if you're looking to waste five minutes of your life

Apparently I've been rendered incapable of coming up with any sort of a creative blog post. It's like that part of my brain has been shut off. So, here are a bunch of random thoughts on my brain right now...

I've been terribly unhealthy lately. It's not pretty. In fact, I skipped my workouts on Monday night and last night, so tonight I tried to make up for it by jogging (with a little walking) 5 miles, plus loads of ab exercises. Now, I am WIPED. OUT.

The last two Thursdays, I've had an ALL-DAY migraine. As in, wake up with a migraine that stays with me until 7:00 p.m. or so. I'm really hoping to break that pattern tomorrow.

As of last night, Chris had worked 120 hours since last Monday. That's 120 hours in 8 days (he doesn't work on Sundays), and last week he was even home early-ish two nights, so do the math. He's had some super long days, but he's a trooper. We're really proud of him.

I still have piles of school books on my desk, but the good news is that I'm making some headway. Now, I just need to find a home for all these books. Our school bookshelf is full. Chris is planning to build a big built-in shelf unit, but obviously that won't be happening any time soon. I hope these books are comfy here on my desk, because they're here to stay for quite awhile.

I have so much to do in the next two months that I can't let myself think about it. I just have to focus on doing the next thing on my list; otherwise I start to panic. Wanna hear about? Let's see... I need to get Pierce's portfolio ready by May 1 (to be evaluated by a supervising teacher to make sure he's made adequate progress). I need to wash all the winter gear and store it away. I need to complete the kids' summer wardrobes, which I'm hoping to accomplish at garage sales. I need to GO to garage sales. I have a bridal shower in April. I need to get caught up on housework. I need to wash windows (badly!). I need to finish making goals for the 2010-11 school year, and then come up with a rough lesson plan outline & schedule for the year. (We'll start our 2010-11 school year sometime in May or June.) We have Activity Day one Friday in April. I need to plan & throw Emmersyn's (4th!) birthday party in May. I have a bachelorette party to attend in May. I have 5-6 soccer games to attend for the boys in the next month or so, in addition to practices. I need to clean the basement. I need to file away our 2009 financials. I would like to get a tan for my sister-in-law's wedding. I need to have Emmy's dress resized before the wedding. I need to get the boys and my husband to the tux shop to be fitted before May 1. I need to have my bridesmaid dress taken in (YAY!) before the wedding. And then we will attend the wedding (in early June).

"Just do the next thing." Seriously...it works to say that! It also helps to have a massive, color-coded to-do list. Yes, I've moved beyond a traditional to-do list, and I've color-coded mine. Blue is school-related, green is household chores, yellow is projects and miscellaneous tasks, and pink is computer-related. I attempt to do one or two things in each color every day, just so I'm not stuck doing too much of one type of task. There's only so much housework I can handle in a day without going looney.

Wow...seriously? Are you still there?

I'm sorry I just robbed you of five minutes of your life.

One last note. The "major life change" I alluded to last week may not be as "major" to you as it is to me. So don't be getting your hopes up that I'm about to announce something huge and fantastic, because you'll be disappointed.

This concludes this sorry little post. And I'm not going to proofread it.

I know...I'm living on the edge.

The end. (You're welcome.)

This is all I've got.

My computer "fast" is officially over, but I must say that it wasn't so much a "fast" as it was a major cutback. After the first week, I realized that completely giving up the computer just wasn't going to work because of my business and because of how much I use the computer for school. So, I gave myself one hour per day to take care of the stuff that needed to be taken care of. No Facebook. No blogs. Just business.

And it was pretty great. In some ways it feels like I've been gone from the blogosphere for ages, but in other ways it feels like the time flew by. I didn't miss it much. That was a pleasant surprise.

Now, however, I am very glad to be back, but I'm overwhelmed at where to start. I don't have a clue what to write about because there's so much that happened, yet not. Does that make sense? Probably not. I've switched off the bloggy part of my brain and quit funneling my life through a "blog" filter, so nothing is written down and nothing seems blog-worthy.

So I'm just going to type a random list of happenings and thoughts, just to give a little substance to this post. :)

• I thought I was going to journal during this hiatus. Turns out that I hate journaling with a pen and paper. I think I wrote 3 entries. I may or may not share them.
• My desk is completely covered with piles of books. I'm trying to do some lesson-planning and research, and I'm slowly making some headway. I think.
• It felt really good to open up my blog page and discover that when I started my hiatus (at the beginning of Lent), I had lost 8 pounds. As of last Friday, I've lost 25 pounds! I had a big old smile on my face as I changed that number from 8 to 25.
• We had a major life change occur in our family during Lent. I'm going to blog about it as soon as I feel ready.
• Our small group Bible study has been amazingly awesome the last few months. I love it!
• I can't believe how exhausted I am lately. Physically, I'm tired, but that's just life. Mentally & emotionally, I am exhausted. Spent. In dire need of a sabbatical. Moms get those, don't they? :)
• The next few months are going to be pretty crazy for us. I try to tell myself, "Just do the next thing," and that usually keeps my mind focused.
• I hate folding laundry. I just thought I'd throw that one in there.
• I have 30 pounds left to lose to meet my weight-loss goal. My friend Tyler over at Titus 2:3-5 is going to join me and try to lose the same amount of weight, and I'm excited to have another accountability partner! I think we're going to weigh in on Fridays now, rather than Wednesdays.
• Speaking of Canadians, after this Obamacare crap, I may become a Canadian. But that's a post in and of itself, and I will be sparing you that soap box post.
• Chris's busy season has begun, which means he's working even more hours than normal. Last week he put in 90 hours from Monday through Friday. I may have to do a post on this particular topic one of these days. Hopefully it's not a post full of swear words... :)
• As a mom, lately I've been reactive more often than I've been responsive. If you know what I'm talking about, you know that isn't a positive thing. Ugh.
• I was going to read the book Gone With the Wind because it is on the Pulitzer Prize Winner's List. I changed my mind when I saw that it is almost 1000 pages in length, printed in small font.
• I just read back through this list, and it is completely void of emotion. Maybe! I! Need! Some more! Exclamation points! There. That's better. !

After 40-some days of not blogging, I'm afraid to tell you this is pretty much all I've got.

Goodnight.

Er, I mean...

Goodnight!!!

Review: Gigi's Hugest Announcement

I watched Gigi’s Hugest Announcement with my 3-year-old daughter and she absolutely loved it. From her perspective, it was great. She especially loved that Gigi was so klutzy. “She falls all the time, just like me!” she said, laughing.


This DVD actually has two episodes, both of which have a Biblical “moral to the story”. (The stories are based off books by Sheila Walsh, a trusted name in Christian books.) The moral to each story is very simple, yet very applicable even to me as an adult. I enjoyed watching a cartoon in which the children and parents conduct themselves in a godly manner.

I also appreciated the way they handled the princess theme. Gigi is a princess because she is a child of God (the King of Kings), but she doesn’t act spoiled or uppity. She understands how important her role as “princess” is; after all, bringing glory to God really IS a royal duty. :)

The quality of the animation was sub-par, to be sure, but my daughter could have cared less. Also, after watching it several times with my daughter, I find myself feeling irritated with her voice. It doesn’t bother my daughter though, as she requests to watch it every day.

Disclosure: I received this DVD free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze book review program. All opinions expressed herein are mine.