A Project Project

I always have all these things I intend to do but never get around to. My projects. So now I'm going to try a little project experiment. I'm going to categorize my projects and not move on to another one until the one I've already selected is finished. That makes sense right? So my current project categories are "House" "Cooking" "Kaleb" and "School." These can change at will...depending on the project I want to do.

HOUSE - The project for the house is broad. Get it ready to sell. My very generous in-laws bought us a dishwasher so hopefully when that is installed we'll be able to talk to the realtor. I guess that means my deadline for getting the house ready is whenever the dishwasher is installed.

COOKING - I want to make the sausage rolls like Mrs. West used to make. Not the sausage balls, I already know how to do those. And this shouldn't be very difficult either. I'm pretty sure it's just sausage, cream cheese, and crescent rolls. The trick is going to be remembering that I want to do it and then finding the time to make them.

KALEB - I found the idea on Pinterest (of course) and thought it would be a good new project to undertake. I'm going to make an ABC book for him (and any other kids that may or may not come along the way). Each letter of the alphabet is going to correspond to a Bible verse. When we go through the book I'm going to say the letter and the verse. I'm trying to keep them simple so that he'll be able to learn them quickly. So far I've picked out all the verses I want to use except V, W, and X. There are some websites that have example verses for something like this, but none of the ones for those letters felt right. I figure I have a bunch of letters to get to before those so I'll just search while I'm working on the other ones.

SCHOOL - This is also a broad project. My goal is to finish my artwork and my lesson plans. This project has a very definitive deadline...February 2. That's when my portfolio is due. After that, I don't know what my project will be. I might do away with this category until something comes up.

Mommy Guilt

The past couple of days I have felt such mommy guilt. I come home from school totally exhausted, patience used up, and just needing to lay down. Of course, the 4 hours between when I get home from school and bedtime are the only times I see Kaleb everyday. I should be neglecting myself and spending time with him, right? I know that's not an option all of the time, but it should be at least some of the time. I mean, when I get home all I can think about is getting under the covers or about how much homework or housework I have to do. I know I can do that when Kaleb goes to bed, but let's face it, kids are exhausting. And after spending 8 hours with 20 kids that aren't my own, I feel too drained to spend time with my own. I know! It's horrible! But that's the reality of a teacher/mom. I've always said "No way!" when anyone asked if I would be a stay-at-home mom if I had the chance because it's the hardest job in the world and I crave adult interaction, but now I'm seeing the benefits for kids of parents who do choose to stay home. This was just a rambling of emotions I've been feeling lately.

Slow and Steady

We've been getting the house ready to put up for sale. We've painted the office so now we have to get all the excess stuff out, stage it, vacuum, and organize. That should be done this weekend and then I'll post a picture of it. We've also hung another shelf in Kaleb's room for his board books. Low enough for him to reach them so he can clean them up himself. We still have to clean out the top of his closet, do some touch ups on the wall, and vacuum. All that's left in our room is to hang the awesome picture I got for Christmas and take out the bookcase that's acting as a night stand. (It's going in the office where the tall bookcase is now) The guest room is pretty much done, too. We've got to hang a picture or two and that's basically it. The kitchen and living room are basically done. It's just going to be a matter of keeping everything clean while the house is on the market. The biggest places we need to work on are the office and the landscaping. We'll need to trim hedges, cut monkey grass, plant a tree, mow the yard, edge, and plant some colorful flowers. As soon as I get rooms finished, I'll post pictures.

Resolutions

Last year I started having one resolution per month instead of a couple for the whole year. My thought was that I don't follow through with resolutions more than a month anyway. Well, as it turned out, I didn't follow through with montly resolutions past April. Mathematically speaking, I still did better than previous years. The biggest problem with last year's monthly resolutions was that I couldn't remember my resolutions from month to month. So this year I've decided to continue with the monthly resolutions, but to work on qualities each month rather than a specific goal.

January - love
February - joy
March - peace
April - patience
May - kindness
June - goodness
July - faithfulness
August - gentleness
September - self control

This is where the fruits of the Spirit run out, so I'm choosing some other qualities that I want to work on.

