Girlymama

he's so little. and so big at the same time.

a baby and a little boy rolled into one.

he's trying to grow up as fast as he can…

and i desperately want him to slow down,

and stay little for just a little bit longer.

As I'm unpacking all of our Christmas gifts, I've realized that we have waaaaaaaaaaay too much stuff. My kids in particular have so many toys that we no longer have any place to put them. LITERALLY. There is no place to put any more toys. They have so, so many. The stuffed animals in particular are out of control. They have THREE huge storage totes FULL of stuffed animals. Not to mention the 25 My Little Ponies, 15 Barbies, more Littlest Pet Shops than I can count… not to mention, the gazillion books, markers, stickers, barrettes, plastic animals, little princess figures, jewelry and little teeny-tiny do-dads that are vitally important to their happiness.

I can barely shut their dresser drawers because they have so many clothes now. And I'm pretty sure that Colin has every piece of Cars merchandise ever made. Ever.

I feel a purge coming on. Look out Ebay, here I come.

I cannot CANNOT decide what color Le Creuset to get. I've never had one, I've always wanted one, so this is what my Christmas money is buying this year. HOLLA!

Help me decide. I can't decide. My kitchen is yellow. But I want something that will go anywhere.

FLAME:

KIWI:

or should I wimp out and go neutral with BLACK:

HELP!!!

Welcome to the  monthly "Try This: Spice Up Your Kitchen" carnival! This month's theme is HEALTHY MEALS. We're not the only ones who resolved to eat healthier this year, right? Its so hard to come up with healthy meals that taste great.  Especially when your favorite food groups are the "Pizza" Group and the "Cookie" Group.

This is a recipe I tried out last year. My husband does NOT like most fish, but he loves this! I serve this with black beans and a green salad. And, sometimes, guacamole. YUMMY! (You could go crazy and add a margarita, but that probably would turn this into a not-so-healthy meal…)

Cornmeal-Crusted Tilapia with Salsa

I hope you all have a great time looking through all the recipes today
– I cannot WAIT to find some new recipes!! And remember: when you add your post to the Mr. Linky, please link to your specific post – not your general blog URL.
Here's how to play, if you have questions.

2010 is a big year for us. Husband and I will celebrate our 10th
anniversary. It marks the 10th anniversary of my dad's death. My baby
sister is getting married. Ellie turns 7, Gracie turns 6 and Colin
turns 2. (2!! ALREADY!!)   Suddenly this week, I've been hit with how fast life is
going by. (How have we been married for an entire decade? How do I have
a seven year old?)

Time is flying by at an increasingly rapid rate… and its
inspired me to simplify our lives. And it starts with organizing my
time better. Husband and I tend to wake up and hit the ground running. And its not unusual to find Husband and I still working on things at 11 at night.  I
think we need to organize our time so we can be more flexible. Our
evenings and weekends are so packed with chores, obligations and to-do
lists, with little down time.Is that the life I want? Or do I need to simply remember what is most important?

Do I want my kids to remember us working on the computer all the
time saying "Just a minute!"? Or us always running around, behind
schedule, exhausted? Or do I want them to remember how we spent time
with them? And made family time, our relationships and our ministry our
first priority?

I want to be more disciplined with my time so that I can have more 
flexibility without guilt. I hate that I take a night off… and feel
guilty about it. Why should I feel guilty about ordering in, ignoring
the dishes and laundry and emails and snuggling in with the kids for a
movie night? That's crazy!
Does our schedule allow for an impromptu visit with friends or family,
unscheduled focused time with the kids, or even an impulsive date
night? Its amazing – and a little embarrassing – how much time gets eaten up during my day. And I don't even know where it goes!
It just disappears and suddenly I scrambling to get things done – and
things get pushed later and later into the day, into time I should be
focusing on the kids.

We've made a few changes along this line. Along with getting up
earlier, Husband and I are shutting down the computer from 5-8pm. That
is family time. We're not rushing through family devotions or dragging
the kids off on errands that could have been done during the day. I've
been more deliberate about my computer time and have begun using the
"Mark All As Read" button on my Google Reader. I'm even determined to
have a meal or two in the freezer for those afternoons/evenings when I
need to focus on the kids after school instead of worrying about
getting dinner on the table.

We're going to simply refocus this year. 

….hopefully after today, when life slows down a little.
We drove home from Ohio on Friday and my in-laws arrived from India since Saturday. We've had a super short visit, so we haven't done much else! I'm driving my in-laws to the airport this morning… my kids are devastated. They hate saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa because they know it will be so long before they see them again. So they've been crying since last night. Not fun.
Poor babies.
They understand that they live far away for a reason, but its still hard. Even Colin is depressed. He is totally in love with Grandpa. He's just like Daddy, only more fun 😉

In honor of all of our New Year's Resolutions, this month's Try This Carnival will be healthy foods! What is your family's favorite healthy meals? Inspire us with some yummy meals that won't kill our diets. (Unlike my new cookbooks, which are NOT going to help in that department…) Carvinal will be live on Thursday morning!!

I was right. Getting up early stinks.

Has anyone else made the exact same resolutions they made last year again?

No? Just me?

Every year I want to do the same things. Generally they are some combination of eating healthier, exercising, getting more organized, waking up earlier, reading my Bible/praying more… stuff like that. (So, basically I usually resolve to do things I should have been doing already.  Ahem.)

Going along with this trend, Husband and I decided that we will start waking up at 6am Monday morning. We used to do this, but slacked off majorly in the fall, due to Colin not sleeping for approximately 3 months. (Remember that?) And then we were crazy busy at Christmas, then we were both sick, taking turns getting up with this kids while whoever was sicker got to sleep until the NyQuil wore off. Its not like we're sleeping in until 10 am… but many days we were getting up with this kids at 7-ish and racing to catch the bus at 8.

Those who know me in real life, like my sisters for example, know that I am NOT a morning person. Never have been. Functioning before 7am is very difficult for me. My husband learned soon after we were married that I am not very sociable until I have had a shower and at least one cup of coffee. Having kids has forced me to function on very little sleep, but I still do not naturally wake up easily.

So… getting out of bed today was brutal. But we did it!! We had that First Day of a New Resolution energy going for us. And a lot of coffee.

Tomorrow is probably going to be rough. More coffee.
Wednesday will be rougher. Maybe I can sneak in a nap.
Thursday will probably suck. I'll be falling asleep in the carpool line.
And Friday is going to be brutal. You may not want to cross me that day. Just a head's up.

We'll see what happens next week.

Today we drove home from Ohio with the kids.
It  took about 7 hours.
The kids sat across the back seat of the van watching Cars and Curious George and Blues Clues, eating french fries and crackers while making a huge mess, asking "Are we there yet?" approximately 863 times and generally annoying each other. ("Mom! She's looking out my window!")
My husband and I just talked. For seven whole hours. About everything and nothing.

It was fantastic.

I resolve to do that more.