2012 in Books

Thank goodness reading is not a competition in our home! In 2012 Paul smoked me in the number of books read! To my credit, I spent a lot time skimming through Paleo Books/Cookbooks. I guess this is reminder to carve out more time to read!

Paul's 2012 List

·        I.Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov

·        While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut

·        Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

·        The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

·        The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

·        Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

·        Proving Ground by Aaron Chumbris

·        Echo by Aaron Chumbris

·        Staying Close by Stopping the Natural Drift Toward Isolation in Marriage: Dennis Rainey

·        Geek Love: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) by Katherine Dunn

·        Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk     

·        Incendiary by Chris Cleave

·        How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe: A Novel by Charles Yu

·        New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro

·        12|21|12 by Larry Enright

·        Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins

·        Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland

·        The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God by Timothy Keller

·        Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Charity's 2012 List:

·        Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

·        The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

·        The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

·        The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

·        The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

·        What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Edggers

·        Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

·        The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

·        Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

·        Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

·        The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

·        The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller

·        A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

·        The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

·        Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Halfway Point

During the holidays it is so easy to get lax with clean eating. Treats and sweets abound! Self-control does not. In early December, Paul and I decided that we wouldn’t be hard on ourselves if we strayed during the holidays. We knew that come January we were going to batten down the hatches (what?) and commit to 30 days of squeaky clean eating. I probably had more chocolates, truffles, and ice cream then I should have. It just happened.

On January 2^nd we began the Whole30 program, which you can read about here. Basically, I call it Paleo+. Practically for us, it means no sugar (real, fake, refined, unrefined), no alcohol, and no dairy. And the icing on the cake (why do I torment myself) is you also can’t paleo-fy junk food. Which is a shame, because I can make a damn good fudge candy with dates and cocoa powder.  Oh and the icing on the icing is that you can’t go crazy on fruit while on the Whole30. Sugar is sugar people.

Here is a nice visual that Paul found of the Paleo train of thought.  The Whole30 tightens up any grey areas.

  

Paleo Diet Flowchart infographic

I’ve gone without sugar before. But during that time I was eating lots of ‘sugar-free’ products that were filled with chemicals.  And even though it was so hard getting of the sugar, I also rewarded myself with something that basically replaced the sugar. I wasn’t working on food problems I was just substituting my issues. When I hit a period of depression, sugar rushed back into my life (pun intended).

These 30 days are not just about hitting the reset button on my body. They are also to help make me more aware of what I turn to in moments of ______ (fill in the emotion). Why do I need wine at the end of a tough day? Why do I want sugar at around 2 or 3 every afternoon? Why do I need to snack when bored?

I probably won’t find all of my answers in 30 days but it sure is easier to think about them when you’re not turning to food.

I found this great timeline that spells out the phases of the Whole30 and if my predictions are right, tomorrow is going to be a great day! Seriously though, the first week for me was hell. It was probably hell for Paul too since he had to deal with me. Week two has been easier. And week three hasn’t started out too shabby.

Check out the Whole30 website. This might be up your alley. And my motto is that you can do anything if only for 30 days! We plan to do this at least once or twice again this year.

Happy New Year!

We rang in another year on the Oregon Coast with our dear friends the Kaetzel's! It was a fun weekend of eating, sleeping, reading, playing with the boys (3, 5, 8), playing when the boys went to sleep, and enjoying nature! Here a few snapshots I took of the weekend! I look at these and smile, good memories were made.

Our Family Photo! This was after throwing lots of ball with Charlie on the beach. It's her happy face!

Speaking of happy faces. Paul and Jack on the beach. Look at those smiles!

 I always love being near the water.

 Throwing the ball with Charlie is always fun.

These photos were some of my favorites. Jack liked asking me to take his photo with Charlie. Then I would show him the photo and he'd ask for another! I have quite a few!

All in all, it was hard to come home!

