Day 1: Almost

Did I get any pictures hung today? Almost. It got down to bedtime, and I still hadn't hung one, so I decided to hang one in my bedroom. So I measured, got the screws in the wall, dusted and polished the frame, and hung it on the wall for a brief moment... before realizing that I had just hung a 20x24 frame above my bed by a mere two screws. One big bump from the family room wall or a 3.0 earthquake would bring it crashing down, quite possibly onto my sleeping head. Not good. So down it came. Jared suggested using some foam mounting-tape in addition to the screws to keep it stuck to the wall. However, I don't have any, and as it was 11:00 pm, I wasn't about to go out and get any. That'll have to wait for another day. Maybe tomorrow, if we're lucky. But hey, I tried, right?

I do feel I made up for this small failure in other ways, though. I started reorganizing my closet (again), which had started to collect everything from Hayden's royal potty to you-do-it hair color kits. I also installed a hotel lock on my closet door to keep Hayden out of it. I'm a little tired of Hayden's daily routine of pulling out and trying on every shoe she can reach (and trust me, I have a lot of shoes), then leaving them scattered throughout the house. I also watered and weeded my garden, had a fabulous lunch with Jared at our favorite Thai/Malaysian place, got Hayden down for a nap (miraculous!), prepared a full Family Home Evening with refreshments and everything, made a nutritious and delicious dinner, and jammy-jammed to Lady Gaga with my freshly bathed kids (Jared bathed them, so I can't take credit for that). Oh, and I worked out on the elliptical for 45 minutes while I watched the season finale of The Vampire Diaries. Talk about accomplishments! I'm feeling pretty good about it all, even if I didn't exactly get any pictures hung.

Week 17: Start Small

Okay, I know. I've been doing a terrible job keeping up with this blog lately. Life has been a struggle for me lately, and so I've been feeling less than inspired, and really able to come up with nothing new, exciting, or meaningful to do in the past few weeks to thrill you all with. But then I remembered that really isn't the point of this blog. I mean, sure, I hope that my endeavors will be if nothing else, entertaining for you. But the point of this blog is to work on myself, little by little, so even if I spend a whole week focusing on nothing but the care of my cuticles, I'll be writing about it. (Not that I expect to do that, even if my cuticles are in desperate need of a manicure...) Life is still a daily struggle, and I really don't see an end in sight, but I think that's the point. So it's time I soldier on. As for this blog, I'm going to start small. You're probably sick and tired of hearing me go on about the importance of having order in one's life, but it truly is something I crave, and something I feel I am still lacking. So under my favorite broad topic, I'm going to try to focus on just one little thing at a time. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to focus on hanging the pictures that have been cluttering my bedroom floor for the past 5-6 months. I'm hoping it won't take the whole week to accomplish this, but I really need to concentrate on just one thing at a time, I think. I've been getting overwhelmed way too easily, lately, so I don't want to push it. And there really are a lot of photos to hang. I'll let you know how it goes.

Day 3: No Changes Yet...

So, after the greatly anticipated meeting Jared had on Tuesday, we found out that we won't find anything out for another 4-6 weeks. Don't you just love Corporate America? Pfft! So, I might as well tell ya'll what's going on. They're considering creating a new position at their office in Yokohama, Japan, and if they do, Jared's the guy for the job. But like I said, it's gonna be a month or so before they decide if they're actually going to create this position, and then who knows how long before they actually decide to move forward with it if they do. Then, if it gets the green light, there's the whole ex-pat package to negotiate, and a family of four to relocate. So we're not counting on anything at this moment. We just get to have that really annoying itch in the back of our minds that we may not be here come Christmas. Grrr.... Oh, and Holly! I'm going down to my mom's this weekend sans kids, so there's at least an 90% chance that Bella's bedding will be done by Tuesday! Wahoo!

