January 2012 – Page 2

Do you read the Nester? Today she’s talking about home goals for the new year and I thought I would play along. Here are a few of the things we hope to accomplish in 2012:

1. Finish up the living room.

Our living room is one of the first rooms you see when you walk in our home. My goal is for this room to yell, “Welcome! We’re so glad you’re here. Come sit and visit for awhile.” Does that make sense? I think I can accomplish that really inexpensively with a few fun accessories: pillows, a few frames with pictures of the boys, fresh flowers…that sort of thing. I also have an empty wall that needs a little something…I’ve had my eye on this sign.

Guess it’s time to check back in on my to-do list from last summer…gotta love blogging for keeping all of your ideas catalogued and ready to retreive!

2. Update a few things in the kitchen.
We have slowly been working on our kitchen. SLOWLY. So far, we’ve changed out the appliances and countertops and added a butcher block island. This year, I hope to paint the walls, replace the lighting (goodbye brass!), and decide whether or not I want to paint our cabinets white. An inspiration picture:

3. Plant a little container garden on the back deck.
Last year, we tried this and came up with black thumbs! Within weeks, our poor plants had fried in the hot sun! This year, we are determined to redeem ourselves.
An inspiration picture:

4. Declutter and organize.

I’ve got my action plan in place and have already filled two bags for Goodwill. Read this post if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of the kids’ toys. I literally read her post, closed the laptop and spent the next hour working through the toys in our living room. A lot of work, but so worth it.

More importantly than the physical improvements, my biggest goal for 2012 is to create a fun and yet peaceful home for my husband and children. I want my home to feel warm and inviting for the guests that come through that front door. And if that’s all I accomplish, I’ll consider this year a success!

Check out the Nester’s link-up for more inspiring home goals!

Book #1 of my 2012 Reading List: Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis

This book is so hard to describe. It is wonderful and joyful, inspiring and yet so heart-breaking, passionate and sad….so many conflicting emotions all wrapped up into one book!

If you’ve read Katie’s blog, you’ll know how easy it is to fall in love with her. Her enthusiasm and passion for the people of Uganda is contagious. Her book is much the same. So much food for thought! Here are a few passages that really resonated with me:

“Jesus called His followers to be a lot of things, but I have yet to find where He warned us to be safe. We are not called to be safe, we are simply promised that when we are in danger, God is right there with us. And there is no better place to be than in His hands.” –page XX

“I see thousands of deep brown eyes and feel thousands of little brown hands and I know that even on the hardest day, stopping is worth it. A life changed is worth it, even if only one. God’s love made known is worth it, even if only to one. I will not save them all. But I will keep trying. I will say “Yes”. I will stop for one. –page 205

“Help me to hurt, not just a little, but the way you hurt when your children are overlooked and perishing. Help me to never be too busy or too comfortable to remember the people who suffer. Help me to never stop desiring to do something about it. Lord, help us to remember that as the body of Christ, this is our responsibility. Thank you for loving us, even when we forget. I never, never want to forget again.” –page 224

You can read her blog here. You can support her non-profit organization, Amazima Ministries, here.

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Ever heard of Brooke Fraser? This song replayed in my head most of the time I was reading this book.

Ready for a long-winded background story about a recipe? Here we go! First off, you need to know two things:
1. I just finished reading my first book of 2012, Kisses from Katie. (I’ll have my review of the book up tomorrow.)
2. I hate wasting food. And after reading all about the little ones Katie cares for on a daily basis, I am even more committed!

So I was in quite the predicament when I had three-quarters of an uneaten loaf of homemade bread the other day. My kids love bread straight from the bread machine, but the next day….well, not so much. I was determined not to waste (and not have to eat it by myself!) so I put on my thinking cap (aka Google) and found an awesome recipe I just had to share!

I put the recipe together in the afternoon with the intention of serving it for breakfast the next day, but quickly turned it into a “breakfast for dinner” meal. It only sat in the fridge a few hours, but was still delicious. I imagine it only gets better if it sits overnight! Enjoy.

