16 in 2016

It's taken me a long time to figure out my goals for this year. I'm trying to be realistic, while still challenging myself, and that's hard to balance, especially because I spend my days with a one year old aka a tiny tornado. I always enjoy working on these goals, so here's what I am planning for 2016.

(The pictures have nothing to do with my goals; I just think posts with pictures are more fun to read.) 

1. Finish the KonMari method on everything we own.
When I set a goal to get rid of 300 things last year, I discovered an organization/decluttering book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I used the author's method, called KonMari, to get rid of a lot of items (well over 300). I found a great checklist which helps you sort through every single item that you own and I got about 2/3 of the way through the process before I lost momentum. I want to finish going through every item we own this year.

2. Get rid of 200 items. 
While completing goal #1, I will get rid of another 200 items this year. I am going to go back over some categories I did last year as I think I will be able to part with some more items now. I know this seems like a crazy high number (especially after doing this last year too) but I count every single item that goes in the trash/donate/sell piles, whether is a shirt, a pen, a book, a coffee mug, a poster, a broken sewing needle, or an expired bottle of pills. It's really nice to have a better idea of what we own and where it is, which eliminates a lot of time spent looking for lost items.

3. Send a handwritten card or letter once per month.
I love receiving these items, but I almost never send them. I want to do better about sending birthday
and thank you cards and also just writing a note to let someone know I'm thinking of them.

4. Complete command/mail center.
I really want to organize our desk and computer area so I have a better way to pay bills, file paper, and keep organized. I've purchased a few items and pinned a lot of ideas on Pinterest, so I've just got to put it all together now.

5. Make 24 new recipes.
I think 2 new recipes per month is totally reasonable. I've got a lot of recipes bookmarked and saved, so it will just be a matter of actually putting them into our meal rotation.

6. Complete Blood:Water Mission's 40 Days of Water challenge.
Each year during Lent, Blood:Water Mission hosts a challenge for participants to drink nothing but water for 40 days and to donate the money they would have spent on cokes, coffee, tea, etc. to give life-saving water to those in need. Kory and I have done it in years past but didn't participate this past year. Part of me really doesn't want to do it because I don't want to give up my beloved sodas, but that only convinces me further that this should happen.

7. Learn how to use our camera.
This one is carried over from 2015, and since I didn't accomplish it, I want to give it another shot.

8. Go on 1 date night per month.
We've got lots of people who volunteer to watch Peter for us, so I want to take them up on their offers and make sure we continue to have date night every month.

9. Keep up with my One Line a Day journal.
Now that I've had this for over a year, I can already tell how much I love reading my entries from the previous year. It's like TimeHop or Facebook Memories, but with stuff I actually care about. :)

10.  Read 10 books.
I easily accomplished my goal of reading 5 books last year, but then I kind of stopped once I reached that goal. I want to continue reading all year long, so I'm aiming a little higher this year.

11. Take a baby-free vacation.
We've already got plans for this, so it's kind of cheating to make it a goal, but I'm still putting it down because A)16 is a lot! and B)It's still going to take a lot of work from me to make this happen. We haven't had an actual vacation with just Kory and I in several years because our trips are always to see family (which we love!) or to youth group events. I'm equal parts excited and nervous to spend a week away from Peter.

12. Decorate one of our bedrooms. 
It's no surprise that Peter's room is the only room in our house that is fully decorated and organized. Our guest and master bedrooms look a lot like they did when we moved in, though we did paint a couple walls in the master at least. I don't want them to look like they're straight off a magazine page, but I would love if the paint, decorations, and bedding all looked like they belong in the same room.

13. Visit the public library.
I can't believe this, but I've never even set foot in our library. They have some weird hours which used to be my excuse while I was working, but now I have plenty of time to get there while they're open. I even saw recently where someone said you can borrow digital books from them as long as you have a library card-that's an easy money saver!

14. Go on {at least} one family outing per month.

It's way too easy for us to spend lazy weekends at home, which are nice occasionally, but I'd like us to make a better effort to get out of the house and make memories as a family.

