2018 Intentions

For 2018, I decided to go a different route and focus on myself...Body, Mind, and Soul.  I've set 6 intentions for each category with the hope to focus more on me.  I WANT and NEED an overall healthier ME!

Body:
1. Drink a Gallon of Water Every Day
2.Go to the YMCA 3x a Week
3. Get 8-10 hours of sleep every night (Head to bed by 10)
4. Eat at least 5 different Fruits/Veggies Each Day
5. Do Yoga with the Kids 1x a Week
6. Join Weight Watchers again (actually did this Dec 26th)

Mind:
7. Read 18 Books
8. Do More Journalling (Grateful)
9. Tech Free Tuesdays
10. Spend more time with friends
11. Revamp Finances and set new goals
12. Make a Vision Board

Soul:
13. Read the New Testament on my own
14. Pray the Rosary and have God Time to start each day
15. Finish Reading the Bible with the family (We are wrapping up the book of Ezra)
16. Make Blessing Bags
17. Write Weekly Bible Verses on my arm and in my notebook
18. Take a Vacation to the Beach (Planned for July)

How'd I do ~ 2017 Intentions

While there are technically a few days left this year, I thought it would be good to look back and my intentions.  2017 was the YEAR OF THE PURGE and boy did I purge.  I didn't keep up with everything on here but wow we got rid of a lot of stuff.  Boxes are unpacked from our move 2.5 years ago! 

2017 Intentions
1. Purge 17 areas of the house (see below) (16/17) Only one I didn't do was the shed
2. Read 17 books for me (16/17) I'm reading The Wisdom of Sundays so maybe I will finish it.
3. Read 17 Chapter books to the kids (17/17)
4. Purge 17 items each week and blog it (3/52) Purged like crazy, just didn't blog it.
5. Cross 17 things off of my 101 in 1001 list (14/17)
6. Have people over 17 times (17/17)
7. Go on 17 dates with Brian (9/17) This was majorly lacking this year!
8. Try 17 new recipes (17/17)
9. Purge 17 pounds (14/17) Just got on the scale last night and I've gained back it all..eek!
10. Run/Walk 170 miles (35/170)                              
11. Go to 17 new restaurants (8/17) Sandy's Pizza, BruBurger, McAllister's Deli, Smitty's Italian Steakhouse, La Campirana, Schaum's Pizzaria, Keith-A-que, TRex,  (and several others on vacation), 
12. Post 17 Homeschool Highlights (9/17)
13. Spend 17 hours Scrapbooking (0/17)
14. Work 170 hours in the yard PURGING (12/170) TOO MANY TO COUNT!
15. Pray the Rosary 17 times (17/17)
16. Pay It Forward 17 times (13/17) 
17. Purge Negativity by writing 17 posts about blessings in my life (13/17) Have four more drafts ready...

17 Areas of the House:
#1 Kitchen
#2 Hutch and Credenza
#3 Macie's Room
#4 Gavin's Room
#5 Lilah's Room
#6 Our Bedroom
#7 School Room
#8 Laundry Room
#9 Garage
#10 Game Closet
#11 Coat Closet
#12 Downstairs Bathroom
#13 Upstairs Bathroom
#14 Storage Shed
#15 All Attic Storage (Garage, Lilah's room, Macie's room, Our room)
#16 Aztec
#17 Buick


While it was a crazy year, I was able to accomplish a lot and hope to do a lot more in 2018!

#Blesssed

One of my 2017 Intentions was to write 17 posts about blessings in my life to help purge negativity.  I'm finally getting around to it in this #Blessed series. 

I am blessed to have a HARD WORK ETHIC.

Honestly, I think if you have a hard work ethic and a frugal mindset, you will make it in this world.  Of course, hard work doesn't mean things are easy, but I'm not afraid to work.  I've had 3 jobs at once before.  I often joke I have 15 jobs now, but none of them pay me!  I think too many people feel entitled or expect things to go their way.  At the end of the day, I know that I will work my hardest to get the job done!

I haven't always been blessed with good luck or everything falling perfectly into place for me.  If Brian and I hadn't worked our butts off and worked extra jobs, we wouldn't be in this house or have what we have.  Our hard work and frugal mindset has kept us debt free (except our house) despite all of the challenges and hardships we've faced.  I'm blessed and proud to say I'm a hard worker and will always be!  I hope to instill that in my kids at a young age so they can reap the benefits and blessings as well!

