are things from my phone, from my day yesterday that I loved:

1. The spring weather in January that let Noah's Ark meet the farm animals for outside playtime.  The farm (which used to be mine as a child) comes with a feeding trough - Emerson lined all of the animals and people up to wait their turn to have something to eat.  And she made a munching noise as each of them took their turn.  She is at her heart, a turn taker, such a nurturer, and loves animals.

2. 3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than this, than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."  I know that this isn't her choice yet, but her childlike faith fills me with such joy and I expectantly wait and hope for the day that I can speak this verse over her.  Given a choice of 10 things to do, her number one choice every time would be to read her Bible.  Unless, maybe one of the choices involves a sucker.  That might win.  I had the door open as I was making dinner last night and the gate up on the porch, and she and Salem walked outside with Raffi and her Bible and sat down and hung out and read for quite awhile.  Precious.

3. Speaking of dinner, here is Terry's dinner from last night.  After a hard week at work, I was happy to spice up his life with bacon on his sandwich - I know, again, living on the edge - and we love our panini maker.  It could change your life, just ask my mom.  We gave her one for Christmas and I think she has used it 3-4 times/week since then!

The cutest kid

Preface: excuse the absurd number of pictures here, my mom asked for more!

We had a fun end of the week and weekend around our house this past weekend with no big plans, which are typically my favorite days.  The hunt has begun for the containers we want for the laundry room, but no final decision yet, so I'll post after pictures once we have found them and put them up!  Fun event #1 for the end of last week was another fire with s'mores.  The weather here has been gorgeous and we are enjoying every outside minute we can get!  As you can tell, Emerson loves it, and continues to be such a ham and source of constant humor and fun at our house.  The only s'more that I ate was all the leftovers off her sweet cheeks as you'll see below:

This next picture kills me, I think it is a glimpse into what she looks like as a 'grown up' kid.  She looks so old and so precious here but it breaks my heart a little at the thought of her growing up.

Friday night, after we finished dinner together, we all stayed at the island for some Pinterest inspired arts & crafts.  I had seen this on Pinterest recently and knew Emerson would love it as we have talked about Valentine's Day coming up and she loves anything that involves baking and being in the kitchen with me.  The same week that I saw this on Pinterest, I also found these silicone ice cube trays at Target in the $1 section, aka, my favorite section in Target.  We have also used these to make OJ ice cubes and put 2 in Emerson's cup of water to spice up her life a little bit.  I know, I'm living on the edge.  So, here's how the arts and crafts project went:

Step #1: Have a brilliant husband who realizes that Crayola has made it really tricky to get the paper off of their crayons.  The Pinterest sites that inspired this craft did not mention this, but don't waste your time trying to peel the paper off the crayons like I did, just use a kinfe to slice down the lenght of the paper and it pops right off - you can see the difference in our attempts in our scraps pile.  Tiny little pieces by me, perfectly shaped wrappers by Terry.

Step #2: Other sites show cutting the crayons, but we wanted everyone to get to do this together, so we just broke them, even Emerson got the hang of it after a few tries - and put them in the silicone trays.

Step #3: Fill each heart up, stick them in the oven at 230 degrees for 15 minutes, carefully take out and cool until solid.

Step #4: Admire your handiwork!  These turned out great and they came with us several places over the rest of the weekend and kept Emerson very entertained!  I will have to keep my eyes out for other fun shapes to keep doing these.  Great for little hands!

The fun isn't over yet!  Terry had been craving chocolate chip cookies, so Saturday we spent some more time in the kitchen and finally got around to making some and to using my Christmas present from my mom - as you can see, mom, the stand mixer was a hit with everyone!  This recipe is from a friend, and I think it is from Cooks Illustrated?  It makes huge thin cookies that are a little crunchy with just the right amount of chewiness.  They are delicious.  Let's just let these pictures speak for themselves.  I couldn't choose to take any out, because the progression of Emerson realizing I would let her take a lick of this cookie dough straight off the mixer was priceless:

"Hmm...that was pretty good, please God let my next choice go over well..."

 "Yep.  Lip lickin' good!"

It's amazing that I am the one laying in bed recovering from a violent stomach bug that knocked me off my feet last night, considering the amount of cookie dough I let our family eat as we baked these...Here's Terry teaching Emerson the art of eating raw cookie dough.  He would rather eat the whole bowl raw than eat one  fresh cookie out of the oven.  True story.

 Emerson was a quick learner.  I think Terry's eyes are closed in euphoria here.

The finished product in all their crispy, chewy glory.  Recipe below, go make them.

2 1/8 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

12 Tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled slightly (approx 5 minutes)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk (hmm, oops, I definitely forgot this part!)

2 tsp vanilla

1-2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325

Mix flour, baking soda & salt.  Set aside.  Mix butter and sugars until well-incorporated.  add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  Add flour in 2-3 batches until just mixed.  Stir in chips. 

Cover baking sheets with parchment or silpat.  Drop 1/4 cup scoops (Seriously, that is huge.  I use a heaping Tbs) of dough onto sheets, space 2 inches apart.  Bake 15-18 minutes.  Let cookies cool on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack (they are very fragile and thin)!

Yum.