15. Make six crafty Pinterest projects (not recipes).
This is another repeat from last year. I enjoy doing crafts and sewing, but don't always make them a priority. The fact is that I'll never be done with sweeping, laundry, and dishes, so I want to just let them go at times in order to do something fun and relaxing for myself.

16. Plant a garden.
I find immense satisfaction in growing fruits and vegetables for our family to eat. This year might be a little trickier with a certain "helper", but I want him to grow up understanding just how delicious a fresh-from-the-garden tomato can be!

15 in 2015 Review

Well, it's time to wrap up another year of goals for me and I'm feeling pretty good about my results this year. I'm still working on my 2016 goals, so I'll get those posted soon.

I ended up completing 10 out of 15 goals, so that's a win in my book.

I started 2015 with a tiny, cuddly newborn.

1. Write at least 2 blog posts per month.
This didn't happen. I had 19 blog posts in 2015, most of which were Peter's monthly updates. 

2. Read 5 books.
Check! I completed 5 and started probably 3 more that I still haven't finished.

3. Eat more whole foods.
I realize now that it's pretty hard to decide if I accomplished something like this that is pretty subjective, (aren't goals supposed to be measurable?) but I do think I ended the year better than I started. I still love junk food way too much, but I also really like a good variety of vegetables now, so there's more balance than there was before. 

4. Spend less time on my phone.
Again, this is hard to quantify, but I made some real progress in taking time away from my phone this year and prioritizing face-to-face time with others. 

5. Find creative ways to save and/or earn money for our family.
I think my real goal here was to live on one paycheck and not dip into savings. We did it! In fact, we even continued contributing to our savings account each month (although it was a fairly small amount). 

6. Keep up with my One Line A Day journal.
I don't always write in it every single day, but I am able to catch up on the past several days enough to still be going with this. It's already fun to read the entries from last year and remember what happened on that day. 

7. Purge our home of 300 unnecessary items. 
Huge win!! I stopped counting at 500 items, but I donated or sold at least 10 more garbage bags of stuff after that. I actually found and used an organizing/cleaning method called KonMari which I'll post more about in my 2016 goals. 

8. Spend time outside.
Staying home with Peter has made me much more of a home-body than I was before. Too many days go by without us leaving the house. I wish I had done better on this one.

9. Learn how to use our new camera. 
I'm still trying to figure out how we have such an awesome camera and many of our pictures turn out blurry or have weird lighting. I know the problem is the user so I'd still really like to work on this. 

10. Run a 5k.
I completed the Run for Ohm in June and that was pretty much it as far as running goes. I really am only motivated by a race it seems. 

11. Complete 6 crafty/house/Pinterest projects.
I made a doll carrier, pretend tea bags, a drawing pad/crayon roll, a Father's Day framed handprint of Peter's, several mason jar plant containers, quite a few decorations for Peter's birthday party, a Christmas fabric garland, and Frozen-themed hooded towels for my nieces and nephew.

12. Try 12 new recipes.
I did a really bad job tracking the new recipes I tried. I'm thinking I probably tried 12, but since I didn't keep track of what they were, I'm not going to count this one.  

13. Lose 20 pounds.
I'm not 100% sure what I weighed when I made this goal, but I think I was trying to get down to my pre-baby weight and that didn't quite happen. I am 5 pounds away, or at least I was before the holidays. I didn't actually make too much of a concerted effort to lose the weight, so I'm not really upset about not reaching it. 

14. Organize and file our stacks of paperwork.
All the paperwork in our house is neatly filed away or in the trash. I've got one small bin that I keep bills and mail in that needs to be dealt with, and I try to empty it fairly often.

15. Plant a garden.
I planted quite a bit, but the things that actually grew were basil, strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and jalapeños.

We ended 2015 with a climbing, running, very active toddler. 

