Last year at I posted one of my most popular posts ever when I talked about resolutions and goals for the next year. (If you want a reminder here it is) I talked a little about making goals that were motivated by peer pressure and feelings of inadequacy. I made three goals for the year 2011. So the question for today is did I do it?
Well, I can say with certainty that I tried to avoid judging myself through others peoples eyes. So number one is a success.
The second resolution well it was much harder. I am horrible at not judging myself and in loving who I am. I am very self critical to the point that sometimes I spend all day stressing out about things. It's a flaw, a huge one.... and I guess another thing to add to this list. I have a horribly hard time accepting who I am as who I am supposed to be, in every aspect of life. I am constantly seeing what "might" be and never appreciating what is there. So I guess that means that number two was a failure is a work in progress.
Number three. Well I tried. I really tried to be more helpful and friendly and to hold my tongue more when I wanted to give someone a piece of my mind. I know I wasn't successful 100% of the time, but I hope that I was at least most of the time.
All in all I think that 2011 was a wonderful year and a success. I am blessed to have the family and friends who love me for me even when I struggle to do so. So thank you to everyone in my life who helped to make this an amazing year.
1. Will you be hosting any house guests between now and the end of December? Does that thought make you happy or crazy? Do you do anything special for your guests to make them feel at home? How long should a house guest stay?
No, I'm not going to have any guests in my home this year for Christmas. My husbands parents came here for Thanksgiving. For Christmas my family is packing up and heading out to Texas. I can't wait!
2. Walter Elias Disney was born this week (December 5) back in 1905 ...what's your all time favorite Disney movie? Here's a list in case you're struggling...and yes, you have to pick one.
Sleeping Beauty. Without question. I love it. Not that I don't love a million other Disney movies, but if I had to pick just one that would be it.
3. What was the last thing you purchased that you realized was a mistake after the fact?
Apples from Sam's Club. Every.single.apple was bruised beyond use. I couldn't even cut off the bad parts to use the good for baking they were so far gone.
4. What percentage of your Christmas shopping is done online?
This year I only bought one thing online and it was from this etsy store. The Plum Pin Cushion she makes beautiful stuff. You really should go check it out. The rest of my gifts were purchased from home show businesses like Pampered Chef, Usbourne books, and Scentsy.
Amaryllis, I have fond memories of getting it as a bulb and watching it grow during the Christmas season. Something about watching a beautiful bloom come to life in the middle of the snow is amazing. Although for that reason I guess I sort of like all of them.
6. What is one thing on your personal Christmas wish list? I think we all want peace on earth so let's make this answer an actual item.
My Christmas wish is to know when and if we are EVER going to leave Vegas.... ever.
7. If you could only use one word today what would it be?
Coffee....
8. Insert your own random thought here.
P-nut has been sick with one of her signature raging fevers. Nighttime is long.....
How many of you still sometimes say wed-nes-day that way when you are spelling it? I do.
1. Do you send Christmas cards? If so about how many will you send this year? How do you display the cards you receive? Or don't you? (gasp!)
Yes! I love sending and receiving cards. I tend to go the traditional card route with a picture and a letter enclosed. I will probably send about 150 depending on when I have spent my budget. I love displaying the cards that we receive however I have a hard time with how. I just haven't found a way that is perfect to me.
2. When do kids become adults?
Legally at 18, historically at 13-15 (scary to think about now isn't it?) in a mothers eyes never.
3. Does your 'beauty regimen' change with the seasons?
Yes and no. Bwahahaha I love ambiguous answers. I have horrid skin, it seems to be breaking out more as I get older not less. So I have been changing to a new "solution" about every 4-6 months, which is pretty much with the seasons. I just started a new one that is cleansing with oil. I actually love it so far. I can't say that it is working any better or worse than any of the other 57 (yes I've counted) things I've tried but for some reason I feel better about it than I have in a while.
4. What's something you like to eat that might cause another person to turn up their nose?
On a regular basis? V8, or grits. At Christmas I crave vienna sausages, microwaved and put on warm rolls. Really strange considering I am not a fan of hotdogs or any other chopped and packed meat. But it's what we ate every Christmas morning when we had Christmas with my Dad's family. So I think about it a lot this time of year,
5. Gloves or mittens?
Neither. I hate them both, if I HAVE to pick it would be gloves. But I don't need them here in the desert and I barely used them in the snowy skiing type town I grew up in. 6. What's the longest queue you've ever been in? Was it worth it? Queue=line but doesn't queue sound nicer?
I love the word queue. I miss hearing it. Other than the fact that it was at 2:00 in the morning I actually enjoyed the line I waited in in Kohl's on Black Friday. The people around us were nice and fun and it made the hour long wait seem much better.
7. Besides Christmas, what is one thing you are looking forward to in the month of December?
Seeing my family. As a military family I rarely have the chance to attend large family gatherings and this year I will get to see a lot of cousins who I haven't seen in a while. Some just a few years, one family more than 12.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
Two things, one was that I spent the month of November starting each day with something I was thankful for and posting it on Facebook. It was an amazing experiment, it really helped me to start each day out on the right note by looking at my blessings instead of the issues I anticipated. It was awesome.
The second is, I have started another blog dedicated to the interesting things that my kids say, I have started adding things from other kids, it's cute and funny, and since I'm being honest sometimes a little shocking. Feel free to head over there for a giggle and also to submit any kid-ism's you may have, the more the merrier.
1. Let's start with something controversial...dressing or stuffing? What's it called at your house and what's included in your recipe...cornbread? oysters? sausage? chestnuts?
I call it stuffing but I never ever stuff it into the bird. My recipe is a basic cornbread and herb that has been in my family for YEARS.
2. Who do you sometimes compare yourself to?
Everyone. I am a comparer and frequently find myself lacking. I'm working on it, but it is a huge struggle for me.
3. When were you last inside an airport?
When the whole family was coming home from a Spring Break trip to South Carolina. The trip home was good, but the trip there was an....adventure.
4. What is one side dish that absolutely must be included in a turkey dinner?
See question 1. Stuffing, absolutely without a doubt. I could go without anything else but just stuffing and turkey.
5. What Christmas song do you dread hearing?
Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer..... my husband loves it.... I hate it.
6. If someone approaches you and asks for money do you give it to them? Do you drop money 'in a tin cup' that belongs to a person on the street? Do you have a specific charity you support during the holiday season and/or year round?
Sometimes, it will depend on where they are, and how often I see them there and how they ask and what I have. I also have given food and other stuff too. I support Salvation Army, and usually the Angel Tree program, and the Shoeboxes that get sent to Africa. We also usually adopt an Airmen who cannot get home to be with family.
7. Share a favorite Thanksgiving memory. If you live in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving share a favorite memory associated with food.
I loved the fancy Thanksgivings that we had with my Dad's family when I was growing up. Something about being trusted with china and crystal at the age of 6 makes you feel really special and important.
8. Insert your own random thought here.
So many thoughts so little time. :-) We are hosting a multi family Thanksgiving dinner here this year. I am not very stressed at all and that is sort of scaring me.
1. What song reminds you of a specific time in your life and what is it about that song that makes you remember? I identify strongly with music, it takes very little for a song to take me to another place in time. The hardest part of this is going to be picking just one song. So I will go with the one that has been in my head for the last couple of weeks and will probably stay there for a long time. I sang this song as a part of my Universities Choral Christmas program which is amazing and this song has the ability to transport me to a calm and peaceful place.
2. What's something you've given up on? Something I have given up on? Do I want to answer this one with a joke or with something serious? Ok, for the joke, I have given up on sun tanning. Actually I should have given this up years ago. Beyond the fact that it is not healthy for you at all. I am very Nordic in my coloring, so it really is a bad plan for me. If it isn't fake my color is either white or red.
