Today Kate, Mary, and Emma were begging to play the Wii while the little girls were taking naps. I asked them if they thought they could play and be quiet and not fight so they didn't wake up the little people.
Kate's calm response: "We are capable of unexpected things."
I just laughed. I hope it's true because I want the little kids to take naps. I asked her where she learned that and she seemed a little affronted. I guess it came out of her own little head. She said she got the words from all the books she reads.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Last Year's Goals and This Year's Too
I decided to do a roundup of last year's goals. I was a little hit and miss on accomplishing the goals, but I think I did much more than I would have if I had never made the goals to begin with. That is the beauty of goals, I think.
Read 100 books this year -- I ended up reading 94 (see my other blog, Tara's Booklist). Not 100, but close and way more than I would have otherwise. It was fun to try and I plan on doing a similar goal this year. I think I'll shoot for 102 this year, up the ante a little.
Index 10,000 names--Finished, and when I made this goal I thought it was way high. This year I am going to shoot for 15,000. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited to get back into my routine of indexing a little every morning on my laptop. It always made me feel like I had accomplished something that day.
Finish my 200 projects by Sept. 1 of next year--Still working on this one. I'm at about 65 projects. I made a couple of big quilts at Christmas with a lot of embroideries that I counted for a lot of projects so that helped a lot. Plus I loved making the quilts. They turned out really cute and my sisters loved them.
Complete the $200 DMBA health challenge--Complete and wahooo. $200 is good incentive and I loved doing all the little challenges because I think they really helped me keep up on exercise and stuff. I have already signed up for the first one of this year and am looking forward to doing it. I'll keep this goal for this upcoming year too.
Post on my blog once a week--I averaged about 1.5 posts per week and that makes me happy. John is looking into how to print our blogs so we'll see what we can do. I'm keeping this goal for next year as well.
Write in my journal at least 5 days a week--I totally didn't do this one. But because of the goal, I've kept thinking about it. I'm going to make this year's goal to write in my journal at least once a week. I feel like my blog is kind of a journal, but there really are some things that you can only write in private and I need to do that more because it helps to keep my mind clear. Here's to getting better this year.
Finish reading the Book of Mormon and D&C by the end of the year--I was sooo close and then I totally slacked off over Christmas break. I'll finish them both soon and I'm not sure what this year's goals for scripture reading will be yet. I think I may tackle reading along with the OT study guide and then the BofM too. I don't know yet.
Get A's on all the beginning level songs on DDR--I actually have gotten A's on all the beginning levels on both I and II except for 2 songs and they are killer. I'm not sure if I will ever get them but I'll keep trying. And I have yet to get A's on everything using the hand markers. They are hard so I might go back and try to do it using them too. But I actually think I am dropping this goal for this next year. I like DDR but I also like Wii Fit and just walking so I am going to stick with those.
Make bags and organize toys--I did make a really cute car print bag for Adam for Christmas. He keeps all of his new cars in there. But my dream of bag organized toys will have to happen another day. This is another goal I am dropping this year. I just don't care about it anymore.
Try to be nice to my kids and have fun with them--I really have tried. I think this year the goal is going to be: Have a meaningful Tuesday night out every week and take someone to Grandma's each Saturday. And then write down something about these experiences so I remember all the good times when I get stressed. I think these things will help me focus on the positive.
And one last goal: Successfully survive having my seventh child in the end of July, beginning of August. I really am going to try to enjoy this pregancy because I think it may be my last and that makes it a little bittersweet. I think I am ready to move on, but it has been a good stage in my life. And I have a bunch of super-sweet kids to show for it.
Anyway, happy goal making to all out there. I think goals are great and they help me not be as lazy as I would be otherwise.
Read 100 books this year -- I ended up reading 94 (see my other blog, Tara's Booklist). Not 100, but close and way more than I would have otherwise. It was fun to try and I plan on doing a similar goal this year. I think I'll shoot for 102 this year, up the ante a little.
Index 10,000 names--Finished, and when I made this goal I thought it was way high. This year I am going to shoot for 15,000. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited to get back into my routine of indexing a little every morning on my laptop. It always made me feel like I had accomplished something that day.
Finish my 200 projects by Sept. 1 of next year--Still working on this one. I'm at about 65 projects. I made a couple of big quilts at Christmas with a lot of embroideries that I counted for a lot of projects so that helped a lot. Plus I loved making the quilts. They turned out really cute and my sisters loved them.
Complete the $200 DMBA health challenge--Complete and wahooo. $200 is good incentive and I loved doing all the little challenges because I think they really helped me keep up on exercise and stuff. I have already signed up for the first one of this year and am looking forward to doing it. I'll keep this goal for this upcoming year too.
Post on my blog once a week--I averaged about 1.5 posts per week and that makes me happy. John is looking into how to print our blogs so we'll see what we can do. I'm keeping this goal for next year as well.
Write in my journal at least 5 days a week--I totally didn't do this one. But because of the goal, I've kept thinking about it. I'm going to make this year's goal to write in my journal at least once a week. I feel like my blog is kind of a journal, but there really are some things that you can only write in private and I need to do that more because it helps to keep my mind clear. Here's to getting better this year.
