Friday Glimpses

Miscellany from this week:

• starting a new Project Life album for 2014.
• and finishing up the one for 2013.
• making amazing chicken enchiladas and contemplating making up The Enchilada Project so that I can justify making more enchiladas this year and searching out the perfect recipe. (Or just eating these over and over again because they were that good).
• Picking this up to start next.
• And finishing this one. Excellent.
• Wearing a new apron handed down to me from Travis' grandma who passed away last year.
• Watching munchkins ride Christmas bikes ... and then parking them in the garage for a few days because it. is. so. cold.
• Reading (and already finishing) the January selection from the Reading to Know bookclub for this year. (FYI, it's The Blue Castle by L.M. Mongomery if you want to play along). Contemplating reading another L.M.M. book to round out the month ... maybe Pat of Silver Bush? 

Our Christmas break has FLOWN by and I am certainly not ready to start school next week. And I've enjoyed pecking out words here with much more frequency that I have in the last six months combined ... that has been good. But today includes an orthodontic check up for one and a celebratory retirement lunch for my mom and a few miscellaneous errands that we need to tackle. Off to make this Friday a good one with my little crew.

Happy Friday. : )

January Intentions

Yesterday I shared my One LIttle Word for 2014 - intention{al}. One way that I will keep this to the forefront is to make monthly goals for myself so that my word (and the action I want to take) is kept front and center. Hopefully this will help me be mindful of what I'm aiming for as well as breaking down those big projects into smaller, more manageable bites. I'm also going to have several different categories that I'll be focusing on each month. I recently listened to a video on goal setting by Elise Cripe and she made the good point that if you spend all your energy focusing on just one area, you will be burnt out pretty quickly. As an aside, I think that was part of my lack of ... much of anything ... in 2013. I was very focused on physical health which was a very good thing, but being SO focused on that made everything else fade way far into the background. (I have hopes of a post (or two or three) on that one of these days).

Here's what I'm being intention{al} about for January:

Spiritually: diligence in my Bible study in John and continue to count gifts and journal (hopefully with more frequency). I also started using the book The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime and lost steam on it over the holidays. I loved this addition of some liturgy to my mornings and want to add that back in post haste.

Physically: run a 5K this month. (Yikes). It's on the calendar so now I need to be diligent in preparation.

Relationship: quality over quantity is what I'm going for here. My girls and have a date on the calendar to see a young friend's debut theater performance in High School Musical and we are very excited about that. Looking beyond just mama/child relationship, we also have a date on the calendar to take Grandma (my mom) out to lunch to celebrate her retirement this week!

Routine: re-establish my routine of early morning runs and earlier bedtimes. November and December were full of LATE nights which I do not function well with. Time to regroup for sure in this area.

Creatively: Learn to use my big camera just a little bit better. I won a spot in Ashley Ann's SNAPSHOP DSLR course and can't wait to start it. I still love my iPhone for convenience, but I would love to know a little bit more what I'm doing with my "good" camera!

Job: 100% of me when we are doing schoolwork. Better planning and preparation on my part as well, whether that means getting my act together on Sunday night before our week starts, reading a homeschooling book to inspire, or working through N1's Classical Conversations work ahead of her so that I understand how to diagram a sentence as well as she does!

Baby steps. And lots of them. : )

2014: The Year of Intention{al}

This year's word found me a few weeks ago. It's one that I'm excited to dive into over the next year, but also a little scared about. I have a feeling it's going to ask much of me. My word is intention{al}. (Why the funny little {al} at the end? Because when I read the definitions of both intention and intentional, aspects of both words jumped out at me, so this is my way of including both.) : )

This past year I felt like I floundered in several areas. I floundered in several parenting areas due to being unprepared and backing down in areas when I should have been gearing up toward the more intense seasons of parenting that are here. Our homeschool floundered because I didn't do as diligent of a job in planning and preparing. My natural abilities in organization helped us get by, but that's where it stopped. Just at getting by. These are just a couple examples of areas that I'm going to mention, but overall, it was just my lack of not trying and working as hard as I could. Hard to say, but there it is.