For something serious I have given up on. I have given up on being in control of my life. Between the knowledge that I need to let God be in charge and the reality that my life is controlled by the military I have had to let go of that need to be in charge.
3. What's something you'll never give up on?
Family, and the friends who are like family. I will never let them go and I will never let them give up on themselves.
Health, I will never give up on my health and doing what I can to take care of that as best I can.
4. If you had to cook something from scratch in the next hour what would it be?
Let's see I currently have the ingredients for potato soup, spaghetti bolgonaise, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chicken and rice casserole, peanut butter balls, and I think that's it that would count as from scratch. If I had to choose one to make right now it would probably be potato soup. 5. Have you started Christmas shopping? Decorating? Listening to Christmas music?
Started? I'm pretty much finished. I still need a few things to finish the girls gifts but that is pretty well done. I also will have a few gifts for random things like white elephant exchanges and gift exchanges with friends, but I am done with everything else. Decorating? Nope, I refuse to until after Thanksgiving. I love fall decorations. Listening? Same as before, one holiday at a time here. 6. What do you know about your parent's wedding?
With my Father and Mother. I know where it was held, I've been there, I know what they wore and who was in it. I know how long after they met that they had it. I love to look at the pictures and hear the stories. I am a sucker for weddings and would listen to the stories all the time.
With my Mom's current husband, I know everything about it, I was in it. I helped to plan parts of it. So that's easy.
7. I can't believe I ___________________.
.... don't have ANY pictures of just DH and I together with him in his uniform since our first date. Yes you read that right. So I think that is something that needs to be fixed. 8. Insert your own random thought here.
I read this on Pinterest the other day and I love it.
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; It was never between you and them anyway. - Blessed Mother Teresa
This week is all about easy to prepare, warm, comforting foods. However my goal is to make sure that it is healthy instead of starting to pre-pack on the holiday pounds. I attempted to start couponing this week. Well let me tell you, it was a failure. I managed to save $40 according to my receipt, however I spent twice as much as I have been spending per shopping trip, so I am thinking that maybe I need to just keep up what I am doing.
So here are the meals in no particular order, mostly. We have a busy weekend with 5 extras so those meals are specifically set aside for that day.
My Mom. I love to cook and bake and I'm a pretty good one if I do say so myself.
2. Have you been told you think too much? Are too much of a perfectionist? Are too sensitive? Were they right?
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Well sort of I think that I think things through and expect them to be done correctly if at all possible and that I have a soft side, but I don't think I am TOO any of those things any more than my brother is TOO adventurous or my husband is TOO friendly. It is just a part of what makes each of us ourselves.
3. As a child did you have a favorite blanket or toy? Tell about it.
As a young child I had a yellow blanket named DD. Actually I still have it, it's in a box of childhood memories up in the top of my closet.
4. What 'institution' do you have the most faith in?
Institution? Ummmm I'll think about it and if I come up with something edit later. Perhaps it is the lack of caffeine at this early time of the morning but I can't think of any institution that I have a great amount of faith in right now. I have a lot of faith in people and their desire for the best for themselves and those they care about and I have Faith.
5. Chrysanthemums-pansies-burning bush-ornamental cabbage...your favorite in an autumn garden?
Mums. Mostly because I have never had any other others in a fall garden. Pansies say spring to me, but something about a thick group of rust and gold chrysanthemums makes me thing of Fall every time.
6. What superpower do the kids in your neighborhood seem to posses?
Well, they are all pretty good at falling and getting right up again. We have a large number of kids who have some gracefulness issues, but it never stops any of them, they just bounce right back up and keep playing. Oh that and they all seem to possess louder than normal voices. My own children might be the worst in this group.
7. Are you a fan of the cranberry?
Yes! I love cranberry, juice, sauce, compote, jelly, bread, dried. Yum!
8. Insert your own random thought here.
Every random thought I have right now is too grumpy to share with the world. I really should try and do Hodgepodge at night when I am in a better mood. :-)
