Our "Non" New Year's Resolution

Call it what you like---over-eating, gluttony, binging, self-indulgence, porking-out, unrestrained gratification---Here are just a few of the excessive items we ate over the Christmas holiday (and this only includes foods from the past week!):

• Crown roast of pork with sausage apple cornbread stuffing
• Turkey, mashed potatoes and all the fixin’s
• Lobster bisque (made with real cream I’m sure!)
• Lasagna
• Artichoke dip and chips (gotta love the artichoke jalapeño dip from Costco)
• Berry pie ala mode
• Bundt cake with whipped cream
• Chocolate peppermint brownies
• Chocolate mints
• Chocolate peppermint bark
• Frosted sugar cookies
• Egg-nog french toast
• Chai tea topped whipped cream

Wow. Typing all of that out makes me realize it’s even worse than I thought. No wonder my jeans are feeling even tighter.

Now that we've gotten that all out on the table (no pun intended), our family is jumping on the bandwagon. No, not the “make-a-New Year’s-resolution-to-get-fit-only-to-fail-later” wagon but rather the “make-a-commitment-to-get-fitter-starting-now” wagon. Technically, since it’s still 2007 we have slightly increased our odds to succeed. Based on the definition in the infamous Wagner dictionary, early-declaration automatically disqualifies this from being considered a sure-to-fail New Year’s resolution.

Hubby is planning to start riding his bike a few days/week to work (yep, for those of you still wondering, he is starting a new job in January). We’re super thankful that he will no longer have over an hour commute each direction. Now, it will only take that long when he’s biking! We bought a new lighting system for his bike (who knew those could be so expensive?). I just couldn't convince him of my idea to duct-tape flashlights to the front and back fenders.

For my part, I’m planning to run a ½ marathon with some friends this Spring. Running should theoretically motivate me to eat less (though it's not worked to date). How much nicer would it be to have less weight for these short legs to carry as they pound the pavement over and over and over again? For Christmas I got a new heart rate monitor gadget, running tights (I feel sorry for the poor souls lagging behind when I'm wearing those) and custom orthotics. I have all the gear so I really have no good excuse. Yet.

One final disclaimer: Since we still haven’t gotten our backyard in as we’d said we were going to, and obviously don’t always follow-through, feel free to ask us how we are doing in say…another year or two.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. This is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We are so thankful for all that He has done and continues to do. His faithfulness cannot be shaken.




P.S. The Christmas shopping did indeed get finished (today!).

Count Down to Christmas

For those of you who read this post from last week, rest assured that our "busy-ness" and the resulting feelings of overwhelming stress are starting to settle down. Our family was down to only 2 physical therapy appointments, 1 doctor's appointment and Hubby negotiating 1 new job offer this week. Plus, I'm happy to report that the Christmas shopping is progressing (still not complete but advances have been made).

Now, rather than giving into the holiday rush, we are looking forward to celebrating Christmas. Let the count-down begin!

Slowing Dowwwwnnnnnnn...

Is anyone else feeling the rush of the Christmas season? I have to confess that this week, I'm guilty of giving into the overwhelming feelings of stress. It's not that I've been busy trying to make our home look like this (wouldn't that be lovely?!):


Instead, it is the stress of normal L.I.F.E. In one week, our small family has had one job interview, 3 doctors appointments and 2 Physical Therapy appointments all on top of our normal daily activities and work. Add preparing for the upcoming holidays, needing to clean a messy house and dealing with a backlog of laundry and "POOF!" my brain cells start to vaporize. All of you moms out there with more than one kiddo, I don't know how you do it this time of year. I have total admiration for each of you.

All this "busy-ness" has reminded me to step back and sit quietly for a moment. To listen to what Jesus really wants us to reflect on during the holiday season. To remember that Christmas really is about Him coming in human form, as a child born to the virgin Mary, to later die on the cross and be raised up again so that we may have eternal life.

I still have a lot to get done before Christmas approaches (I'm always such a procrastinator when it comes to Christmas shopping). I'm sure I'll continue to have moments of anxiety due to all my "to do's". Many of you are probably feeling likewise. Even in all of this, let's do our best to remind each other to slow down, focus on Jesus and enjoy this holiday season.

It's Game Day!

Our apologies to the millions of readers that we have out there in blogsphere (ha! ha!). We really haven't gone away, we've just been busy like everyone else with the Thanksgiving holiday. Honestly, I'm also suffering from a bought of writer's block. I haven't exactly recovered from the block but we did want to recognize the big "Civil War" game today.

One of our nearest and dearest friends, Jack, is an avid Duck fan (don't hold that against him, other than that, he's next to perfect!). Since Jack is so important to us, we've really been trying to feel sympathy for the Ducks this year. To go from being ranked #2 in the nation to losing their starting...and 2nd string and potentially even their 3rd string...QB's is a serious roller coaster ride and does deserve a little emotional outpouring. So we, along with our Beaver fan friends Robert and Samantha, even walked into a Duck store last weekend to buy Jack a birthday present. It was painful, but we made it happen. It wasn't hard to find a cheezy gift there. Take a peek:

Here's our Little Miss with Jack's present. Poor girl, notice the look on her face? She's thinking "Mom! WHY am I holding this thing? The colors are just so wrong! Who would choose that tone of green and yellow? Yuck!"

More..."I can't do this. I'm soooo embarrassed by the 'O'. Cover it up, cover it up!"
Well Jack, we tried. Guess the Little Miss is just too smart to pose with a fuzzy "Ducky" stocking. She did have one last thing to tell you though, "Go Beavs!"

(I know I very well may regret this post after the game today but I just couldn't resist. We do love you Jack!)