When I looked up these two words in the dictionary (because that's where I always try to start) I found some eye-opening definitions:

intention:

- a thing intended, an aim or a plan. A determination to act a certain way.
- the healing process of a wound.
- the object for which a prayer, mass or pious act is offered.

intentional

- done in a way that was planned or intended.
- synonyms that caught my eye: purposeful, conscious, voluntary, deliberate

This year, I'm tightening the reins on myself and putting my nose to the grindstone (to throw in a few very well known and possibly overused cliches). : ) I want to be very intentional in how I spend my time over the next 12 months and I have some very intentional plans that I want to pursue. What does this look like?

:: This means I am going to be making plans and then actually break them down into how I am going to accomplish them. As opposed to making pretty plans and lists and then conveniently forgetting about them.
:: It means that I'm going to be very specific about what I do plan to do. Pam at Everyday Snapshots had a great post on this in regards to making goals (specifically homeschool ones) that you can accomplish. For example: less "read great books" and more "spend a year reading at least six books by C.S. Lewis."
:: This means there will be a lot less time wasted. How much time was spent this year endlessly following clicks on different pages or aimlessly checking social media because I didn't do what needed to be done. An embarrassing amount. I'm done with that nonsense.
:: Quality time with Travis, the kids, in what I choose to read as opposed to quantity. I spend lots of time with my kids (and Travis), but I'm encouraged and reminded that I still need to be very deliberate about quality time with them, as a group and individually.
:: Being intentionally and 100% present in our schooling. And encouraging myself to learn along with the kids.
:: There is going to be some healing involved over this year. What does this mean? With some of the choices that I made over the last 12 months to skim in some areas, there will need to be some retraining, correction, and new habits set. Things like this are rarely easy and I'm anticipating it will mean "cleaning out" of the old (wound) so that there is healing and new habits set in. I absolutely loved this word picture.
:: Prayer!! Without this, and laying my ideas and thoughts before God, I don't figure that all the planning in the world will produce much fruit.

This is just skimming the surface - I have so many thoughts bubbling in my head and am very, very excited (nervous!) about this year. I want to be 365 days from now and look back and say that I faced each day wisely and focused on what the Lord wanted me to accomplish in that place.

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

2014. Bring it on.

You can read more about the One Little Word idea here. This is where I heard of it several years ago.

Previous year's words:
2013: Abide
2012: Here
2011: Serve
2009: Joy

The Best of 2013

I take a lot of photos. (I know that is a shock). I had the thought of doing an end of the year photo recap of some of my favorites and was then reminded of the thought when I saw that Pam was doing a 13 for 13 end of the year photo link-up. However, as much as I tried, I couldn't limit myself to thirteen. (And I really tried). So, then I went with thirteen catagories ... and still ended up with sixteen I think. : ) Ah, well.

It was bittersweet looking over the past year and seeing milestones and how much our family has changed in just the last twelve months. I could have spent a lot longer looking and chosen a lot more pictures so it's probably good that I limited myself.

Best Birthday Shots:



Best Sibling Shot(s):



Best Baptism Shot(s):



Best Photobombed Shot:



Best Summer Shot:



Best Baseball Game Shot:



Best Photo with Mama and All-the-Kids Shot:



Best of the Boy Shot(s):




Best I Didn't See What Was Going on In the Photo Until Later Shot:

Hint: Look to the right of the birthday girl at what B is doing to E. I died when I saw what I cropped out of the picture initially!




Best Big Summer Adventure Shot(s):



Best Sports Shot(s):



Best Library Shot:



Best Family Camp Shot:



Best Music Shot(s):



Best Friend Shot:



Best Him Shot:



Linking up with Pam at Everyday Snapshots and sharing 13(+) from 2013.

2013 :: By the Books

I love reading end-of-the-year bookish wrap-up posts. Generally they feed my never ending pile of books that I want to read (I'm not saying that's a bad thing!) It's been several years that I've done one so I thought I would give it a stab for 2013. My total 2013 reading list is linked here - if I counted correctly I managed to read 62 books this past year. That's a big number, but it is more quantity than it is quality. I read very few non-fiction books this year and reread two longish (7-8 books each) series. I'm hoping that I am a bit more focused this next year in my reading but there were still some gems in there.




