A New Year

Here it is, 2011.  Has it really been 11 years since my neighbor filled a UHaul truck with all his belongings and waited for the world to end?  Remember the Y2K hype?  That doesn’t really seem that long ago to me, which can only mean one thing- I. am. getting. OLD. 

Anyway, back to 2011.  I have a few, hundred, million things I would like to get done this year, mostly around our house.  I’m happy to say that we are off to a good start around here.  The playroom has had an overhaul, the bathroom trim has been sanded and repainted, the girls’ clothes have been organized, and most of our meals for January have been made and are in the freezer (more on that later).

I decided that rather than making year-long goals that I’m going to try to stick to all year (because let’s face it…that’s almost impossible for me), I’m going to have one semi-large monthly task each month to try to complete.

For January it is:

Clean the office.

I know what some of you are thinking.  Does it really take a month to clean an office?  And I know what the rest of you are thinking.  I have seen that office and yes, it will take a month to clean.  The office is a room that never fully got unpacked when we moved in and who knew that 2 people had a book collection the size of most small town libraries?  We surely didn’t because this is the first time we have had nice built in shelves to store all of our books.  If the office doesn’t get cleaned out soon, I’m pretty sure Hannah is going to nominate us for an episode of the show Hoarders.  There is a lot of stuff crammed in there, a lot of papers to file, and a lot of books to go through.  Yes, there will be some before and after photos.

Another thing I am doing this year is a 365 album for the year.  I am going to take one picture each day.  Rather, I’m going to choose one picture each day, I take way more than one each day, and put it in a book to be printed at the end of the year.  I thought of this idea back shortly after Sadie was born but being the linear thinker that I am, I could not possibly start this project in the middle of the year.  That would just be all wrong.  Since I started, I have seen that 2 other people that I know are also working on this same project. The pictures aren’t necessarily the best or cutest or perfect photos of each day, but just snap shots of us living our lives.  These days with my littles are treasured times I don’t want to forget even one day.  I’m not planning on blogging these pictures everyday but I will post a few here and there.   

In other Peterson news, Sadie has decided that she loves baby food and Cheerios.  You should see her when I get out the Cheerios box.  Her eyes get HUGE and she won’t blink and she kicks her feet wildly.  I must get it on video soon!

I need to say that all of the things that I mentioned above that I have gotten done around the house have not been because I have suddenly turned into Super Mom.  No, it is largely because Aunt Kelsi has been staying with us for a little while as she waits for her new job to start.  It is amazing what you can get done when there is an extra set of hands around.  Did I mention that her new job is in MARYLAND??  Now if we could only get some of the others to move out this way.

Lastly, here’s what you really want- the pictures and videos of my children.  I know…most of you just scrolled down to this point first and haven’t even read of single word of my very interesting post.  That’s ok, I forgive you.

I LOVE this little smile.

Sometimes it is just better not to ask why my daughter is hanging from the doorknob.  But if you really want to know the story, just ask.  Just so you know, at first this was “Get down from there right now!”  but it quickly turned into “Wait, stay there, I want to take a picture!”  That is why she is smiling so nicely.