5K Color Run

I came across the event call the Color Run last year on one of the many blogs I follow.  I mean, just look at this picture?  How could you not want to participate?  And since losing weight and getting in better shape is a New Year's resolution for 90% of Americans, what better way to get you motivated?



Click the link The Color Run to see if there is one near you.  The proceeds go to a local state charity.

Now to convince three friends to do it with me......

PS: I just bought this book A Year of Biblical Womanhood:  How a Liberated woman found herself sitting on her roof, covering her head, and calling her husband Master"

Here's a tidbit of an explanation on the book:

"With just the right mixture of humor and insight, compassion and incredulity, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation. What does God truly expect of women, and is there really a prescription for biblical womanhood? Come along with Evans as she looks for answers in the rich heritage of biblical heroines, models of grace, and all-around women of valor."

Should be interesting!

Calm

I'll get to the calm in a second, but first I need to vent about the fact that Kembia cut her hair.  I put her down for a nap in her and Ava's room, and when I went down to get her after she woke up I saw her pretty little braids on the floor.  She had grabbed a kid scissor before falling asleep and chop, chopped 3 braids off.    The good news is that it was the yarn extensions, but she almost cut up high enough to cut off her actual hair, and I would have been so sad.  When questioned about what happened, she lifted up her hands and said "I don't know".  Right.  And then later that day, I caught Moyz trying to put Kembia's doll into the toilet.  And then I fed the babies bleu cheese stuffed olives, and Kembia told me "It tastes like poop".  Which was an interesting response because I am fairly certain she has never heard that expression before.

This is such a good idea, but so impractical.

Okay, now to the calm.

We visited some friends when we were on the Great Christmas Trip.  Both Chris and I walked through their front door and said something along the lines about how the house was so calming.  Seriously, you walked in and it was like time momentarily stopped.

Basically the walls were a very, very light yellow, although Chris thinks it was cream, but since I know more about colors and have a better eye, I'm going with light yellow.  And then the furniture was all white.  With three young girls running around and an outdoorsy husband.

It's no secret that Chris doesn't like the new blue/gray living room paint.  To put it more bluntly, he despises it.  So, both of us came away from the visit thinking that we need to paint the living room.  Again.  Well, actually I came away thinking I should paint, and Chris came away thinking we should paint but that we probably wouldn't because it's a time waster.  I am not sure what to think about that.  So if I died and he didn't like the color of something, he would just live with it because it takes time for change?  (I should probably add here that we had the best time with our long moved away friends and we didn't just come away with vain things like painting our house!)

Anyway, I have always loved images of white rooms with color in them but not on the walls.  I pin images of mostly white rooms (all white rooms look cold and sterile to me) and absolutely love the look of white with rustic elements in them.  But I have always thought that white rooms were for people who were afraid of color.  Kind of like long hair was for people who were afraid of themselves and life, and needed it to hide behind.  (Coming from someone who now has very long hair because it's totally the best for pony tails and buns.  I've since changed my opinion about long hair, but I do think there are people who hide behind it.)

But, I think I might, yet again, paint the living room/hallway/trim.  Chris doesn't think a very light yellow/cream would make me happy, I don't understand his reasoning myself, but we did find a warmer white to try.  Still, I have my doubts as to how I will feel about it, even after seeing their house and knowing all of the images I have pinned.

Examples of what I like

I don't like the weird yellow artwork or the ugly green pillow on the couch, but I'm feeling everything else.

I lament the fact that we don't have a fireplace a lot.  This picture only makes it worse.

So there's a couple of ideas on what floats my boat.  It will be at least a week before I can try to do this.  Also, I am going to have to paint my curtains because I feel like it is going to be way too much white with white walls, white furniture and white curtains.  I am also thinking that since my bathroom is white (except for the ugly blue and white early 90's countertop) I should probably put a black and white striped shower curtain in there, since I appear to now be going for a black-and-white-with-color house.  I'll probably paint that too because if everything costs a lot Chris will freak, and spending loads of money wasn't one of our 2013 goals.

