Project #walk365 {November}

This post is so late that I almost skipped it, but I want it here for posterity. So here goes!

In January of 2015 I set a goal to walk 365 miles during the year. I meant it as a goal to walk every day, and for the first half of the year I did just that.

During the second half of the year walking daily wasn't as easy to do, so I upped the miles on the days I did walk (usually two miles per day). I made my 365-mile goal on my birthday in early October, despite a hot summer, a cross-country move, and being pregnant!

But November. November was hard! It was the last month of my pregnancy and as you can see by the pictures, we started to get snow! I cut back my miles to only 5 a week, and tried to get out as much as I could.

I did ok in the rain and slush and cold, but around Thanksgiving we had ice. I walked two more times and threw in the towel! Walking on ice at 38 weeks? No thanks! My total miles logged for #walk365 was 413.

Overall, I'm super proud of myself! I think walking made a huge difference in my pregnancy. Most of the time I felt pretty good and my weight gain stayed in the healthy range.

My goal for 2016 is to walk 500 miles. I know it's not a big difference from 2015's 413, but we're nearly a month into the year and I've walked less than 1 mile!* I'm still recovering from a c-section, I have a newborn, and it's cold and snowy outside, so I'm not going to worry about it yet! With those things in mind, I think #walk500 is a great goal.

*I purposefully go on a walk or log mileage on my treadmill. I use Runkeeper and only log these intentional miles, not the daily mileage I might get around the house or running errands. I think that's great too, but wanted to clarify what "counts" for me.

If you want to walk with me, you know, virtually, I'll be using the hashtag #walk500 or you can follow me on Instagram. I'm gibsongirl726.

Thanks for reading!

Project #walk365 {July}

I'm still walking! In fact in July I started walking two miles a day at least six days a week. I was on a trip for a few days to see family, but other than that, I stuck to my goal and walked a total of 44 miles in July!

We live next to a busy highway in a rural area, so I don't have many options as to where I can walk. I try to capture a different picture every day but it's proving more challenging as time passes! 

1. Just a quick mile this morning before it got hot. I walk a little bit down this highway to get to the pretty, quiet streets. Both of them.
2. I walked right by this barn today and didn't realize I was being watched!
3. My boys and I walked in 90* at 9 AM in Walla Walla, WA, so they enjoyed a refreshing dash thru a sprinkler.
4. I envy the birds this cherry tree.
5. I love this garden with the sunflowers! Not the fence-deer and moose are a real problem in northern Idaho.
6. I saw turkeys and horses on my walk today.
7. Isn't this little garden shed adorable?
8. It was a cool morning walk. Say hi to my wild turkey friends!
9. Hay!

1. 20 weeks!
2. I can't get over how pretty Idaho is!
3. The whole family walked to Snow Creek Falls with new friends from church. It was beautiful and cool in the shade of the forest! The best part for me was NOT feeling like I was going to die on the walk back up to the cars.
4. We walked around Roman Nose Lakes checking out camp sites. We can't wait to go...except for the bear warnings.
5. I felt really energetic on my walk today. Idaho is pretty up close too!
6. Cloudy, breezy and 65! So nice to walk without being overly hot.

1. (Includes barn, view of pasture, and mailbox.) Every time I pass this barn the horse is standing there watching. Do you see his nose peeking out of the barn? The tree is an apple, the view is amazing and the name on the mailbox? MacDonald.
2. It's a deer. It's a bear. It's a boat! What do you see when you walk in the woods?
3. We live near an airport. Today I walked a path paralleling the highway and discovered the airport is one mile away.
4. I tried a new route today as my two standby routes are getting old. Not sure I'll repeat it, but for today it was a good change.
5. A few clouds can sure change the look of a place!
6. Another two miles done! #babybumpphotobomb
7. Can you see the purple in this alfalfa field?

If you want to follow along on my adventures every day, you can find me on Instagram. I'm gibsongirl726 and I use the hashtags #walk365 and #runwalkhike. Thanks for reading! 

Project #walk365 {June}

June. June was the big move month. June included a 5-day trip from Nebraska to Idaho by way of Yellowstone National Park. June had us sleeping somewhere new every few nights! June was "uncharacteristically" hot!

Our whole family walked together in Scotts Bluff National Monument and each of the two days in Yellowstone.

