Baubles

As promised, here a few pictures of the jewelry I've been making:

I'm having a great time creating with wire and beads and I'm really trying to get my pieces to reflect the beauty found in nature. Most of my materials have been "found objects" (i.e. jewelry found at antique stores that I've taken apart to rework) or materials that I had on hand from different projects (like the copper wire). I hope to keep that "green" aspect in my work in the future, treasure hunting in unlikely places in order to create something beautiful out of that which was previously discarded. What do you think? I would love your feedback!

Goals for 2009

We have some grand plans for 2009. Most of them revolve around me and I know we would all appreciate your prayers for blessing in these areas.

• Expanding our family: Geary and I have been talking and praying and we're ready to add another little person to our family. We are specifically praying for a daughter, although we would be thrilled to have another son, too. Right now we're pursuing both pregnancy and adoption. If you've been reading this blog you know of my history with miscarriages. I absolutely don't want to experience another one, but I believe I'm being obedient to God by giving him control over my womb. We're also pursuing adoption through the foster care system. I'm sure at some point over the year we'll come to a crossroads where we'll need to go down one path or the other, but for now we're not closing any doors. Will you join us in praying for a healthy daughter?

• Losing 100 pounds: This is such an area of frustration and shame for me. I'm still hesitant to even talk about it but I think that if I'm going to do this I need to be open about it. I'm embarrassed by my weight even though it's obviously there for the world the see. I'm probably not going to want to talk about this with everyone--only a select few, so I would really appreciate you letting me take the lead in conversations about my weight. Thank you. My plan is to eat no more than 1,500 calories per day, drink tons of water, and exercise at least 4 times each week. There are many more details than that but I just want to tell you the basics. To keep accountability I'm going to post my weight loss progress here each Wednesday.

• Learning guitar: I've always wanted to learn an instrument and I have a deep desire to be able to worship God with music. I've asked a lady from church if she would help me and she said yes! I'm also hoping that my relationship with this woman can turn into a mentoring relationship. She is the type of woman I want to be when I grow up. Geary is also helping me in this area.
  

• Selling jewelry: For Christmas I made a lot of necklaces and earrings to give away as gifts. The response was overwhelming and people have been encouraging me to sell my wares. I've decided to try making several pieces and see if they sell on Etsy.com and/or in some local shops here in Newberg. I'm not sure how it will go but I'm just going to put my stuff out there and see. As all my friends and family keep telling me, it can't hurt to try. I'll try to post some pictures of my jewelry in the next couple of days.

So that's it. There are some big deal things on the list! I don't want to think of these as New Years Resolutions, though. These are real goals that intend to accomplish. I know I won't succeed without a community supporting me, though, so that's why I'm asking for your prayers and why I'm planning to be as open as I can about each of these goals. If you're on my team, will you let me know in the comments section? Thank you. I appreciate each and every person who reads this blog.

Tap, Tap, Tap...is this thing on?

Hi. So...(crickets chirping)...it's been awhile! I took a two week blogging hiatus to get caught up on the post Christmas organizing. Still not sure where to put all the new toys the kids got but I'm okay on letting that slide for awhile since we'll need to change their room around anyway. Why you ask? Because Toby is this close to being able to climb out of his crib on his own. So I've been checking Craigslist for wooden bunkbeds.

Anyway, things are pretty much back to normal around here. We celebrated Epiphany by going to Value Village and getting new pants for everyone. I truly hope that becomes a family tradition that we do every year. Kind of like the day after Thanksgiving when everyone gets new socks.

We're also reading The Tale of Despereaux as a family. We only a have a few chapters to go and then we're going to see the movie. We highly recommend the book and it's great for reading aloud. We're probably going to read through The Chronicles of Narnia as family next but if anyone else has a good family reading recommendation I'd love to know about it.