One word

Last January, I was inspired by others in the blogiverse to choose one word to represent my goals for the year. I chose Create. This is what I wrote last January:

"Create: A word I love. Similar to grow, but even more proactive. I like this one. I will be creating a new home this year. Creating new friendships. Creating a stronger bond with my children. Creating stronger children. Creating a healthier lifestyle. Creating a better me. Creating a ton of fun handknits. Hee hee. Out of challenges, I need to create opportunities. I like create. It puts the power into my hands versus giving the power to something outside of my control. I like that."

At the time, I thought we were moving, but the move never happened. I focused on my word for a month and then kind of forgot about it. In fact, I hadn't thought of my word in at least 6 months until my friend Audra mentioned it the other day. Oops.

Despite my lack of focus, I think I did okay with "creating" in 2011, but not as well as I would like.

Despite my lack of follow through, I'm thinking of choosing a new word this year--just for fun.

Current thought: Nurture.

Will blog more about my thoughts on Nurture in 2012.

Happy New Year's, everyone! Off to enjoy some bubbly with B. See you next year!

A few of my favorite things...

In a recent post, Nova talked about working to make her new house feel like a home. It made me think about my own goal to create a happy home for my family. After the move that never was, we finally got the motivation to paint our dining room. It was a chocolate brown before which was a perfectly fine color, but did nothing to show off the lovely mahogany antiques B & I found back in the days before children took up all our time and money.

So now it is this lovely greenish blue color. Very bright and colorful compared to the rest of my house and I love it. This is now one of my favorite rooms in the house. Thought I'd use this post to highlight a few of my favorite things about my dining room--the things that make this house feel like my home.
I love the furniture itself (well except those chairs, but that's another post). I especially love the corner china cabinet and the buffet (that Brian so painstakingly refinished).


I love the cool pulls on the buffet. They give it a little vintage funk that adds so much to the piece.
I love the lovely little runner I found at Target with it's fun textures and great pops of golden yellow and orange--a nice contrast to the blue green walls.



I love this print that my sister gave me my first Christmas in our first house. It goes with the larger one (in the first picture above) that B gave me for our first Christmas as husband and wife the year before. I love the colors and the romantic feel of it and I love that it reminds me of the people I love.


I love that I have this doll in my china cabinet. She was my grandmother's doll and I still remember my joy when my grandmother gave her to me.
So these are just a few of my favorite things. Thought I'd share. Happy Friday, everyone!

Create...An Obstacle Course

This afternoon the boys helped me create an obstacle course in our backyard and we had tons of fun running through it and getting some good old-fashioned exercise/fun.

The first step was the boys' favorite, running through the hose (done boot-camp-tire-run style):

The next step was ten jumping jacks. I don't have any pictures of that because it is impossible to take someone's picture while you are doing a jumping jack.

Next was a run to the fence and back with someone pushing the play lawnmower:
Next, we dribbled a ball soccer-style longways across the yard.

When we got to the other side, we jumped side to side over these pool noodles:
Next, we had to hit a ball off the tee (and run and retrieve it):
In this pic, J also knocked the tee out of the shot :).

Finally, we had to kick/dribble the beach balls longways across the yard to the fence (and back if you were me and getting the course ready for another round).

N only completed the course once before he lost interest and began hitting things with his plastic bat. He did eventually return to do the hose portion a bunch of times.

J stuck with it and completed the course with me multiple times.

It was a lot of fun. We plan to do it again later this week and J promised to help me come up with some more obstacles.

Very fun! Yay! It was a happy mommy moment. Can't wait to repeat.

Create...a Healthier Family

As part of my goal for myself to be a healthier person, I've been trying to work out more. In general, I am doing pretty good. I use the treadmill often and have also been enjoying doing Wii Fit activities like boxing and step aerobics and Wii Sport (mainly tennis). Currently, I do most of my working out when the boys are either at preschool or napping/having quiet time.

However, although it is nice to exercise without interruption, I've realized that there are two problems with working out only when the boys are not around. First, the time when the boys are not around is pretty limited and will only get more limited this summer--and I have a lot of other things I need to get done during the short time of N's nap time/J's quiet time. Second, the boys never see me working out and I think it's important that they see this part of my life--you know the whole showing by example thing.

Anyway, I am trying to think of new ways that I can get exercise with my boys. Then we can all be healthy and enjoy each other at the same time.

I know I could just chase them around the yard/park, but that's not all that enjoyable for me so I'm trying to think of other things to try. Here are my current thoughts:
playing soccer (want to get a little goal for our yard)
playing tennis (need to get some rackets and find a place to play)
rollerblading while they bike or ride scooters (need to get roller blades)
hiking (need to find some fun places to explore)
jogging (am considering seeing if J wants to start jogging around the block with me)

Anyway, I've never been a very athletic person but I want to be better. I want to do these things with my boys so we can all be healthier and have fun. Wish someone would teach a class for moms-of-boys like me who need to learn more about sports. Maybe a camp for moms and sons to attend together where we could both learn how to hit a baseball, throw a football, get a basketball in the basket and score a soccer goal. Anyone out there know of anything like that? It would be really beneficial and fun. If you decide to start such a camp, let me know. I'd love to attend!

So there's my rambling thoughts on working out and enjoying my family. I want a healthy happy family. Who doesn't?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Create...a healthier me

In my attempt to change my lifestyle and create a healthier me, I am trying to work out.

Today was Day 3 of using our treadmill. Yes, we own a treadmill. It's really B's as he's the only one who has ever used it on a regular basis.

I've done a pre-programmed 30 minute routine on the treadmill for the last three days. I did Program 1 (the easiest) for the first two days and Program 2 today. Program 2 kicked my butt. I am SO out of shape. I made it through the 30 minutes, but I was sweating a ton and way tired by the end. Pathetic, but true. I even jogged a bit when it went up to a whopping 4 mph.