We walked during our lunch break on the last leg of our trip to Idaho, then tried to get out and take walks while we stayed in a trailer in the church parking lot waiting for our house to be ready.

Then we went to camp meeting in Washington. The kids and I stayed busy walking places around campus, and taking frequent breaks to flex our muscles and watch ladybugs on our knees. After camp meeting, we moved into our house and I took a full, intentional week off from walking.

Once we got a little settled, I started going for walks again. The small pictures above are on my two routes from our house. The larger picture is something I'm proud of, though my kids walked better than I did! We went to the local ski resort, Schweitzer Mountain. We took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain and walked the 2.5 mile trail back down. It was super hot, we had no water, and the trail was rocky and steep, but we did it!

Even with a week off, I walked 23 miles in June bringing my year total to 218!

Project #walk365 {May}

I know. May? Why bother? Well, cuz it's important to me. And I want to share.

I started walking shortly after New Year's Day. My original goal was to walk 365 miles in 2015, an average of one mile per day. I knew winter walks would be hard. I knew summer walks would be challenging. I knew we were moving but didn't want to let myself off the hook, so I added the additional challenge of walking every day. I think January was a week old before I started and I made it to May before it got derailed.

May in Nebraska is beautiful. There were so many pretty flowers, lawns and gardens to enjoy in our neighborhood!

May included Gary's graduation and a houseful of guests. That's when I inadvertently skipped a day. It was after 9, I was exhausted and finally sitting down after a busy day and realized I hadn't gone for a walk. :( I picked it up again after that and finished the month strong.

After graduation, we started packing up our house, then drove to Missouri to spend time with Gary's mom and leave the kids with her while we flew to Idaho to look for a house. Gary walked with me each day while we were gone! Some of the walks on driving days were pretty short, but I was intentionally walking!

We spent the last week of May back in Lincoln finishing our packing and taking the last few walks. In all, I walked 35 miles in May, bringing my year's total to 195!

Project #walk365 {April}

I'm way behind in blogging about my walks, but I'm happy to report that I'm still walking! Even when life gets crazy, the weather is bad, I'm super tired or don't feel well, I still walk. That's an accomplishment I'm proud of!

I'm not going to take the time and recount my impression of or mileage for each walk here. If you'd like to follow along, you can join me on Instagram at gibsongirl365. I do want to point out the beautiful spring we had this year! It seemed prettier than last year, but maybe it was because I was out in it more, looking for it!

My goal for 2015 is to walk an average of 1 mile a day, hence #walk365. So far I'm keeping well ahead of my goal. In April I walked 42 miles, my best month yet!

I even managed to walk every day while our family flew to another state for business with my husband! Yes, I logged mileage in the airports, but Gary was keeping track on his Vivo Fit and airport days were over two miles!

My second goal is to walk every day, and I kept that this month. Yay me! In fact I've gone something like 14 weeks without skipping a single day!

As the weather warmed up during April, I found myself taking kids to the park more often. Hey, it's a mile and a half round trip, they get to burn some energy and have fun, and I get my walk in!

Housekeeping

Hello my pretties!

I've been cleaning house. Not my real house, my blog! I've decided that if I'm going to re-focus my target audience, I'm going to make a few changes around here.

Also I was bored.

So if you're reading in a reader and want to see the updates, click on over! But oh yeah, my main target is my future self, so, yeah. Hi self!

Just to clear this up, if you're still wondering, life has changed and I can't do so much DIY, I don't have time or the budget for extra crafts, we're renting and that doesn't avail itself to much home improvement, we're downsizing so I cant show you my awesome deals and updated rooms with thrifted or antiqued treasures. I'm just me.

Living this life.

Now.

I want my blog to reflect that.

I've taken away AdSense. Whew! What a relief! I never made money off of it anyway. In fact, this blog could easily stand as the poster child of what not to do if you want to make your blog a business.

Can I just say I've read a million of these posts? How to Make Money Blogging. Let me just say, those women must be dedicated! At the time my son's nursery was posted (two years ago) and I did a couple other room re-dos, I was spending about two hours a day blogging, not to mention the hands-on time for the projects I was doing. It was hard work! I loved it, but felt to make money blogging I had to spend even more time, write about topics I didn't care about, and network by linking and linking and linking--all of which is time consuming! And link parties are nice, but to be honest I would spend so much time linking to parties and linking back and visiting other party goers that I didn't have time for what was important to me.