#Blessed

One of my 2017 Intentions was to write 17 posts about blessings in my life to help purge negativity.  I'm finally getting around to it in this #Blessed series. 

I am blessed to have a FRUGAL MINDSET.

I honestly do not know where we would be if I didn't have a frugal mindset and live a frugal lifestyle.  Because we've lived this way for years now, we've been able to make it through extremely difficult times.  I think this mindset will continue to help and bless me in the months and years to come.  It's not always easy, but it pays in the end.

I'm also doing my best to pass on the frugal mindset to my children.  I don't think it's ever to early to learn to appreciate and respect money.  I pray that they will be better off than we are and use that mindset to live the best life they can!

Art and Santa Letters

Santa Letters: The kids wrote their yearly letters to Santa.  Like last year, the only asked for one main thing, although Gavin snuck in an extra thing! Macie asked for a pottery wheel, Gavin asked for a skateboard and legos, and Lilah asked for a Baby Alive Snackin' Lily.  Hopefully, they are on the nice list and they will get what they are asking for!

Lilah's Art: Lilah's been doing some neat art at school.  I really like this style.  The first one is a ghost and the second one is a turkey!

 Mneme Therapy: Here are a few of Macie's latest paintings.

"The Halloween Cat Named Boo"

"The Mistletoe"

"Christmas Night!"

#Blessed

One of my 2017 Intentions was to write 17 posts about blessings in my life to help purge negativity.  I'm finally getting around to it in this #Blessed series. 

I am blessed that we found EMILEE.

Throughout our relationship, we've had 4 different dogs.  Some were right for a season and some weren't the right fit for our family.  We had a strong urging to get another dog and everyone in the family, except Macie, was super excited.  I knew if we were going to get another dog, we had to do it right.  Thankfully, we found Emilee.

She has been such a huge blessing to our family.  We all love her and she has helped Macie get over her fears.  She's a loving, energetic, and loyal dog who is very protective of us when need be.  I'm so grateful we found our family dog.

#Blessed

One of my 2017 Intentions was to write 17 posts about blessings in my life to help purge negativity.  I'm finally getting around to it in this #Blessed series. 

I am blessed to have loving FRIENDS and NEIGHBORS.

Time and time again, we have been blessed beyond measure my friends and neighbors.  When we moved out off of a highway, we didn't expect to have much interaction with our neighbors.  We see our neighbors now more than we ever saw or spent time with our neighbors living in an actual neighborhood.  One set of neighbors has given us vegetables, boston butts, toys for the kids, and a trampoline.  He's also helped us numerous times with our yard and faulty equipment.  He even had a fundraiser for us to help with Riley trips!  On the other side, we've developed a great friendship that I hope lasts a lifetime.  They've helped us time and time again and have even mowed our grass!

Friends have also been there for us. Whether they are listening to me vent or we are laughing together, I value their friendships!  I don't know what we would do without this support.  We are so blessed to have an extended friend family and neighbors who love and care about us!

#Blessed

One of my 2017 Intentions was to write 17 posts about blessings in my life to help purge negativity.  I'm finally getting around to it in this #Blessed series. 

I am blessed to LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY.

I am able to worship who I want and where I want.  I can send my kids to a school of my choice and even homeschool them.  I can shop where I want, work where I want, and have as many kids as I want.  I can live where I want, listen to any type of music, and watch whatever tv shows my heart desires.

I've always grown up this way, so its very easy to take the simple fact that I live in a free country for granted.  Obviously, because it is a "free" country there are rules and other downfalls.  One being that everyone else lives in a free country and sometimes their actions greatly effect everyone around them.

I'm trying to look at the positive in this series, so I will continue to thank God every day that I was born in this country.  I will also take time to thank God for the men and women, including my sister, who've risked their life to ensure we still have this right!

Homeschool Highlights

States of Matter ~ Solids: In our new Science book, we are studying Matter right now and the three states, solids, liquids, and gases.  We studied solids first.  

One of our experiments studied solids mass and volume.  If if two solids have the same volume, they can have totally different masses.  The kids learned that comparing leaves and rocks.

We also collected solids from around the house made of paper, metal, wood, cardboard, and plastic.

