Ten for 2010!

1. For some reason, my hair started having lots of natural wave this year.  And I love it!
2. I learned to cut Daniel's hair - and mostly the attempts have been successful.
3. Motherhood from 0-60 MPH!
4. Mommy intuition.  Wasn't sure how this was going to work, but I finally got it!
5. VBS preschool director - another 0-60 MPH experience
6. The Grand Canyon
7. Working, then not working (outside the house at least) and figuring out how to be at home all the time
8. Leading to chatty "lonely mom" syndrome whenever I see anyone - didn't know it was going to be this bad...
9. Loving my Keurig coffee maker and Crock pot even more THIS year!
10. And the best....our new baby girl!

Tales for 2010: Remembering the moment...

...that our lives changed!

Driving down the road on that Wednesday night, and I got the call:  you guys have been chosen; you are getting your baby as early as Friday!  [It ended up that our Gotcha Day was Monday, so we had a little extra time....]   I "abandoned" my dinner plans with friends that night and turned around and drove home.  Daniel asked what was wrong - why was I already home?  I was in shock and smiling so much.  It was happening.  The day was here.  It was happening soon.  It was happening NOW!
We panicked with joy and paced around planning, calling, thinking...  What to do?  What to do first?
That night we picked a name as we went to sleep.  And the next day I quit my wonderful job - to start a new one so very soon!  And we registered for our new FAST arrival!  Our friends and family were so wonderful with their excitement, gifts, love and joy.  I feel like many of them have been on this journey with us for the longest time.  And I'm so glad that we got to share this wonderful, happy time with them!

The registry worked as a "needs" (and of course wants) list for us.  I had been thinking when the time finally came for our adoption, that I would have time to make lists and a plan.  But there was NO time!  It was make a fast decision and go with it.  And thinking back, I'm kind of glad that there wasn't time to be all wishy-washy.  Because sometimes I do have a decision making problem.  I'm working on it.  And having just a weekend to get an entire nursery together, I think I learned how.  Don't allow myself time to think about it!  And that was probably one of the first of SO MANY lessons I've learned about myself, caring for a baby, motherhood and parenting this year.

So the rest of the weekend, we got the nursery all ready to bring our little girl home!  And on Monday, when we went with our family to meet her, the room was ready!  Diapers in the drawer, clothes in the closet.  Everything washed.  I wasn't surprised that I got everything done, but I was amazed.  It's amazing how different that week and the last week were!

God was amazing in all this.  In the long journey, He was faithful to lead us to where we needed to be.  He gave us peace and patience.  Maybe more patience that I would have wanted, but His perfect timing was so evident in the timing and the way that it all happened this summer.  Daniel had a four week sabbatical from work in June, when we took our great trip to the southwest.  And after getting back on Monday night, two days later we received that amazing call from our social worker, WHILE Daniel was still on his sabbatical.  When we got the baby - he had two weeks left on his month-long break.  That was totally God providing in a way that couldn't be planned.  And this provision was so evident throughout the whole adoption process.

Making on... Monday: Christmas dinner and fave of 2010

This year, I made Christmas dinner (well lunch, really) for my parents who came to us this year.  It was so nice to be at home for baby's first Christmas.  I have made a big lunch for the past three years now, but this was the first time that I cooked for my parents.  Actually, the first time ever to cook a meal totally by myself for them.  Amazing!  And we all really enjoyed it - and the leftovers too! 

We had a ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mixed veggies, peas, rolls, jello and chocolate mousse cake for dessert!  

I think my favorite things that I made this year were gift bags.  These are two from Christmas present-wrapping this year.  It's something that I've been wanting to learn how to do for a while.  And I did a few a few months ago, and with trial and error (and ripping) figured out the best way to do it.  And now I can make various sizes too!  I've now made several so it's getting easier and more fun.  Still messy though. 

Blessing & Gratitude: Thinking back on 2010

This year has had so many blessing.  So many changes too.  It almost feels like three different times in my life.  And I'm thankful for all of them!

At the beginning of the year, I was still working.  And thinking back on that, I really loved my job, the people that I worked with and worked for!  I was there almost 9 years before leaving to stay at home with the baby.  And I have such good friends there (present tense!)  I am so grateful for the time that I worked there and those wonderful friends, people that mean so much to me still.

And I am really grateful for the new friends that I made this year at my church.  I really wanted to get involved more, but sometimes hanging out with the ladies of the church (read: mostly moms) just hurt too bad.  But at the beginning of the year, I just jumped into a Bible study - my great work schedule allowed for that - and I am so glad that I did.  God really gave me the encouragement and peace to do that.  And then I went on a beach trip with the ladies at church.  It was a rough weekend at first, but the way God opened my heart and allowed me to meet and get to know so many people was amazing.  I made such great friends on that trip!

