For Today

It's been a while since I've done this little exercise and since I'm behind on blogging and behind on really a lot of things - thought I'd take a few minutes to gather my thoughts.

Outside my window: It's dark and cold. Not as cold as it has been, but still pretty darn cold! I promise to never, ever complain about the heat and humidity again!

I Am Thinking: About the holidays and how much our sweet children enjoyed themselves. Now here we are in a new year already and have so much to look forward to. Ryan will be turning 13 in a few weeks, then I'll be turning (???) in February. We'll celebrate 16 fabulous years of marriage in March. Then little Emma turns 7 in May. So, the next few months are going to be busy busy!

I Am Thankful For: My family and friends. We had such a wonderful Christmas even though by dollar standards it was down from some previous years. But it seemed like everyone enjoyed that even more than some of the bigger celebrations we've had. It was just a good time all the way around. Some friends from Texas came and stayed with us a few days and we enjoyed visiting with them and enjoyed watching the kiddos interact with them. Emma in particular really took up with Ron, and you could tell he was quite smitten with her as well. We rang in the new year with some of our best friends who have also adopted from China and laughed so much I thought I was going to be sore. Good, good times! And I'll have to say I learned a lot of new things about these friends. 'The Not So Newlywed' game is a wonderful way to find out LOTS of things about people!

From The Kitchen: I love cooking in the winter! So I've been busy making venison stew. Also tried a chicken and dumplings recipe from the Pioneer Woman site. The dumplings have corn meal in them - a little weird, but good. The second time I made it I used gnocchi instead and that was pretty yummy as well. Did quite a bit of baking during Christmas and not sure I'm going to want any more sweets for a while! Emma asked for and received a Jamba Juice maker for Christmas so we've also been trying various smoothie recipes. I just love watching her whipping up her little concoctions! Emma and I were out running around with our friend from Texas the other day & ran across a set of really cute little antique glasses which I bought for her to serve her goodies in. Quite tickled that my little one likes to cook!

I Am Wearing: Black sweats. OU Sooners t-shirt. BOOMER SOONER baby!!!

On the 'Go Organize' Front: Oh my, seems like one step forward and 10 steps back at times. We do have the halls undecked - trees taken down and put up, mantle un-decorated. Window lights all down and packed away. But the confounded basement is gonna be the death of me. Brian had taken everything out and repainted it and now the shelving is back in and we did organize the books shelves which was desperately needed. But the kids toys are still not organized. Nor is anything 'decorated' yet - nor do I even have a decorating plan. I tried working on it for a few hours this afternoon but just wasn't in the mood.

I Am Going: To bed soon. Can't believe the holidays are over and it's back to a normal schedule already.

I Am Reading: Recently finished The Water is Wide. I realized after I was part way through it that I had read it before but enjoyed it so much that I went ahead and read it again. Great read! Time to catch up on some magazines before I delve into something else.

I Am Hoping: That we can decide where we're going on vacation. I need something to plan!

I Am Praying For: Patience. In many ways.

I Am Hearing: Football on the tv ... sigh. Shouldn't the season be over by now?

Around The House: A little messy, but manageable. Can't really complain since we did get all the Christmas decorations put away.

One Of My Favorite Things: Christmas! I just love buying things for our family and seeing their enjoyment when they open the packages. It really tickled me this year that some of the really little things I got the kids were the things they seemed to enjoy the most.

A Few Plans For The Rest of The Week: Ryan has a make up band concert. They had one scheduled before the holidays but it was cancelled due to the weather. Still have a few more weeks before gymnastics starts back up but I think dance does start back this week. I need to check on that! Then a basketball game for Ryan on Saturday.

Have a great week everyone!