goals...

I have plenty of goals every year, most involve personal improvement... but I don't really make "New Year Resolutions", because it seems too arbitrary to start everything on Jan 1st, just to generally fail. I start and review my goals all year long, and that works for me.

One thing I do find, that often helps me to keep a goal, is that when I share it, I become more invested. So, one goal I would like to share is to train for the equivalent walking of a 10K, on my elliptical. That may not sound like much to some people, but for someone with limited mobility, it's a huge goal.

My max ever (walking on my elliptical unit) is 10100 steps. That is just over 5 miles. (According to my reading the average person my height steps about 2000 times during one mile.) And, a 10K is 6.2 miles.

During 2009 I had a goal to use my elliptical to get to 10000 steps per day. It's so easy to track, but because of my limitations that means more than 2 hours of walking every day, on average. (Even on the elliptical I walk pretty slow...) So my true target number of steps has ended up being about 4500-5000 a day (somewhere between 2-2.5 miles). That's about an hour on the elliptical (but a lot of days I can only manage about 45 minutes, which ends up being just under 4000 steps/2 miles). Added to my other steps, that's not too bad, for me. The main benefit in walking every day is to keep me mobile, to feel better, to lose weight, and to release toxins... did I mention to stay MOBILE...?

Since my hyste last February I have slowly built my way back up to where I was before becoming extremely anemic, hubby's accident and then my surgery. During this coming year, I feel like I want a different goal, something to keep working for. Something besides just walking every day... I am doing pretty good with that, and I am not sure I will ever be able to walk fast enough to manage 10K steps a day... So I thought, "what about an actual 10 kilometer in non-impact steps...?"

Ok, so there is it... by March first I want to have walked an approx 10K... In order to make it easy for me to track, I am going to use the target of 12500 steps... just to be sure I don't short the 10K goal.

Here's hopin' I make it.! If I do... maybe I will try doing it once a month for the rest of the year.? Who knows? I do know it's good to have goals. Now I better get walking for today...

to quote...

~ Spencer W. Kimball, "A Gift of Gratitude", Dec 1977

"Let us remember, too, that greatness is not always a matter of the scale of one’s life, but of the quality of one’s life. True greatness is not always tied to the scope of our tasks, but to the quality of how we carry out our tasks whatever they are. In that attitude, let us give our time, ourselves, and our talents to the things that really matter now, things which will still matter a thousand years from now."

Today, I really needed to be reminded of this... I can already tell it's going to be a rough day, and the scope of my daily effort sometimes can seem very small to me on days like this. That is when I desperately need to remember that the sum (scope) of my life is greater than one single, painful day...

...on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day...

...well, OUR Christmas day, when we celebrated as a family anyway...

I did manage to get a few pictures, but since I ended up opening my camera last... the gift opening part was all over... still I will share some of the fun we had. One of the nice things I find about being behind the camera is that there are few, if any, pictures of me... LOL

Here's our Princess, so happy... CHEESE!

Son2 and his girlfriend (let's give her a blog name, how about...Honey?) checking out their gifts from everyone...

Son1 and Sir Knight genuinely pleased with the gifts they got... AND watching their wives check out a special "family gift" our married children got...

Son1 and Sweetee. Smile.! "Merry Christmas mom... like that new camera, do ya'?" hahaha

Son2 and hubby discussing how Son2 can help me learn to USE my new camera... LOL

outside the big dogs were having a GREAT time... Son2 caught some good actions shots for us...

honest... they really love each other...

I got it... I said, "I" got it...

While indoors the small dogs watch their "pets" be silly... Martini thinks we get too excited over a few toys... I mean, you can't even throw those things...

This is Honey's little 7 month old 3/4 Chihuahua/1/4 Dachshund mix... "Nacho" wasn't impressed with the camera. haha I already shared some pics of my new puppy who is a 50/50 Chi/Doxie... and our Mighty Dog, Tucker stayed home to protect the castle... He really gets overwhelmed with ALL the family dogs in one area... there are SEVEN now. Yep, we're NUTS...!

Last but not least I will share a couple pictures of Son1 and Sweetee setting up their new family gift. Since they had to travel home later that day, Princess Bride and Sir Knight waited to get theirs out until they got home...

I missed the shot of the girls just making the empty beater go round and round... it was really fun to see how happy they were... We were so happy to have been able to manage the gifts we got all our children...

opening up the box... they've been wanting a KitchenAid since they got married... and we found a GREAT deal on these Heavy Duty Professional Series ones... It was a big surprise to both couples.

"Look mom, at how nice it sits on the counter. Oh, wow, look at all the stuff.!" Even though she has little counter space in her kitchen, Sweetee's comment was... "I love it, I'll find space.!!" ;-) And honestly, I absolutely LOVE surprising my kids with things they really want and that are practical too! For me that is the best of both worlds.!

This Christmas was not just full of great gifts though. It was full of sacrifice and love and sharing and giving from the heart. It was a lovely time of family unity and happy hearts. I personally had such a great time. I love you all..! Thanks to hubby and my beloved children for making the time to be "home together" this last time before Son1 & Sweetee head off across the country next year to start some "new adventures". But, more about THAT later...

loaded for bear...

Once children get married and have a second family (or sometimes even more families) to celebrate their holidays with, IMO their immediate family needs to adjust how "they" celebrate important events together. This year yesterday was the day our family celebrated Christmas together. It was one of the FUNNEST days ever... An absolutely joyful time.

Since our family was exchanging gifts early this year, hubby decided he wanted to enjoy watching me play with mine while he was still off... so we opened ours to each other yesterday too, before he goes back to work for the next 4 nights, and in fact because of the holiday these nights may be quite grueling.

Anyway, my true love gave me a REALLY nice camera for my birthday and Christmas (and for what should be just about every other gift giving holiday for the next 10 years.!) So I'm just warning everyone to beware dear friends... I'm officially loaded for bear.! hahahahahaha

I also got a new puppy. Her name is Chloe, and she is simply the most adorable thing there ever was.

...during the gift exchange she slept in hubby's sweatshirt pocket... she's a little tiny thing, but truly with a GIANT personality!

...here she is wishing everyone would just let her sleep again... BTW, she really DOES play a lot... and she is so cute doing it. So just to prove that, here is a little video I took with my phone... I'm still learning how to use the camera, but it takes video too so I am sure I will be sharing all kinds of funstuff...

words to live by...

I am only one...
But still I am one,
I cannot do everything...
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
~ Edward Everett Hale

...ssssweeeeeet...!!!

I posted a little bit about this on FB already, I am sorry to those of you that have already read the Reader's Digest version there... but man... I just LOVE my life sometimes...

I LOVE being the mom of adult kids that are kind and loving... It is the BEST life has to offer, when you like and enjoy your children... Honest... I know my kids are not perfect... yes, we are like everyone else... we have our struggles... but I'm so far from perfect that it's easier on my ego anyway to have "normal" kids, I guess... LOL... And then, some days are just BETTER than normal... the only word to use... HALCYON... a slice of Heaven...

Yesterday was one of those - so close to a perfect days-, that I'd be hard pressed to find a better one in my reference... even accounting for the fact that we missed my cousin and uncle by only a few minutes at the care facility, because of traffic... and seeing my sweet little Aunt of 91 years struggling so hard to recover and gain strength after a fall several weeks ago... She was so loving as we visited while she let her lunch bites "settle"... She asked about MY family and recalled days to me of when I was a girl... I would stay at their home to hang out with cousins and play on their family farm on family trips from Idaho to Arizona... Such SWEET memories... so bitter sweet to see my mother's siblings grow older... and know that we will not have them with us much longer on this earth... I am so grateful for the loving family I was born into... and for a knowledge that families are forever...

I have been blessed to have so many great days in my life... good (ssssweeeet) days happen pretty often for me, in different ways... I've had many a nearly perfect day with Son1 and Sweetee in recent memory... I've had some pretty "fab" days with Son2 over the last few years...

Still, yesterday afternoon included one of those mother-daughter-times that don't come along everyday any more... because all kids grow up and leave home, to live their own lives, which is right and proper... having said that... I'm really learning to cherish each and every wonderful day with my kids... On this day, Princess Bride surprised us and joined us at the temple in the early afternoon, an unexpected joy... a great treat to be together in a place of such peace and feel so eternally bonded... and we had so much fun after dinner... for a while, just the two of us... (while hubby took a little nap and Sir Knight was getting ready/left for work). We spent a couple hours milling over her new cake decorating book, which she got from her Secret Santa gift exchange at work... She is really getting into cake decorating, with her sister in law, which is way cool, because her maternal grandma did that... (guess that particular gene skipped a generation... ha ha) It was such a nice gift from someone that hardly knows her, but took the time to investigate what she likes...