This summer, I had prayed that I would meet more people at church, be able to be active and make new friends - and just days after that prayer, I volunteered (well I WAS volunteered) to lead in Vacation Bible School.  I had done so many summers of VBS at my church growing up, but this was my first at our new church.  I loved being involved.  And I was amazed at the strength and joy that God gave me to be around so many children, before our little blessing came along...  And working that week at church really got me into the children's ministry and introduced me to many people that work regularly with the kids.  Which was a wonderful blessing for what happened just a few weeks later.

A week after doing VBS at church, we went on our amazing trip to the southwest.  I've never been out that direction and the Grand Canyon was one of the "last frontiers" of our country that I want to see (at least in the lower 48).  And it was amazing.  I love seeing the beauty of natural wonders of God's creation.  It really was even more amazing than I ever could have imagined.

And the amazing continued in June, when only 2 days after we had been home from our summer vacation, that we found out that we were getting our little girl - in FOUR days.  We had so much joy, anticipation, questions, wonder and amazement - that it was happening right now!!!  That our lives were going to change forever, so quickly.  But really that we had been waiting so long for this moment.  The days and years of our longing to become parents, for me to be a mother, were finally over.  The day was HERE!  What an amazing blessing and joy to bring our wonderful baby girl home.  I am so thankful every day for how God moved in our adoption, in our hearts, in our lives!  We want to enjoy every minute!

This Christmas was, of course, baby's first Christmas.  The Christmas seasons in the past have been joyous, but tinted with a sadness and a longing .  But we have our little one to share it with now.  Daniel said that this was the best Christmas ever.  I do agree.  And I praise God for the blessings big and small that He has given to us this year.

"Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."  Luke 2:19

Systematic Saturday: New year's goals

So here are my goals for the 2011 year.  I like to have a idea of how I want to enjoy my life more and do some things that are on my ongoing "list" - and if they are goals, even to use the word resolutions - then they are kind of more on my mind. I am ending this year so differently than I started it.  As a mother, as a stay at home mom.  And even very different personally than I was, which I guess with a major life change like that, it's bound to happen.
This year, I am sort of copying from the Unclutterer blogger/website - from her goals of 2010.  I like the format, and really even the goals, but kind of modified for me!  (oh and I love that blog - and her book!)

So I'm going to work on my goals quarterly.
1) The first being to get going and start on those things that I have been putting off for a while. Or the things that I really just WANT to do, and just haven't for some reason/excuse or another.  I have some corners in my house that need attending.  I have some books I have wanted to read.  I want to start (back) running.  I want to get back to knitting and "crafting" things regularly.  So why not start with motivation at the beginning of the new year?!

2) And so the next quarter is going to be FINISH it.  I'm going to make sure that some projects that I start get finished.  I'm notorious for being a two-thirds kind of person.  (or even sometimes just a one-third person).  I give up on a book - I have so many books with a bookmark somewhere near the middle.  And several knitting projects that are many rows in, but don't really resemble anything yet.  This is something that I really need to and want to work on.  And not just because I'm starting stuff in the first quarter.  But I need to learn how to finish.  Or just realize that I don't want to finish and just give it up!

3 & 4) The last two quarters of the year will be - trying new things and - nurturing.  I'm still thinking about which one will be first.   New things:  still to be determined.  Guess I'll know when I see it.  And nurturing:  this is from that blog - she thought about the things that are the most important (people, really) and did special things to nurture those relationships.  So I thought that was a really good one - and interesting.

Thursday Three: Getting motivated

1) Next week blog - special 2010 year end blogging

2) Baby's first Christmas!!!!

3) Thinking about goals for the new year.

Tales for Tuesday: Google TV

Today we got something that Daniel has been looking at for a while.  Google TV.  It basically hooks up your TV to the internet.  That's all I really need to know.  It's pretty cool now... searching the internet for videos online - tv, movies, whatever's out there (although many places are blocked...for now).  And eventually - like in the next few months - more things are going to be open to it, say, like Hulu.  Pretty soon it should be awesome, not just cool!  So this is hopefully going to eventually diminish the amount of TV that I watch - mainly just having it on for no reason during the day.
Also, it links quickly and easily to Pandora, which I have been enjoying recently!  So just having some music on during the day is going to be refreshing.
And just for fun... I did this blog on the keyboard that is really the remote for the new system.  So I'm just lounging on the couch, blogging on my TV! Fun!