So. If you want to make money blogging, don't read this blog! If you want to look at cool projects, I have quite a few in the archives. I can hope to have more in the future, but no promises. I'm blogging for me now, and the things I care most about are a little trio of boys who all call me mama!

Word of the Year {2013}

Happy New Year! I'm in the group that is still wondering just how it happens to be 2013 already. 2012 was a year of change for our family--I'm not even ready to go back and read my Goals for 2012 post, because the year turned out completely different than what I had planned. Guess it's not all about me, right?

Funny, I must have had a hunch that change was on the horizon when I picked my word for 2012.

Interesting, huh? I needed to surrender my ideas for how the future of our family would look. And we did! We put our house on the market and started packing boxes. And packing and packing and packing! My husband quit his job--the only source of income for our family. We hauled most of our stuff to a storage unit, left our home in the hands of our realtor and drove across the country last summer for my husband to go to school.

We loved it! Gary was finally doing what he had wanted to do for years and years. The boys and I had fun living in a school setting, made friends with other student families, and counted it all as an adventure. Now Gary has graduated and there is a job lined up, just not finalized so I can't share it yet. Our house is rented and finances have worked out!

So with all of that being said, I hope you can understand this next part.

I struggle with feelings of inadequacy. 

I'm not good enough.
My house is not clean enough.
I don't cook healthy enough meals.
I'm not the mom my boys need.
I'm not a good enough wife.
I'm not spiritual enough.
I'm not pretty enough, skinny enough, or do my hair and face enough.
I don't do enough projects to keep my readers interested in my blog, I'm not witty enough in my writing to ever amount to anything, so why do I spend all this time blogging anyway?

I am not enough.

I kinda had a breakdown last week. I had a rough day with hormones and stress and my own silly expectations and kept failing. I finally walked out in the woods by myself and had a good cry.

Now this next part is not as crazy as it sounds. It's also not a regular occurrence, but in my wailing (at least in my head) I clearly "heard" God tell me:

I am enough.

That's really the secret, isn't it? To let God make up the difference in our shortcomings. Let him succeed when I fail. It doesn't mean I should stop trying, but after I surrender my will, let him make me adequate. 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

 Blessings to you and your family in 2013!

My Word of the Year

Surrender.


a) to yield to the power, control or possession of another upon compulsion or demand;
b) to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor to another;
c) to give (oneself) up into the power of another especially as a prisoner
d) to give (oneself) over to something (as an influence)

Probably not what one thinks of when trying to choose a word for the year. 


But let's think about how appropriate it is! 


When my little boy asks me to play with him, I will surrender my to-do list and enjoy him while he still wants my attention.


I will surrender some of my sleep-in time to get up and have my devotional.


I will surrender to the demands of the laundry created by this family of 5.


When my baby needs my attention, I will surrender it to him fully.


I will choose to surrender some of my time on blogs and pinterest to be present for my middle son.


I will surrender to the health-needs of my body and get some exercise!


I will surrender my tenancy to cook whatever I'm hungry for at supper time and actually create a menu system that works for my family.


I will surrender my fear of rejection or being judged and talk about my spiritual life on this here bloggy blog.


Speaking of which, I have three favorite scriptures that have special meaning to me. One is Isaiah 61:3, the "beauty for ashes" text where I got the inspiration for the name of this blog. Another is in Zephaniah 3:17 where it says that God "will rejoice over you with singing." Can you imagine being loved that much?! 


That leads me to my next favorite verse: Jeremiah 29:11. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Um, yes please! This God will take my ashes and turn them into beauty, will rejoice over me with singing and has plans for me. Ellie. Those plans include prosperity and hope and a future? I'll take it!


But you know what? God can't work out the plans He has for me (or for you) if you don't surrender. Surrender my/your goals and ideas and dreams. They're just ashes, remember? How much better are God's plans for me or you than the loftiest imaginings we can think of?


Oh, sure, this prosperity might not be nice cars, fancy clothes, a huge, perfectly decorated house and exotic vacations. It might not mean comfort and plenty and security as the world defines those things. 


It will be my special path chosen just for me by the Creator of the Universe. The One whose beauty covers my ashes. The One who rejoices over me with singing. The One who has a plan for my life.


I surrender.




