Mindy's Non-Adventures

     I have determined that I'm a project person. Every few weeks, I have some new project or goal that I simply must do.  Just so you get the gist of what I mean, here's a list of my pet projects over the last few months. Rearranging my bedroom (did this one yesterday) Cooking new recipes/severely cutting back on eating out Birthday parties and celebrations (For Mr. Inc's birthday, the kids and I wrote out things that we love or like to do with Mr. Inc, then I put them in balloons and made him pop each one to get to the message inside...totally stole this idea from a friend by the way) Making my own laundry detergent Changing up our homeschool routine Doing a complete Thanskgiving meal by myself Manicures (I had beautiful nails for a couple of months) Cutting out white flour and sugar       Some of these are harder than others. Most don't take much time, and that is a very important component to the project. If the project or g...

    January has basically been a month of clarity and intentional living at home. What do I mean? Well...we've been at home. No trips to visit friends and family, eating at home most of the time (update below!), and cutting back on our busy-ness in general. It's been good, and as long as life doesn't throw me a curve ball too soon, I think we might even be able to maintain these changes/decisions. Instead of being pulled in ten different directions at once, I've been able to focus on the more important things. Peace has brought me clarity, and that makes me happy.       Sooo...here's the update on our lifestyle change of eating at home.  I admit we've had a few slip ups, but overall, we've actually done VERY well this month! I think we'll end up eating out 6 or 7 times before the month is over. That probably still sounds like a lot to you, but also remember we've had 3 birthdays so that accounts for half! This is a HUGE decrease from our usual...

We're in the middle of birthday craziness right now. Last week we went to the zoo for Best Baby Ever's 2nd birthday! It was the first time he was actually interested in all the animals. It was so cute watching him wave at every single animal.  So here's a photo montage of our day. =)   Here we are at the small aquarium. Here he is, trying to climb the rail. Notice my handsome husband in the background. =)  See the lion back there?  The tiger was actually awake too! We don't know what he's trying to do, but it's adorable. All the kids plus my baby sister (who's not such a baby anymore!) My little man is NOT a fan of farm animals. At all. By the way, I thought it would it would be fun to let the little guy feed the goats himself. At first, he wanted nothing to do with it. After some prodding by me though, he finally picked up a pellet and promptly put it in his mouth. Next time, I won't force the issue. However, he LOVES penguins!  Oh yes, we ...

    Of all the things I have to do every single day, there is one responsibility that is way too easy to pass off on someone else. If you know me AT ALL, you know that our family eats out. A lot. Too much, but there it is. Yes, I know it's expensive and unhealthy. It's also soooo very, very easy! No toddler clinging to me as I try to prepare foods, no kids asking me a barrage of questions of varying topics and degrees of difficulty while I try to remember what I'm supposed to do next. No husband asking when dinner will be ready in a way that lets me know any answer other than "5 minutes, Dear!" is too long to wait.  Educating our kids is a nonnegotiable. I readily admit that I prefer clean clothes to dirty so laundry stays on the list too. Although our youngest will be 2 years old tomorrow, he's not quite ready for an independent lifestyle so baby care continues. Basically, eating out has been the one thing I could drop on a regular basis, and I did. BUT.......

Last week was normal. We detoxed from the holidays, stayed home a lot, went to the library. I read more, cooked more, did more school...you get the picture. It was nice, calm, mundane, and exactly what we needed. Finally coming through the other side of the chaos that marked our lives last year, I can look back and evaluate last year with a little more detachment. For instance, I can see that last spring I was a little crazed trying to do everything and be everything to everyone around me.  I was completely and utterly overwhelmed by the sheer weight of all choices to be made and things to be done. By summer, I was approaching burn-out, and by fall, I had definitely crashed and burned.      Maybe a year and a half ago, I sent an email to my two oldest friends updating them on our family since we each lived in separate parts of the world at the time. I remember telling them that at that moment, everything was really wonderful. I knew we were in one of those peri...

First off, I have to say THANK GOD 2011 IS OVER! Truly, it was the best and worst year of. my. life. I won't rehash all the major events that I've already written about or tell you about the ups and downs that I didn't report.  God was very good to us last year, and I personally learned some hard lessons. Of course, the hard lessons are the ones that yield the most results, and I hope those results will be of use to me this year . Still, I'm hoping for a year of being still and growing deeper instead of spreading ourselves so thin and in so many directions. So here's what I'm looking for in 2012: NOT moving Going deeper with the academics in school Getting to know our church better Starting a bible study/small group in our home Going to the beach and pool more Eating at home (this one is the ever constant albatross around my neck) Getting the tattoo I've been thinking about for the last 5 months             ...