For his dedication to non-violence in situations where violence prevailed …

For his dedication to seeing marginalized individuals – the blacks and the poor – elevated to a place of equality …

For the dream he dreamed for all Americans, which we have not yet seen fully realized …

we owe a great debt of gratitude to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy birthday, Dr. King.

• Eat better / Cook more. There’s a scientific way to measure this, I suppose, but I have not done such a study. So in a very UN-scientific manner, Kyle and I agree that this one was met. I wanted to cut out the majority of processed foods, and I have done that. (Thank you to Trader Joe’s for coming to our area and helping me to meet this goal in a cost-efficient manner.)
• Read more books. Well, in a sense, I have certainly been reading more lately. But not in the way this resolution was intended. Ivalee looooves reading books, and she loves to read the same books over and over again. So I’ve read a lot of books intended for the 2-6 year range.

  But … I’m going to say that I failed on this one. I read zero complete books this year. (Is that even possible?! I guess so. :hangs head in shame:) I have started three and they are all still on my bedside table, filed under “I’ll get to it one day.”

  BUT, I have discovered audiobooks. And I LISTENED to Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”. I’m still not quite done with it yet, but it’s hilarious and I’ve enjoyed it a lot so far. And I can listen to audiobooks and knit at the same time. Which brings us to …

• Knit more. Check, and CHECK! I have added a link to my ravelry page in the bar to the left. Check it out if you’re curious to see the exhaustive list. I didn’t make a project listing for every single project I completed this year, but I did for most of them. And, for professional crafters, I’m sure my list for the year is comparable to their list for, like, a month. But I’m quite pleased with my progress, given that it’s “just a hobby”.

I made ten or eleven hats from this pattern this year. I’ve sold several and given a few away as gifts. They’re beautiful and work up pretty quickly.

I made five ribbed beanies …

… four knitted slouch hats …

… three knitted monsters …

… and this Owl Beanie for Riley. And several other things. And that is all much, much more than I thought I’d be able to do. So … WIN!

• Make time for more Me Time. Even when I wrote this, I knew I sounded / was being very selfish. My justification for the matter was that (Boys Beware: I’m about to mention something related to boobs.) I nursed Ivalee for 16 months and she weaned herself on January 1. This wasn’t something I planned. It just happened. And when it did, it was a little bit like, “Whoa!! I don’t have a baby-baby any more! FREEEEEDOOOOMMMMM!!!” (Insert note here about how that was the best thing for her as a young one and I would do it again / WILL do it again if we are blessed to have more children in the future. Continuing on … )

  This year, Kyle allowed me several occasions to carve out some Me Time and I am so grateful to have had those moments. We have alternating “Nights Off” on Thursday evenings. For me, these turn into Coffee Nights with the Girls. Nights in the bed with a knitting project and a movie. Just a night off from having to do the dishes, and going to bed early. This has turned out to be very beneficial for my mental health.

  And Ivalee has really enjoyed spending some overnight time with her grandparents this year on a few occasions. One weekend in particular, her Dee Dee (Kyle’s mom) came to visit and when she was leaving, Ivalee was having none of it. So Dee Dee took her home with her for the night. Kyle had a band thing going on that night, so I packed up my iPhone/ear buds and went to Starbucks with a free coffee coupon a friend had given me. I sat and knitted for hours. Glorious hours of nothingness. (Amanda, you couldn’t have known how MUCH I would enjoy that free coffee coupon when you casually said, “Hey, I’ve got this thing. You want it?” that night at church.)

  Another major element of this is carving out some US time for me and Kyle.  We’ve had a couple of memorable date nights this year and even spent two nights in Columbia back in June at a conference. We got to spend two nights in a cushy hotel, enjoy a surprisingly delicious dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Kyle had eaten at once before, two great breakfasts at the hotel, and just … get away.  We’ve spent a few weekends in Greenville with our buddies.

Ok, so … I feel a little encouraged based on this evaluation. 2011 was a bit of a downer in a lot of ways. But it’s had some high-notes. And 2012 is looking up. I’m feeling hopeful and I like a fresh-start. So here’s hoping …

And now let’s consider Ivalee. And how VERY MUCH like her mother she is.

One thing I’ve had to work on in my adult life is how I handle stress. How I respond to certain ‘triggers’ is only perfected with practice and learned self-control. And, at two years old, I’m already having to work on coaching her through those things. I know it’s only just beginning, but I guess I’m just surprised that it’s started so soon.