In Limbo

This week, the Hale family finds themselves in a state of flux. Happenings at Jared's work have left us with the feeling of being neither here nor there. So I've been at a complete loss as to what to focus on this week, because if our destination is there, then there's no point in painting another room or adding to my garden or putting in a new bathroom floor. I know there are other things, but everything I seem to want to accomplish would require me being here. So like I said, at a loss. There's a meeting scheduled tomorrow morning that I'm hoping will shed some light on what direction we may be headed, but it's still about 14 hours away, so hopefully I'll have more news by tomorrow. In the meantime, working on Bella's new toddler bed set! Let's see if I can't get it cranked out in a week...

Weeks 15 & 16: Yep, I Fell Off the Planet!

So, some of you may have wondered where the heck I've been the past week or so. Here's what I've been doing: I organized the Young Women's Progressive Dinner/Treasure Hunt. Unfortunately Cherie and Emily were both out of town, so I was on my own for this one. Luckily, my darlings Sharon Morgan and Eden Ellis stepped up to help me. Couldn't have done it without them.

Did I mention it was an international Progressive Dinner/Treasure Hunt?

Then, I cleaned up after all this. (It took 3 days.)

I designed this comforter and a matching valance and bedskirt, then started sewing it for Bella DeVito's 2nd Birthday next week.

I carried this around with me pretty much 24/7. 101.2˚ fever for 4 DAYS!

Now, I'm pretty much here.

Day 6: Becoming One with Nutrition

I can't believe it! I did it! I went vegetarian for a whole week, without having to count the days until I could eat meat again! I really didn't miss it. I actually looked forward to the meals I made (or ordered, as was the case a few times this week), and for the most part, enjoyed them thoroughly.

What was even more exciting to me was that because I had an objective (eating vegetarian), I paid more attention to what I was eating, instead of noshing all day on junk. I keep track of my daily calories on my iPhone, and I generally am disappointed at the end of the day when I'm way over-budget. But this week, I was within range every day. Some days I could have eaten as many as 350 more calories!

The guidelines I set for myself regarding my menu-planning and shopping worked out well, too. I only shopped for 2 days worth of meals at a time, which worked out perfectly. I shopped on Wednesday for Wednesday and Thursday's meals, and because of a crazy schedule, I still haven't made the Veggie Burgers I planned for Thursday's dinner. That ended up being Pizza Night because I had a meeting to get to, then we had leftovers on Friday, and tonight was Taco Bell because we were out and about running errands around dinnertime. So maybe I'll make those Veggie Burgers tomorrow night, or maybe they'll wait until Monday. I've got a whole chicken in my freezer that my family will go gaga over while it roasts in the oven.

As an added bonus, I found that I exercised a lot more this week. I spent countless hours out in the garden digging and planting and weeding, which actually burns quite a few calories. Then I dusted off my elliptical and used it this week, too. Amazing! My goal lately has been to drop 1½ pounds a week, and this is the first week in a very long time that I've actually accomplished it! Yay me! Will I stay vegetarian permanently? No, but I think I'm going to try to throw it into my meal-planning at least 2-3 times a week. And I'm going to stick with this 2-days-at-a-time thing. It truly has been an inspired idea.

Day 5: The Joys of Take & Bake

I love Papa Murphy's Pizza. To be specific, I love Papa Murphy's Gourmet Vegetarian Pizza. And since today was in a word, nightmarish (Ya know that one where you show up naked at school? Pretty close. For details, see hale-storm.blogspot.com), I decided tonight was the night for Take & Bake! Hooray! As I pulled out the phone to place the order, I thought I'd let Jason choose what he wanted on his side of the pizza. His typical order is pepperoni, so I was shocked when he decided he wanted to try vegetarian, too! He's not usually into trying new foods, but I guess he has been a pretty good sport this week. So I started telling him all the delicious vegetables they'd put on the pizza: zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms (his favorite), artichokes (his other favorite), and all kinds of good things. He was pretty excited by the time we arrived to pick up our all-veggie pizza. He was even more excited when he discovered how much he liked it. Jared seemed pretty happy with it, too. He's a margherita pizza kind-of-guy. And Hayden, well, she eats just about anything, so she was content. So although I didn't prepare this meal myself (except for the baking, of course), it still turned out to be a delicious vegetarian family meal. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Thanks, Papa Murphy!