New Years Resolutions

"You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing there will be no result."
~Gandhi

• Change all light bulbs to CFLs by end of year
• Use canvas shopping bags
• Lower temp of hot water tank
• Grow vegetable garden
• Recycle and compost
• Buy less stuff
  

Christmas

We had a really fun Christmas day. We woke up around 6am and saw that Santa Claus brought a outdoor climber, slide and table and chairs for the kids. He also left them lots of practical things in their stockings (socks, hair care stuff, toothbrushes, toothpaste) and a dvd and book each. Jackson crawled right into the middle and it all. He really enjoyed having so much stuff on the floor to play with and put in his mouth. Abygail enjoyed the climber so much that it took 3 hours before she opened her last present (slow and steady wins the race!).First things first, Mom & Dad, I need to go down this slide!

Now let's see, yup, it's just my size (ignore the yawning mom in the background)

After opening presents I made our traditional Christmas breakfast of monkey bread, I also made some eggs and bacon to counter balance the sweets. Soon after breakfast was over I was making our Christmas feast. We enjoyed ham, corn casserole, raw veggies, rolls and my grandma's Christmas punch. Afterwards the kids and I took naps while Jason cleaned up my kitchen mess. It was so nice to have a good long nap. After naps we got cleaned up and took our Christmas baked goods to friends. When we got home we just enjoyed the remainder of the day, playing and watching Thomas and Friends (Abygail's new dvd).Things I learned this year:
1. Start baking early so that the few days before Christmas don't turn into a circus and one is not exhausted by 3pm on Christmas day.
2. When big presents/toys are given there is really no point any buying anything else - it's just not even seen.
3. Just relax and enjoy the day. The opportunities for pictures will manifest themselves and it's so much fun to just watch the kiddies!
4. I enjoy baking and getting ready for the holiday season.
5. Put up the Christmas tree as soon after Thanksgiving as possible so that Christmas doesn't sneak up on you.

Today we've already taken down our Christmas decorations and packed them up, along with our dvd collection and some other odds and ends. The closing date has been postponed, again, to Friday. All in all it's going to be a race in the next few days to get everything packed and moved so you may not see much from us until after the New Year.

Traditions Old and New

I have not in the past done any baking for Christmas, but this year I decided to give it a try. I made Jason's mom's peanut butter bon bons, that she makes every Christmas, and some buttermilk cinnamon bread which I came across on AllRecipes.com. Both recipes turned out really good.

For Christmas Eve we went to Rachel & Tyler's house and had a really good time at their party. I brought my Grandma's Christmas punch, a vegetable try and some peanut butter bon bons. The dinner was delicious. After dinner we played a fun hot potato game with a present. Who ever had the present when the music stopped had to unwrap a layer of wrapping paper with out using their hands. After the game we all wrapped boxes and put gifts in the boxes (food, school supplies and baked goods) to take to various families or shelters. We took ours to the Ronald McDonald house.

Some other traditions we did this year were: we opened our ornament presents on Saturday as listed in the previous post, we opened one present each before going to bed last night with our new pajamas in them and, we opened our new Christmas movie on Sunday. Each year we try to get an ornament to either commemorate a trip or a memory and we get a new Christmas movie (we are big home movie buffs) this year we got the first Santa Claus movie with Tim Allen.

Catching Up

Saturday afternoon I got a call from Jason that started out like this, "Let me start off by saying, I'm OK and it wasn't my fault". Of course I'm sure you can guess what he was talking about but if you can't let me tell you. He was in a car accident while on his way to Christmas shop.
Here's the scoop, he was stopped behind a car at a red light when all the sudden some one plowed into him from behind. Our car was then propelled forward and hit the car in front of him which then propelled 3/4 of the way into the intersection. He was fine and so was the man in the car in front of him. The teenagers that hit him were a little worse for wear but everyone walked away and that was good. The car that hit him was pretty much totaled. Our car will need to go in the shop for new bumpers (front and back) a new tail light and possibly some work on the trunk, pretty minor thankfully. The car in front of him has a cracked frame by the rear bumper.
camera. I am so thankful and you will be too since now you will see better pictures on the blog.Next: Jason and I exchanged gifts Saturday night because I guessed my present. I hate that I almost always know what he got me. It's not his fault and he always gets me really good presents but IT BUGS TO NOT GET THE FABULOUS SURPRISE OF CHRISTMAS MORNING. O, to be young again. First let me say that we agreed to only get stocking stuffers this year for one another because we are buying a house. So I bought him a water bottle, I know, I know, how lame but it's one of those polycarbonate bottles so that he doesn't have to refill his grocery store water bottles any more. This past year I sent him to school a few times with a breakfast drink (cranberry juice or orange juice) and he had to take it in one of Abygail's sippy cups so that it would not spill, that's the only beverage container we had. I did put thought into it but again - it's a water bottle so nothing to spectacular. He on the other hand bought me a digital I'm glad we opened them early so that we can use it to take good pics for Christmas. Thank you sweetie!

