IndianaJane'sJournal

• The new year's news
  My exciting new year's news is that I am going to be a grandma. All else pales in comparison.
  
  
• What a year!
  This time last year: We knew a transfer for Colin would be coming, but not the timing. Evan and Bethany had been dating for almost two months. He had spent Christmas at our house and she was in Wisconsin meeting his family. Colin and I drove up to Wisconsin to bring her back. We met Evan's parents over lunch at Buca di Beppo on New Year's Day. We lived in the same house we'd been in for almost
  
  
• Five Cheese Egg Casserole
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• Early New Year's Resolutions
  I've spent some time this evening lining up my reading challenges for 2012. It's made me start thinking about my plans for 2012 and I've got a few resolutions. In 2012 I will: --Swim in my pool. --Read more books. --Plant a garden and enjoy the harvest. --Go on a vacation. --Not tear out any walls. --Enjoy the occasional Saturday with the hubby. I also have no intention of moving or planning
  
  
• The best thing since. . .
  Well, I don't know what. But something for sure. Pinterest. Just the name makes me want to go paint something. Or buy something cute. Or at least find a picture of something cute. So if you're playing there, come find me.
  
  
• It worked with my kids
  Right now I'm really struggling to like some people that I love. And I'm disappointed with some people that I like. This isn't anything new. It happens with jarring regularity. I am so tired of grown adults behaving like children. Or even worse, like junior high students. I'm so tired of snide comments and pot-stirring. Of extreme comments begetting more extreme responses. Of plain-old,
  
  
• I want a cookie
  I've been doing really well avoiding sweets and refined carbs most of the time for the past year. I did it for my health, but it's had the happy side effect of a 20 pound weight loss. I'll take it! Most of the time I'm satisfied with the way I eat, but all it takes is one weekend in a bed and breakfast--with cookies and orange-almond french toast--to turn me into a cookie-craving, m&m devouring
  
  
• Costs of disorganization
  I keep finding myself paying the price, financial and otherwise, for being chaotically disorganized. I've had to pay late fees on bills frequently during the past six months. I just paid $26 extra dollars to sign my son up for the SAT. Yesterday it was $32 in library fines. I lose hours each week just searching for things. We aren't eating as well as we could be. The problem is that I need some
  
  
• You just have to laugh
  I discovered something this weekend while I was scrapbooking. There is something very therapeutic about making a nice layout with beautiful paper for pictures of stressful events. Very few people knew how hard this summer was for me. There were all kinds of stresses, but chief among them were the constant negative surprises with our new house. Each new discovery added to the financial, time, and
  
  
• Sometimes stuff happens
  Things get lost. I didn't manage to blog Thursday night because I couldn't find the tote with most of my scrapbooking tools and I lost a couple of hours of my packing time looking for them. My 18-year-old son found them, but only after I had already searched frantically. There's no internet access. Friday and Saturday I was at the retreat. There was supposed to be internet access at the camp,