Birthday weekend

Brunch at Le Jardin

Ummm, Hiland Park Bakery champagne cake

Good day

Making solar power adjustments on this rainy day.

My heart is warmed

By all the birthday love at work at home and with my friends. Thank you everyone!

Mike purchased La Mie lunch for all of my AmeriCorps colleagues at work, then sent me to a massage, got dinner reservations and tickets to an improv comedy show tonight, and also bought tickets to a locavore cooking class next month. I came home to a clean house, and freshly baked banana bread and roses from a friend. I'm feeling pretty loved right now.

Not to mention that this picture is probably the best gift a six-year-old could give his mom for her birthday.

Jack the BBall Guy

Jack has enjoyed being on a basketball team for the first time this winter. His last game was yesterday, and his team made marked improvement throughout the 8-week season. It was a fun way to spend Saturday afternoons!

1st Science Fair

Jack and Benji teamed up for their first Science project at their school's first ever Science + Art Fair. They asked the question, "Will covering one eye improve shooting ability in basketball?" Our small sample of 4 family members seemed to be not enough to prove one way or another that covering an eye affects shooting ability. But they typed up the hypothesis and conclusions, and had a nice display!

It always comes back to the food

For me, at least. Triple chocolate mocha cookies and homemade chai, and now making plans for clam chowder and lemon rosemary biscuits for dinner. Dare I say I'm rocking this snow day. And that is NOT typical for me. I have a history of getting excited about being snowed in with my kids, and then spending 80% of that time grumbling about how difficult and grateful they are. Today I've managed to get them to make some valentines (a never-ending task when each kid has 25 classmates and grandparents to cover), read (Benji read an hour- huge goal and accomplishment!), get delicious, homemade food on the table (because it always comes back to the food, for 

me), worked from home for two hours this morning and planning in two more this afternoon. Life/work balance is surviving. Not on a full-time scale, of course, and that balance was achieved by allowing more screen time than I feel comfortable with, but I'm still allowing myself to call this one a win. Not a sustainable win, but a win nonetheless :)

First snow day of the school year

Baked french toast, bacon, and my favorite Kenyan coffee over a rousing game of Connect Four on a Tuesday AM. Winter may be my least favorite season, but I enjoy a good hibernation every once in awhile. 

Happy

I am ridiculously happy that my brother is gettng married this coming June! AND that he and his fiance will be staying in Omaha, and buying a house there. There was talk of them moving to Georgia, so I'm estacic they'll be staying close by. And delighted that my brother got offered and took a competetive position at UNO, so Jenna can keep her current position there. So many good things!

First purchase for hiking trip

Check!

And I'm proud to report, the hard ground is much more comfy with the sleeping pad. Calling this one a win.

Time for resolutions again

I use this blog mostly for family photo and updates, and plan to do a blog-to-book in the near future, by year, as a way of immortalizing these memories since I don't do photo books or scrap books for my kiddos. But every January I really enjoy using this space as a place for reflection. Resolutions aren't always very useful for me, as I don't often put forth my intentions (or even remember) them very astutely.... except in rare cases. Still, it's always good to pause for reflection and think about what's going well, and what areas need work moving forward.

I always like to reflect on my reading habits. Last I year I read 9 books; this year 12. I'm not taking a lot of time to read, obviously, but it's also nice to look at what books I read as it reminds me of where I was at in life throughout the year (what interests and concerns were driving those book choices, since I almost always read non-fiction). Here is my 2015 list:

• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain
• Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams
• My Abandonment, by Peter Rock
• So What Are You Going to do With That? Finding Careers Outside Academia, by Susan Basalla & Maggie Debelius
• Iowa Pints: A Guide to Iowa Breweries, by J. Wilson
• A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson
• Bluebird Trails: A Guide to Success, by Dorene Scriven
• Wheat Belly, by William Davis
• I am Having so Much Fun Here Without You, by Courtney Maum
• Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
• Sleep Donation, by Karen Russell
• How Full is Your Bucket, by Tom Rath & Don Clifton

I expect to be reading a couple books this winter as part of the Book Worms book club my mom and I have done the past few years through Polk County Conservation, and also several books on hiking and Glacier/Banff National Parks. Hopefully some fun ones, to. 

2015 Resolutions I set a year ago were as follows: 

1) to get a resume together and meet with the Drake Career Center to get aid on job searching after a lapse in work history. Did those things, applied and was rejected to a few jobs, and found AmeriCorps and my current position. I'm now 1/3 of the way through my service term with a lot more experience under my belt and some new contacts and skills. I'm calling this one a win.  

2) Find a new form of exercise. Nope, didn't happen. Never got back to jogging with the worry over my knees being wonky, and didn't get down to a regular walking schedule (other than walking to check my bluebird trail in the summer). This one goes on the list for 2016. 

3) Get a will written and finally taken care of. Another year, another fail. 

Hmm. Well, 1 out of 3 isn't bad when I consider that #1 was my true priority, and doing #1 well makes #2 much more difficult (though not impossible). We talked to my parents over Thanksgiving about #3. My brother and his girlfriend have confirmed that they will for sure get married, but never have kids. I'm pretty much waiting for the wedding so I can gently ask after if they'd be willing to be in the will as the kids' guardians in case of emergency. Hopefully in 2016....

So my resolutions list for 2016 definitely starts with getting myself into better shape physically.  I've been frequently asking myself what is going well, and what needs more attention, as a way to focus on how life is like a scale that constantly tips and sways. It's nice to remind myself that I can't do everything well all the time, so to reflect on what I'm doing well and celebrate that, and also identify where I need to head next, is good for me to do every month or so. Right now working has been what is going well. Learning I could go from 9 yrs of staying at home with my kiddos into full time work, and not only survive it, but do it pretty well, has been a good learning experience for me. What isn't going well is finding time to exercise and make it a priority. So I'll join thousands of others out there who put exercise at the top of their 2016 resolutions list. I think that's the only resolution I'll make this year. The will may need to go unspoken this time. 

I do have several things I'm looking forward to this year. The hiking trip with my Alicia's family is certainly #1. And having 7 months to begin kicking my rear in gear in preparation for that trip will be nice. I'm also looking forward to several family trips we plan to take. For Christmas this year, we bought each of the boys a carry-on in their favorite color with personalized luggage tags, and inside each piece of luggage we placed photos of places we plan to take them in 2016. Included are a long weekend trip to Kansas City, where we'll visit LegoLand, Fritz's Railroad restaurant, Science City, the T-Rex Cafe, and a hotel with an indoor pool;  a trip to Florida so they can finally see the ocean and hang on the beach; and a trip to Dubuque, IA for Jack's birthday so he can do the 9-line zipline course with SkyTours. Now that they are getting older, and we had relative success in Wyoming last August, I'm feeling more confident about taking them places for family vacations. 

Cheers to you and your families as we all head hopefully into 2016. Wishing you a year full of new experiences to tell in the years following!