One Year

Height: 29" (25%)

Weight: 19 lbs. 4 oz. (10%)

Head Size: 19.5" (98%)

I have been dragging my feet to get this final monthly update written for Peter. I haven't really felt too emotional about him turning 1, but this feels like the end of an era and so it's been hard for me to make myself sit down and finish this post. I do want to document his life at this age, however, so I'll do just that. (This update ending up being random ramblings, but I'm sure I'll be glad to come back and read this some day so I'm leaving it.)

These pictures were taken by our family friend, Amy Holst. I am so happy with the way they all turned out. 

Peter's saying a lot during the day, but most of it could be better classified as "babbling" than actual talking. His very favorite word is "kuh-duh" and while we're not sure what it means, we do know it's very important as he says it all day, every day. He also says "uh-oh" and Sky, which sounds more like "ky". 

He has 10 big teeth and his bottom molars are currently coming in. It's a lot of teeth for such a little guy. He is a great eater! He will truly eat anything we give him. Well, he did turn down mac and cheese, but he's eaten everything else we have offered. Bananas and Cheerios are still probably his favorite, along with anything in a squeeze pouch. When you get food out for him, he starts opening and closing his mouth kind of like a fish and makes the cutest little noise. 

He is still nursing a lot. In fact, he's only had cow's milk a few times so far. The main reason is that I'm just not ready to wean. It's easy, we both like it, it's free, and I want to keep doing it for now. My original goal was to make it a year, and now that we've done that, we're going to just keep going until one of us decides to stop. I've already received a few comments insinuating that it's time for us to stop, but I'm really not concerned about that. If anything, it only makes me want to keep going for longer. ;) 

I've long described Peter as a great napper and not such a good night sleeper. While he is improving at night, this really still describes him. He's down to waking up once many nights, which is wonderful! He goes to bed at 8:00 and will often wake up about midnight to eat. Some nights he wakes up once more about 5:00, but lately he sleeps from midnight until 8:30-9:00 a.m. I am SO enjoying the fact that he sleeps in for now. 

He is really into giving hugs right now and it is THE BEST. If I'm kneeling down or sitting on the ground, he will come up behind me and hug my back. If you lay down on the ground, he lays his head on you and often lays down on top of you for a full body hug. It's SO sweet. I can hardly handle it. He also holds his arms up for me to pick him up and then just goes in for a full squeeze around the neck hug occasionally. I wasn't ready for how his hugs were going to melt me. It's overwhelmingly wonderful, particularly because he's not a big cuddler. 

Since he's been walking for almost 3 months now, he's got great balance and walks really well. In fact, he's actually running around the house these days. When he can't find me, I can hear the pitter patter as he runs from room to room looking for me. He also really loves climbing these days. He's gotten really good at getting himself down from the bed or couch by putting his feet down first and holding on to let himself down slowly. It's pretty impressive to me...but let's me honest, I'm pretty easily impressed by anything this kid does. I think it's all wonderful and genius and awesome. 

Peter dressed up as a Hershey's kiss for his 1st Halloween. We went to Jeremy and Abby's house and hung out with them that evening rather than going trick-or-treating. The funniest part of that holiday was that I tried the hood to his costume on him multiple times in the weeks leading up to Halloween and he immediately ripped it off every single time. On Halloween, I put the whole costume on him for the first time and he never even tried to take the hood off once that night. It was like he thought the hood was dumb by itself, but he was cool with the whole ensemble together. 

I'm SO excited for this holiday season with Peter. Last year was wonderful because I got to snuggle a newborn during the holidays, and while he won't really understand a lot about the holidays this year, he's at a really fun age and I can't wait to celebrate with the rest of our family.  

Everyone keeps saying that they can't believe it's been a year since he was born. Well, I can. It honestly hasn't rushed by like I thought it would. I'm sure being home with him every day has been a big part of that. That is such a huge gift to me and I don't take it for granted. 

The picture above is my favorite family portrait but I also really love the one below because it's so true to real life. Peter loves to dig his fingers into your eyeballs, which is never enjoyable, but was especially concerning when I got pink eye recently and was trying SO hard to make sure it didn't spread to Peter. Thankfully, he and Kory never got it, but I had some really swollen and pink eyes for about a week. 

