boudoir black is good as gold

i ordered my first new pair of glasses in almost 10 years this month. i took the plunge and ordered them online. i screwed it up and ordered the opposite of my prescription and ended up with glasses for a far sighted person and i am very near sighted.  

i guess i'm more vain than i thought because i couldn't even muster a joking smile for a full 24 hours after these glasses came in the mail. i already dress like a weirdo. i love hair scarves. plus my hair is naturally puffy. i can see the future on occasion. and people think i'm a british witch all the time. what is the universe telling me?

i am professor trelawney! thomas couldn't stop calling me that and laughing and i felt like stabbing him many times in the nose with my magic wand so that he would end up like voldemort. needless to say, i reordered a pair with my proper prescription post haste.

 last weekend, thomas and i painted the dining room! good bye puke country green walls! i hardly knew thee and i don't miss you one iota. 

one room down, all the rest to go!

boudoir black by behr. i love love love it. dark paint is the only drama i want in my life. next, thomas and i need to agree on a light fixture. i'm leaning toward a couple of really colorful abstract paintings for the biggest wall. 

athena blythe has come to terms with wearing pigtails. she's still not a fan, but when everyone exclaims what a living doll she is, she can't help but preen. 

the year i started filling in my brows and other developments

resolutions update:

running: running went well last year during the summer and especially during the fall but i couldn't figure out a half marathon that would work for my schedule. so, there's that. mileage goals met but no official half marathons. just a christmas 5k.  

small choices mean a different direction with a huge impact: 

these people read the the book of mormon as a family. we set the goal. we read a little every day. we did it. and now we're going to do it again. and then again. it wasn't easy but it also wasn't hard, like anything worth doing. our family is stronger and i'm grateful for my kids who made sure were kept going. do you want answers and to feel the Spirit and to have a chance to really talk scriptures with your children? make this your goal this year.

Book of Mormon finishers!

weightlifting:

i was nowhere near where i'd hoped to be on squats, but i was consistent and learned a ton(punny) about form and ability and embracing beautiful, thick thighs. currently at 115x10. squat goal for the year: 135x10. 

i ate zero potato chips. feel free to roll your eyes but that's an accomplishment.

no junk january- check. no fun but neccessary and worth it. 

i never went to bed at 10:30 unless i was sick. it's  11:19 right now and i know where i should be but here i am. here i am.

said yes to being fun yet i was still punished with a lot of errant poop. sometimes from the kids.

i said no to a lot of people wanting me to do things. it felt great. i said yes to enough things too.

one development that was not a resolution but a happy accident was my attempt at slowing down on my makeup application. splitting the atom is next. i watched a bunch of youtube videos about makeup whilst prego with hersch and i just kept trying to hone my craft. this year i ventured in filling my brows without looking like tom selleck's mustache took up residence on my forehead. (but could you imagine how lucky i would be if that did happen?!)

no dead caterpillar or sharp 90 degree angle math equation rectangles. just a nice filled brow thanks to an angled brush and youtube.

this years goals include a lot of the same. 

1. no junk january

2. no PIRATE'S BOOTY. which is a pretty big deal for me but i'm dealing with a pretty serious addiction that needs to be nipped in the bud. there is no vape equivalent for pirate's booty.

3. make it lovely-i have a dear friend, shalynna, and everything she touches is beautiful. she really inspired me because she has no interest in being a pinterest sensation, she does it because she likes to show her children she loves them by doing beautiful things for them. i'm not a perfectionist at all so it makes my desire to make things perfect is really low, however, i'm hoping to make sure i plan enough for activities and occasions to make my kids feel special. everyone wants a bit of fuss and to feel special. i know i do. i'd like a lot of fuss, in fact. 

4. universal forgiveness- no grudges, no gracias. i can finally go back to academy sports and outdoors. i forgive them for treating me so shabbily 4 years ago. plus, i'm acting like everyone has forgiven me for all the dumb things i do on the regular. i had this epiphany a few weeks ago that i needed to slough off all the grudge and annoyance baggage that i carry around. i realize this will be something i have to start over again and again, but i have to shower every day and that's no big deal so figure i'll treat it the same. just keep trying.