Finish reading the Book of Mormon and D&C by the end of the year--I was sooo close and then I totally slacked off over Christmas break. I'll finish them both soon and I'm not sure what this year's goals for scripture reading will be yet. I think I may tackle reading along with the OT study guide and then the BofM too. I don't know yet.
Get A's on all the beginning level songs on DDR--I actually have gotten A's on all the beginning levels on both I and II except for 2 songs and they are killer. I'm not sure if I will ever get them but I'll keep trying. And I have yet to get A's on everything using the hand markers. They are hard so I might go back and try to do it using them too. But I actually think I am dropping this goal for this next year. I like DDR but I also like Wii Fit and just walking so I am going to stick with those.
Make bags and organize toys--I did make a really cute car print bag for Adam for Christmas. He keeps all of his new cars in there. But my dream of bag organized toys will have to happen another day. This is another goal I am dropping this year. I just don't care about it anymore.
Try to be nice to my kids and have fun with them--I really have tried. I think this year the goal is going to be: Have a meaningful Tuesday night out every week and take someone to Grandma's each Saturday. And then write down something about these experiences so I remember all the good times when I get stressed. I think these things will help me focus on the positive.
And one last goal: Successfully survive having my seventh child in the end of July, beginning of August. I really am going to try to enjoy this pregancy because I think it may be my last and that makes it a little bittersweet. I think I am ready to move on, but it has been a good stage in my life. And I have a bunch of super-sweet kids to show for it.
Anyway, happy goal making to all out there. I think goals are great and they help me not be as lazy as I would be otherwise.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
The Big Unveiling--or What My Girls Made for Christmas
A lot of people have asked me what my girls made for each other for Christmas. I couldn't really say until after Christmas but here it is.
Kate decided all by herself that she would make pillowcases for the other kids. She picked out all the fabric and did all the sewing by herself. Grandma and I helped with the cutting and pressing. She did an awesome job and it only took us about 4 hours one day (and probably another 1/2 hour at the fabric store picking out the fabric). Way to go Kate! The girls loved them as pillow cases, but Ruth and Lily have also been using them as loot bags and potato sack racing bags. Who knew?
Mary decided all by herself to make little doll/Webkinz blankets for her sisters. She wanted to embroider them with their names and a small picture. So I helped her set up the embroidery patterns on the computer and print them out. I showed her how to trace them on to fabric and she did all of the actual tracing. She also did all of the embroidery by herself. She did an awesome job too!! She picked out all of the fabric herself too. Grandma and I helped with the cutting, pressing and sewing. (Mary tried to do the sewing but I think I was being a little intense that day and she ended up just wanting me to do it.) She helped with a lot of the turning and prep work for the sewing. We also picked all of the fabric out of my stash of extra fabric and free shop hop fat quarters. It was awesome! And the kids all loved them.
Emma decided all by herself to make everyone origami frogs that she learned to make in Chinese class. I have to say that I kind of handicapped Emma because I convinced her to use some scrapbook paper and it wasn't as easy to fold as origami paper would have been. But even so, the frogs turned out great. She folded them one day all by herself at my mom's house. Me and my mom were in awe of her perserverance. And even if they aren't as durable as some of the other gifts, she has had a lot of fun helping the other girls refold theirs when they have come undone or gotten smashed. Good work Emma!!
Emma decided all by herself to make everyone origami frogs that she learned to make in Chinese class. I have to say that I kind of handicapped Emma because I convinced her to use some scrapbook paper and it wasn't as easy to fold as origami paper would have been. But even so, the frogs turned out great. She folded them one day all by herself at my mom's house. Me and my mom were in awe of her perserverance. And even if they aren't as durable as some of the other gifts, she has had a lot of fun helping the other girls refold theirs when they have come undone or gotten smashed. Good work Emma!!
I had to come up with some ideas for Ruth, but she decided to color pictures, glue them on to construction paper and make place mats (which I would like to start using more at our table). She did an awesome job. She picked out all the pictures herself and did all the coloring, cutting, and glueing. She colored all the people black and when I asked her about it she said, "You know Mom, some people have that color skin!!" I did know and thought it was great. I got them all laminated for a whopping $1.35 at the BYU place. They turned out fantastic!! Good job, Ruth!
Lily, I helped too. John and I decided that she could draw pictures of everyone and we could frame them. On one of the Kmart Thanksgiving Day sales I found this great picture frame that is matted for about 30 4x6 pictures. So we had her draw the pictures on index cards and stuck them in with the real pictures. It turned out really cute. She also helped John pick out and put the other pictures in the frame on Christmas Eve. Good work Lily!! (Notice the big hair, little body on Adam. Hilarious!!)
So having them make their own presents turned out really fun. It was a little more work and I don't know that it was a lot cheaper. But the girls were really proud of what they gave to each other and I had a lot of fun helping. They already can't wait until next year.
So having them make their own presents turned out really fun. It was a little more work and I don't know that it was a lot cheaper. But the girls were really proud of what they gave to each other and I had a lot of fun helping. They already can't wait until next year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