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Great Expectations

Funny how one of my resolutions for 2012 is to blog more consistently, yet here we are, a full week into the new year and I have yet to post something. Anything!


So yeah, whew, no where to go but up, right?


I'm not in a slump, there's just been a lot going on! I'm working on closet makeovers and hallway transformations and one. last. small(ish). project for our master bedroom. Which is only called that because the master of the house sleeps there. Yes, now I have a song in my head--don't you? 


No?


Ok then! I guess I'm the only one.


In case you were curious, it's "Master of the House" from Les Mis. You're welcome!


See, this post is developing much like my projects go! I get tired of having something on the to-do list and jump headlong into it when I'm not sure where I'm going or how it'll turn out. If I had taken the time to develop a mood board for, say, the nursery (which totally dominated my Top 11 of 2011--did you see that?!), I would have a final project that isn't even close to how it ended up! Oh yeah, so there would have been board and batten and a newly painted crib. Yup. That's it.


Moral of the story is, it's hard to get things done around here, because another one of my goals for 2012 is to enjoy my children more. You know that Bible text about God's mercies being new every morning? Yup. So is my resolve to actually DO some of my resolutions. Learning to balance projects and blogging and organizing (yet another goal) with making healthful-yet-yummy meals, endless amounts of laundry for this family of 5, and keeping up with the housework, taking time for myself so I can be the mommy I want to be... Yeah, good luck with that!


And another thing before I actually fit a picture or two into this post for all of you visuals like me--it's been really warm around here. It's January. In Iowa. It's supposed to be 10 below with several feet of snow on the ground (at least in the drifts) and a couple blizzards under our belts, but instead it was 50 on Friday and I took my kids to the park. 


What what?


Yes, the park. In January. Without a million layers of clothing and risk of frostbite in 15 minutes or less. We spent at least 45 minutes there. Weird! 


Not that I'm complaining, but usually it's so cold we have to stay holed up inside working on projects to keep us warm. And I'm off wasting spending quality time with my boys at the park. Go me! I get points for being a more in-the-moment mom, even though my blog has been neglected.


But you know what? As much as I love blogging and projects and DIY and pinterest, MY BOYS ARE MORE IMPORTANT. 


Ok! Not sure where that came from, but it's off my chest now. Thanks. 


And back on topic. Again. Yeah, goals and resolutions. You can go back in time to my What's Ahead for 2011 post from a year ago and review that real quick. 


I'm waiting! Go do it!


Just kidding, I don't really care. No, wait, I do care, cuz traffic is traffic and I totally want you to take the time to read something that I took the time to post! Hello, I'm High Maintenance, nice to meet you. 


Of the 11 lofty Great Expectations I listed last January, I completed a whopping 6. That's an D for my report card and I'm a teacher so I should know. But this is also real life and it has a way of bending and changing the rules. Not to mention that some of my goals turned into major undertakings! Besides, I beat myself up about the little things too much already, so here's to being kind to myself in 2012! 


Here are the goals in list form for all you stinkers who didn't take the time to go check. {wink}
1. Knock down a wall or two and install hardwood flooring. 
2. Complete a mini-makeover of the bathroom. 
3. Make bunk beds.
4. Paint the boys' room and move them in together.
5. Build a greenhouse.
6. Deliver a healthy, happy baby in May and find a chair for the nursery.
7. Refinish a free, beat-up, antique dresser and vanity.
8. Fix basement walls.
9. Set up an Etsy shop.
10. Install new doors in the hall and paint closets, trim and walls.
11. Celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.


To make myself feel better, I crossed off the ones I didn't get to. 


Also to make myself feel better, let's dwell on how several of these small undertakings morphed into giants, m-kay?


Goal #2: We worked on the bathroom mini-makeover last January and I love how it looks now! It was also one of my top 11 posts of 2011. Yay for bathrooms and simple updates!

Goal #3: My husband build some awesome beds for our boys! Thanks again, Ana White! There's a part 1 and a part 2 about those beds.

Goal #4: I did paint my boys' room. Not once, not twice, but three times. I started with some blues that you can see in the bunk bed part 2 post, added some stripes that I just couldn't get perfect, left it alone for 6 months and decided to switch the master and the boys' room, so I got to paint over those less-than-perfect blues and stripes to make it a soothing master retreat which is one small step for mankind from being finished so you can see it AND I got to paint over our old master bedroom to make it a fun boy space. I revealed the new boys' room here. 