{recipe and picture found here}

4 Tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 loaf brioche or challah (I used regular white bread and it was still good)
8 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (optional – I didn’t have any and it still tasted great!)
1/2 cup pecans, measured then chopped (also optional – we have many non-nut eaters in our house)
1/8 teaspoon salt
maple syrup and/or powdered sugar for topping

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and melted butter and pour on the bottom of a 9×13″ baking dish. Arrange slices of bread in the baking dish, overlapping if necessary. Combine milk, eggs, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and ginger in a bowl and pour evenly over bread slices. If desired, sprinkle chopped pecans over bread slices. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 4-12 hours. In the morning, take the casserole out of the fridge for at least 10 minutes while you are preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Bake casserole for 30-35 minutes. If top starts browning too quickly place a foil loosely over the top of the casserole for the last 10 minutes or so. You want it to cook long enough to make sure the bottom part is cooked but don’t dry it out completely. Remove casserole from oven and let it cool slightly before serving. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup.

One of the goals I forgot to add to my list was to declutter my home. Room by room, closet by closet, I want to take out the unused/extras and get organized! In years past, I’ve tried, but for one reason or another, well….it just didn’t happen. I have a bad habit of starting out strong, but losing steam and getting frustrated or overwhelmed.

I was super excited to find this website when perusing Pinterest one evening! I immediately printed her 2012 Declutter Calendar and can’t wait to start. It’s not overwhelming (just one task to do each day) and will take me through my whole house in one year. That’s that kind of pace I can handle! 🙂

Source: tumblr.com via Helen on Pinterest

Date nights. What are those again?

Back when M was a little baby (and I thought I knew everything), I would have predicted that Mark and I would have a date night at least once a month. Five years and two more babies later, reality has set in. Good, trustworthy babysitters are hard to find and man, are they expensive! And with our single-income home, that’s really an expense we can’t afford to have.

After reading an article about strengthening marriages through date nights, I knew I had to make it a priority and add it to my 2012 goals. Just because we’re at home doesn’t mean we can’t spend intentional time together. Nothing like a little creativity after the little ones are in bed!

Here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with so far:

Re-watch the first movie we ever went to see when we were dating.
Order our favorite take out.
Play 20 Questions, Couples Style. Always fun to learn a little something new about your spouse!
Have a themed movie night. Choose a movie and dinner with the same theme. Ideas: French, Western, etc.
Put a blanket down by the fireplace or TV and have a picnic dnner.
Do some sort of service project together. Example: pack care packages for troops overseas and handwrite letters for each box.
Bake a special dessert together. Brownies, ice cream sundaes, apple pie, a cake…
Have a special wine and cheese dinner, along with fruit and crackers.
Play golf/putt-putt in the backyard. (Make our own rules!)
Talk about our hopes and dreams for the future: “dreamstorming”
Break out the board games. We like cards or Scrabble.
Eat breakfast food for dinner and eat in bed.
Read together.
Have a fancy candlelit dinner in the dining room.
Work out together (circuits?).
Play one of his favorite video games together.
Watch Monday Night Football together and eat stadium food like nachos and hotdogs.

A great website for more ideas can be found here.

Sometimes life gets so busy that I forget to notice and appreciate the little things. Here are some of the things I am loving this week:

I WANT TO REMEMBER… the way baby J grabs his brothers’ faces and gives them lots of slobbery kisses. I love their joyful squeals.

I WANT TO REMEMBER… that when it comes to toys, the lesson most certainly is quality vs. quantity. I’m happy to say that our Christmas choices this year were perfect! So much imagination in my house right now!

I WANT TO REMEMBER… M’s fascination with spies right now. We’ve been watching lots of Spy Kids and he’s been sporting his new Night Vision goggles.

I WANT TO REMEMBER… how hilarious D is becoming! At three years old, this kid is quite the comedian. He has me in stitches everyday with his funny lines. So much like his Daddy.

I WANT TO REMEMBER… how excited I am for 2012. We’ve got exciting things in store this year!

Happy New Year! How did you ring in 2012? Our New Year’s was really low-key. The three littles had bedtime as usual (they’d never make it to midnight anyway and I am not about to have three grouchy boys in the morning! Know what I mean, mammas?) Mark and I watched a movie and were sound asleep by 11pm. Such is life! I love January and the feeling of starting anew. I’m also a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. They keep me grounded and intentional, even if I don’t accomplish them all. This year, I separated my goals into three sections: To Read, To Bake, and To Accomplish. Here are a few of my goals for 2012 (along with some links!). I’d love to hear some of yours as well! To Read
To Bake

Have all of the boys’ baby books up to date
Finish my mom’s family scrapbook project
Attack our student loan debt and pay off the car
Eat out less and cook healthy, homemade food more!
Make low-cost, at-home date nights a priority
Simplify and organize some of the “hot spots” in our home (closets, boys toys, etc)
Find more easy ways to serve others as a family