Making on... Monday

This weekend, I did some crafting - Christmas gifts for friends and family...  And it was so much fun to get out my supplies.  They haven't seen the light of day much since the baby arrived!  But I am SO glad that (last year) I had decided to organize and pare down my supplies.  It made it much easier to dive right in!

Tonight for dinner - I made a Chicken Enchilada Casserole from the emealz for this week.  It sounded really good.  But when I got it out of the oven, it was more soupy chicken than enchilada.  But then it somehow all came together as more of a casserole and was really yummy.  I wasn't so sure what was going to happen when I caught my first glimpse of it fresh out of the oven....

Thursday Three: Christmas is near...

1) I love the cold weather! And that means it's hat weather - and I'm loving wearing my knit hats! But I'm not so much liking the static!  Everyone in the house is shocking each other!

2) Shopping online... So much easier & fun to get boxes delivered to the house.  Instead of going to the gifts, they come to me!

3) Christmas music music, decorations & jingle bells, which are baby's favorite!

Wednesday Words of Wisdom

Something I heard Laura Story sing - and some of what she said about the song before she sang (paraphrased by me...):

"...what if your blessings come through raindrops

What if your healing comes tears

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?"

She asked the congregation if anyone's life was JUST like they had planned it, just how they thought it would be.   And that life that you planned, was it really what you wanted?  That everything that comes in your life is filtered through the loving hands of God.

I had a "plan" for my life - and no, my life didn't turn out at all what I planned.  And I do think, I KNOW, that even though there was pain to get here - and there probably will be pain in the future - that my life is filled with blessings from God.  Blessings that I could never have even imagined, when I was "planning" my life.  And the wonderful blessings and joys of my life, filtered through the hands of God, are greater and more amazing than my feeble mind could have planned. 

Tales for Tuesday: The Fridge

Last week the refrigerator started making a humming noise.  And then it got a little louder.  So Daniel did some research online and came up with an option.  We could unplug the fridge for about 24-48 hours and see if the probable ice on the motor would melt.  OR we could schedule a repair.  Even though I really didn't want to wait for the repair guy and deal with all that, let alone pay someone for the visit, I voted repairman.  The weekend was getting closer, and after the unplugging time, it would be the weekend and I didn't want to get into a situation of "oh, we should have called..."

So Daniel found this place online that you can "register" for a call for an appointment.  And they called me first thing the next morning and were SO nice.  Really friendly and helpful.  And they said that they had someone that could come THAT afternoon!  Wow!  

So the repair guy came that afternoon - in the window (the small window!) that they gave me.  And he was so nice too.  I was thinking that, if the people that answer the phones are that nice, that maybe it is the whole company.  And I was right!  Amazing!  

Well, he couldn't fix it that day. The problem was in the freezer.  And there is a part that has to be ordered.  But he did say, that if we had waited much longer - like a day or two - that the ice would have burned out the motor.  That would have meant more parts to fix, more expensive and probably NO fridge for at least a few days.  But he scraped out all the ice in the freezer, around and behind and from EVERYWHERE.  He got out three HUGE chunks of ice.  Here is one of them, next to a peanut butter jar for size comparison.  No wonder the freezer was making such a noise!

Making on... Monday: On a roll

So I decided not to go to the grocery store last week.  We got a little behind on the meals that I had planned for the past two weeks, so I decided that we would just eat through what we had in the house.  And this weekend, it was crescent roll weekend!  Crescent dogs.  Crescent pizza roll ups.  I had lots of crescent rolls hanging out in the fridge.
This week, back to cooking new meals - and probably nothing to do with crescent rolls.  And I am looking forward to cooking Christmas dinner.  We are going to start some traditions this year - Christmas at home and baby's first Christmas!

Wednesday Wares: Steam Mop

So for Black Friday, I usually go out shopping pretty early - say about 5 or 6 - and drag Daniel with me.  He's more than willing to go, just maybe not one of his favorite things to do...  This year, with the baby, I just didn't think that dragging her along for the ride was going to be that great.  I decided on one store - Target - made a specific list for Daniel and he went out and got the loot.  Up at 5 and back - with a peppermint mocha for me - at 6:30.  This was a pretty cool way to do it, I thought.  He was already awake anyway.  Much more of a morning person than I'll ever be.  So me and baby slept, while he shopping.
I do like going out on Black Friday - with all the busyness and the shopping - it gets me in the Christmas mood.  I did do a little shopping on that Saturday - solo.  It was fun to get out a little.
So...about the title.  One of the things that I got was a steam mop.  I thought it was going to be pretty cool - for the kitchen and the hardwoods.  It is even better than I thought.  Clean, dry in seconds and no chemicals!  Love it!