Finally: Abygail has been very excited about the presents under the tree. She has been trying to sneak them out of the living room to open them. We opened a few early, our new ornaments to commemorate this past year. I haven't blogged about this but I LOVE ORNAMENTS. I love pulling them out each year and thinking about where I/we got them, who gave them to me/we and under what circumstances they were received. My most prized ornament is this one, it's one that my brother Paul made for me when we were all much younger.

Here is Jackson's ornament for the year, he loves reaching up to the tree and trying to pull the ornaments off.

Abygail's, last year she got one similar to this one with the same kitty in a stroller. Notice she (the cat) is holding a baby kitty (brother).

Last Year's

This Year's

Jason and I got this cute little house to remember this is the year we bought our first house.

Expressive Story Telling

This morning Jason was playing Christmas music on the piano. Abygail likes climbing up and sitting with him while he plays. This time she demanded that he play "Bug's Life". (We have a book that is the story for the Disney movie Bug's Life.) So he did, Expressing the story through the piano. I caught the video a little late but, you can get a little of an idea of how much fun they both had. Enjoy!

Scheduling A Date

We've finally gotten the 'clear to close' on our house. FINALLY! We will be closing on the house on the 27th. So we'll be taking down Christmas decorations and packing all at the same time. It should be a whirlwind of a move with just 4 days to get it all done. We won't be able to have the kitchen done or even started before we move so I guess that will just have to be done ASAP after the move.

The hold up has been the seller's lawyer not getting everything done on his end AND we just found out that the seller (who lives in OH) is going to be staying in the house over Christmas. Lets just recap here, the house is empty - completely empty except for a stove and fridge. It's been empty for almost a year now. So I ask, WHY????? I guess it doesn't really matter, just as long as we move before the end of the year but we were certainly not happy to hear this news. We were going to close this Friday (21st) but then the seller decided to live in it for just the holidays - crazy!

In other news: Jackson is pulling up on just about anything he can. He's still really wobbly and falls a lot (especially when he pulls up on things that move out from under him like the swing) but it's so fun to see him developing and trying his hardest to stand. He's getting to his tip toes in a leaning position or just on his knees - so funny. He's also fascinated with the cat now (Darwin). We really are lucky that we have such a docile cat that lets the kids climb all over them.

Abygail has been really enjoying the snow and so have Jason and I. Only time will tell if we still love the snow once we have to start shoveling it. ;o)

I finally got a little Christmas shopping done the other day. Jason stayed home with the kids and it was nice to be out of the house all by myself. It was a rushed trip though and only one stop, o how I miss the Christmas shopping of my younger years when I could go as often as I liked and spend as much time as I wanted, but it's so much fun to shop for the kids now that I'm older and have some.

Inspired

Recently I've been really inspired by so many blogs out there that talk about the environment, conservation and even getting back to the basics. I've already penned (typed) some of my New Years resolutions (you'll see them posted after Christmas). I've come to the following belief: just because we can doesn't mean we should. Let me expound on that a bit...
...turn on the water
...buy any kind of produce imaginable
...drive
...etc.