I've been keeping two little kids one day a week and it's great to see Peter interact with them. One is a 3 month old boy and the other is a 2 year old girl, so Peter gets the opportunity to play with someone older and someone younger than him. He really does pretty well with them, but doesn't love it when I'm holding one of them and not him (like any other infant/toddler). It's been a good introduction to what life with more than one kid would be like...and it's been eye-opening for sure. 

I thought I would be a lot sadder about watching Peter become more of a toddler and less of an infant, but I'm having too much fun to be sad. I LOVED holding him as a tiny baby, but it's far better to see his personality develop and watch him learn new things every day. I have never laughed more in my life than I have in the past two months with him. 

I've enjoyed watching Peter start to approach Kory more to be held and played with, rather than just coming to me. Dad can throw him higher and makes better noises/impressions, so he's quickly beating me out in the entertainment department. 

We did a football themed party for his birthday and it was really fun! Kory's parents were in town and we had several families from church over for dinner and dessert and presents. I made Peter a Boston Cream Pie (Kory's traditional birthday treat) and he seemed to love it. 

What a JOY this little guy is to all who meet him! These past twelve months have been the best of our lives. I absolutely can't wait to see what the next year with him looks like. 

I sure do love you, P baby. 

Eleven Months

Height: 28.5"

Weight: 18 lbs, 1 oz.

Lots of people told me that life would change when he started walking. I thought I understood what they were saying, but as usual, you really can't know until you're experiencing it for yourself. I'm exhausted in a way I've not been exhausted before. It's hard to compare it to the tiring days with a newborn, because I'm still living in those sleep-deprived days. 

It's not the fact that he's walking that's exhausting. It is the constant messes he makes and the pulling things off tables & night stands and out of cabinets and hurting himself when he falls over (a million times a day) and wanting to be held and then immediately wanting to be down and making more messes. The fact that he is still up 2-3 times every night just adds to the exhaustion. 

I'm happy. I love being a mom. I love Peter. I am SO tired. 

It's clear that we had a tough night last night because I can't think of anything to write about except how tired I am! :) I'll come up with something though. I want to remember other things about this stage of his life. 

He continues to be a really happy baby! This month he learned to clap and give high-fives and it is SO much fun to watch him because he grins so big every time. He also loves to "pat" people and tables and all solid objects. His patting is pretty hard, though, and is a problem when he's patting a 2 month old baby's face. He thinks it's hilarious to hit me in the face and while I tell him no and make him stop, it's so hard to not laugh when he's got that wonderful baby belly laugh going. 

He's also started holding his arms up in the air for you to pick him up. He doesn't like being held for very long, however, because he wants to be walking around, making new discoveries (aka making more messes). 

Fun Memories From This Month:

*Peter attended his 1st volleyball game 

*He summited his first mountain (Mt. Tipsoo)

*We picked vegetables from a friend's garden & he ate tomatoes and green beans fresh off the vine

*Peter got to move to the "Big Kids" side of the nursery 

We had a scare this month when Peter had an allergic reaction to cashews one evening. We ended up in Urgent Care the following morning when he had full body hives and his breathing was a little odd. He had blood drawn this past week for allergy testing and we're still waiting to hear from the Dr. to find out the results. We're really praying that he won't have to deal with a severe nut allergy. 

He only uses his pacifier when he's sleeping, but he does like to chew on them if he finds one laying on the ground while he's playing. There is only one kind of pacifier he will keep in his mouth, so we've got quite a collection of them now. He loses at least one every night when he throws it (or it falls) behind his crib, so we've got a stash ready in order to pop the next one in his mouth and get him back to sleep quickly. 

His hair is a little bit darker and thicker now, but not a lot. It's crazy to look at his newborn photos and see that he doesn't have much more hair now, almost a year later. He has the softest head though...I love rubbing it, and so does just about everyone else he meets.