Anything but Resolutions

When I (Charity) was single I would always take time to write about my “Reflections and Resolutions”. I have always loved starting a new year. I love the idea of starting afresh and changing ways. Even if January 1^st really isn’t that different from December 31^st. It is the concept of change that resonates with me. My resolutions were always a mixed bag. I might have something about losing weight, or getting healthy, or ditching a relationship, or making better choices with relationships – or all of the above. The thing was, that within a few weeks of the year I would have forgotten my resolution. Or keeping them became too hard. Or, I just stopped caring. And out the window they went – until the next year that is.

Now when a new year starts I don’t think much about resolutions (other than hearing what everyone else is doing). Though, I still love the idea of change. And the funny thing is that not having resolutions feels both freeing and at the same time sad. Sad as in, what are my goals for the next year? What do I want to accomplish?

As we entered into this new year, Paul and I found a wonderful middle ground. At the end of 2012, we sat down over steaming mugs of chai tea, warm tomato soup and a salad to talk about 2012 and 2013. We had a list of questions that we had separately spent a couple of months thinking about. We took three hours and hammered out the details. At the end of our time we had a roadmap for 2013 and goals for each of us. What I like about this is that we’re on the same page. We know and agree on our goals as a couple and our separate goals. We can encourage one another. We can point out when something will not align with our goals. These are not just fleeting resolutions.

We also built in a quarterly check-in system to talk through our notes and see where we are at. Are things working? Why are they not working? Do we need to change course?  Below is a list of the questions that we worked through. I highly recommend it! And if you’re single – find someone that you can ask to hold you accountable. Find someone willing to check in with you quarterly, someone who won’t mince words when it comes to speaking truth!

Here is a snapshot of the questions we worked through. Do you have specific questions you think or work through when a new year starts?

Finances
Re-look at our monthly budget break down.
Is the budget working?
What needs to change?
What is our plan for saving?
How much are we going to tithe?
How much are we going to spend as an offering?

Spiritual/Community

What spiritual areas are we going to focus on as a family?
How do we add more prayer into our daily routine?
Where do we want to serve/volunteer?
Who are the people we are investing in?
Who do we want to start investing time in?
Who are we being mentored by?
How can we add more margin in our schedule so we can spend more time together?

Lifestyle
What big trips do we want to take?
What small trips do we want to take?
What are our fitness goals?
What are our lifestyle goals?

Wrapping up Advent

Where did the rest of December go?  I have no excuse for not blogging about the rest of our advent season, other than the fact that I was enjoying quality time with my husband. We had a week and a half off together and it was delightful!

So here is a list of our final Advent activities. Some of them we didn’t make it to, and we were okay with that! The moral of the story is that we were connecting during the chaos of the holidays and remembering the reason for the season. I think we earned an A+.

Day 16: Scripture Reading & Candle Lighting

Day 17: Create/Buy an ornament that symbolizes 2012 (I had a great idea, but wasn’t able to find the supplies to pull it off)

Day 18: Make Snowflakes and write what we’re thankful for.

Day 19: Enjoy Hot Cocoa & Marshmallows. I even made us Paleo Marshmallows to enjoy. And boy did we!

Day 20: Dance to our favorite Christmas song.

Day 21: Go Ice Skating (What a blast! We had never done this together!)

Day 22: Stocking Stuffer Challenge (1 store, a set amount of time and money. GO!)

Day 23: Scripture Reading & Candle Lighting ( We did this with our dear friends the Kaetzel’s!)

Day 24: Attend Christmas Eve Service at church (This was really nice and we even had some friends join us!)

Day 25: Celebrate Jesus’ birth

Continuing Advent

I failed quite a bit with documenting our continued advent celebration. I kept getting so caught up in the moment and would realize later that I meant to take pictures! Oh well, bear with me. I’ll work on getting better!

Day 6: Make (and Enjoy) Mulled Wine. My first attempt wasn’t too shabby. We had friends over to enjoy and it seemed to be a hit! The perfect beverage to warm up with!

