Oh the Places You Will Go

Remember that Dr. Seuss book?  I know Dr. Seuss was a children's author but this was one of those "okay" books to read as an older kid too- it is a staple at every.single high school graduation celebration.  Anyway, that book is kind of how I am feeling about 2012.  Oh the places I will go!!!  This is the first year in the past 4.5 where I haven't been pregnant, trying to get pregnant, the exhaustion and body fatigue of dealing with a newborn or the stress of an infamous PCS move.  This is the first year where we haven't been expecting a major life change.  2012 is the year to figure out how I am.  Please understand that I understand you can't figure it all out in a day, a week, a month or even in this one year, but I realized I needed to try. 

There are some conversations you can't have with anyone but you and God.  There are some nights you lay awake staring at the ceiling and this realization comes to you that you need to make a change.  Something isn't working...the pieces aren't fitting.  You have a great life.  Beautiful kids.  Kind and caring husband.  But you need to make a change.  It's a conversation I had with God.  It was these little reminders, hints, messages in my face and stuck in my brain for weeks and weeks until I had that conversation in the middle of the night with God and He reminded me that if I don't like where I am at, then I change and He would help me.

My 2012 resolutions were so easy this year: focus on me.  Trust me, it's not as self-centered as it sounds.  I know, it sounds pretty self-centered.  I need to focus on changing the way I approach my spiritual, physical, mental and emotional health and wellness.  In the past 4.5 years, I have been so focused on taking care of babies, my pregnant body, our house to move that I have seriously neglected who I am and "neglected me" isn't as good of a mommy, wife, friend, sister or person that "healthy me" can be.

Part of this revolutionized me is actually doing some of the projects that have been on my "to do" list for quite some time.  Here is one of them that I was pumped to do- Alaina's hairbow hanger.  For anyone with a girl in their house, you know how many hair accessories these little girl's with barely any hair can accumulate so I needed to place to store them before they overtook boxes, shelves, drawers and anywhere else you can think!

I started with a white canvas (the cheapest I could find) and painted it pink with a sponge brush.  I ended up having to do 3 coats to get a nice even color.

I bought a couple different spools of ribbon in different widths and figured out the placement.

Voila!  A couple staple guns shots here and there and the hairbow hanger is finished!  I can hang barrettes, clips, the oversized flowers, ribbons and headbands all in one place!

Cute, right?!?  And since I was on a roll with little girl projects, I whipped this one out too.  We had a very sweet 3-year-old's birthday party coming up and I wanted something unique that would be a ton of fun for her and this is what I ended up with....little people in a box!  (I made a boy version for Connor, too.)

I penciled every little people with the design of the character.

Starting the painting process.  The longest part of this project was that I had to paint in layers and wait for each color to dry before I could move on to another color.

The princesses.  A couple sequins or rhinestones here and there and they are so adorable.

"The town" backdrop for pretend play

And they all fit neatly in a little box to keep them safe from baby or animal mouths

And, of course, Connor's set ;)

Woot Woot 2012!!

I could not be more pumped that 2012 is here.  I thought long and hard about what I was going to put down for my 2012 Resolutions and this is what I came up with. 

• Motivation gets me started, habit keeps me going
• 2012 is the year of "me"

That's it...simply stated but it means a lot to me this year.  One of the reasons I am so bad at sticking with a resolution and completely ditched the effort by mid-March is because it becomes "work."  I am, obviously, not off'ed by work but when it becomes overwhelming with everything else going on in my life, I let the extra efforts slide by the wayside.  One of the things I really wanted to focus on early was getting super organized and making it cake to stay organized.  In the last 2 days, I have started a couple different projects (not enough time in the day to get them to completion yet, but am really close) and have wrapped up 1 minor and 1 major project.  Today at Target, I picked up some stuff to help and this is what I have come up with.

These are some of the necklaces I had bunched up in a small sterilite bin in my closet.  I would never actually wear a necklace because by the time I was trying to throw one on and get out the door, it would have taken too long to untangle the mess of chains.  This was the easiest 10-minute project I have ever done!!  It is 2 M-Hooks ($3.49) , a dowel from Michael's ($0.69), and 3 packs of S-shaped shower curtains hangers from Bed, Bath and Beyond ($2.99 each).  Piece of cake and it freed up 2 jewelry bins to rearrange some other pieces of jewelry that was overrun in other places.

My next project this morning was the pantry.  Oh my word...if you could have seen the state it was in pre-clean-up.  I wish I would have taken a picture, just for giggles at the disaster!  I had a couple different goals in mind.  I wanted things to be easy to locate so I would stop purchasing multiple packets of taco seasoning because we already had 6 packets buried in a corner and I wanted some organization in terms of snacks, both for Connor and myself.

The finished product.  All in all, it took less than 1 hour to get this whipped into shape.

The pockets on the door hanger are all neatly labeled

Connor's snack bin is green, mine is white and Alaina has a huge box on the floor of the pantry for her snack stuff.



2012 is also the year of "me."  Without being selfish and self-centered, I am committed to myself this year.  I am committed to being diligent about going to the gym and getting super healthy again with zero excuses holding me back.  I am devoted to finding time to daily pray and praise my Lord.  To re-connect through a few Bible Studies that have been sitting collecting dust in my spare room.  I am adamant about taking a little time to myself each week out of the house to get away from the responsibilities of the home and kids and re-center myself.  I want to focus on my little world (this world includes my husband and children) and be less concerned about the external stuff.  I want to try and shut off the computer after 5pm. and give my all to my family during the time when we are all together. 

This is MY year to to be the best I can be and I have never been more thrilled, excited and ready!