2020 Goals

This year, for the first time, Doug and I actually sat down and made some mostly joint goals for 2020.

- Read 2 books, then discuss and apply. The books are You & Me Forever which we got as a wedding gift 5 years ago, finally started reading this last fall, and realizing there is a lot to think about and could be pretty life changing if we allow ourselves to be changed. Doug feels the same about Tactics and so we will do the same with that one.

Doug has some weight loss goals, and unfortunately I got bad news from my new primary care doctor that I have "borderline high" cholesterol :( I was pretty surprised to see that, and disappointed as I already do exercise, not smoke, and eat pretty healthfully including lots of beans and fiber. But obviously that needs to come down. Heart disease is the #1 killer of women and I want to do all I can to be healthy and fit for myself and my family's sake.

- Lower my cholesterol into normal/good range! So I plan to exercise more faithfully, eat less cheese and icecream?, add salmon weekly and vegetarian dinners 2 nights a week. And then ask my doctor for a re-check in 3-4 months?

- Dance lessons. Saw a video on facebook and it looked so fun, so we're going to do that together.

- Buy our second rental property and get it rented. We are ready on the bank end, now just waiting for something decent to come on the market!

- See a financial adviser. This one is more what I want to do than Doug necessarily. We are saving into our Roths, 401k, 403b, 529s for the kids, and the rental property plan. I just want someone, with expertise, to look over our plans and see if we need any tweaks. It haunts me that just a little something done not right now could cost us literally thousands of dollars over the years before our retirement. I've also started reading Retire Inspired, after getting it as a gift from my sister years ago, and it's helping me get more motivated. As he says in his book, the only one who will plan for my retirement is me!

- Do a 5k together.

- Walk the Mackinac Bridge.

- Talk with our neighbors about building. I cannot shake this desire to build our own home. But both my parents and best friend are building, and it is SO expensive. We found out our neighbors build theirs and kept it to about $100 a square foot, (national average is $175), but they said they did a lot themselves. So we would like to sit down with them and see how they did that and if it would be feasible for us. I think having some real numbers would help us see if we could afford it, without being too house poor. We will have our house paid off in a couple months, so in some ways it seems crazy to go from banking all this extra cash to having a medium/large mortgage for 30 years, but on the other hand would love to have a little more land/ little more space/ stay in our neighborhood. So we are at least going to start sort of pursuing it until we come to a hard 'no'.

- Learn to play a piano song. Last Christmas my dad gave me sheet music for a song I liked and I don't think I played the piano all year. After seeing Mannheim Steamroller last month I was feeling nostalgic and missing being connected to music. I used to play piano and clarinet, although neither well, but enjoyed it and could be better with some practice.

- Read through this stack of books:

My game plan is to take a book to work and on my pump breaks I will alternate working on my BSF Bible study homework one pump break, and read on the second pump break. That way I'll get in an hour a week. And it will be a better use of time than just scrolling the internet on my phone.

- Travel. We also have plans for a trip to Germany for my old host brother's wedding in September. While in Europe I hope to see at least one more country, talking with Doug about where to go and what to do. Would love to do Greece, but not sure if we have enough time to do it justice and/or if it would be too hard logistically with the kids. We shall see.

Looking forward to 2020!

Lasts

We are down to the last bags of frozen breastmilk for August. Just a couple more days worth. I had hoped to make it to two years, but 19.5 months is pretty good.

I've been feeling pretty discouraged lately as we are so hopeful for another baby, and yet it's just not happening. I look at August and I feel so blessed to be a mother, his mother, when some people aren't given the gift of motherhood at all. But I always wanted more children. And as I look at that last box of milk, and at my growing boy, I just hope he isn't my first, and last, baby.

So. Praying today to trust the Lord. And His timing. And that I can learn to be content in all circumstances (Phil. 4:11b), and with whatever the Lord chooses to give me.

the sad tale of a little bird

Doug and I had a 'friday date' last friday since he had the day off and I was working the weekend. It was wonderful. We drove to Menards to pick up the stuff for our bathroom renovation project

got lunch at 5 Guys, and then we took the kayaks up and kayaked on the lake I hope to live on someday.

There it is.

My dream house.

Or maybe I should say "dream property" since the house is 750 square feet and is probably infested with animals. Regardless, said dream is many many years of saving away. But I can think about it.

And speaking of lakes, yesterday I went over to a friend's house and we had such a wonderful day grilling, and wakeboarding, and watching the Bachelorette, I am loving this part-time schedule!

And yay for moms who slap a life jacket on their kids and still go out wakeboarding and skiing themselves!

anyway, back to my sad tale...

So friday on our way home from kayaking we stopped at Liz and Mark's to visit and Liz promptly tells us we have to save a baby bird she found.

Poor little guy.

