January Journeys.

I'm kind of sad that January has come to an end.  I always look forward to the time of deep reflection and introspection that January always naturally provides for me.  I think I was more productive this January than I have ever been and though I wasn't able to check off all my goals for the month, I definitely was blessed with extra strength to accomplish so much!

For starters, I did an in-depth study of my 2013 and handcrafted a vision for 2014, a path to follow, and specific goals to get me exactly where I want to be next year.  This process took me many, many hours, spaced out throughout the whole month so I could still be a mother as I reflected on my last year.  I've never looked so deeply into the lessons learned from a past year, and I feel a special tradition has begun--and I look forward with great anticipation to subsequent Januaries when I can engage in the process again.

Another memorable tradition we started was a monthly creative date night.  Back when we lived in Pocatello, I was really good at planning fun date nights for me and Patrick.  We had no money, but we sure enjoyed a lot of stay-at-home date nights when the boys were in bed.  I look back and wonder where I had all the time to plan a creative date every single week--and then I remember that the planning of these dates was what kept me sane during a very stressful, poor time of our lives.  It was a way to lose myself in love and service so I didn't focus on the budget, apartment, and schedule of graduate students.

But anyway, I wanted to bring back this tradition for good.  So I gave Patrick a Christmas present of creative date night envelopes--one for each month this year.  And January's was dinner and a movie. We ate at the Rumbi Grill and then went to see "Saving Mr. Banks."  It was such a wonderful afternoon.  It brought me back to our dating days.  I would say I miss those days, but I don't think I do too much.  Sure, it would be fun to go back for a day or two.  But my life now is so much richer with our family, and our relationship is so much stronger after passing through so many trials and happy times together.  No, I don't think I'd trade my life now for what I had then.  It's just so much fuller now. :)

This year (as you will see when I report about all of my goals for 2014) I have decided to fully organize and decorate my home, as well as finish our yard.  I was able to complete most of the Great Room and upstairs playroom and Theater right before Christmas, so this year, my goal is for the rest. For January I decided to conquer the Master Bedroom--and conquer I did!  I repainted a nightstand, desk, and hutch, and rearranged our bedroom furniture. And you should have seen me last Monday when I literally pulled every last thing out of our walk-in closet and every single thing out of our drawers and dumped everything on the bedroom floor in piles and heaps. I thought about taking a picture, but decided it looked too much like the aftermath of some catastrophic natural disaster! It took me three days to finish the organizing project--and I think I spent a total of 7 hours on it. Then yesterday we hung up more pictures in the Great Room and hung a wall of frames in the Master Bedroom as well. I bought the most beautiful floor lamp for our room, and am still waiting for our two nightstand lamps which should arrive by Wednesday. All I can say is that when this bedroom is finished, it will be GORGEOUS!

The last thing I've been focusing on during January is my health. Last Fall, I was able to speak with a holistic health practitioner who helped me learn how I could heal my stomach of my long-winded gastroparesis. I am so grateful the Lord saw fit in His infinite mercy to cure me of this "incurable" disease and bless me to learn how to keep my body and emotions healthy, strong and happy. I feel like my "old" self of health and happiness has returned but with a new spin because of the many challenges the Lord has helped me overcome. I have learned so much over the last decade, but my growth the last few months has truly been exponential. It is nothing short of a miracle. I know I will have many more such lessons to learn as I progress through this life, but I will be eternally grateful that the Lord has been so kind to me in blessing me with some of the greatest desires of my heart (namely: how to LOVE being a mother, how to wake up excited and happy for the coming day, how to lay aside worry and needless guilt, and how to feel energy all day long.) My life is SO GOOD and I attribute it all to my wise, kind, and loving Heavenly Father, and my Savior--my dearest friend, Jesus Christ. Truly, the sidewalks are sparkling again. :)

And with that being said, here are the last few pictures from January:

{This was our YM/YW activity last week---practicing dancing for the Gold and Green Ball this week. I can't even tell you how cute it was to watch them waltzing, swing dancing, and boot-scootin boogie-ing.  I took lots of videos and vowed that me and Patrick are going to learn to dance if it's the last thing we do.}

And so we did. Friday I planned a "Learn to Swing Dance" date night, and we turned on Youtube to start the lessons. I had a blast and I think Patrick did too. Dancing is such a lost art of a former generation, but it's one I want to preserve for myself if nothing else! I can't wait for the Gold and Green Ball now!!!

{Little Miss May and "Washwight")

Welcome February!!!! I can't wait for the surprises you will bring me. Together we will finish up the Master Bedroom and hopefully tackle the basement. I will keep "powering-up my health," making my family's foods healthier, continue working on Personal Progress with my Young Women (Divine Nature, here we come!), and spending a lovely simple Valentine's Day with my family. We'll also throw in a Festive Indoor Picnic, an indoor camping trip, and another Hotel Swim Trip! February, I love you already!!!! Let's create EVERY.DAY.

Today is Friday.

