2015 Family Words

Last week I shared our 2014 family words and today I’m going to share with you our 2015 words.

For the canvases last year we used colorful magazine clippings but I decided to try and make it a little different (and easier) this year by just using paint for the undercoating.

I gathered all of the blue and green paints we had and explained that each person was going to choose several colors from this palette and cover their canvas with it.

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All five of us sat at the table on a cold and rainy morning in our pajamas and painted for an hour.

It was my version of heaven.

IMG_8648It was so interesting to just sit and listen to the kids talk about why they chose their word for the year.

After letting the paint dry, we picked through the stickers we had to create our words and names. I then spray painted the canvases with white paint. Once dry I peeled off the stickers.

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IMG_8661IMG_8684IMG_8662IMG_8680A few days after making our word canvases I said to Caroline would you like to try some cinnamon toast? She gave me this pitiful look and said, “Mooooooommmmmm, when  I said try for my word I didn’t mean to try new foods I meant to try new activities.”

Now keep in mind this kid has eaten cinnamon bread before and loved it.

“You don’t have to eat the whole thing, you could just try it.”

“Maybe later but I just can’t right now.”

She later ate 2 pieces of cinnamon bread and loved every bite. On her own time. When she was ready.

I’m thinking maybe her word for the year should have been “go with the flow,” or “don’t make trouble just for troubles sake, ”  or even, “every once in awhile just agree with your mother.”

But for now she’s sticking with “try” for 2015.

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Do you have a word or a family motto for the year? I’d love to know.

2014 Family Words of the Year & Our Wall of Pictures

Last year was the first year each member of our family came up with a “word” for the year.

The word each person chose was entirely up to them, although I did provide the 4 yr old with some choices.

The idea is that the word is supposed to be one of the things they want to focus on for the year. Kind of along the lines of a resolution.

Our words are hanging on a large corkboard which I found at the Habitat store for $4. I then glued on some left over fabric (burlap with gold circles) and placed our word canvases on there with push pins. I then took pictures we had printed out already and let the kids pin those up.

It’s literally my favorite thing in my house.

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Here’s a close up look at the canvases and how we made them. The idea is based off the same project I saw on Shannan’s blog. We’re not really friends. I just like to pretend we are so I call her by her first name 🙂

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The project starts off with scraps of magazines – the best in my opinion are the Boden catalogs because of the vibrant colors – I spent a couple of nights watching tv and cutting out different patterns and colors.

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Then we hodged podged the heck out of those scraps onto a 9 x 12 canvas.

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Once Caroline was done, I went back over hers with the hodge podge several times since she was rocking about 4 layers in some parts.

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Once the whole front was covered, we used old science fair sticky letters we already had and placed our words onto the canvas. I then spray painted the canvases (I initially painted my with white acrylic paint but liked the look of the spray paint better) and then peeled off the stickers.

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Can I just stop for one minute and say that this kid “DID” 2014.

KJMP_McEachern_20141013_0282Signed up for the Geography Bee all on his own, finished the school year with awesome grades, made the school band he wanted to, became a leader on his soccer team, made the state meet in summer swimming, made the region band, joined the school pentathlon team all on his own, ran for the cross country school team, and so much more!

Middle school really agrees with him. So proud.

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It’s funny how you start out the year thinking your word will mean one thing and it really ends up meaning something else. I thought my word would mean to find the courage to travel to Ethiopia but what it really meant was to find the courage to be around those who could add to their families. With each person who told me they were pregnant the pain of our loss really struck home again. While happy for them I found it just brought out sadness for me.

Courage for me this year was finally visiting my sister who had a new baby and experiencing that joy with her. I went back and forth and back and forth about making plane reservations but what I kept coming back to was my word for the year: courage.

I could do it. I needed to do it. So I did it. And it was wonderful.

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Next week I will share with you our 2015 words.

It should be interesting to see what path those words take us on.

January 2014 Goals Reviewed

Alright, so let’s get to how well I did with my January goals.

And just so we are completely honest with each other, I made these goals about Jan 15.

I had already been working on some things so I just decided to give myself to the end of the month to complete them.

Paint Caroline’s RoomCheck!– My wonderful husband painted her ceiling and her walls since I wanted to give her room an update since she’s almost five and it’s looked the same way since she was born. Since I’m not sure if our room arrangements will be the same next year I wanted a neutral color. I really wanted to paint the room all white but chickened out once I got to Sherwin Williams. I decided to go with Repose Gray at 75% (it’s 25% lighter than the color). Now that it’s painted, I really like the color and am glad I went with it.

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Record Exercise – check! I’ll share more on that late in the week as well as a printable to go along with it.

Date Night with Hubby – fail! – Nope, but my sister is coming in town this month so we are going to take advantage of her being there – thanks Kelly!

