Christiansen Chronicles

Honestly, I've been putting off writing a wrap up post about my goals this year.  Mostly because I don't fee like I did a great job, but that is life.  Goals give you something to reach for.  Some are harder than others, and it doesn't mean I am a failure because I couldn't reach a goal by a certain deadline.  It gives me something to strive for in 2012.

This quote by President Gordon B. Hinkley makes me feel a whole lot better about everything.  I might just need to print this one out and put it on my wall.

  "Try a little harder to be a little better."

So I had 4 main goals this year. More like areas in my life I wanted to improve.  The first two - well, if I were generous, I would give myself a 3 of 5 stars.

1.  Work on my talents.  Looking back I'm sure I did a craft or two each month.  I might not have been very good at blogging and documenting it as I should have been.  I certainly didn't update my Book Blog enough. That is going to one of my main goals this next  year.

2.  Work on our finances.  We are not even going to talk about that on here.  I do try and hopefully by the end of next year, things will be a lot better.

I feel really good about my last two goals for 2011.

3. Nurture
4. Make best choices.

I think having a One Little Word to focus on this year really helped me accomplish these two goals.  I had this visual reminder hanging in our kitchen to remind me that I need to ENJOY life ever single day.


I can honestly say that it helped and it is TRUE!  Life is to be enjoyed, not endured. My dishes can wait in the sink.  We need to walk to the park. My floors will not always be clean, but my kids know that they are loved.  If taking my camera out and trying to document everything stresses me out, than I need to remember that it's OK not to take a picture of everything.  Date night might not be a night out on the town, but a movie can be just as good.  And sometimes I just need to remember that there is a time and a season for everything.  My kids will only be this little for so long, and I have my whole life to make a craft, clean the house, read a book or finish a project.

Every day was not perfect.  Yes, I still had bad days.  I still had days when I didn't make the best decisions, and I didn't do the best at nurturing, but I believe overall I improved and had more days enjoying my life and feeling blessed than I did otherwise.

I am looking forward to 2012.  I have been contemplating my One Little Word and can't wait to post about it soon.  I have been thinking about my goals and what I want to accomplish this next year.  So much awaits for us this year and I can't wait to find out what 2012 has in store!

Remember our pet stick bugs, Chewbacca and Ewok?  Well, they are growing like mad!  They are huge and considering they don't do anything, they are a huge hit.

When we first got they came in a mason jar, and they were so tiny, we kept them in there.  Every week Wade brings home some new ivy from the parking garage at the hospital and he cleans out the jar (they actually poop a lot!) and then gives them fresh leaves.


A few weeks ago we noticed that they were getting pretty big for the jar, but we didn't know what else to put them in.  Good old Shawn White our goldfish is still holding on to dear life in the fish tank.  Then I thought about all the 6 qt. shoe box size containers I use for the kids toys.  It was perfect!  It doesn't seal air tight, so air can get in and out, and it gives them enough room to move around.  We keep it on the kitchen counter above the dishwasher (which we run twice a day) so plenty of heat comes up into their little home to keep them comfortable and warm.

Eli loves the little bugs.  He will run up to the counter and point with his little finger and grunt until you bring the box down to the floor and open the lid so he can look at them. He then looks at them, squeals at them, points at them, grunts at them, lays down and gazes at them, stands up and dances, sticks his head in the container, points, smiles, basically he acts so excited about these little bugs.

And what are the bugs doing all this time?  NOTHING!

They do not move much when we have them in the container.  But when Wade takes them out and changes the leaves one a week.  Boy, do they move!

This week one crawled all over the table.  He crawled right over to the Lego Harry Potter Quidditch Tower and went straight to the top.

Of course, Eli was on top of the table faster than you can say quidditch and so excited to see the bug move! I really should have got  a video.  But between trying to keep track of Eli on the table and two lose stick bugs (that I mistakenly labeled slow and docile) this was the only picture I got.

Eli's excitement over these silly stick bugs almost, maybe, possibly tempts me to consider thinking about how he would react to a real pet...say a puppy.

But I am SO not going down that road.  My boy loves stick bugs, and those I can handle.