Friday Funnies & The Before

You know your child is hilarious when you find this in your bed...oh, hello Elmo - I see you brought some of your favorite books to bed.  And turned on some reading light.  And oh, what is that?  The Pottery Barn magazine for me?  Really, you shouldn't have.  Alright fine, you can have a sleepover.  But that's my side of the bed, so move on over.  (Don't worry, Elmo didn't really sleep in the bed with us.)

Declutter 2012 has gone alright this week with getting the laundry room tackled.  It isn't finished yet (and shouldn't be, 2 more days of decluttering!) but I do have before pictures to show.  Sorry all the pictures today are from my phone.  I'll do what everyone does and make the before pictures poor quality and poor lighting, and be sure my after pictures are taken with my camera and in great lighting!  Then you'll really be impressed with my decluttering skills!  Too bad I can't just use photoshop to declutter my laundry room. That would be nice.  Our laundry room is tricky to me because it is our only 'storage' space other than the attic space - which is also small - and under our bed - which is already decluttered.

So here is how it looks now, and some of my thoughts for what I hope it looks like by the end of the weekend include:

1. Something new to put dog food in that can 

go on the floor beside the washer

2. A 'tabletop' of some sort

(painted plywood?) to go on top of the washer/dryer

3. Some sort of bins for that shelf (wicker baskets? galvanized buckets? votes?)

What?  Keeping Emerson's arts & craft supplies in a Victoria's Secret bag isn't a good idea?

 

The door idea, of course, came from here, but of course mine didn't turn out quite as well as hoped/envisioned, so it also will be included on the declutter plan for this room for round 2.  Here was the inspiration:

Come back next week hopefully for the hopefully organized and beautiful after-pictures that will be so great I will be inspired to pin something from my own house! 

Highlight or Preview

12 days of Code Orange Revival wrapped up last night and they were all amazing.  It was amazing to see the work that all of the staff and volunteers of our church poured in to make this happen, to read crazy tweets of how long people (ourselves included) stood in line to get to experience this.  Last night when our Pastor introduced this video [sorry I don't know why I haven't been able to embed videos recently], he challenged us to see it not as a highlight reel of what had happened over the past 12 days, but as a preview of what was to come for the next 12 months (and beyond).  Live vicariously through the video for now, and I will let you know when all of the podcasts are available to be watched again!  I will watch TD Jakes several times over, but it will not touch how awesome it was to be there in person.  Emerson has been asking all week to go to "Elevation Blakeney" since it is not our regular campus, but I think she had a blast in the eKids rooms there.

And for good measure, since I have no pictures to include in this post, which is why most of you read this blog anyway, here is Emerson this weekend killing time out of the rain at Target while dad waited in line for T.D. Jakes.  We went on every aisle - this is her heaven.

We are getting back in the routine of our normal-ish life this week, and I am glad to say I am still going strong on Declutter 2012.  Last week while cleaning out the top shelf of my closet which just had old purses on it, I found my class ring from UNC, which I actually really like; and more importantly, my pearl earrings that Terry got me that I thought I lost shortly after Emerson was born.  They were in a pocket of an old purse!  I think so far they win the award for best result of decluttering.  Mostly so far I have learned that decluttering really isn't so hard or overwhelming as it feels when you do it one day at a time.  Example: At our house, the toothpaste lives in Terry's drawer in the bathroom.  Don't know why, it just always has.  Also living in this drawer are a multitude of other not so well organized things: old razors, deodorant, face lotion, fingernail clippers, a mirror, old packets of Benadryl, Nyquil, Claritin, chapstick, and the buzzers used to shave his head from which tiny little hairs escape.  It bothers me everytime I take the toothpaste out of the drawer, worrying that tiny little hair particles are going to sneak into my toothpaste.  It was so difficult to take the dust buster and clean the drawer and put the buzzers in a container so the tiny leftover hairs don't escape into my toothpaste.  Seriously, Ellen?  How could I have let that bother me two times a day (most days at least if we're being honest, some nights I am just too tired - I know, gasp!) for this long when the solution was that easy? It's because I thought if I cleaned out that bathroom drawer, I also needed to clean out under  the bathroom sink, and then I needed to replace cleaning supplies, and clean the bathroom, and that would lead me to think we needed a new shower curtain liner, and it just snowballs.  But no, it was just one drawer.  And it was easy.  And I have really enjoyed opening that drawer to get my toothpaste out now!  The rest of the week is storage piles and storage shelves.  That's going to be the laundry room and it does feel a little daunting because I don't have good storage, and I don't know how else to store it and organize it.  Wish me luck.  I'll try to do before/after pictures.

In the Fireplace?!

Several of you have emailed me laughing about Emerson's 'in the fireplace' comment - here is the video, nevermind how ADD she appears is in this video, it was early morning!

Merry Christmas. Yes, really.

Most of you have probably already seen this; but Emerson and I had a great time learning the Christmas story this year by playing with several of the nativity sets around the house.  Here is a pretty good rendition of her telling the story that 'Uncle Jak' took at dinner after our Christmas service at church when we had some friends over for dinner.  Merry Christmas.  Better late than never.

(*You have to click on the link above where you see the word this because the video is private so I can't upload it to the blog directly)