Sew Christmas Tree Skirt – check! – Believe it or not I completed this task and probably written the first Christmas post of the year. I won’t be sharing it to the fall but I’m really excited about it since I started making it with the kids two years ago.

Go to bed at decent time – check!

Add 1 new product to etsy shop – fail!

Finish Christmas thank you cards with kids fail! But we are getting there, only a few more to go!

Finish and hang family word art fail! Project is complete now though.

Try 2 new recipes – check! – Look out world I went crazy and tried 3 new recipes.

We ate this Slow Cooker Lasagna the other night – probably won’t make it again since I thought it was just okay but if I do I will use sausage instead of ground beef. My 8 year old really liked this meal (I doubled the sauce and cheese amounts).

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins – I made these before school one day and to say the kids were shocked is an understatement – what, no cereal this morning? I didn’t make the icing for them and just served them hot out of the oven which my kids enjoyed. I will make these again since I’m so happy they didn’t come from a box.

Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe – We had this at a friends house one night and we loved it. I made this recipe the next week and again we all loved this. We had it with some coleslaw and fruit and we will definitely make this again. Once the meat was finished cooking we mixed it with some BBQ to make it extra yummy.

If you see this packet in the grocery store, pick it up since you’ll need one to make the recipe:

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Write More – check! Although I didn’t write as much as I would have liked, I did write more than usual so that’s a win for me. Next month I need to be better about just sitting and journaling at a specific time.

Any progress on your goals, resolutions, and lists?

January Goals 2014

I’m starting off this year with goal sheets for the month again since I found them so successful two years ago (and yes, I totally realize there are only 11 months left in the year).

Goals. Resolutions.

Tomatoes. To-ma-toes.

I have found that having goals written down just makes a world of difference in my productivity.

Now for my goal sheet for the month of January:

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And before I tell you how I did on meeting these goals I’ll be sure to take advantage of the last 2 days of the month.

Click here for a blank copy of the January goals page and here for a blank copy of the February goal page.

Do you have any goals you are working toward this year? month? day?

November Goals Revisited

I have a confession to make.

I am revisiting these goals for the first time since I posted them at the beginning on November.

Yep, that’s right. I didn’t even look at my goal sheet this month.

We visited the doctor for the first time on the 13th and from that point until the 28th someone in the family was sick – really sick, I’m talking thankful for the washer and dryer sick.

So anything that I accomplished will be out of shear luck and not due to any sort of focus.

Well, here we go:

Add 2 items to Etsy shop –Fail! I added the Teacher Interview packet but nothing else.

Mail 2 Christmas Packages –Fail! I have mailed one package so far.

Scrapbook 10 pages –Fail!

Surprise My Kids –Check! We surprised the kids with a night at Great Wolf Lodge but then they surprised us with being sick so we left early – bum bum bum…

Buy New Mattress for Guest Room –Fail!

Hang frames in guest room –Fail!

Cook – Thanksgiving Dinner –Check!

Decorate House for Christmas –Fail! The trees up but that’s about it.

Clean Out the Garage –Fail! Not even sure what I was thinking with this one

Volunteer at Something –Check! Our family volunteered on family volunteer day at Meals on Wheels. We made cards for the meal recipients and wrapped up soap as gifts for them. This month our family is riding on the party bus to deliver Meals on Wheels! To say they are excited is an understatement.

Not Drop a Gallon of Milk at the Grocery Store – Check! Yes! I accomplished this!

Hope Your Month was Better than Mine

Holiday Eating

I just ate 2 pounds of toffee in the last day and a half,

proving that buying desserts at Costco should be outlawed.

Fortunately, those calories have been completely negated

as I drank skim milk with said toffee

thus insuring I have successfully maintained my “eat reasonable through the holidays” goal.

October Gaols Reviewed

In addition to a busy and eventful October, I started a new part time job. Therefore, all of my October goals were not completed.

Add 1 item to etsy shopFail!

Touch Up Paint DownstairsCheck!  Walked around the house one day with a can of paint.

Scrapbook 10 pagesFail!

Make / Find Containers for Boys’ Room Check! I found some containers at IKEA which seem to work. Now they have a place to keep pencils, glue sticks, colored pencils, markers, and crayons on their desk.

Complete Making 3 Halloween CostumesCheck! Army Man, Wonder Woman, and Dumbledore were happy with their costumes!.

Host Halloween PartyCheck!

Finish Christmas Shopping for 5 people on My ListFail!

Fix Up Backyard, If Only for A Few Days for the Party Check! We bought a set of table and chairs for outside, added some flowers, and filled up the holes in the back yard which the dog had dug. It was glorious for four days – that’s until Sophie came back from the kennel and dug all the holes again. Ugh!

 How was your October?