I also have to thank hubby for being my BEST friend at ALL times... my heart and soul... and my confidant... for putting up with doing all the driving... doing what I want to do all day on one of his precious days off... and then on top of that, listening to my chatter when I am happy as a magpie... LOL... If you "know" hubby, you KNOW that last part is NOT something that comes naturally for him... he would rather have his nose in a book, be sitting in a forest alone, or wandering a canyon as a hermit... LOL... but he is so great, and he only rarely gave any indication that he "wasn't" having as good a time as I was yesterday... maybe he was...??? Nah... but he is a super good sport and he loves me so much, he's happy to just be with me too, even if he'd "rather be sailing"... LOL...

a few reminders of Christmas...

It used to be, when many of us were children, that right before Thanksgiving... the Christmas decor started to be increasingly present in the stores... as a very young girl I remember my father grumbling a bit that we didn't really get a chance to celebrate that holiday without the stores rushing us on to Christmas... Daddy loved Thanksgiving, and he loved Christmas... he didn't want to rush either holiday... I am a lot like him in that respect...

That push starts in September now... this year I saw Christmas decorations in stores over Labor Day weekend... That doesn't bother me as much as it used to... While personally I dislike the over-commercialization of Christmas, I understand that stores are in the business of making money, so I allow them to do what they feel they must, to stay in business... however, I turn a blind eye to what I don't want to see as far as advertising... I am getting good at that... 8-) I suppose it's only a matter of time until we have decorations available to buy in stores year round... though I am not sure why that is necessary... one can already do that online...

However my treasure was found this year in a box of really OLD decorations... They are probably older than I am... momma sent them to me the year I was married... we didn't have money to buy ornaments for our tree... and I still remember sobbing with joy as I hung them on that first tree and remembering them on our family tree when I was a very little girl... It was a precious gift... When my children were little we never used these ornaments, because I was afraid they would get broken... This year I am using those ornaments on my tree, and sharing pictures with YOU...

I really enjoy my memories of the Friday after Thanksgiving for some very fun reasons... (I RARELY shop on that day, and I practically refuse to call it BLACK Friday...) When "I" was growing up, that was the day we got our Christmas Tree each year... We used to go to a tree farm not far from our home in North/Central California and cut it down... Daddy would secure it in a stand and during the next couple days we would decorated it... Some years mom decorated with a theme, that we later jokingly called the "pepto-tree". It was completely white with flocking momma sprayed on herself... and had all PINK ornaments on it... satin balls and pink and gold ice cream cones... Really, it's hard to describe/imagine... and I can't find any pictures to scan in... But, many times over the years since I have thought that her pink decorated trees would have a perfect breast cancer awareness tree... :-) Momma was ahead of her time...

I was just a little sad when momma got an artificial tree the year I turned 16, but it was nice to have the tree still alive with lights on Christmas day... and we always decorated it the day after Thanksgiving once the artificial tree was bought...

When I got married and started my own traditions I learned right at first that hubby is allergic to pine trees, so we bought a very cheap artificial tree... It was 2 feet tall... Over the years, we usually put up our tree up the first week of December... in the early days I did most of the decorating alone... but as our family grew the kids helped... Those were fun years.

The last couple years I have gone back to having a small tree... a big one is just too much for me to handle decorating alone, and hubby is not into decorating... This year we also have a new wreath for the front door thanks to our daughter in law's ingenuity... It's very simple, and I love it... aren't the holly berries pretty...?

Yesterday the Nativity went up... Momma made each of her children, herself, and her own mother one of these Nativities, many years ago... She painted each one with great detail and love... all 10 sets were very much alike!!!

Using some "cellular" creativity (because my little point and shoot camera went AWOL while on loan out to our princess a couple months ago... that's not really a big deal... I believe Santa has a camera on his list for me this year...) I thought I would share a few reminders of my past and present Christmases, as captured in a few quick photos of our decorations, I edited them with iPhoto... you gotta LOVE computers sometimes... they make a pretty decent photographer even out of a complete amateur like me...

