Resolution #3: Maintain Sunday Sabbath

Last year we were struggling with balance, a need for family quiet, an appropriate Lenten commitment and a time for focused spiritual development. What followed was a commitment on Sunday's during Lent to turn off unnecessary appliances, hault housework and work projects, ignore any phone call or email that would inspire work and dedicate our Sundays to faithful church attendance, devotion time, rest, play and family centeredness. It was awesome. So awesome in fact that we decided to make it a weekly ritual. Throughout the months that followed, we achieved about 80% success. We were able to at least pause on Sunday's, remember which day it was and why the Lord created it and question any work that would detract from our overall health. We are renewing that commitment this year with even more vigor. We make an allowance for cooking on Sundays because, for us, cooking is a treat and most certainly a fun family activity.

Resolution #2: Adopt a Dog

After three years of talking, researching, thinking and planning... we have applied for dog adoption! Before we were married we knew that we were going to adopt a dog... it was non-negoitable. We both love dogs and we cannot wait to have one join our family. Our lifestyle, however, was not always been optium for it to occur. As DINKS (dual-income-no-kids) we were work-aholics renting... a dog would have been an accessory and not the family pet it should be. With a new baby in a rental, still, not ideal. The first year in a new house and being pregnant... not perfect. So... the baby is 7 months old, the toddler is desperate for a four legged playmate and we are finally ready - physically, financially and emotionally.

So, now that we are ready, we want the right dog. After several years of haggling back and forth, we are in agreement that a golden retriever is the right kind of dog. We considered getting on a list to adopt a "career changed" leader dog. The wait, however, can be very long. Instead, we looked into GRROW - Golden Retriever Rescue of Wisconsin (http://www.grrow.org/grrowi/dogs+currently++in+foster+care/default.asp). We applied, had a home visit with a GRROW volunteer and her dog and love the program. Since being a approved (right before Thanksgiving), we have been called by foster homes twice - one dog was 11 and the other was 8. Neither were the right fit for us. Because we have very little kids, we want to adopt a dog who has a longer life expectancy so that the kids would likely be older when the dog passes on. GRROW is awesome. They really do work hard to make sure that they dogs they love are going into homes that are a great fit. They will not give us a dog that has undocumented or poor history with kids. They will not give us a dog that has a personality that doesn't fit our lifestyle and our needs. At the end of the day, they want the dogs to go to their "furever" home. We are being patient because we believe the process will work to get us the right dog for our family.

Resolution #1: Homemade laundry detergent

After reading http://www.thesimpledollar.com/ and a few other convicing blogs, we decided to take the plunge - make our own detergent. For a newbie, easier said than done...Arm and Hammer Washing soda... not easy to find.. kind of. We called 7 different hardware stores and walked through many stores... never to find the stuff. Finally, Acehardware ordered for us. Great! $4 and it arrived within days, no shipping. After Greg picked it up and we put it to work, we discovered that our neighborhood Piggly Wiggly had the stuff! At a lower price! Don't we feel silly. Oh well. So... what was the result of the experiment?

We made 2 kinds of detergent: Simple Dollar liquid and Duggar's (19 Kids and Counting) dry. Both work very, very well... better in fact than our store brand detergent. Is it better than Tide Coldwater... about the same. Better than Rockin Green? Well... let's not be silly. Nothing is better than Rockin' Green... we just cannot afford it for all of our washing.

The recipes we used:

Simple Dollar Liquid:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/09/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-a-detailed-visual-guide/

Duggar's Dry:
http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html

Cost... CHEAP! We bought a box grater ($1), used an old spoon (free), Washing Soda ($4), Borax ($3), 3 bars of Dove soap and a special bucket from Fleet Farm ($8). We have most of the box of Borax, most of the washing soda and a bar of soap left for future batches. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Truth be told, we prefer the liquid soap but both work very well. Our budget and sense of pride could not be happier!

Fabric softener solutions are next!

New Year, New Resolutions...