And then there is the fact that both Chris and my bedroom, and the boys' room, both upstairs and visible from everywhere else, are tan, which doesn't really go with the black and white theme I have moved in to, so probably I will have to paint those two rooms as well......

Obsessed with Life In Grace

Once upon a time, I stumbled across the blog Life In Grace.  And as the nature of trolling around the net, I don't know how I landed there, but I am so glad I did.  More like I am in love with this blog, and I think she and I would probably be good friends.  I want to be her when I grow up.

Recently, she did a post on how they home school, and let me tell you, it is not for the faint of heart.  I technically haven't given up on the home school dream, so I am filing that post away for later.

I am also 100% obsessed with her home.  Amazing.

I mean just look at this.

Her workroom/homeschool room:



I could move right on in, no adjustments necessary.

And then there is the kitchen.

I have contemplated trying to copy those cupboards for several months now.  They would match my map perfectly.

And here is her master bedroom.  

I am seriously dying here.

Plus she does an online book club.  The last one they did was Plato's Republic.  She does a vlog (video on the blog) about her thoughts.  

Anyway, had to share my recent blog world obsession.  Hope you like her as much as I do!

What I'm Reading

So before I talk about what I've been reading, I have to take a  moment and talk about Downton Abbey.  Oh my word.  The casting person needs to be given a raise.  Shirley MacLaine is amazing.  The perfect foil to Maggie Smith's Countess.  I would turn in every Sunday just to listen to her lines.  Also, I am curious about who would be so fastidious about not accepting millions of dollars if you were the last given heir like Matthew Crawley.  It's kind of taking the whole nice guy thing to the extreme, especially given that his wife's family is going to lose their home and complete way of life.

Anyway,  I've waited months for it to come back and I was not disappointed.  We had some people over for a party, and 4 of them had never seen it before and the husbands even loved it.  A fun evening all around.

Okay, moving on to books.

Like the humongous nerd that I am, I rushed out to see the Hobbit, only to discover that it was a series of movies.

I absolutely hate that.

I would much rather be late to the party and have an entire series of books or movies at my disposal then have to wait years for everything to play out.

So, in honor of the movie, I just finished reading The Hobbit, and am moving on to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy again.

I swear to you last night while I was reading in bed, that Chris laughed at me and said the concept of reading for entertainment was just so foreign to him.  Meanwhile, the concept that someone could not love reading is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard.  

I have also been reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan since I was a senior in high school.  And the series was originally started in 1990.  How's that for waiting for a long time to finish?  Plus, Robert Jordan died in 2007 and all those highly invested in time spent reading his books panicked that they wouldn't be finished.  But he had notes for another to help, and his wife to edit like she did all of the books, and the next one, the last, comes out tomorrow.  (I pre-ordered it from Amazon so I will get it on Tuesday without leaving my house!)  I have contemplated starting this series again from the beginning, but at 14 books, each about 800 pages long, I don't think I will.  Maybe when I am old and retired.

Yes, the genre is science fiction/fantasy.  If it has a wizard or an elf in it, I am sold.  

And this is also supposed to be the year that the third book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth comes out, but not until next fall, so I am not even remotely excited about it yet.  Okay, maybe a little bit excited but truly not that much.

I'm also continuing to pluck away at the classics, and read Sherlock Holmes for the first time this year.  Don't know what took me so long.  I heard that PBS has a series called Sherlock and it is supposed to be amazing.  Maybe in between Downton Abbey I can squeeze it in there.

Lest I forget, I will also continue to partake in all CIA, black ops type of books, that I probably shouldn't love as much as I do, and that I pick up for 50 cents at the goodwill.  Totally worth it.  

And then there is Les Miserables.  I have never read the book, but have plans to go and see the movie this week.  After which, I will read the book, but I am a little bit intimidated.  And probably I should read the book first, but I don't think it's going to happen before the movie leaves the theatre.

Okay, that's what's on my list.  Am I missing anything good?  

Acai Berries

Do you see that picture?  It is a deal breaker.  As in, I can't deal with it when they are in my house.  I cannot stop eating them.  They are 100% a diet buster.  My sweet girlfriend gave them to me for Christmas.  I think she was trying to sabotage my diet.  So, I have decided the best way to get rid of them is to eat them as quickly as possible.  