Yes, I think this is reinforcing my need to workout more. Let's hope my knees don't start protesting. More importantly, let's hope I can do this regularly for more than a week or two.

Still trying to eat healthier and have started using Relish to plan meals. They are bit more complicated than my usual meals, but it's nice to plan them out in advance and try new things.

Here are pics of a few I've tried:
Robust Vegetable Soup with Cheddar Dill Biscuits (those biscuits were GOOD)

Pasta Fresco (cheese tortellini, prosciutto, Parmesan cheese, spinach, garlic, pine nuts)

Tangy Garden Salad (tomato, red onion, fresh Italian parsley, balsamic vinaigrette, lemon juice)

Other meals have included Lemon-Garlic Kebabs with Gorgonzola Dipping Sauce and Bistro French Fries with Parsley and Golden Fish Sticks. I picked the fish sticks for the boys, but neither of them would try them.

Of course, J hasn't tried any of these, but N has eaten and enjoyed a few.

So that's the "healthier me" for now. Will try to keep posting here in order to keep myself accountable and on track. Wish me luck!

Of course, since I started working out, my house is getting less and less clean. Must figure out a better way to fit it all in.

Caps for Good

Finished three little caps to mail in for Caps For Good. They will be accepting donations postmarked through February 28, 2011. It's not too late to make a few yourself. I made all three of these from one partial skein in my stash. Here's a link to my original post for more info.

Happy Creating for Good, everyone!


Pattern: Caps for Good free knitted hat pattern
Yarn: Less than one skein of Plymouth Encore from my stash (Worsted Weight washable Acrylic/Wool Blend)
Needles: Size 10 doublepoints
Gauge: 4 st per inch
Mods: Knit in the round instead of flat. Only real change, all Purl rows became Knit rows.

Calling All Knitters: Create for Good

Despite all the life chaos, I am still knitting. I am almost finished with my niece's Coraline. I just need to make the button loops. Will hopefully get those done tonight or tomorrow night so I can post some pictures.

I was about to cast on for Tang, a lovely turtleneck sweater for me, in the lovely yarn my mom bought me for Christmas, when I got a post from my friend Natalie about Caps for Good.

Caps for Good is a program that saves the lives of newborn babies in the developing world by giving them knitted or crocheted hats. Or as it says on their website:

"The Caps for Good grassroots initiative will be running from September 2010 through February, 2011 encouraging citizens of all ages to participate by making a cap and advocating and fundraising to provide newborn care in developing countries.

At the end of the program, caps will be distributed to pregnant women and new moms and their babies in Save the Children's programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America."

Anyway, I decided to knit up this quick little hat to send in.

The website is great. It has an action kit complete with two really simple patterns (one knit, one crochet), a tag to attach to your hat and a letter to President Obama about the program that you are asked to send in with your hat.

If you want to participate, go to their website and check it out. It's really simple. I followed the suggested pattern (except I knit it in the round instead of flat) and it was SO quick to knit. Size 10 needles, worsted weight yarn from my stash, and a gauge of 4 st to an inch make very quick knitting.

To help this cause, I am asking that all my knitting/crocheting friends take a night or two and make one or two or three of these little hats to pass on to a baby in need.

What a fun and simple way to Create for good!

Create...a better home

As you all by now, we just put our house on the market. It's been a while coming. My husband started his new job back in December, right after Christmas. After weeks of cleaning, decluttering and rearranging, my house is ready and on the market. This has been a LOT of work.

Now my house is really clean and I have to keep it that way. Which means cleaning--multiple times a day cleaning.

I am not by nature a cleaner. I hate housework. I tend to put it off until it seems like such a daunting task that I put it off even longer. Then I get truly disgusted with myself and the state of my house and I clean.

I generally have a lot of clutter in my house and I generally only do the absolutely necessary cleaning.

In the last few weeks, I have totally decluttered and I have cleaned surfaces in my house that I hadn't touched in the over 2 and a half years we've lived here.

I thought by now I would be totally done with cleaning, burned out from it all. And at times, I have definitely felt that way.

But, surprisingly, the opposite is true. The more I clean, the more motivated I am to clean some more. I like having a clean house.

Now that my house is both decluttered and deep cleaned, it is easier to keep it clean. It is less daunting and more rewarding.

I may have discovered the secret to keeping my house clean. A little cleaning off and on each day and the whole thing seems easier---and much cleaner.

Who knew? I am on my way to creating a cleaner home for my family. And although I don't think "cleaner" equals "better," I do think it is a good start. I don't want my children to grow up thinking that cleanliness is not important. I feel good about this path I am on. I am creating a better home for my family and I like that.

Create...a healthier me

As I mentioned one of my goals for this year is to create a healthier me (and also a healthier family). One way I've been doing this is by making smoothies. I usually make one at least every other day. I've been trying to get the boys to try them, but so far they haven't liked them (or usually even tried them). Oh well. I'm really enjoying them. So far I've had blueberry/cucumber, banana/peanut butter /dash of espresso, and peach/blackberry/spinach. All have been good and my fruits and vegetables intake has increased dramatically (sad, but true).

Tonight I created a homemade pizza which was delicious.


It had fire-roasted tomatoes (instead of pizza sauce), a little bit of bacon, a little bit of maple-glazed ham, a little bit of shredded Italian cheeses and Montchevre goat cheese. It was really good!

I also had a spinach salad with apple pear, walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and a blush wine vinaigrette.

Yum! Let's hope I can keep up the motivation to create more healthy and interesting meals for me and my family. (For those who are wondering, no my boys did not try either of these delicious items. Oh well.)