Family Mission Statement

Paul and I learned early on in our relationship that we do best when we're working together towards the same goal or end. We found that we make a pretty good team! We see this whenever we go traveling. We have the same goals of having fun, staying safe, seeing the sites, and ensuring that our needs are met. We do not do as well when we don't know what we're working towards, or when we each think we know what the end goal is. When we are not communicating we get lost. Lost = arguing, bickering, hurt feelings and crankiness.

I would like to say that the above paragraph was the motivation for writing a family mission statement - but technically it wasn't. The motivator was actually identifying our life board of directors or BOD. I'll dedicate another post to our BOD because it deserves it's own post. 

When a company or an organization has a Board of Directors, they typically have a mission statement or some agreed upon idea of what the goal of the company is. So that everyone is on the same page and when decisions need to be made they can be made in light of the direction the organization wants to move.

If we are going to have people hold us accountable individually and as a family, we needed to be on the same page with the direction of our family.

Last week, Paul and sat down at our favorite spot, and worked through these questions. The time was worth it and we love the mission statement that we created out of it. This mission statement will help us guide what we value and how we spend our time, money, and resources.

Drum roll please.....

We, Team O, believe that our purpose as a family is to reflect Christ's love for the church through our marriage and service to one another.  To raise our children to know God and to walk in his ways. To provide for those that are less fortunate. To forgive others for their trespasses and debts against us, to consistently ask for forgiveness for trespassing against others, to steward our finances well, and to honor our commitments to one another. We will accomplish this by:

• Valuing the knowledge that God has a plan for our lives, is actively working in our lives, and that our current situation, whether blessing or curse, us being used and redeemed.

• Making our home a place of generosity, warmth and invitation, and safety.

• Prioritizing time with God, building strong familial and community relationships, service to others, and stewardship of our time, talents, money, and resources above lesser values.

• Interacting with each other in a spirit of joy, humility, empathy, and compassion.

 

Day 2

I don't plan to write everyday about this experiment without Facebook. But I must say I have realized in just over 24 hours away, I think in terms of Facebook. 

When I was at the Seattle Public Library yesterday, I was thinking I should take a picture from floor 9 and post it to Facebook. When I brought home a gaggle of travel books, I thought I should post about it on Facebook. And my favorite was when I was walking home from the bus stop at 5pm. It was light out!! I wanted to let everyone on Facebook know how glorious that is.

I think in terms of a clever (to me) post. I'll have to spend this month deciding if there is any more depth to me. At least Facebook allows me more words that Twitter.

Meanwhile, I have already read more in my current read (Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card) than I have in days!

29 Days - No Facebook

I must be crazy!! 29 days without Facebook?  I would like to think that I'm not addicted to Facebook. I mean, am I really on it that much? Sure I check it in the morning, then again on my bus ride, during a break at work, at lunch, afternoon break, bus ride home, while at home making dinner, during dinner, after dinner, again while watching an evening show, and then finally before bed. But really, isn't each time on Facebook just minutes or seconds? Is that big of a deal?

Well, Paul gets annoyed by my Facebook-ing. He'd actually LOVE it if we both either got off Facebook completely or shared an account. I can't imagine not being on Facebook, but I also don't like the idea of sharing an account. I'm not really interested in what some random person from Paul's middle school is doing.

Anyways, I think I can feel Paul's frustration building around Facebook. He doesn't mention it as often, but I sense it. So for Christmas I gave Paul a voucher for one month 'Free of Facebook' redeemable at anytime. Bless his heart, he picked February so that I would only have a 29 challenge. I love that guy.

I feel like this isn't just a 29 day challenge, but also an experiment. I wonder what life would be like again without Facebook. I mean I am going to miss knowing what people are up to. But at the same time, isn't annoying that people (myself included) generally only put the best stuff out there. So everyday people are living these amazingly interesting lives and if you're sitting at home not feeling amazing you can easily start feeling bitter. Or sometimes I feel like I should be doing more because so and so is doing more with their life. Does anyone else feel like that? Maybe it's just me. I just feel that Facebook creates a big illusion and little authenticity.

My goal during the next 29 days is to read more and enjoy people more, especially my husbuddy!

Paul and I survived our second Whole30!! This is one of those moments where I want to turn to my ingrained ways and give myself a treat for doing so well! Alas, that would kind of defeat the whole purpose of these last 30 days.

I picked one of the hardest months to do a Whole30 program. The concept was smart, reset our bodies after the excess during the holidays. What I forgot to factor in was the extreme stress levels that I would have in January while completing my 2012 Funder Reports for work. So many nights I came home and felt like  I would kill for a piece of dark chocolate or a glass of wine, or realistically - both!

It really forced me to find other ways to decompress from the stress. Like yoga, praying, watching a trashy TV show, blogging, reading, seeing a friend, or watching Friday Night Lights with my husbuddy.

I also want to give a shout out to Paul who did incredibly well on the Whole30. Paul's favorite past times include coming home and tipping the honey jar (literally) into his mouth. Instead of turning to a treat, he came home and ate a healthy dinner with me and then if he was lucky got a clementine to snack on. No honey for my honey.

My goal in January was straight up lose 5 pounds. And on that note why is it called losing weight? It's not like I don't know where it went. I'm not frantically looking around for the weight! 

I'm very proud to say that I reached my goal!! And a side bonus, - I have had tremendous amounts of energy! I've actually been getting things done. Like purging junk from the house! It has been a win-win for me!

The Whole30 isn't quite up for me. I've decided to extend into February though I won't be as harsh about the compliance component (if you've done it, you know what I mean). Instead I'm going to focus on generally having no sugar and no alcohol. Except for Valentines. I'm taking that evening off!

My goal for February is to lose those last 5 pesky pounds. They have got to go!

Updating

I was playing around with a new blog template! Hope you like the new look!

Purging

Paul and I have been Paleo now for just over 7 months. We've both 100% bought into the fact that this isn't a phase for us, it is a lifestyle. 

When we first started Paleo in June of last year. I was unwilling to part with any of the food in the cupboards. I wasn't convinced that Paleo was going to work for us, or that I would even like it. And I didn't want to have to go rebuy everything. So I've held onto it all.

And lately, this one cupboard has been haunting me. It started off as the baking cabinet and then slowly became the last resort for so many items. Today, I decided - enough is enough!

Here is the cabinet before with more items tucked to the far right. I found some gems back there:

I generally live in fear that something will come crashing out of there on me one of these days.

Here is the purge pile.

And the After Picture? Glorious if I do say so myself! The best part, having the extra storage space.

The two top shelves can now hold miscellaneous dishes and my cookbooks.

So what made the cut?

3 Types of salt, coconut oil, two paleo marinades, honey, molasses, some spices, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and of course some grass fed beef gelatin!

Dear Husbuddy.... you're welcome!!

2013 Adventure

Team O is going on an adventure in 2013! T-Minus 68 days until:

Then onto:

Moving on:

And Finally:

But you'll probably find us here after we're done looking at the beautiful buildings: