Juicy Juicy.

We kicked off one of my 2014 goals early a few days ago. We cleared out the grocery store of produce, brought it home and Dan juiced his heart away. We decided to juice 1-2 times a week and freeze it into our baby food trays so that we can thaw a few each day to throw into the blender to make smoothies. So far we've been filling the smoothies with the juice (mainly carrots) + kale + a little honey + a banana + berries and sometimes plain greek yogurt. We've been having the babies drink these with one of their meals and I'm so thankful Jackson is finally, finally getting the servings of vegetables he needs. 

new year's eve 2013.

It's the last day of 2013. The babies and I are still in our pajamas, they are building block towers and I'm finalizing my goals for 2014. Dan is working and has a wild and crazy night planned for us at The Home Depot. No joke, The Home Depot. 

This past year has held some of my highest highs and also some of my lowest lows. I realize that the lows were shallow compared to the stories of so many from this past year. And my highs have been higher than deserved. We are blessed, that is abundantly clear, but all too often taken for granted. 

The room for improvement in all parts of my life is incredible, even overwhelming. I have so much to learn. I have so much to give. I have so much progress to make. And thankfully I have 2014 to work on doing just that, making progress. 

So, with that, here are my 10 goals for 2014- each one is rooted in the following vision:

"To spend each day with intention by the choices I make with my time, energy and resources to strengthen my family -physically, emotionally & spiritually- and using that strength to give to others."

These are in no priority order... 
1. Take my health to the next level by eliminating gluten from my diet.
2. Run a 1/2 marathon. Finally. I had registered for one this past year but had to miss it because of being pregnant with Jonah. So, August 30, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's happening.
3. Plant a garden this spring and use it as a teaching tool for JP and Audrey. 
4. Visit at least 3 new states. 
5. Spend time in God's word daily. Preferably first thing in the morning. 
6. Begin a supplemental home-schooling program. More on that later... 
7. Take my role in orphan advocacy to the next level. 
8. Figure out how to take my professional skills and apply them to social good. 
9. Provide 80% clean foods for our family.
10. Incorporate fresh juices from veggies and fruit into our family meals daily. We must pump more veggies into Jackson's diet and work harder to discourage all of the treats in his life. We started the veggie juice plan a few days ago and so far he's doing great with it. 

Oh, and maybe an honorary #11 would be to give birth to a healthy Jonah Daniel and survive the winter with a newborn, 2 year old and (almost) 4 year old. 

Lets do this, 2014!

Resolution Rekindle.

One of my 2013 resolutions is to better prioritize my marriage. Dan and I have a great relationship already, but I know that I let myself make excuses too easily about kids or work or stress or whatever getting in the way of us really putting us above it all. I want to rekindle, if you will. And so we've made the agreement to start out by making sure we have monthly dates and I'm doing my best to plan ahead of time for babysitters and planning the dates themselves so that life doesn't get in the way and prevent us from making the time that we need. 

Here are the dates we currently have lined up for 2013:

January: Bowling 
February: A Hockey Game
March: Take a cooking class together
April: Visit the Creation Museum
May: Cincinnati Reds Game
June: We'll be on a mission trip in Ecuador this month, so lots of quality "date" time. 
July: The Observatory (take 2, last visit wasn't so much a success)
August: TBD- any ideas? 
September: TBD- any ideas? 
October: Dinner at our local winery
November: Dinner at our favorite winery (so, we like wine...)
December: Ice Skating

I guess a lot of my resolutions, including this one, are about not allowing life to be all about the day-to-day. About not allowing the mundane to become the hero of the story. And that applies to marriage as well- especially to marriage I think.  What is that saying that they say, that the best gift you can give your children is to love your husband/wife? I couldn't agree more. 

2013: Resolutions

It's the most wonderful time of the year... time to make resolutions! Hello (almost), 2013! I love any reason to make new goals, to evaluate where I am and where I want to be, but doing it at the beginning of a new year is like the granddaddy of all goal-making, especially when you add in a fresh, new planner to capture it all in. A little bit of heaven is what that is. 

I tend to get a little carried away with setting goals and so I wanted to keep myself somewhat focused this year, so I decided to build my resolutions around my word of the year which is "Intentional." I want to be intentional with how I use my time, how I spend my energy and how we manage our finances. To me, being intentional means being in the moment, soaking up the best stuff in life and not allowing the unimportant to distract me from the things that I really care about. 

The Resolutions:
1. Do 1 Random Act of Kindness each week. This is also a way to teach Jackson & Audrey about giving to others more than we give to ourselves. 
2. Have set running/work-out days. I'm hoping this will help me plan my workouts and running goals ahead of time versus scrambling to get on the treadmill at 10pm each night. 
3. Have 1 date with Dan each month. 
4. Create a loving, creative, nurturing home. I want our home to be vibrant, to be a space that pushes our kids (and us) to think and challenge ourselves and to let our imaginations run wild. 
5. Make some big time progress on my 30 by 30 list. 

Lets do this, 2013!

2012's resolutions HERE.
2011's resolutions HERE and HERE.