Best fiction:

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit. This was a read-aloud I did with the girls last spring and it was hands-down my favorite fiction of the year (either adult or children). We have now read this book of hers and The 5 Children and It and E. Nesbit hasn't disappointed yet.

Best non-fiction:

A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson (Boomama). I've read Boomama's blog for several years now and her book, which is a series of essays on southern family life and food, was just wonderful. I literally laughed out loud multiple times when reading it. I loved reading about some of her family memories and recipes and it reminded me of some of my own that I need to write down to share with my own kids (though I don't have aspirations of a book!)

Best new (to me) author:

I read Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse on Amy's recommendation and I'm looking forward to reading some more of her books this coming year (I hope!) And I get to reread this one and host it for the Reading to Know book club in March which I'm very excited about.

Book that made me cry / Book that made me laugh out loud:

Both of these would go to A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet. I laughed, I cried, it moved me. Seriously.

Book that changed my perspective on something:

A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily Freeman. This book surprised me with how much I resonated and needed its message. To very briefly sum up: it encouraged me and nudged me to think about what inspires me and how I love creating. That that is something that God put in me and I need to be thinking about how I can use that for His glory. I'll be revisiting this book again.

Best homeschooling book:

Did I read a homeschooling book this year? I don't think I did, unless I reread The Core by Leigh Bortins and didn't record it. I'll be rectifying this in 2014.

Worst book:

I was not impressed with Divergent by Veronica Roth. (I may be the only person who thinks that). I read this book to find out what the fuss was about - it was popping up on blogs everywhere I turned. Without giving away too much for the two people out there that still haven't read the book, I found it very violent. More so than the Hunger Games. And where the main character of the Hunger Games found herself in a situation where she had to defend herself, she didn't seek out violence. This character did. That turned me off from the series. I don't anticipate reading the rest of it.


Best surprise plot twist:

I don't know if this would qualify, but I was surprised with how much I enjoyed Redwall by Brian Jacques. I had a hard time putting down book 1 in the series, and went on to read books 2 and 3. The series goes on (almost) forever so it will still be there when I feel like going back to it.

Most disappointing / Most over-hyped:

Divergent

Most challenging:

By far, both the C.S. Lewis books that I tackled this year stretched my reading chops. This summer I read Out of the Silent Planet and it took me quite a while to get into the story. (And wrap my brain around the fact that it was written by the writer of Narnia!) Secondly, I just finished The Screwtape Letters. That book was amazing and so chock full of stuff that I probably should have read the book with a notepad handy. I did better when I read it out loud to Travis on a recent road trip as it helped me concentrate more. Another book I should probably go back to sooner rather than later.

Best cover:

I've been eyeballing this book for sometime and finally picked up a used copy and devoured it in about two days. I think the reason that I loved this book so much was her writing style. She wove stories from her family and life seamlessly together and tied it with food and memories in a way that sucked me in completely. Such a good writer.

Best young person's book:

That's a hard choice, but I'm going to go with the fourth book in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. I've enjoyed books 1-3, but it felt like book 4 picked up the pace and bit and tied up a few loose ends (though there are still many more that makes me anxious for book 5!)

Book I’ve been meaning to read for years and finally got to:

The Wind in the Willows. I read and hosted this for the 2013 Reading to Know book club this summer and was glad to check this one off my list finally.

Best book on homemaking:

This seems to be another category noticeably missing from my list. A-hem.

Book I have recommended the most this year:

I don't know that I recommended much of anything from this year, but I've loaned out my copy of The Core to at least one (if not several more) folks this year.

Best philosophical or spiritual book:

The Screwtape Letters, hands down. I've got big plans to read more C.S. Lewis in 2014!

If you wrote a bookish wrap up post for the year, please let me know! If not, what was your favorite book that you read recently? 

Prompts borrowed from Sarah at Amongst Lovely things. Amazon affiliate links used throughout this post.

Merry Christmas!