Brain Blank

I seriously think of things to type all day long and then once the kids are finally asleep and I'm finally sitting down with ice cream homemade chocolate greek yogurt I seriously cannot put two thoughts together.  This may have something to do with losing concentration skills due to E's frequent night wakings, or it could be because Jazzercise is a brain bender this week.  It might just be that so many things are happening right now that I can't keep it all straight.

The latest greatest excitement is that we are going to try to buy another house.  "Whoa, wait," you say.  "Don't you already own your house?"  Yes, we do.  But the truth of the matter is that our current home is quite small (smaller than a typical one bedroom apartment) and we have reached a critical point in which the Small Rodgers Children need to have their own room.  Also I would really appreciate it if the massive toy collection could move out of the living room.  And the bathroom sink could be located somewhere besides our bedroom.

Don't get me wrong, I love this little bungalow.  I love my yellow and white living room.  I love the huge backyard.  I love its cozy cuteness. However, my love for it can't increase space.  And we need more space.  It's always been a thought to build an addition... to convert the garage and add on to the back of the house.  Once again, reality trumps fantasy as any improvements we would make would not change crucial issues like a) the bathroom, or b) the teeny dining room, without borrowing a considerable sum of money.

So anyways, we have a home that we are seriously considering.  It's exciting and frightening all at the same time.  All along the way I've been praying that God will make it clear if we are to proceed or not, and so far proceeding seems to the action we are to take.  Sometimes I wish that decision could be made after knowing all of the possible issues or future concerns or whatever, but since we can't really know everything (obviously) we're going to have to make our plans as wisely as possible.  And I have to trust that God will lead us in the direction he wants us to go...and that he really isn't out to get me.  Why is that so hard to grasp sometimes?

In any case, this is probably why my brain is fried.  I also am reading about five books at once and I really want to review some of them, so stay tuned....

Monday night

I desperately need to find my camera.  Here's what happened: I couldn't find it for several days, and then Steve found it in...lo and behold...the camera case on the hanging rack where it is supposed to live.  I happily started to upload some long overdue pictures to Facebook and I honestly do not remember what happened to the camera after that.  I've looked all around the computer, all over the furniture, and in every toy/laundry/junk basket.  This is getting rather boring.

I don't think that blog posts need pictures to be interesting, of course.  But it does help to illustrate the interesting things that have been happening.  It would be nice, for example, if you could see a picture of the wacky pretend snow that I made with the kids this morning.  We have been reading The Snowy Day for BFIAR and Harriet loves it.  Even though we have a few inches of (melting) snow outside, I decided that messy pretend snow was a lesser evil than going outside into the really cold snow, so we dumped cornstarch and shaving cream together for a sensory experience to remember.  The pretend snow was fun to play with, even though the texture was definitely more like sand...and now the entire basement smells like Gillette.

Since Harriet is absolutely madly in love with the snow, I was a nice mommy and let her go outside again this afternoon.  The 40 degree temps helped.







I would also like to have my camera to accurately depict the delicious supper we had tonight: Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa and chipotle sour cream.  YUM.  Just for the record, I had never even thought of fish tacos being something to consider until Steve got me hooked after we got married.  (Seriously, the only fish taco I had ever seen was when I went with a bunch of peeps from CBI to TGI Fridays in Rapid City.  It definitely didn't make me want to eat it.)  Tonight's fish tacos were amazing.  I combined this recipe from Flower Patch Farm Girl with the crunchy fish recipe from Food Matters, and tada!  Wonderfully delicious fish tacos that only a picture could adequate capture.  Just try to imagine bold purple cabbage, bright yellow mango, fresh green cucumber, cornmeal crusted pan-fried cod, creamy chipotle sour cream....

Last Friday I got my nose pierced:

[insert webcam shot of Amelia with post-Jazzercise hair]

I love it.  Like really and truly. Getting my nose pierced has been on my "I'd like to do that someday" list for about forever, but it kept getting shoved aside for one reason or another.  (I came thiiiiisss close to doing it in November when we went to California, but I'm so glad that puking Harriet prevented me from doing so.  It doesn't seem like the stomach bug and a new piercing would work together very well.)  So, anyway, last Friday I went to my piercing appointment with this little heavily-pierced, cleanliness-conscious dude who did an excellent job at his Not Scary piercing studio.  I read a lot about nose piercings prior to the grand event, and many people said that it didn't hurt very much.  I don't know what kind of pain they were expecting, but it definitely hurt more than I thought it would.  Thankfully, the intense feeling of having all of your nose hairs pulled out at once lasted for only a minute or so, and I haven't experienced much discomfort since.  In fact, I forget that the little stud is even there and when I glance in a mirror I think, "What is that on my nose?"

I really love it.  It's so sparkly and feminine and adorable.

The kids are in bed, thanks to their new and improved Be Asleep By Eight Thirty Routine.  Maybe I'll keep digging around for my camera....

Out with the old, in with the new

The following was written on New Years Day, but through some fluke involving the Kindle, Steve, and Too Many Windows Open, the post was deleted.  Thankfully, Mom's Google Reader saved it so thanks to a little copy/paste action, it as been recovered.  For better or for worse.


Happy New Year!

Now is the time whilst I wait for supper to finish cooking and hack out something of the adventures and misadventures of 2012. 

Last year's goal? Pop out a baby.  Success! We have been enjoying sweet Edmund Paul for almost a whole year now.  This is craziness, my friends.  I keep wondering why he's fitting into 12-month sized clothes...could it be because he is nearly a whole year old? 

Because my 2012 goal was somewhat limited and achieved at the beginning of the year, I had many months to happen across other random goals and have some interesting experiences.  So here we have Amelia's Top Twelve of 2012 (in no particular order):

1. Having Edmund.
2. Harriet moving into her Big Girl Bed.
3. Finishing a whole year of online classes through Calvary Bible College (just fifteen credits to go, peeps.  So so so close.)
4. Going to the Gospel Coalition's first National Women's Conference in Orlando.
5. Taking the kids and their Granmom to Disneyworld after the aforementioned conference.
6. Training for and completing a 5K.
7. Steve switching to a day shift.
8. Building our enormously wonderful privacy fence.
9. Making a successful tiramisu
10. Having our wonderful square foot garden.
11. Watching Harriet grow and learn
12. Celebrating three years of marriage with Mr. Wonderful.

Now, in looking ahead to 2013, my goals are simple:

• Read more
• Write more
• Take more pictures

I'm not sure what counts as "more" yet, but I think that increasing the amounts in these three categories will be extremely beneficial to little ol' me.  

And the veggies and couscous are done and Harriet is pitching a fit because Shaun the Sheep is over.  

Welcome, 2013!