But can I please say something here? And you promise not to hate me? 


I really feel that room deserves more love. 


I know, totally conceited. But still! I just love that room!!! At least as much as the nursery which got all the love in my Top 11 post.


Which leads me to Goal #6. Yes, in case you missed it (welcome, new followers! I love your guts!!!), our 3rd little guy was born in May, happy and healthy. If I were a cool blogger, I'd now be linking to posts about that, about him, about the new chairs I found for the living room (which are on the to-do list for 2012), and a million and six posts about the nursery. Needless to say, I did a little more to that room than simply finding a chair! Ok, fine, here's a link to the nursery tour. Pretty awesome, eh? See how things morph around here?

Speaking of popular posts, I completed Goal #7: Refinish dresser and vanity. Boy, did I ever! You can see them in the above nursery tour, or the before & after shots here.

Goal #11 was completed and the grumpy, annoying whine session I had about our Big Date fiasco has already faded into semi-hilarity. Maybe we'll take a cruise or something big for our 10-year. We'll see.

So. Where does that leave Beauty 4 Ashes for 2012? Well, the tentative, maybe, hopefully, WHO KNOWS if these'll happen but here are some vague ideas for 2012 list looks like this:


1. Finish the hall project.
2. Finish our master bedroom.
3. Makeover our pink wingbacks. 

4. Organize all 6 closets. (Which isn't totally fair, cuz 5 of them are already done--ha!)

5. Print pictures from 2010 and 2011. Might as well do 2012 while I'm at it.
6. Write and print a family recipe book with pictures.
7. Continue to edit the living room. (I love that I'm being so general! This might include knocking down that one wall and installing new flooring and getting a new couch and repainting and adding fun pillows and relocating the wood burning stove and more! Or not. And that's ok!)
8. Set up a place for this momma to get her craft on.
9. Set up an Esty store for Pete's sake already!!!
10. Work toward organizing the basement. (Ha! If I keep these vague they'll be easier to cross off the list!)
11. Do more organized crafts, projects, outings and preschool activities with J1 and J2.
12. Completely overhaul the kitchen. And I mean completely. But we'll see. Wouldn't want to set anything in stone and be a big fat failure, right?


{Did you notice the six other goals I've set for myself? All completely do-able of course. Ahem.}


Ah... The joy of writing up lists. 


You all saw the disclaimer, right? Because I'm fully expecting another 50-60% score on this list. 


Good thing Life isn't like school!

What's Ahead for 2011?

Are you into New Year's Resolutions? I'm not. 

In the days before a new year starts I do like to think about what's happened in the last year and what I'd like to see happen in the New Year. I guess I like to think of them as a giant to-do list rather than resolve.

So here goes, 11 goals for 2011!

1. Knock down a wall or two and install flooring like this:

Photo courtesy of The Shabby Chic Cottage

2. Complete a mini-makeover in the bathroom which involves this:

3. Make bunkbeds:

Reader photo from Ana White's blog

4. Paint the boys' room and move them in together. This means organizing their closets, new quilts from my MIL, and moving J2 from a crib to a bottom bunk.

5. Build a greenhouse like this one at my in-laws':

6. Deliver a happy, healthy baby in May! I'd like to find a cozy chair for the baby's room, and if by some remote chance we have a baby girl, there will definitely be some PINK additions to this room!

 7. Finish refinishing these:

8. Fix basement walls. We have brick walls that have a couple cracks that aren't exactly watertight. This involves some heavy machinery, digging to expose the walls, and pouring new concrete supports. When it's done we'll be able to landscape and take baby steps toward finishing the inside of the basement too!

9. Set up an Etsy shop. Sell things like this:

10. Install new doors and paint the closets, trim and walls in the hall.

11. Celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary!

Ok, fine, here are the more esoteric goals that are hard to cross off a to-do list! Be a better wife & Mommy; exercise; garden; study my Bible; eat more veggies; improve my blog; potty train J2; challenge J1 with crafts and activities; travel; spend less time online; organize the storage room; sing; go on long walks; figure out how to grocery shop with more children than I have hands; get rid of "stuff" we don't need; play with my kids; organize & print photos; try new recipes; read; take time for myself...

What are your goals for 2011?