I'm not saying that we should never do any of the above. What I'm saying is that I grew up knowing that every time I twist the handles on the water faucet water would come out. I didn't think about how much water I used while I washed my hands and slowly during the winter so that I could warm my hands up. Just because I can hold my hands under the warm water for 5 mins to warm them up doesn't mean I should waste all that water. I didn't think about how much water the toilet used each and every time I went to the bathroom. Just because I could use a full tank of water to flush doesn't mean I needed to or should. I didn't think about wasting half a glass of water because it was no longer cold and so I would just toss it down the sink and get a fresh glass, again filled to the rim. Just because I could get a fresh cold glass of water doesn't mean I should just toss out the old water (instead of putting it over a plant or drinking it anyway).

We live in a society where an abundance is just a given, we don't tend to think about where our food is coming from...as long as it comes and we can choose what we want. We don't tend to think about how much oil is left in the world...as long as the gas station has gas and we can fill up at our convenience, that's good enough for us. I know a lot of people do think about this but maybe not enough, or enough of the time.

I'm not perfect and I still have SO MUCH work to do in this area but I wanted to share. I also think by putting these thoughts down I will have a better chance of following through with them and remembering them too. These are just my thoughts and I felt compelled to share them with you. Do what you will with them.

Here are a few sites that I've really been digging. As an added bonus, I've added them to the side of our blog under the heading of "Making A Difference".

Chile Chews
Crunchy Chicken
Earth Lab
Simply Authentic
The Story of Stuff

There is always some really good stuff on these sites. There are a lot of good sites out there but these are the ones I've enjoyed so far. I hope you enjoy.

A Blanket Of Snow

Last night it was snowing when we went to bed. I just love watching it snow so much that we slept with the blinds open (not such a great idea when you live on a busy street but we did it anyway). Every time I woke up during the night I could see the snow falling and it was just beautiful. It snowed basically all day long and is still snowing now. There is a gorgeous thick white blanket of snow covering everything and it's so beautiful.

The following is more for record keeping and nostalgia's sake.

I have a bottle problem. I can no longer say that it's Abygail's problem because it just simply is not, it's not even Jason's problem. Just mine, all mine. I LOVE giving Aby a bottle just before nap time. I know, this is wrong on so many levels: she's too old, it's a bad habit right before sleeping, it is bad for the teeth, etc, etc. We have stopped giving her one before bed and even in the middle of the night when she wakes up. I was hoping to preserve that special time right before nap but she take milk from the cup really well now and well, there is just no reason except my one emotional attachment to give her one before nap any more. I just want to cry! I loved rocking her and giving it to her, cuddling and snuggling while I hummed or sang. Now it's over, she's not a baby any more and I just need to face it, no matter how hard that might be.

Snow Angel

So I got home to late to build a snowman, but Abygail and I did get out in the snow for a little bit. I think it must be inborn for kids to eat snow, because Abygail sure enjoyed it. She also enjoyed laying in the snow.

1:45 And Still Snowing

Maybe Jason will get home before it gets dark and we can all go and build a snowman?!

Look at the bushes in front of our door and across the street, also the window ledge gives you a good idea of the difference of the two pictures. They shoveled the walk in front of our door not even 2 hours ago and then they just came back through and plowed the sidewalk again. The walk in front of our door now has snow on it and the side walk shows you the depth of the snow.

Living In A Winter Wonderland

We awoke this morning to no snow, then it was snowing just a little and now it's really snowing good - fabulous! Here is a pic, not sure if you get the full grasp as this is my camera phone which doesn't take the best pics.

General Updates

Jackson is cutting his first two teeth (bottom front). He's been really good about it so far. They are still under the gums but you can see them trying to poke out. I started giving him some Gripe Water today to help soothe him as he has been crying a little more than usual. He's also gotten his horrible cough back so I'm trying to keep the vaporizer running to help moisten the air. O, I sure hope both he and Abygail get over their croup before Christmas.

We finally put our Christmas decorations up. We started on Sunday and then just yesterday during nap I finished putting the ornaments on the tree. Both Jackson and Abygail love them. Abygail has been very good, she is allowed to look but not touch and she's only had a couple of issues (always when I'm out of the room). Jackson likes to crawl over to the tree and touch the lights and anything else in his reach. Abygail watches to see what I will do and of course I tell him "Jackson, we can look but not touch" and then pick him up and move him to another location (this is of course mostly for Abygail's benefit so she knows that it's not just her that can't touch).

