The Return of the Goal-Of-The-Week

My goal this week is to de-clutter the main floor of my house.
Next week's goal is to de-clutter the basement.
Week three is to de-clutter the garage.

I've already gone through a basket-full of papers and organized them into piles. That's a big accomplishment.

Here are a few highlights:
From the back seat I hear Asa exclaim: Look! A bus school!

Asa often requests something for dinner. In the morning.

That's all I've got. Maybe there will be more blogs soon! Maybe.

Lent

This year during Lent I've been doing something a little different. A good friend gave me a little packet with weekly suggestions. I thought this would go along great with my weekly goals. (They do still exist and I'm going to write a book about how it changes your life. I will be famous.) Each of the last three and a half weeks I have given up something. The first week was sweets, second week: meat, third week was media: TV & the radio.
Pause. You're wondering why I'm doing this. You're asking, "Is she Catholic?" No. I'm not. Then why observe Lent? Well, I think it's a good time to restart. To focus. To examine myself. If I'm supposed to be living like Christ, how am I doing? Not so great. Time to realize my priorities. Time to figure out what is really taking up my time. I want these 40 days to be a journey. I want to come out different than I entered.
How am I doing?
I was tempted most with week one. It wasn't just sweets. It was sweets, treats & self indulgences. Buy nothing for yourself. Nothing you don't need. That was pretty hard. What did I learn? I'm pretty selfish. Many times during the week I said to myself, "Nope. You're not allowed to buy that. Stop looking at it."
Anyhow, week two was tricky. I was supposed to pick a food category or a meal to fast for the week. I chose meat. That makes it hard to plan meals, especially when the husband doesn't eat veggies! It wasn't really a craving, just something I had to work around.
Week 3 was mostly difficult when I was driving by myself to the grocery store or something. No radio. Just sit and think. Pray. Watch out for other drivers! It also was a nuisance for James. No TV to unwind at the end of the day! We played a game one night. Rummikub.
This week is a fast from the internet and social networking. HOLY COW! That is hard. I will have to use the internet some because of some church communications that can't be ignored for a week! I think this week will be my biggest challenge yet.

Saturday Breakfast

I made apple muffins for breakfast this morning. Delicious! You can get the recipe here.

After breakfast, Asa asked to paint. He got his wish.

Here are his finished products:
Judah also wanted to paint.

These are Judah's creations:

This evening James and I went on a date. It was pretty romantic. We first took James' first trip to Cargo Largo. He wasn't exactly impressed. Then we ate at Joe's Crab Shack. We've been there before but I don't remember so much dancing by the wait staff. It was entertaining! One waiter near us seemed to not have so much fun dancing. I wonder if he knew about that when he applied for the job. After the seafood, we went to a new Christian bookstore just down the street. We had a good time just being together without screaming children!

Asa is Three!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Asa's third birthday. I saw a recipe in Family Circle for cute monkey cupcakes so we decided to go with a monkey theme. I invited too many people for a little boy's third birthday party, but we had a lot of fun!

First we ate pizza:

Next we had some cake:

Asa loved it when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He screamed in excitement!

Blow out your candles:

Craft time:

Presents:

And finally a little video. We had chocolate chip pancakes the morning of Asa's birthday:

The Phoenix Sun

I hesitate to write about our stay in Arizona. It wasn't exactly a happy reason for a visit. However, it is always great to see family, especially when the distance is so great.
James' grandmother passed away Monday evening. James was with her along with his sisters, mom and grandpa. I'm sure grandma felt very loved. The next few days were busy with making arrangements. However, there were also lots of stories. Stories of young love and hard times during World War II. It's amazing to think of how different life was just a few decades ago. At the funeral, James did the eulogy; his sister sang and I played the piano for her. She sang "I Will Rise" by Chris Tomlin. She was telling us that someone had asked him to write a song to be sung at funerals to comfort families and that is the song that was produced. It was the perfect song to sing for Grandma.
In difficult times, the love of our family and friends gets us through. Although we were hundreds of miles away from my family and our friends, we felt loved. We appreciate the encouraging words and prayers so many offered.

Our Latest Adventure

Written 2/6/10:
James Grandma & Grandpa Stephenson live in Phoenix. It’s always great to visit them in warm, sunny Phoenix. Grandma hasn’t been doing very well recently and it’s become evident that we need to make the trip out to visit her. As I write, we’re loaded up in our van, driving through Oklahoma. It’s always a stress to get out of the house, but I felt like this time was one of the best. Our house is fairly clean, except for the living room and basement where the kids have destroyed everything! All the dishes are clean, all the laundry is done. It’s a nice feeling.
Written 2/8/10
Parts of the drive were very foggy. So foggy that west of Amarillo we couldn't see the lights of the wind turbines. The fog caused ice to form on the van's antenna. It was flopping back and forth like crazy as we drove. Texas has a night speed limit of 65. I rejoiced as we crossed into New Mexico and the speed limit went up to 75!
We've seen James' grandmother and it's sad to see her so frail. She has talked to us and was happy to see us. We had a great night of sleep last night. I slept for about ten hours. James and the boys slept for 12 or more hours! We're about ready to go visit Grandma & Grandpa again.

A Trifold Week

I have three goals for this week. The first encompasses the others.
1. Be productive- In general I need to do this every week. I struggle with laziness.
2. File our taxes- Cha ching!
3. Send out thank-you notes- It is sad how behind I am in this category. And Asa just had a birthday party so the list grows!

Oh, I'll add one more: blog about Asa's birthday party. It was a blast!