Happy New Year! I hereby declare the whirlwind of the
past eight weeks over. Roy and I even tried to be super-busy/productive this
morning but because everybody’s “observing” the holiday today nothing’s open.
An excuse to stay at home, bake bread, and update the old blog.
I’m pleased to report that of my six 2016 resolutions I
did quite well. 50 books were read before the summer was out. I blogged, I
worked out, and I used my mixer a ton. We also exceeded our savings goal for
the year. The only thing I kind of “ehhhed” on was the Bible reading part,
which is ironic because I didn’t even remember making that resolution until I
just now looked at my first blog from last year. And is doubly ironic because I’d
already made my primary goal for this year, which is:
1.
Read through the Bible in a year. I want to do
this for a few reasons. I haven’t read my Bible regularly in some time (please
don’t judge…not very Biblical) and part of it is because I feel like I’ve only
learned to read it in a certain way. Kind of the “read a short passage,
dissecting all the meanings that are applicable for me today” angle. It was
kind of exhausting to have to figure out what God was saying directly to me
every day in the middle of a minor prophet. I’ve removed myself from that long
enough now that I hope to be able to read the Scriptures from a historical
breadth-angle. What was God saying to his people? Who is the original
audience? What’s the scope of the Grand Narrative? Getting bogged down in the
devotional-details is not my aim. So, we’ll see how it goes!
I loved reading last year. I certainly want to ensure
that I don’t fall out of the habit. That being said, this year is shaping up to
be rather busy, so:
2.
Read 30 books this year. I’m almost finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
so we’ll get that up here shortly. Then it’s on to a bunch of books received
over the holidays, including Julia Child’s The
Art of French Cooking, and Just Mercy.
Very excited about these.
It’s not really a New Year’s resolution, but January 1
happens to correspond nicely with the wrap-up of a particularly challenging
first trimester (Surprise! for those of you who didn’t know) so it’s a great
fresh start for eating more veggies and remembering what it’s like to sweat
from exercise and not just from weird hormones. Yes, the past 2 months have
been bizarre. Firstly, just surviving the holiday rush, Christmas musical, two
busy boys, a concerting husband, and teaching schedule was formidable. Add to
that the inability to stomach anything that was: a vegetable (except broccoli),
a fruit (except oranges), most meats, and anything dessert-ish and you can
start to picture how doomed my energy levels were. I’ve never, EVER wanted to
eat Cheez-Its in my entire life. I’m not entirely sure they are actually food.
But, anything fake-cheddar-cheese was my buddy and pal. Cheddar cheese
Pringles, cheddar cheese potato chips, Cheez-It snack mix, (Or is it Snak-Mix…either
way it makes me shudder), and Velveeta mac and cheese. BEYOND DISGUSTING. But
it stayed down, so we went with it.
Pleased to report that all reports indicate a healthy
baby and Mama is able to eat mostly normally again. (And Cheez-Its look like
garbage again. There is a god.)
We enjoyed marvelous holiday celebrations with multiple
units of family over the past 8 days. It was wonderful to connect with parents,
siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents (if
you are James or Owen). That being said, we count Christmas evening at the
Panek Lodge and our Thursday night dinner with Daniel and Emily at the very top
of our memories for this year. Unsurprisingly, those were the two evenings that
did not involve our children, whom we love dearly, but enjoyed a couple of
nights to focus solely on other grownups. We are so thankful for our families!
Owen is now doggedly determined to erase this blog, so I
shall wrap up for now. More soon!
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