**House Update** We got a call from our Realtor this morning that there are still a few things they are waiting for before we can schedule the closing on the house. They are still waiting on some title stuff and then we should be ready to close. She, our Realtor, thinks we'll be able to close early next week, I sure hope so! We only have 'till Jan 1st before we no longer have a place to stay and we really want to get some things done on the house before moving in so...this train needs to leave the station and soon.

**Paci Update** I made Abygail cry herself back to sleep once last night and then she woke up again around 4...but that was it - yeah!

Paci Update

Well, it's been 4 nights now and it has gotten a little better. To tell the truth, nap time has been a breeze but the nights have just been horrible. Last night she woke up twice, yup, just twice to that was a HUGE improvement to the every hour wake up of the first night. I found the paci while cleaning the bathroom and had to hide it very quickly before she saw it. I haven't thrown it out, why? Well, I'm not sure, it just doesn't feel right to throw it away. Maybe I'll put it in her baby box for a good laugh after this is all over.

How Green Can You Go?

So by now most of you know that I'm a little green conscious. I don't consider myself green though because we don't do as much as we should. Sure, we have upgraded 2 of our light bulbs to CFLs and will continue to upgrade as the old ones go out. Yes, we use cloth diapers on our kids the majority of the time. Of course, I'm a light Nazi and turn out lights as I leave the room and if I see one on in an unoccupied room. As a general rule I don't run the air conditioner during the summer unless I'm about to die OR Jason is home. I always use cold water to wash our clothes (except for when washing diapers). etc.

But... I still take nice hot and semi-long showers when I get more than 5 mins to shower, the major electronics (computer, tv, dvd player and radio) are on a lot of the time. I don't unplug electronics that are not being used. We don't really think about our water consumption. We have itty bittys (little ones) so we don't try lowering the gas bill or worry about the temp. indoors being too high in the winter. etc.

However... We do plan on growing our own garden and making our own compost when we move. Since reading A,M,V I try buying organic and free range when possible. This year almost all our produce will be purchased from local farmers through a Community Supported Agriculture program, to prevent 'Oily Foods' (foods shipped over lots of miles using un-needed gas, non organics using fertilizers with petroleum. If we had the money we would put up a solar energy cell on the house. etc.

But this, wow! My green hat is off to you Ms. Chile. I'm not sure that I could ever be that green.

Pacifiers And Cherry Trees

Yesterday afternoon I could not find Abygail's pacifier for her nap time. She always sleeps with it and if she doesn't have it we have to wait until we can find it. Well, I LOOKED EVERYWHERE and could not find it so I made her take a nap anyway (mean mommy). She finally cried herself to sleep. Last night we went on the search for the 'paci', as we call it, again. Neither Jason nor I could find it so, she had to cry it out again. She woke up several times through out the night waling for it and there was nothing we could do except go and get a new one, which we refuse to do. This morning she woke up screaming for it and we were finally able to calm her down enough to get here to start the day and she was happy after that. Well, it's nap time again and now it's a mission. We've gone 1 whole day with out it and there is NO WAY I'm going to turn my back on that progress and give it to her now (even if it does ever reveal it's hiding place). So, we probably have another day and a half of hardcore sleep tantrums but, it's all or nothing now. Thank goodness for the weekend.

On another note, our cherry tree has been blossoming for the last month and it is so fun to watch and to see how big it's gotten! I gave Jason a cherry tree for Valentine's day this last year. It's a tree that will grow indoors and after a few years it should start producing edible cherries, YUM! When it arrived in the mail in March (it was too cold in February for it to ship) it was the size of my thumb (that's leaves and all). Now look at it, almost 2 feet tall. (it looks a bit sickly right now because it needs water - I just watered it)

The Day's Happenings

1. Jackson crawled out of the living room today for the first time. Life as we know it has changed. No more keeping that boy in one room. If he sees us leave he's headed straight for the path where I disappeared. The Dr. was a little surprised yesterday at his weight gain and asked if he moved around a lot. We replied "He crawls everywhere and we can't keep him in one spot for 2 seconds". She said "He's crawling?" We said "OH YES! He's either crawling, jumping in his jumper or sleeping because that's what he likes to do". Then she said "Well, than, that explains his weight."