Bad, Jess, bad.

Over the time I was gone I gained 3 pounds.  In 10 days.  That is a lot of really bad calories for you.

But I am bouncing back.  Hopefully.  Because when I go to New York this spring I want to be able to eat my heart out (what a dumb saying) and not gain a pound.  Of all the things planned in New York, I am most excited to eat at amazing restaurants.  You don't have to tell me how low I am setting the bar for myself.  What about culture?  It's in the food people.

Moving on.

Downton Abbey Season 3 begins again this Sunday.  You are watching aren't you?  I am frantically trying to find foods, snacks and drinks that completely sum up being British to serve at my soiree.  Not doing well on that front.  If there is anyone British still reading (something I seriously doubt, who blogs about dark chocolate covered blueberries?) please feel free to chime in.  

And on the whole journaling my life, I have done two entries.  Not bad considering we are only 4 days in to 2013 and I set my goal at least 3x per week.  Day one was kind of a cop-out though.  My journal went something like "decided to journal for 2013.  wish me luck".  I'm not even sure it counts, but since I was a little irritated at Chris I decided that it was better to write that then complain about hubby on the first day of the New Year. 

Now that I have just sort of mindlessly written a post, I think I should call it good.  See what traveling for extended periods of time with 5 children causes you to do?  Drift.  A week home and it's like I have ADD.  Can't even concentrate for one post.  

Adjusting

Our family was gone for 10 days over Christmas.  The longest the whole group of us has ever been gone together.  Today is our first day back to a normal routine.  It is not going well.

Someone tell me what I did with three toddlers all.day.long. before this?  Cause I can't remember.  

Also, I got my newest Elle Decor magazine, my least favorite home decorating magazine, and it looks like I somehow renewed it for the next 4 years.  Good until fall 2016.

I almost got a new computer a few days ago, but then we discovered that it's not a motherboard (love that word) problem, but just the AC adapter.  So instead, I will continue to plunk along on this beast with several missing keys, gunk in between all the remaining keys, and hope that when Truitt dropped it on the floor today it will recover.

My kids got the movie Spy Kids 4 for Christmas.  They love it with a burning passion.  Both Chris and I have declared that we become dumber every time we see it.  So far we've only seen it twice so we have most of our brain cells, but they are quickly diminishing.

To get home from our Christmas travels we had to leave large amounts of stuff at both grandparents' homes. We had this great idea of taking the oldest kids out into a nature refuge to winter camp but then Chris got sick with fevers and the weather was below zero so instead of using all of the skis, tents, and other miscellaneous camping gear, we just hauled it around and let it take up valuable space.  The kids are already whining for the presents we had to temporarily leave behind.

And then somehow among all the madness I forgot to pay a bill.  But the good thing is we have a 14 day grace period so I didn't up and go and ruin our credit.

2013 is starting out with a bang.  Oh wait, that's me retreating to my bedroom away from it all as quickly as I can.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat

2013

Normally I don't do resolutions.  I have this tendency to not follow through with them.  And it is so embarrassing to publicly state that you will do such and such and then fall flat on your face by February 1st.

But this year, I really want to do something.  I want to journal my life.  (From this day forward, not everything I have already done, although that would be cool, but would take a long time and probably turn me off permanently from journaling.)  I have never done this, but I was thinking about all of the traveling I have done and how I already can't remember very much of it, and thus decided that if I journal my life, then when I am old and senile and cannot remember anything, I can read it or have it read to me and think back fondly on all the things I did during my life.

So there it is.  My public statement of journaling most nights in the year 2013 and hopefully forever more.

Aaannd if I am honest with myself I would also add to that: lose weight, cook better (using my 3 awesome new cookbooks), travel more, be a better wife, be a better spouse, be better in terms of doing things better for the earth, learning one new thing per month and the list could probably go on and on for awhile.  So I will stop there.

Seriously though, I do want to do the journal thing.  One day I know I will appreciate it more then the pain it is to write in it every night.

What are you going to do in 2013?