Flip-Flop Weather

The weather on Saturday was nearly perfect.  I would have never believed it was January. 

So, I wore these.  I said a little happy prayer of thanksgiving that I live in the south.  I do love it here!

Obviously, my feet are not really flip-flop ready, but it still makes me excited! :)

From Craziness to Surrender

I drive myself crazy a lot of the time.  I over-analyze things, do things the hard way and get bogged down in the general minutiae of life.  The even crazier thing is that I know I do it but sometimes I feel powerless to stop.  I feel the need to "handle" things.  I feel the need to exert control over everything that comes my way.  I HATE to delegate.  I HATE to give up control.

But, occasionally something comes along and proves to me that many things are completely beyond my control.  And sometimes these things aren't so great - pregnancy at age 17, divorce, health concerns, etc.  But sometimes, these things are so good and eye opening and soul touching that I know they are straight from Heaven.

Last night I had the honor of listening to the stories of a few phenomenal ladies at The Orchard Women's Night for January.  Most of my fabulous friends from small group met me there.  I am so blessed to have a group of girls who are all best friends to me.  Love you Amanda, Amy, Brandy, Shannon & Victoria! The theme was surrender and it resonated so strongly with me. 

Our first speaker talked about her recent adoption of a baby girl from China and how after raising three perfect biological children that God put it on her heart to adopt.  She and her husband took 5 years before being able to totally surrender to God's will and bring Sophie home.

The next speakers were the co-authors of the book A Cord of Three Strands, Sara Berry and Tricia Robbins.  I bought the book last night, so I have not read it.  However, just listening to their story of how bad times sometimes turn out not to be bad times but are instead hard times and how God can redeem us when we feel our most broken was wonderful.  I am including a link where you can read about and even order the book - here.  But, please know that I am not affiliated nor compensated in any way.  I just truly think that others may be moved the way I was.

Will I always surrender?  Probably not, I'm not there yet.  But will I think more?  Absolutely.

Have a great week!

Goals for 2011

The always fabulous Nester, challenged her readers to list some home goals for 2011.  Not resolutions or hopes and dreams, but true goals.  Wow!  That really got me thinking about some concrete things that I would like to accomplish this year - but for my home and in my personal life. 

So, in no particular order, here are my Goals for 2011 (including a few home goals):

1.  Pay off $10,000 of our debt.  We have been on a true budget (yep, Excel spreadsheet and all) since August and it is one of the best things we ever did.  This goal should definitely be accomplishable. Is that a word?

2.  Blog twice a week.  I started this blog as a way to keep up with my children and sadly I am seriously lacking in that regard.  There is no reason I can't do better.  I need to remember that not every post requires pictures!

3.  Join Weight Watchers and get serious about losing weight.  My goal for the year is 40 pounds lost.  When you are fat plus-sized like me, it should be attainable.

4.  Spend a week in Florida with the family (with minimal Blackberry usage).  We love Okaloosa Island and it's an ongoing goal that we be able to spend a week there every summer while our children are at home.

5.  Have the shower in our master bathroom tiled.  I have hated the shower stall in our bathroom since day 1, but have done exactly zero to change it.  This year I would like to bite the bullet and make it great.

6.  Finally decorate my master bedroom!  We have lived in our house for two years so it's definitely time.  I recently purchased new bedding as a jumping off point so I hope to get this done in the first quarter of the year.

Here is a sneek peek at the bedding.  You can see more here.

Do you have goals for 2011?