Day 7 & Day 8: We were on the road over the weekend to visit our cousins in Portland. So to make things easier I made these days “treat” days. Paul got a Bag o’ Sunflower seeds (which is one of his favorite things about road trips) and a Theo Chocolate bar for us to enjoy. The best part though was playing with this handsome fellow! He is going to be a heart breaker!

Day 9: Scripture Reading & Candle Lighting.

Day 10: Game Night & Christmas Music. I wanted to zone out to  some Zombie Dice, but Paul talked me into playing a mellower card game called Pitch. It was a delightful evening!

Day 11: Have a Candlelit Dinner. An easy way to have a relaxing evening!

Day 12: Make a Holiday Treat. We made Dark Chocolate Peppermint truffles which were amazing!! Typically I never share the kitchen with Paul.  This was an easy way for us to get our hands dirty (literally) and share in the food making experience.

PS - How cute are those plates! My Secret Santa aka dear friend Christianna got those for me! I've been using them a lot!

Day 13: Kissing under the mistletoe (no explanation needed).

Day 14: Watch a Holiday Movie. We were too busy this weekend to make this happen. But I still hope we get around to it!

Day 15: Gather with Community. This was awesome! We had a group of friends over for a breakfast potluck. We also collected coats and blankets to donate to the homeless youth. I do not have any pics of the nearly 20 adults and 7 kids that packed our house! But here is a picture of the great stuff we donated!

Creating Traditions

Tradition has been on my mind lately. I often think about traditions in the context of “when we have children we will…” and then fill in the blank. Recently I have been struck by the idea that Team O needs to begin building our traditions as a family before we have children. The idea is that children will naturally become a part of those traditions.

 

I thought this year would be an excellent time to begin an advent tradition. However, I wasn’t sure where to start. I only knew of Advent done two ways: 1) chocolates in a calendar and 2) the family tradition our dear friends the Kaetzel’s passed down to us where a candle is lit each Sunday leading up to Christmas, scripture is read, songs are sung and the nativity scene is built each week.

During the advent season I want us to keep Jesus as focus, I want to do activities that promote ‘us’ time,  I want fun and silly little things to get us into the holiday spirit, and I wanted to build memories. So from December 1^st to the 25^th we are doing a plethora of small and inexpensive things to achieve those goals. I say small because the last thing I would want to do is build up a tradition that only stresses us out. The idea is this is a joyful time, Christ IS coming! We are also going to use the devotionals from this online advent book from Desiring God.

 

Before we started I had to acquire a calendar of some sort. Speaking of stress, google "advent calendars" and you will find many variations that you can make. Sometimes seeing other people's insane creativity flat out stresses me out. One night after work I found myself at JoAnn's meandering the aisles looking for inspiration. And then I stumbled across this beauty and realized - heck no, I'm not making a calendar. I'm buying! I am beyond thrilled with this unexpected (and on sale) purchase!

 

Our Calendar for many years to come.

 

 

 

I will document our celebration as the month goes on. For now I'll share Days 1-5.

 

Day 1: Acquire & Decorate a Christmas Tree. Paul hauled this tree over his shoulder the three blocks from the fruit stand to our house!

 

Day 2: Light the "Gospel" candle, read Scripture and set up our nativity set. In the future we'll set the nativity up week by week.

Day 3: Hang our stockings by the faux fire. Well I guess I could have lit the faux fire, but I honestly don't remember how! Charlie needs a little stocking love too!

Day 4: Write out Christmas cards. Since they're not done I'm not showing our awesome 2012 photo card just yet! I will also say that on Tuesday evening we were exhausted. So we tabled writing out our Christmas cards. Flexibility is key!

Day 5: Share a favorite Christmas memory. Paul telling me about the year he got ALL the video games he asked for made me laugh so hard last night! I remember Christmas PJ's and waking up way too early and eating toaster strudels waiting for my parents to get up. Mmmm Toaster Strudels!!