5. 2 half marathons

6. read book the mormon as family again

7.1030 bed time. a girl can dream. hopefully!

a nutella sinus infection christmas, lyrics by dolly parton

so many activities from year to year are identical at the holidays. riveting concerts of transcendent musical talent, sugar-laden school parties, and lots of christmas movie watching. 

even athena blythe was yawning through her concert. she was super cute, but we all know we're there for our 5 minute act and not the 47 minutes of pre-school drivel of the kids we're not related to. 

this is reagan's favorite friend at school. her name is sarah d. and reagan says, "sometimes she just wants her quiet time and doesn't want to talk to me. but she still likes me." undaunted. 

i didn't yell more than once about this broken vase from our wedding. got it out and then i felt better then i cleaned it up. one loud feral cat in the alley screech and all was good again.

i ran a 5k christmas eve morning and when to my wandering eye should appear, this grown man dressed EXACTLY like reagan. reagan in 15 years. 

reagan even sported a very similar pair of shoes a few years ago.

Georgia Man was greeting race finishers with his sidekick, little hersch. i think he liked me best. i didn't see him tongue kissing anyone else. he said it was a prize for the 115th finisher, but that seems pretty specific. 

my mom is the best person to have at a finish line. she makes you feel like you just beat ivan drago in rocky 4. i saved america and democracy!

my brother in law, dan, works in the grocery industry and gets the best samples. and he brought them to my house and i didn't talk to anyone else for the duration of the visit. it's good that my family is good at deciphering closed mouth grunts and pointing. no one came between me and my friend nut-ella. he was a better tongue kisser than Georgia Man.

possibly the cutest picture ever of my kids wearing their pajamas. 



possibly the cutest picture of cousin gwen wearing a bear beanie on christmas morning. it says, she's tough, but also likes to cuddle.

scarlett seemed a bit disappointed with her gifts because we got her exactly what she asked for. and that's no fun. i'll have to remember to have a few more tricks up my sleeve next year. 

reagan was super easy this year. normally, he's a bit of a puzzle but green sneaks and queen stuff.

despite the gifting extravaganza just a few days prior, today athena blythe and scarlett spent a good portion of the morning hiding an old box of plastic easter eggs around the house. glad i went to so much trouble to make all their dreams come true.

just the best, nicest little family. 

and an okay family with medium niceness

something special with these two

this is my favorite picture we took with grandma and her east coast grandbabies. hath a greater family action photo been wrought?

photo dumping:

being the cynical jerk that i am, i don't get too choked up by celebrity deaths. i don't know any celebrities except for my sister who went on a date with donny osmond's son, 10 years ago. but princess leia is kind of a special case, so we watched a lot of star wars movies and did our hair in cinnamon buns for multiple days after hearing of carrie fisher's death. next week on the agenda is a family viewing of the 'burbs, carrie fishers most underrated role. 

 "i want to kill everyone. satan is good, satan is our pal." 

it's a movie quote, not a lifestyle.

 and of course, singin' in the rain is in the plans for too. we're supposed to get "snow" (which means moisture but will be treated as a blizzard because we have zero snowplows here) in georgia so it's the perfect weekend to watch movies.

my body was just waiting for christmas break to get sick so our fun christmas break activities have been limited. i get drunk on dayquil so i can't even drive very far but we made it to our favorite bakery, special kneads. 

sharing a chair and eating bang bang chicken

light reading, plus a topknot. 

thomas, being the ultimate surpriser, brought home a ping pong set for our kitchen table. between illnesses and eating leftovers, this has been quite the highlight.  

and i've already acquired one of the kid's stocking stuffer headlamps for my own personal use.

because there is something really great about reading a printed book. no offense to my faithful kindle.