hello new year.

I was awake really early today. I couldn't sleep. I had a few things on my mind, a few things on my shoulders and a few things on my heart and I just couldn't seem to shake any of them off. This WordPress thing is really bothering me. I enjoy WP a lot but what's the point if it won't let me in to my own account? I dunno. It's something to do with my computer actually. I can access WP from my mom's house, just not mine. Pointless. I don't really want to switch back to blogger, but at least blogger is consistent. I can't take this not working for a week out of each month. O-well. It's just blogging right?


I like new beginnings. In fact, you could even say that I enjoy them. Yes, I quite enjoy new beginnings. I enjoy Monday mornings, a new month, a new season, a new book (a good read or an empty journal), a freshly cleaned home, a new project, a new skill...the list goes on and on. I'm sure you can understand why I enjoy a clean slate; so many possibilities, new horizons, new adventures, new thoughts. One has the opportunity to commit, to move on, to change, to adjust, to advance. Obviously all of these things can be done at any given opportunity; you don't have to wait for a brand new journal in order for you to write your thoughts down, but when you've got that brand new journal in your hands and you see all of the blank lines and feel that crispness of the pages...by golly, it just stirs something in me. And if I feel that way about a Monday morning I'm sure you can just imagine the excitement I feel over a new year...nay, a new decade! Oh my.
I am excited about this year and this new beginning, glad to be putting 2009 behind me and starting fresh in a few areas. Personally, I've always enjoyed a good New Years resolution or two so naturally I started assessing myself a few weeks ago to see if I couldn't come up with a few things that could be done better/differently/more often/not at all in 2010. The first thing was quite obvious and required very little effort on my part to come up with...I guess we could say that it was just staring me in the face.
1) To harness the song writing abilities of Tom Waits, Matt Good, Feist and Sarah Harmer, combine them all to form a strange new genre of music and become a singing sensation. Easily done. I should have that mastered by February 12th. Easy peasy.
The others were a bit more difficult to come up with because, well, there just isn't that much I need to work on. Hey, I'm 26...I've got life figured out already! (haha...ha...ha...ugh).
2) Continue, with a little more vigor, to become a tidier/more organized person.
3) Try harder to stick to my meal plan. Life is just soooo much easier when I'm on it.
4) Be more creative. Now I know this one is a bit weird because I'm already crafty but I'm a much happier and calm person when I flex my creative muscle and I need to be more intentional doing it.
5) Try my hand at more garment construction. I think that I just need to jump in with both feet on this one. I've been shying away from sewing technical clothing for fear of failure *side note: this is quite common with me. actually, it affects pretty much every aspect of my life. i'm what they call a self-sabotager (that's not a real word btw). i tend to cripple myself.* but the more I sew the more I'm going to understand the technical side of things, so I just need to do it!

And that's all. I have a few others, you know, the common ones that most people make so I'll just keep them to myself. The problem that I face when I get excited about new beginnings is that I get my hopes up. I start thinking, "Maybe this will be the year that_____(fill in the blank)." I try not to but I think it's just how I'm wired. I'm like that with almost everything. I've tried to keep my New Year's resolutions simple and straight forward (except for that first one, I'm really shooting for the moon on that one), kind-of adding to the things that I'm already doing. They aren't much of a stretch and they seem fairly attainable to me.

Anyways, that's all for now. Sorry about the switching back and forth between blog hosts. If I can get WP working for good on my computer then I'll probably stay over there, but for now we're back over here. Hope you all had a great holiday and a happy new year!

goodbye blogger.

I've been admiring a few Wordpress blogs for about a year now, impressed with their clean look and spiffy options. More recently though, two of my friends have moved over to Wordpress from Blogger and so I too am making the switch. I've been secretly working on my blog for a little while but I still have no clue how to work their high-tech system. I'm learning though and feedback or suggestions will be very welcome.

So...I hope to see you over there and if I end-up hating Wordpress then I'll see you back over here:)

Take Care.

Bob The Builder.

James had this fab idea of taking one of our under-the-bed bins and filling it with play sand for the kids. Seriously...best idea ever. They've already spent hours just sitting there and playing, and apparently singing. Too cute. (sorry for the bad quality of video, my camera was in a bad mood)

things i was able to pack into the 24 hours without the kids.

(in order)

1. Make myself a massive (somewhat gluttonous) lunch without the kids eating half of it.

2. Watch Fashion Television without having to listen to Curious George in the background.

3. Lounge around on my bed reading my Hobby Farms magazine with peace and quiet.

4. Have a bath without Rhys asking what time it is.

5. Get ready to go out without breaking up a fight over a toy.

6. Buy a big bag skittles without having to buy something for the kids...or having to deal with them crying for candy.

7. Go and see a non-kid friendly movie (Couples Retreat).

8. Buy a bottle of wine.

9. Stay up late without having to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn.

10. Slept well past the crack of dawn.

11. Get ready in peace again :)

12. Go out for a breakfast buffet and actually carry on a conversation with my husband without being interrupted a million times.

13. Write goals for our next two years without being interrupted a million times.

14. Drive in the truck without having to explain the itinerary for the whole day (something which Rhys has become obsessed with).

15. Go to Chapters and spend an hour quietly looking at books without having my limbs torn off of my body in different directions.

16. Get overly excited to see the kids on our way to pick them up.

♥

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to come up with words to describe these past five years of my life. They've been crazy years full of things that I never imagined would happen to us, or at least not in our first years of marriage. Life has taken us down some seemingly random roads full of sharp twists and turns, some good and some, well, let's call them character building. Marriage is not what I expected. I expected a long honeymoon stage. I expected us to find great jobs where we got paid a decent amount of money so that we could buy a cute house (one that wasn't a fixer-upper). I expected us to have lots of time to hang out with friends and go on fun trips with other couples, or just the two of us...because we would be able to pick and choose. I expected us to think about having kids when we were 26, which would give us enough time to build a solid foundation and save up some money. I expected us to have enough money to buy nice wines and expensive cheeses which we would consume together all curled up on our fashionable sofa sharing about our days and joking about our co-workers. Sounds a little fairytale-ish? Yup. I have this thing where I get my hopes up and I have all of these high expectations that I put on myself, others, situations, anything really, only to have them all dashed and disappointed. Because who can really live up to all of that? Who really gets that life? I suppose some people do, but they are few and far between. Yes, I think that the one word that I would use to sum-up these five years of marriage would be unexpected. I didn't expect to get pregnant two months after being married. I didn't expect to be a mom at 21. I didn't expect us to go through this many jobs, including two layoff's. I didn't expect us to live in five different places within four years. I didn't expect to have my second child at 24. I didn't expect us to have to find a new church, and essentially a whole new community. When I stop and thing about it I could pretty much say anything that has happened since we've been married was not even close to what I had pictured. This sounds like a real drag doesn't it? I suppose that I could look at it that way (and I have to admit that there are moments when I'm feeling overwhelmed that I do) but I like to think that God has put all of this on our plate because, for some reason, God thinks that we can handle it and He's choosing to build our character. If I had gotten the marriage that I was expecting sure it would have been easy, but it wouldn't have caused me to look deeper into myself to find strength and faith and patience and love. I like to think that I'm much more of the woman and wife that God wants me to be because of all of the craziness that has happened to us.

So here's to five unexpected years of marital bliss....I mean craziness.

silly boy.

*out of nowhere*

Rhys: "But I don't see God."

Bria: "Are you thinking about God right now?"

Rhys: "Yeah, I want to ask him if this is a hay bail tractor or not."

winnipegger in training.