One down!

Marriage/Family
1. Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old 
2. The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity
3. Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches
4. The Husband Project: 21 Days of Loving Your Man--on Purpose and with a Plan
5. Rekindling the Romance: Loving the Love of Your Life

Self-Improvement/Christian
6. One of Us Must Be Crazy. . .and I'm Pretty Sure It's You: Making Sense of the Differences That Divide Us
7. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
8. Have a New You by Friday: How to Accept Yourself, Boost Your Confidence & Change Your Life in 5 Days
9. The Money Saving Mom's Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
10. Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment
11. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
12. Influence: Science and Practice
13. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
14. Networking Magic: Find the Best - from Doctors, Lawyers, and Accountants to Homes, Schools, and Jobs
15. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Fiction/Memoirs
16. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
17. Wonderstruck
18. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
19. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel
20. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman
21. Fool: A Novel
22. A Prayer for Owen Meany\
23. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: A Novel
24. The Help

One down....if your one year old went from sweet and smiley to fussy and demanding seemingly overnight, Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old  is for you. But, as with any self-helpish book, take her suggestions with a grain of salt. I really appreciated the explanations she provided for the changes the average one year old goes through, but her suggestions for dealing with them were hit or miss. Still a good read, though.

Whenever I can get to the library I'm going to get The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales, as long as they have it.

What have you read so far?

Fun Kids Music

Have you all heard of the Laurie Berkner band? An elementary school music teacher friend told me about her. She has really fun songs for little kids. She has a show on watch instant on Netflix, but it wouldn't load so I can't fully recommend it yet. I really like her song We are the Dinosaurs. We've been enjoying listening to her on Pandora.

Also, GoFish Guys is a group of dads who wanted to make music for kids that didn't drive parents crazy. I liked the few songs I heard from them, especially The Ten Commandment Boogie. This group is probably more for elementary school aged kids, but I think Aiden could start listening to them now :o)

Seeds Family Worship is recommended by Missy on itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com. The link is a good review of their music, written in true Missy style. They also seem good for older kids....like 7-8 and up, but I'm not sure. I've only listened to a couple songs on their website.

I also really liked Will.I.Am's song on Sesame Street, but he looked really bored while singing it. But it still liked it. Jason Mraz and Bruno Mars did a better job at looking like they wanted to be there, but I didn't like their songs as well.

So that's what we're listening to here. What do you like to play for your kids?

"Do the 10 commandment boogie, the boogie, the boogie, the ten commandment boogie...."

Books I plan to read in 2012

As I mentioned before, I want to read at least 24 books in 2012. I've broken my list down into 3 categories: Marriage/Family, Self-Improvement/Christian, and Fiction/Memoirs. These, with the exception of #1, are not necessarily in the order I will be reading them in:
Marriage/Family
1. Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old  - I actually started reading this on January 30th....but I'm still counting it for 2012. It was recommended by babyshrink.com and so far it is right on for Aiden. I love it because we've been going through the "terrible twos" with Aiden and he's only 15 months!! I call it the "ornery ones."
2. The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity
3. Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches
4. The Husband Project: 21 Days of Loving Your Man--on Purpose and with a Plan
5. Rekindling the Romance: Loving the Love of Your Life

Self-Improvement/Christian
6. One of Us Must Be Crazy. . .and I'm Pretty Sure It's You: Making Sense of the Differences That Divide Us
7. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
8. Have a New You by Friday: How to Accept Yourself, Boost Your Confidence & Change Your Life in 5 Days
9. The Money Saving Mom's Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
10. Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment
11. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
12. Influence: Science and Practice
13. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
14. Networking Magic: Find the Best - from Doctors, Lawyers, and Accountants to Homes, Schools, and Jobs
15. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Fiction/Memoirs
16. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales
17. Wonderstruck
18. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
19. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel
20. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman
21. Fool: A Novel
22. A Prayer for Owen Meany\
23. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: A Novel
24. The Help

Since my other goal is to read one to two chapters a day, I hopefully will have room to add more books. I started reading the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith in July 2011, and have really enjoyed the 2 I've read so far. He recently came out with the 8th installment, so I need to catch up!

And in case you're wondering how I plan on getting all of these books, Crystal at moneysavingmom.com wrote a great article about getting books for free. We also have an awesome library here in Moline, which I plan to take advantage of this year. I've gotten a few books from there, but I'm hoping most of the above listed books will come from there. Wish me luck!

Word Vomit

Word vomit. A phrase I heard for the first time while watching Mean Girls in 2004. The best way to describe it is this: the overwhelming,sometimes uncontrollable, sensation to say something you should not say. Something stupid, or something that could get you or someone you love into trouble.

I've dealt with word vomit a lot in my life, and over the years have learned to control it...mostly. Walking away helps. Smiling, biting lip, changing the subject...all are helpful. Walking away works best, though. But sometimes it is uncontrollable and you say something stupid. Something that, as soon as it's said you want to put your head in your hands and say, "Why? Why stupid human?" Then you have to do damage control and it's a big hassle, which is why I've learned to walk away. I've also developed a sort of mantra that I say to myself when word vomit might strike. I say, "Is it worth it? Will more harm than good come from my saying something? If even only a little harm will come, is it worth ruining this relationship?" 9 times out of 10, the answer is no. A big, huge 'NO NO NO.'