We sorted them by different properties (size and shape).

New Science Book: As I just mentioned, we have a new science book.  I started looking further into Catholic Heritage Curriculum and decided to check out their Beginning Science book.  It is intended for third grade which is perfect.  So far we love the mix of science and faith and I plan to continue with this curriculum next year!

 She's At It Again!: Macie got the same cookbook from the library plus a new one.  She made the cookies again with even less help from me!  I'm so excited that my kids are taking off in the kitchen!!

A Look Back ~ November

Mater Dei Football Game ~ Brian and Gavin went with Chad and CJ to a Mater Dei game again this year.  Unfortuately, they lost, but Gavin had a really good time!

Leaf Prints ~ While the boys were at the game, the girls and I did some painting.  We did some leaf print painting and made a few Christmas gifts. The leaf prints turned out Ok, but not as well as we'd hoped.  It was fun and we had another night making memories and spending time together!

 Save the Turkey ~ Mr. Turkey didn't want to be eaten for Thanksgiving, so Lilah was assigned the job of disguising him so he could be saved.  At first, she wanted to turn him into a leaf, but then we decided he'd be better hidden in a pile of leaves.  We were supposed to work together and it was fun collecting the leaves, making the rake, and helping her with this.  She was so proud of the final product!

24 Hour EEG ~ Gavin had a 24 Hour EEG on November 6th and 7th.  We left at 3ish in the morning on Monday and then spent 24 hours in a room.  I brought school work and snacks to keep Gavin busy.  He was also allowed to play Super Mario Brothers on the wii.  He had a student nurse that helped to keep him occupied as well.  We just got the results back and he didn't have any seizures.  They did detect a "slowing" in the brain which is caused from having developmental delay.  He did have that as a baby/toddler.  They assured me that wouldn't cause the zoning out.  I'm glad we did the test, but no real answers.

Box Car Children ~ Lilah and Gavin put their makedo kits to work and made a car for them to play in.  I swear, kids get just as much, if not more, entertainment from the box as they do what comes in it!

MRI ~ We came back home for one night on Nov 7th and to see Lilah and then were  back at the hospital on the 8th for an MRI of the brain, abdomen, and pelvis.  They were looking at the brain because he's started having a lot of headaches and migraines.  They looked at the abdomen/pelvis to check for vascular lesions in the urinary tract.  Overall, they didn't find anything new.  I always have mixed feelings about that.  I don't want them to find anything wrong, but at the same time, I'm not getting any answers.

Gavin is a reading machine!  He read 3 chapter books this day and read 6 that week!

Dress Up Diva and Sign Maker ~ Lilah cracks me up!  When she comes home from school, I have her change out of her uniform right away so we can keep them decent.  Well, she doesn't just change into play clothes, she gets fully dressed!  This is what she had on to ride bikes one day!

 She's also been making Brian and I signs.  I have to say that her handwriting has greatly improved since starting kindergarten.  She even drew us bubble letters!

Meeting Baby Hudson ~ Uncle John and Erin had a baby!  Hudson Anderson Holt joined this world on November 9th.  We really wanted to go when he was born, but I'd spent most of the week at Riley with Gavin, Macie had been gone in Sturgis, it was a school night, and we were having car trouble.  The kids wouldn't have been able to see him anyway, so we decided to make the trip a week later.  It was a great visit and I got in plenty of Hudson snuggles.  He is a doll baby and we can't wait to go back!

Thanksgiving Christmas Singers ~ It is a tradition on my mom's side that after we eat the meal on Thanksgiving, we sing Christmas songs while doing the dishes.  My aunt made up song books years ago.  She offered them to the girls so they could practice and perform a few songs.  They were so cute singing.  Hannah and Macie took turns singing verses and Lilah just went along with both.  You couldn't even see her face above the book!

 Selfies ~ 

Christmas Decorating ~ The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we decorated the house for Christmas.  I had three little elves to help and I have to say it was the least stressed I've been decorating.  It was so much more enjoyable!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ~ Leland had the lead in his school play!  The girls and I went.  He did such a great job!  I was one proud godmama!

Book in a Bag ~ Every other week, Lilah brings home a book in bag that she is supposed to read to every member of her family.  She takes this literally and reads to Emilee...even if she is asleep!