October - honesty
November - humility
December - selflessness

It's All About Perspective

I went to girl's night tonight at a friend's house and I was immediately overwhelmed and jealous. Her house was beautiful! She had pretty much everything I'd want in my perfect house. It was all decorated for Christmas and there was stuff on the walls and coordinating bathrooms and bedrooms. Plus her closet looked like something from a movie. I was definitely coveting what she had. But it's all about perspective. When I got home, Kaleb was crying in his room so I went in there to see if I could get him back to sleep. As I was holding him and rocking him, he laid his head on my shoulder and fell asleep. I was looking around his messy room, rubbing his back and I realized that this friend of mine would give up everything she had to be able to do what I was doing that very second. It was a very humbling experience. Instead of focusing on what she had that I didn't have, I should have been so grateful for what God has given me. I don't NEED a big house that's perfectly clean and decorated. I mean, I still have things I want to do with my house, but if it's not perfectly clean it can serve as a reminder that I have my sweet boy who I wouldn't trade for anything.

Bucket List Accomplishment

Number 7 on my bucket list says "Witness history." I can now check that off. I got to go to the Saints game yesterday and be there when Drew Brees broke the record for the most passing yards in a regular season. All throughout the game we were keeping track of how many more yards he had to get in order to make history. He did amazing the first half and we felt certain that he would break the record in the third quarter. But he didn't. For those of you who didn't see the game, he had only 30 yards to go for most of the second half. Everytime the Saints got the ball back the whole crowd would stand up and get their cameras (or more accurately, camera phones) out to tape the event. And every time he would either run it or throw an interception or incomplete pass or something else that was totally NOT what we were waiting for. But then, with 4 minutes left in the game, he got the ball back around the 33. Keep in mind he needed 30 yards to break the record so he didn't have much room to spare. Everytime he completed a pass the Superdome erupted into screams and cheers. But it was nothing compared to what happened when he threw for the touchdown. The noise of the crowd was deafening! We were all jumping, high-fiving, cheering, clapping, and basically just going crazy. I imagine it was similar to when the Saints beat the Vikings to advance to the Super Bowl. It was so exciting and  I kept replaying in my head that night. I, of course, saved my ticket and I'll be able to tell my kids that I was there to see history...to see Drew Brees become the NFL's all-time leading passer. So in 20+ years, when someone else is close to beating Brees's record, it'll mean so much more.

A New Christmas

Christmas has come and, once again, I have gotten more than I deserve. We have been blessed by loving parents/grandparents and Kaleb is already rotten - to say the least. We are very appreciative of the outpouring of love shown through Christmas gifts. But I realized that I had to make a conscious effort to bring Jesus into it...and I was terrible at it. After ripping through presents all morning, we got in the car to go to Eric's house and I said something along the lines of, "Oh! You do know that we celebrate Christmas because of Jesus right?" That was the extent of how we incorporated Jesus into His own holiday! Pitiful. I mean, we've talked about Jesus and the wise men and the story leading up to Christmas, but when we ask whose birthday it was, Kaleb said Santa Claus. I'm going to be honest, I felt awful! I don't really want to do the big Santa Claus thing. And by that I mean, when we were growing up, along with presents under the tree, we would wake up and find the big gifts from Santa. It was exciting and ridiculously fun, but I don't think we're going to do it. We'll probably have Santa fill stockings, but gifts are going to come from family. Next year, instead of a lot of presents, I think we're going to try to limit it to just a few presents (3-5 total per family) and then do some service activities like baking cookies to take to a shelter or giving away a gift for every one he gets. Like, I said, I am totally overwhelmed by how much Kaleb is loved by his family and it is a true testament to the loving nature of our parents. I guess I'm just feeling guilty for falling into the trap of making Christmas all about presents and Santa Claus instead of Jesus. Eric and I are going to decide what to do for next year then I'm going do a post about what we choose and why. I just know we have to do better.