I know how you feel, little dude. And now we're back to the subject of being tired. It's really a theme for us these days.

But so is being grateful! We have experienced great tragedy recently with the shooting at Umpqua Community College here in Roseburg. I think that the events of that day and the resulting grief is a part of why I feel so tired. It's been a busy, hard, and draining time for us, and so many others. In those dark days immediately after the shooting, Peter was a source of happiness and joy for so many people. It was good to be reminded that there is GOOD in the world and it's worth celebrating.  

It was even nice to focus on teeny, tiny milestones like the fact that he can now open his toy box on his own. We've still got a long road of mourning and healing and figuring out what "normal" looks like from here, but it has been amazing to watch this community come together in the face of this tragedy. I'm grateful that Peter gets to call Roseburg home. 

Ten Months

Height: 28"

Weight: 17 lbs.

The sticker definitely doesn't stay on his shirt anymore. It worked on the chair for about 30 seconds, until he found it there. The little stinker started slowly standing up and tried to be sneaky about pulling it off.

This is the face I got when I was telling him "No."

We are a really fun, really exhausting stage right now (which is probably descriptive of childhood). Sleep is still a guessing game every night. There is no discernible pattern to his waking/sleeping. He typically wakes up 2-3 times a night, but the times aren't consistent. We do everything you're "supposed to do" to help your baby sleep through the night (regular bedtime routine, put baby in bed drowsy but not asleep, the room is dark with one small nightlight, he uses a sound machine, etc.) but it really doesn't seem to matter to him. I go through cycles where I'm extremely frustrated by this and am determined to fix it (which obviously doesn't work) and I'm currently in the part of the cycle where I just accept that this is a season and we'll get through it and I take regular naps to make up for the sleep I lose at night. 

Thankfully, he's still a good napper. He takes two naps every day that are about 1.5-2.5 hours long. He doesn't wake up for the day until 9:00 most mornings and I'm very, very grateful for that. 

He doesn't have any baby food purees anymore. So far, I haven't found anything he doesn't like or won't eat. I cut up fruits, vegetables, and meat for him and he loves to feed himself. Sky gets to come in for floor clean up duty, which is the only time I think he likes Peter. 

At Peter's 9 month appointment, the Dr. was concerned that he wasn't making any discernible sounds, so we got some hand-outs and information on how to help him learn to talk. I wasn't worried about him and was actually pretty annoyed by the whole discussion because I already talk to Peter all day and I figure he'll start talking when he's ready. Well, wouldn't you know that the day after his appointment, he started making these specific sounds they want him to make! He says, "Buh", "Guh", and "Oooo" and also does a fake laugh that is pretty great.

His separation anxiety is much better these days. He will play independently for quite a while and doesn't seem to mind other people holding him. When he gets sleepy, he will cry if I leave him and go to another room, but that's about the only time he seems to mind. 

Some Current Favorites:

*Patting his hand on anything within reach

*Diving face first off the furniture

*Cheerios, Bananas, Applesauce

*Sky, though Sky is still not really interested in Peter

*Emptying cabinets and unloading laundry baskets

We've been at home a lot this month. There hasn't really been anything too exciting for us. Kory's been gone to a couple camps/weekend retreats, but Peter and I have been home doing regular, every day stuff. Maybe we'll have a more adventurous 11th month!

Of course, the big news from this month is that Peter's walking! He took his first steps on a Saturday, and by that Tuesday, he was taking 12-15 steps at a time and he's never looked back since! I need to order some shoes for him so he can walk outside. He has a pair of TOMS I really love but they're a little bit too big and they trip him every other step, so we need something a little smaller for now.

These walking pictures are clear and sharp on my camera and computer until I put them on Blogger...I can't figure out why.

As we inch closer to a year, I get really excited about what's to come. Peter develops more personality every day and as much as I love snuggling a cuddly newborn, this stage is truly more FUN! I know the best is yet to come with this little guy and I'm incredible grateful I get to be with him each day. What a gift!