2. Abygail had her first REAL conversation on the telephone. We called Daddy at work and he asked her a series of questions in which she responded correctly and then he asked her what she had for lunch and she said (with her thinking look on - rolling her eyes heavenward) "umm, (pause) gapes (translation - grapes), umm, (pause) roni (translation - macaroni), umm, (pause) tuna." It's so amazing to hear her and see her actually responding to questions and responding correctly.

3. Abygail peed on the carpet - this was really my fault. I should have understood what she was trying to tell me. She was pulling at her diaper and said "pee pee". I asked her if she went pee pee in her diaper and she said yes. I asked her if she wanted a diaper change and she said yes so I took it off. Then in the 5 seconds or so that it took me to go in the next room to get a new diaper she did her business in the middle of the living room. Good thing we'll be cleaning that carpet when we move! She's been telling us before she goes poo poo for the last week and we put her on the potty, she doesn't do anything but rather waits until we put her diaper back on (after she tells us she's done and doesn't need to go poo poo any more) then messes in her diaper. I'm sure she's getting close to being ready for potty training. I hope she can wait just another week until Jason is out of school so there will be two of us around to pay more attention to the immediate needs of potty training.

4. A CD was found in the VCR player - hmm, wonder how that happened?! Could it have been my little girl? I think so! It sure did frustrate me when I kept trying to put in the Blues Clues tape and it wouldn't work. I thought "O GREAT, the VCR is broken!"

5. Jason surprised us by coming home before midnight! This week has just been a killer, Jason's final is on Friday and he's had tons of work to do to prepare for the end of the semester so he's been gone by 9am and gone until after midnight for the better part of a week now. So I was gearing up to put Abygail to bed when we heard him come in the front door at 7:30 - Boy was I glad to see the relief squad!

Abygail's Boyfriend

You must see Abygail's boyfriend!

I've also been cleaning out my drafted posts that I forgot to post so here's one that I just posted if you want to go back and read it. The Weekend

Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I know I said I would not post anything more about book reviews here but I must share this one little thing. I just got a book in the mail that I ordered several weeks ago and I've been tapping my foot and drumming my fingers for it to arrive. Dutifully checking the mail as soon as I hear it drop, with a flutter in my stomach and a pitter patter in my heart just to have my hopes crushed by bills and no book. Well IT is finally here.

IT is called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. I haven't even finished the first chapter but I just want to yell and scream with joy:

"YES, YES, YES!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
MORE, MORE, MORE!"

IT is a true story about one family's adventure of eating only what they could either produce themselves or obtain locally. The author is a novelist, her husband is a biologist who contributed to the book with side bars of information and one of their daughters wrote essays on her experience which are included in the book as well.

I hope this book turns out to be just like the beginning of the first chapter because I can think of nothing more important, more compelling, more soulful than this.

{as she looks up towards the heavens she says} "Thank you so much, I will try my hardest and do my best to learn. THIS is my dream, what I am meant to do."

6 Month Check-UP

Jackson had his 6 month doctors appointment today. Here are the stats:

Jackson Ridge at 6 months:
15 lbs
26 1/2" long
41 1/2 cm head circumference

He is eating rice cereal 1x per day and we will soon start simple vegetables and fruits. He received 4 shots today: Flu, DTaP, Hib and (I can't read the other one but it looks like Prevnar?)

A Pain In The Neck

It snowed last night and this morning. The first REAL snow, we have about 4 inches on the ground and it is so pretty and white.

This morning while getting ready for church Jason fell. Not on the snow, not even outside. He fell out of the rocking chair. Well actually he fell back and hurt his neck really bad. He immediately went to the couch and laid down because he couldn't move his neck at all. So we stayed home and pampered daddy. It hasn't gotten much better and he is teaching tomorrow so we've decided that I'll need to take him to work (could you imagine him driving without the use of his neck?!?!). I hope that he gets better soon, it's very sad but also SOOO VERY FUNNY!

Last week and this weekend has just been crazy, Jason has been gone all week studying, teaching and he just had to start working a new lab rotation. So the research begins - he'll be working in the lab during the Winter Break as well. This week he'll be super busy again, he's got a final on Friday and then he has a test to write over the up coming weekend and then he's done (except for the research) until mid January when school starts up again.

For now we will just enjoy the fabulous weather and start getting ready to pack and move.