And I've been listening to Christmas music for a straight week-- Josh Groban, Cherie Call, David Tolk, David Archuleta, Dunn & Wilt, Jon Schmidt, Hilary Weeks, Kurt Bestor, Manheim Steamroller, Mark Harris, The Carpenters, Matt Wertz, James Taylor, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Brandon Heath, Owl City, and Rosie Thomas are among my favorites.  We have 481 Christmas songs to be exact!

I love this time of year.  I was considering today how Christmas is the only holiday with a million dedicated songs and two whole months to enjoy them.  I think it's pretty special.

Somehow, baking to the rhythm of the old familiar and new Christmas carols makes the entire experience almost magical.  I think I'm going to relish the holiday baking this year.

Weekend plans include pajama and popcorn party (which the littles and I just concluded) and a special stay-at-home date night I'm surprising my Patrick with.  I can't wait for the evening to begin!

Merry November!!

Choose Your Own Adventure...

Do you remember those books we all used to read growing up?  They were called Choose Your Own Adventure books and allowed you to choose how the story would turn out. I definitely read my fair share of them.

A while ago I won an exciting giveaway from Krista on While He Was Napping.

She has a lovely etsy shop with all kinds of fun things for great prices.

But my giveaway prize happened to be a fully personalized Choose Your Own Adventure Date.

The first thing Krista did was to send me a questionnaire so that she could customize the date for us.  She included questions about prices limits and activities you would enjoy doing.  I had so much fun filling out the questionnaire and wondered how my Adventure book would turn out to be.

This is what I found in my mailbox:

I absolutely LOVED the packaging, and though what's inside is more important, I was instantly impressed with the presentation!

I scoured the book from cover to cover as soon as I opened it.  I was thrilled to say the least.  She had written a perfect story that fit us like a glove.  Since it was a "stay-at-home" date, it was inexpensive and economical.  However, Krista is good at writing pricey dates too.  Like I mentioned before, Krista can customize your date to spend nothing or to spend extravagantly.  She is a gifted writer, as I found upon reading our book.

Plus, there was a bonus.  She threw in vinyl decals to be applied to goblets.  Those were also customizable.  I chose to have our initials.   (She had some other great ideas like "His" and "Hers" or "His Majesty" and "Her Majesty.")

She also included two lover's lotto cards...which are basically darling, handmade scratch cards.

Our evening was completely blissful.  I had so much fun planning our date as a surprise for Patrick.  And it was so easy to do since I already had the date night packaged for me!

Here are some pictures I snapped during the night.

Our Candlelight Dinner

Bowling

Our "Dance Floor"

And after it was over, I cried.  I know I'm silly, but I had such a wonderful night.   It was the best night we had had for such a long time and I was sad to see it end.

But then Patrick reminded me that we can do it again...and choose the other choices! :)

Thank you Krista, for giving us this "adventurous" date night.

You can see Krista's blog by clicking here and here is the link to her etsy shop.

Fireproof Date Night

As I was contemplating what to do for our weekly date night last Tuesday, I had some ideas begin to grow in my mind until they became a reality last Friday night.  This date could be customizable to anyone...it just takes a little creativity.

I decided that we would begin the night with some "Love Tasks" to earn some prizes.
I wrote down a whole bunch of tasks for both of us to complete.  Some of them were silly, some romantic.  If you want the whole list, leave a comment and I'll post again.

I glued them onto some random sheets of scrapbook paper and laminated them...this would be a super fun group date night!

Then I put the four prizes under some towels:

And I let my sweetie pick a prize for every three tasks completed well.
(For your info: two of the towels are hiding new shirts for Patrick, one of the towels had a box of bakery donuts, and the last towel was holding the movie Fireproof, which we ended our date night watching.) {I would highly recommend this movie.  It is about stengthening our marriages through the Lord.}

As part of our tasks, we had to commit to doing something from each of the Five Love Languages (a book we love by Gary Chapman).  I cut out 5 pairs of scrapbook squares and we wrote our commitments on them.  We didn't let each other see them.  Every month for the next 5 months, we will choose one, read it, and perform our commitment for each other.  I'm really excited for this!!

The last task wasn't a part of the task cards.  This one was a spouses scavenger hunt I created:

If you can't read the items, here they are:
Find something they love
Something they like
Something they just tolerate
and something they dislike
Find something they made
Something they bought
Something they found
And something they got...from you as a gift.

We each had ten minutes to locate everything on the list and put it in a grocery sack for sharing.

Here are some of my favorites:

Something we loved.

Things we made (I chose the boys for Patrick and Patrick chose the ribbon to represent making our house into a home...)
The picture of us represents what Patrick found....ME!

And this is Scarftot. (Yes, Easton named him).  He lost him for a long long time and was quite sad.  But earlier this particular morning I had found him in the dryer! Patrick chose him to represent something I had found. :)

And last, but not least, something we gave each other.

Ironically, we both chose the wedding present we had purchased for each each other.  It was kind of a precious moment when we realized that.