March Mini-Goals

Goal number one for March is to get my taxes done by the end of the month. I usually put this off until the first couple weeks in April. It makes my mom and dad nervous.

I really want goal number two to be "take the Explorer in for maintenance," however because we are going on a trip towards the end of March, we HAVE to do that anyway so it's not fair to make it a goal. That means I have to think...

Okay, here it is... it's a risky one. I'll take three pictures of cluttered parts of the kitchen and post them. By the end of the month, I will declutter/organize those areas of the kitchen and then retake pictures to post. I guess we'll all see how that goes!

February Mini-Goal Report

February - both goals completed.

The one goal was getting the Girl Scout bank account in order. I balanced the checkbook and wrote down all the transactions that happened before we had the account. I still owe myself money, but I need to get some checks signed by my co-signer, before I can write anymore.

The other goal was to read two books over 100 pages. I definitely exceeded that goal. The first book I read was "But Inside I'm Screaming" by Elizabeth Flock. It's about a news reporter who goes off the deep-end and has to go to a mental institution to recover. It was okay, but I wasn't overly impressed with the book. Impressed with myself - yes! A 316 page book read completely - it's been a while since I've read one that long.

The other book I didn't exactly finish, but I did read over 100 pages of it. It is the book "Succulent Wild Woman" by Sark. I was inspired to reread this book after a friend from college read one of Sark's newer books and posted a blog about it. I enjoy reading Sark's books. I love her positive outlook and bright artwork that accompanies her books. Her view on napping completely coincides with mine! I also like that I have to think about what she writes, because although I enjoy many of her thoughts and beliefs, not all of them align with mine.

On to March...

The Grocery Ritual

Ever since Moo was little and we come home with the groceries, she sets up her own little store. It's a simple little store. The boxes of pop are set up as the scanner and she unpacks the groceries. As she takes each item out of the bag, she runs it over the "scanner" and say, "Beep!" for each item.

It is amazing to me that at the age of 9 years, she still continues to do this. It makes me smile to see her enjoy something so simple.

Today, she decided to take the eggs from the carton and put them into the egg tray from the fridge. She picked up each egg, examined it, said "Check!", and then put them into the tray.

How God has blessed me with simple moments like these!

So Much Snow!

The older I get, the less I like the cold weather. I certainly see why my grandparents were snow birds, living in Ohio from April to November and on Big Pine Key in Florida during the winter months.

A couple times during the winter, I convince myself to get bundled up and play in the snow with Moo. On this particular day, we started out by having Moo take pictures for an American Girl photography contest. We ended the day by making snow sculptures. The snow wasn't packing well enough to make a snowman.



For the contest, Moo had to take pictures of five things from a list of twenty. She started out taking a picture of a pine cone. This one was a bird feeder she made and hung in a tree with Jason.




Animal tracks in the snow was another on the list. We found cat prints and rabbit tracks!




We found an "interesting icicle" on our neighbor's garage.




I love this picture Moo took of "a tree with no leaves." Check out the garage in the background compared to the tree. This tree is huge!




The final picture for the contest was something in nature that looks like a letter of the alphabet. We took the easy way out and chose the letter "V."


From there we moved on to our snow sculptures.
Moo made this heart...


We both worked on this snow dragon...



We had lots of fun in the snow! Now I'm ready for spring!

Attitude

I don't forward a lot of e-mails. I guess I figure that everyone is getting forwarded e-mails and ends up pretty much getting the same stuff anyways. Every now and then I will get one that I really like.

I received this e-mail forward in early January. It is from a friend who has struggled with a situation in her life for several years and is hoping the biggest part of that struggle will be over soon. Everyone struggles with something at some point, but attitude can truly influence the outcome.


ATTITUDE (forwarded e-mail)

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
Looked in the mirror,
And noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
'Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today.'
So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror
And saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
'H-M-M,' she said,
'I think I'll part my hair down the middle today.'
So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror and noticed
That she had only one hair on her head.
'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going
To wear my hair in a pony tail.'
So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror and noticed
That there wasn't a single hair on her head.
'YAY!' she exclaimed.
'I don't have to fix my hair today!'

Attitude is everything.

Our Trip to the International Space Station

So that this blog doesn't become a place to just document and update goals and resolutions, it's time to post about something else. So, how about writing about our future trip to the International Space Station.

Why the International Space Station? Well, what's the reason for most of the crazy things I do these days? Like...
- hiking for three hours in freezing cold weather at night.
- walking through cement tunnels under the road.
- buying snow pants for myself at the age of 36.
- lifting light post covers.
- taking on dares and documenting them in photos.
Those who know me know that the list could go on. They also know the reason for the craziness! GEOCACHING!

Recently published on the geocaching website was the cache furthest from home. It happens to be hidden at the International Space Station.

You can check it out here...

Out of this World Cache!

Obviously, we don't really have plans to visit the space station but it did make for a fun little discussion this evening.

Me: There's a geocache in space now.
J (Hubby): How do you get it?
Me: Become an astronaut.
Moo: No way! I'm not going to get it! Do you know how many ways there are to die up there?

I agree with Moo. I'm not so sure about going into space for a cache. We'll just have to stick to the earthbound caches for the moment! They are a lot of "phoon"!


"Phoon Bucyrus" cache found over spring break 2009

February Mini-Goals

Here are my mini-goals for February.

First of all, I want to get my Girl Scout receipts and checkbook in order. I have used some of my own money to pay for troop things and I need to gather up the receipts and pay myself back. This will make life easier when it's time to collect cookie money!

My next mini-goal is to read two books over 100 pages long. I read a lot, but right now, it's mostly Facebook and that's really kind of sad in my opinion. I also read short magazine articles, but for the most part my reading sessions are quite short. I need to slow down a bit and enjoy a good book or two!