We called the shelter by our house to see if they could take him but they were already closed. So after some googling we found out what they could eat and it strongly recommended not taking the bird away because 9 out of 10 times the mom will come back for it. So we fixed up a little nest

Now I have to say this husband of mine is a keeper. I cut up a little apple and Doug minced up a dead worm we found and he tried to feed the bird with a little fork.

We couldn't get him to eat and he just nestled into his blanket. So we put him close to where Liz found him and went home.

Another reason my hubby is a quality guy, he took me to get my favorite icecream Eskimo Kisses and then dropped me off at home so I could shower and get to bed early for work, and he drove back to their house and worked with Mark for 2+ hours in the dark on this nightmare yard flooding problem they've been dealing with because he felt bad for Mark.

Liz said the next morning our little bird was dead. I felt sad. What is wrong with that stupid abandoner mom?!? But felt a bit better he was at least snug and cozy and wasn't eaten by a wild animal. RIP little bird.

Crockpot Caroling

Last weekend was another weekend that was mainly spent studying... Well, studying and cooking.

I made chicken and cheese sliders soo good, make these if you like to sweat while you eat. I accidently put in too much chipotle peppers, but yum!

Peppers, onion and garlic in the pot

Surely some chicken fell somewhere!

So easy - just simmer for 30 minutes!

A masterpiece.

The next day I studied a lot.

It was so hard to get into it. Back up was called in.

A little help staying awake please caffeine?

Another good thing about Christmas, (no comparison to the birth of our savior of course), but seasonally delicious, mint m&ms- yum!

Then Saturday night it was time for a break. Jill had been invited to a Crockpot and Christmas Caroling party, so we made a dump cake in the crock pot and she and I and another friend headed over. It was so fun! There were like 40 people and crockpots of amazing food everywhere. A lot of us all crammed into the living room and then we sang Christmas songs together. I loved it. My family is pretty musical, and we used to go door to door Christmas caroling to the neighbors. Not that I want to do it everyday, but it was really nice. I hope someday I have a home that I can open to friends and family and have a community of people in my life like that.

Sunday was church and more studying and more food making. This time I made a tortilla pie. I used to make this all the time, but haven't made it in awhile. I think it's coming back into the rotation, it's so good.

Mix the black beans, tomatoes, and salsa

Mash your pinto beans (hard work!) and add in the garlic (press- do not chop otherwise it's too garlicky!)

Beans ready to be layered

Get mad about the cheese being wasted stuck to the foil

Hot out of the oven

Yum!

There should be a salad or something green on the side of this. Since I have been husbandless I have cared a lot less about balanced meals. But I should try and be better about this, I need vitamins too!

Well I'm happy to report all the studying paid off, I got an 'A' on my exam yesterday! And passed my one assessment class. Now all I have left is another final on Thursday and my first orientation day in the hospital tomorrow. I'm excited... and nervous.

Maybe after finals I will finally start sleeping better again. Last night I had super weird dreams I was at the house of this guy from my church and he was showing me his apartment where he had to share a bathroom with his landlord. And then he showed me this giant wall sized rack of bacon he was dehydrating, and I was going to have to hurt his feelings when he offered me a taste since I don't eat bacon. Dreams are so weird!

sleep- or lack of it

I don't know what's going on this week, but so far I cannot sleep! Hubbs works the early start the next couple weeks (he either starts at 6:30, 7 or 7:30am) so this week he wanted to go to bed early. Which means I go to bed early too. This past weekend we went to bed both nights at 2am, which is pretty rare, but could that be the reason now that when we went to bed last night 10-ish I lay there till 12?? It seems that when I do finally fall asleep, I can't stay asleep that long. It stinks. And this morning I woke up to my nose bleeding. Random!

The past few nights I have had crazy realistic dreams. The night before I was on a boat and we were trying to secretly rescue these dolphins and sea turtles. Last nights dream I was trying to find a class to take an exam. There was an information desk where I stopped to ask for directions. I remember I had to fill out this form which was in German, but it didn't really make sense anyway. Then as I'm clearly in a hurry she is offering me a pouch of seeds for sale and I whacked them out of her hand and yelled at her for offering me seeds when I'm in a hurry. Then she was so nice to me and said that if I missed the exam turn in, my teacher was her neighbor so she'd take it over if I needed. And I felt guilty for being mean to her. I finally get to class and I'm crying, and the exam had started and my teacher had this awesome bell music box that was playing and it was so relaxing. Anyway, then I noticed my nose bleeding and woke up. Dreams are so strange- these dreams were so real, and then when you read it, they just make no sense.

Anyway! My mom is bringing over my humidifier, so maybe that will help against future nose bleeds, but otherwise I guess I just have to adjust to the shift. But hope I can soon, it stinks laying there awake all night!