Isn't this everyone's topic of choice right now? Well, I am happy to admit that hubby and I are right on track... new year, new resolutions. This year, we decided to make a long list of very attainable small resolutions instead of some biggies like "exercise X # of hours per week" which would otherwise guarantee failure. Our long list of littles is source of great excitement for us... everything on it is something we are truly excited about tackling. Interestingly... quite a few of them are food-centered... guess that's just what we love. So... here we go:

1. Homemade laundry detergent for everything except diapers and Greg's work clothes

2. Adopt a dog

3. Maintain our Sunday Sabbath Commitment

4. Daily family dinner served consistently before 6:30pm

5. Cook our way through Jill Prescott's Ecole de Cuisine... we are about 25% there

6. Use up brand cleaning products; replace with home made

7. Reduce our water usage by 8%

8. Reduce our engergy usage by 5%

9. Increase our retirement by 1%

10. Increase our charitable giving by 5%

11. Spend at least 2 hours per week playing against each other on the Wii

12. Cloth, cloth, cloth

13. Always have homemade cookies and bread in the freezer

14. Go camping in our backyard

15. No car payment in 2010

16. Family devotions at dinner - including the Christmas Card prayers

17. Buy a tiller

18. Put in a cutting garden next to the garage

19. Move the lilac tree to the cutting garden

20. Install grow light

21. Grow peppers and herbs from seed

22. Fix the riding lawn mower

23. Rake and Roll the lawns

24. Read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

25. Take Michael and Greta to the Field Museum

26. Take Michael and Greta to the Shed Aquarium

27. Volunteer at Marion House

28. Finish the Morrison Childhood Photo Books

29. Finish the WII Letters from Grandpa

30. Can soups for the winter

31. Get all of the home videos edited and transferred

32. Greg and Sara do morning devotions together over coffee

33. Convert to only Fair Trade coffee by starting with weekends and then expanding to the rest of the week.

34. From May 1 - Oct 1 walk every night with the kids (weather permitting)

35. Use all of Greg's vacation and do more fun family activities

So... that's it. A long list of things we care about and are committed to. Fingers crossed, prayer list started, we are off and running.

Phew! Gardening is finally slowing down

What a shame! I am already missing my garden time.... toddler anctics and all. Interestingly, I let my arugula go to seed and the seeds are delicious! I toasted them and put them in my Potato Leek Soup.

Toddler Bait

The harvest season is upon us and I utterly enjoy the 10 minutes a day that I sneak out to my haven - the garden. I love my kids, adore my husband and am incredibly grateful for my home, Mothers and More and my dear friends. My garden, however, is a place of reverence and quiet for me. Despite the street noise and the toddler who often follows me in, I cannot help but be transported to place of refuge and prayer just by entering the space. The very fact that God allows us to sow and reap nature's goodness is no small miracle for me. In that space, I am almost always happy - and always at peace. I feel the breath of God on my every thought and every movement. It is my olive grove of prayer.

That being said, it is also a place laden with temptation for my toddler. Truly, it is a spiritual battleground! (Laugh) I have lovingly watched him resist the temptation to pick my peppers again and again. After his tomato debacle earlier this summer, he has learned the value mommy places on this precious harvest.

Colored peppers are tempting to everyone - regardless of age and inability to control our impulses. Michael is no exception. He has watched those beauties go from flowers, to tiny fruit, to plump green treats and finally into orange delights. I say finally because even though they are YELLOW peppers, they will never reach their full potential. The bright orange streaked beauties are simply far too tempting for a two year old. One poor pepper, the first to change colors, suffered from Michael's early picking and has vanished from existence. I asked Michael if he picked it and he shly admitted his sin. I asked him where he put it and all he could do was show me where he had picked it from. Probably like all things he values, he has horded it away for another day. Possibly he has forgotten where he stashed it and will rediscover it as a surprise. To protect him from further sin and my peppers from the vanishing act, I harvested two that are almost ready. We will eat and enjoy them despite their unrealized potential. I guess we are just grateful to get anything out of the garden this difficult summer.

Let's just hope that a few more turn orange and then mommy can forgive and forget her lost first fruits.

Crickets

Seriously... they were cool at first... but wow... our yard is infested with a symphony of crickets. My afernoon quiet time is filled with Disney lullaby tunes through the baby monitor and crickets in the yard... soothing I guess. What did I do to attract them?

Ah! And the toddler is awake. Just in time to go cricket hunting.