For lack of a better place to hang out... the angel that watches over the scene on display, of the birth of the Savior of the World, this year is doing her job from the lamp switch...

She is a diligent angel... while, Baby Jesus occupies his usual place of honor at the center of animals, wise men, shepherds and a loving Mary and Joseph... As always setting up the Nativity brought to my mind past Christmases when our children helped to gently unwrap and then smooth the tissue paper that the pieces were wrapped in, storing that wrapping back in the box for later... Often we had to settle disputes over who would get to place the baby Jesus in place... back then I felt irritated, but now I smile at the memory... And I thought to myself this year that in each home around the world the decorations we cherish each Christmas are more than just special... they help bring the true meaning of the season with them.

This Christmas I find myself wanting to identify new ways to bring the Love of the Savior into my family's hearts and celebrations... Remembering simple and caring acts of service over the year has helped me a lot in this quest... and thinking about my years with momma and daddy is also a sweet joy that reminds me that Christmas more than just those decorations...

There is something good about decorating... I do it more slowly every year... but I also find that I savor it more with each memory...

...here it is, the last month of another year... again...

When last year we were dealing with the aftermath of hubby's accident the days ahead seemed a bit bleak and I kept thinking, "THIS is going to be a long year..." But reality has a way of surprising me just about every day.

I love Thanksgiving, because it reminds me to stop and remember how blessed I am... and while I am trying to do that more in my life as a rule... like most people I seem to need a reason to focus on my blessings... and then, there is Christmas... the holiday that I associate with good memories, days spent with family and friends... Often those memories kinda' blur together, but they are a great thing to stir to life in my heart...

When I was a kid most years at least some of my siblings would bring their families home for Christmas... we were a big group, and now we all have our own families and traditions... My parents are gone and so we don't need to plan trips to see them around holidays... now we plan ways to get our own children together... but mostly we are learning to let go of our holiday traditions and step back a bit to watch our adult children as they build their own... That in itself is a rewarding thing...

I am pleased and amazed at the traditions our kids choose to keep from their childhoods and sometimes have a big grin on my face over what new traditions they create for their own families... In my mind a family is created the day a couple marries, so after that the most important traditions they have are together... in their homes, families, lives...

This is not a lonely endeavor... they do not forget us... but it is a time when we all have a chance to expand our traditions and make a few new ones... Gone are the days for us of driving around with little ones in car seats to look at lights, but my kids still do that in their own ways... and sometimes they ask us to go along... Gone are the days of excited whispers at our bedroom at first light, as small voices ask if it's time to see what Santa brought... These days we get to sleep in and this year I think we will start a new tradition, for just the two of us on Christmas morning... I am not quite sure yet what that will be, but I know that it will be great, because WE (hubby and I) are great together...

We always have a family gift exchange, but this year we even changed how we do that, because the kids wanted to draw names and put the individual names in a hat (except we used a bowl,) and that was fun... They drew the names on Thanksgiving day... Maybe they will do it a little earlier next year... but it feels right to me to adjust our traditions to fit the way the family has changed...

We have no grandchildren yet, at least not "official ones" and our adopted grands live far away now... so there are few little toys to buy... We've enjoyed giving to a local angel tree the last few years... that is a nice tradition... and gives us a chance to keep buying toys for a couple little hearts...

For me, Christmas is about acts of love and service... it's not about what to buy, or how much to spend... we do buy gifts, and now we try to give our married children things they need... sometimes we make gifts... but in the realm of receiving we love the ones that our kids give us that reflect giving of themselves... in fact this year that is what we have asked for, from them...

I love this time of year... I love the music and the crisp days... I love the feelings of gratitude in my own heart... I don't like the crowds, so I tend to avoid places were those are bad... But I love to see the cheerful lights that illuminate the square in town, and I like having the smells I associate with the holidays filling our home...

This year, Christmas day will probably be the quietest we have ever known... but I am warmed by the happy thought of knowing that my children are building their own traditions, and enjoying their own family's "Christmas mornings"... That is a good thing... I remember my own mom telling me that the only parents that truly hated empty nests were the ones with lots of regrets...

I guess I have a lot fewer regrets than most, because I am kinda' liking my empty nest... even during the holidays...