My word vomit normally comes from someone saying something stupid inappropriate or offensive, and I have to ask myself my questions. The older I get, the more I realize my time is worth more to me than wasting it on being angry or causing conflict about something that I won't remember next week, next month, or next year. I've wasted too much time already.

And, of course, when I get really riled up, I can always resort back to the age-old question of "Would Jesus say something, Katelyn?" and the answer is, majority of the time, 'no.' A big, fat 'no.'

Are you a victim of word vomit? What are your strategies for overcoming it?

Goals for 2012

I think it was last year when I had lunch with two friends and "resolutions" were brought up. I brought up my usual disdain for this time of year, since it seemed so dishonest and self-destructive in a way. I had always watched people make unachievable resolutions and then get angry when they realized they couldn't reach their goal, or I'd see people decide to start the year off right by not committing a crime*. Hence my bleak outlook on resolutions. (*After writing this, I realize my parents should have given me money instead of allowing me to work with the people I did....)

Anyway, they brought up how the first of the year isn't necessarily about striving to completely makeover your life, but instead about reviewing the previous year and finding ways to improve what is improvable. Those that make such unattainable goals were trying to speed up a process that should be taken slowly, which is why they often fail. And for those who start the year off by not committing a crime...well, they're not really understanding the point, either (although, not committing crimes is good!). The point, I believe, is to search your heart and prayerfully enter the new year with achievable goals that will make you a better Christian, parent, spouse, friend, etc. It's about having your priorities in order and striving to be better because you aren't yet. And you may never be "your best," but the first of the new year is a good time to evaluate and act.

I made a private, simple resolution, or goal, this time last year. I hadn't made a resolution (other than the "I'm going to lose weight" one that never really sticks) in years, but decided I would try it and see how it went. My goal was to use the outline for prayer that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6:9-13 and pray at least once a week. I've struggled with prayer for a long time, not understanding how it works, or what God does with it, but I needed to try this. And I am happy to report that  did. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to any of the questions I had when I started, but I can tell you my anxious heart had a lot more peace this year. And honestly, that's worth more to me than answers that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Since I was able to stick to a resolution this year, I decided to be a bit more adventurous for 2012 and have more than one goal. Here's the list I've come up with:
read the Bible through
finish projects I start (I am SO bad about this! Hopefully our wedding book (over 3 yrs ago) and Aiden's baby book (he's 15 months) will be done this time next year!!!!)
Read at least two chapters from a book per day
Read at least 24 books (list to come later this week)
Be in bed by 9pm 5x a week
Wake up by 7:30 5x a week
Exercise at least 30 min per day 5x a week
Not have the tv on while Aiden is awake, except for the Today show and Nightly News with Brian Williams
Do daily chores (I'll write more about this soon)
Budget budget budget (more on this later, too)

In order to help with accountability, I plan on blogging about how I'm doing with these goals from time to time (this is my online journal, after all).

Good luck to you all with your goals for this year. Have a safe and blessed 2012!

Best Christmas Present Ever (Not!!)

A couple weeks ago I went out to my garage and found a HUGE box delivered by UPS. It was for my brother, I assumed it was our Christmas present. I texted him, "What the heck did you get us?!!?"
"Something awesome."
"Something huge!!!"
In hindsight, he probably thought I was nuts.
So he gets to our house on Christmas Eve, and he, Daniel, and my dad lug this huge box into our basement. He goes to my mom and says, "I don't understand why it's so big and heavy. It should be smaller than that..."
Christmas morning we go downstairs (since no one wanted to carry it up) and start opening the box. I see a packet of paper that says something like "Video Instruction Manual blah blah."
"Brandon! We need video instructions for what you bought us?!" I looked at the packet of papers, and I could make out what it said underneath the top page: Refrigeration unit for Kegerator*. Kegerator. "BRANDON!!!!!! YOU BOUGHT US A KEGERATOR?!!? WHY!!!!"
"What!? I did not buy you a kegerator!!! I bought you an old-fashioned popcorn machine!!!!"
So Brandon called Walmart on Monday to get the mess straightened out, and found out someone got a popcorn maker instead of a safe. So someone who was expecting a safe got popcorn maker, someone who was expecting a kegerator got a safe, and we got a kegerator.
Wow, Walmart. Wow.
The most hilarious part of the whole thing is when my brother was on the phone with Walmart, he told them he bought the popcorn maker for us since my husband is a youth minister and he thought it would be good for youth group activities. The woman might have peed herself from laughter.
Happy Holidays!!!
*For those who do not know, a kegerator is a refrigeration system for a keg. Of beer.

It's been a while

I redid this blog. I felt very limited in the way I first set it up because I was only giving recipes from other blogs/websites and I was getting bored with it all. So, I decided to make it a journal instead (obviously...check the title haha). So this is just an update to say more to come!