Tender

Today is Five-Minute Friday, in which The Gypsy Mama gives a writing prompt and bloggers write for the love of writing for five minutes. Then hit publish. Just write. Today’s prompt is “tender.”

“STOP!” I yelled across the room.

IDiddy just looked at me and smiled.

He knew exactly what he was doing.
Continue reading Tender

Our prayer for our boys

Me and my boys | Photo by Don Johnson @easttexasphoto

On Jan. 29th, our family will be taking part in a “baby dedication” within our faith community.

(I use quotation marks because our boys aren’t exactly babies anymore – they’ll be 15 months old on Jan 21.)

This isn’t an infant baptism or similar ceremony as some might be accustomed to, but it’s more of a commitment celebration for us as parents and our larger community to say that we will commit to fight for our children and work to teach them and lead them in the way of Christ.
Continue reading Our prayer for our boys

Awake

Soulman sleeping

Today is Five-Minute Friday, in which The Gypsy Mama gives a writing prompt and bloggers write for the love of writing for five minutes. Then hit publish. Just write. Today’s prompt is “awake.”

It was 4:54 am.

I know – because I checked.

I was awoken by a dream, or maybe it was just my internal clock setting in to my new goals for myself. Continue reading Awake

James Christopher IV

All grown up

Today is Five-Minute Friday, in which The Gypsy Mama gives a writing prompt and bloggers write for the love of writing for five minutes. Then hit publish. Just write. Today’s prompt is “roar.”

I kinda cheated… I ended up getting going and wrote for closer to 10 minutes.

There once was a young lion cub, whose name was James Christopher IV.

He was a brave and curious lion cub.
Continue reading James Christopher IV

In the year two-thousand (and twelve)

(Cue the Conan O’Brien music…)

It’s that time of year again, when we all look towards the future and try and avoid the mistakes of the past.

Laurie and I sat and talked about some of our goals for the year last night and for the sake of holding myself accountable — as dreams and goals come to mind, I like to share many of them on my blog.

We’ll hope they’re more than just good intentions – but instead, real changes in lifestyle that last year after year.

So here are a few of my goals for this year in no particular order…

  • Spend more time with My Life.
  • Spend more time with my boys (and less time worrying about my to-do list while they’re awake).
  • Spend more time with friends over coffee or a meal.
  • Pay off a large chunk of debt by year’s end.
  • Enjoy a special five-year anniversary excursion without adding to said debt.
  • Cook more – eat out less.
  • Eat less meat – eat more vegetables.
  • Buy (and grow) more fresh foods and avoid processed foods.
  • Start a vegetable garden.
  • Continue trying to make my own compost for said garden.
  • Continue walking/jogging at least 4 times a week.
  • Lose 20 more pounds. 10 pounds by Feb. 24th (my 33rd birthday).
  • Live the intentional challenge.
  • Blog/write more. I’ve gotten lapse in my blogging and writing this year. I want to do better – at least one quality post a week.
  • Read more (offline).
  • Read through the Bible again.

So those are my goals for 2012 as of Jan. 3.

A few other things I’d like to see happen but I’m not putting them down as “official goals” yet as they’re definitely not priorities and are each fairly time consuming….

  • Write a 2nd book.
  • Find new revenue streams (see large chunk of debt above).
  • Start another podcast (I have a few ideas floating in my head).
  • Etc. etc.

So what about you? What are your goals and dreams for 2012?