Last night, Ivalee was playing with her kitchen set in her room. She was “cooking coffee for Mommy” and became aggravated when she couldn’t get the pot lid to sit on top of the pot just so. (Yes, we cook coffee in a pot on the stovetop around here. Not true, but in Pretend Land anything goes.) She brought the pot to me and said, “It not fits, Mommy.” So I set it on there and showed her that it fits just fine. She seemed satisfied and took it back to her kitchen.

A few minutes later, I heard her getting frustrated again, so I started back to her room to help her out. By the time I got to her room, she was in full-on melt-down mode, slamming the lid into the pot repeatedly and yelling, “It not fits!! I gotta cook something! I gotta cook something!”

Oh. My. Goodness. I had to laugh. How many times have I reacted in very similar fits and just because one element was beyond my control, the whole thing was wrong? Somewhere, something or someone is conspiring against me. EVERYTHING IS GOING WRONG! WHY CAN’T THE POT LID JUST FIT!?!?

I tried to help her redirect her attention somewhere else – it was clear that kitchen playing was just too much for her at that moment. She was having none of it. She wouldn’t be distracted or placated. She needed to be forcibly removed from the situation for a “calm down” period.

I put her on the couch for two minutes. And that was just the ticket. At 1 minute, 45 seconds, she finally stopped crying and started breathing normally. So when the timer went off and I went to get her from the couch, she said, “I don’t wanna cook something.”

Perspective. What a great gift that a couple minutes of separation can give you.

When Kyle came home last night I told him, “Man, I pity you in about 10 years. There will be TWO OF US in this house — two who are big enough to give you nightmares.”

3. Find a Chili recipe that Kyle will eat. I knew this was going to be impossible. I was right. But I found a new soup recipe that he liked (here) and so I’ll call that a win.

4. Make and install a shelf over the bathroom door. Haven’t done this yet.

5. Reorganize my bedroom closet. I cleaned out and reorganized the top shelf. But that’s not the end product that I desire. So … this isn’t done. But I have ideas. Ideas that cost money. So … eventually. (On a related note: Why is there no IKEA in Charleston?)

7-9. Successfully can applesauce, apple butter, and apple jelly. I made applesauce and froze it. I tried to make jelly, but realized half-way into the process that I didn’t have nearly enough sugar. Fail. And the apples all “mysteriously disappeared” before I tried the apple butter.

11. Potty Train a Toddler. CHECK!! (more coming later)

12. Read ‘The Help’. My mother-in-law is finishing her copy and I’m going to borrow hers. Haven’t read it yet, for this reason.

13. Finish reading two books from my nightstand. Did you know that at some point in the ten weeks I allotted for completing these projects that I started a crafting business? (Am I crazy? Yes.) So all my reading free time has turned into knitting free time. So … that’s my excuse.

14. Paint the built-ins. There’s still a piece of wood that we have to purchase and attach before painting the built-ins. That hasn’t happened yet. One day soon.

15. Ride my bike at least twice a week. I did great at this for about three weeks. But then I found a walking partner and I walked instead of bike-riding. And since the point was to just “get off your lazy butt and do something”, I decided that counted. So … win.

16.  Make a new local friend. check. The end.

18. Make curtains for my bedroom. I’m attaching this project to the bedroom closet reorganization since the curtains on the windows should match the curtain-doors on the closet. So … not done, but it’s still on the priority list.

21. Make an advent calendar for Ivalee and the family. May plan is to get 24 Christmas or winter-themed books and wrapping them up so she can open one every night before bedtime. I have almost all of them, but I want to get copies of The Polar Express and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and a couple of other “classics” to add to the mix. Mark this one “in progress”.

22.  Master homemade buttermilk biscuits. Become famous for them. I’ve MADE buttermilk biscuits a couple of times. They’re nothing to write home about yet, and I’m certainly not famous for them. Bummer.

24. Build a clothesline. Didn’t happen. I’ll move that to my spring list, since it’s finally cool enough that I won’t use a clothesline for a few months anyway.

27. Paint my knife block. This should’ve been one of the easiest projects to complete. But it still hasn’t happened. I’m having color commitment issues. Silly.

29. Make pretzels. Soft ones. I found a recipe. I bought the ingredients. And that’s as far as I got. Oops.

30. Brainstorm ideas for a children’s story. This is high on the list of Things To Finish. More details to emerge at a later date.

It happened.

Did I love it? Not even a little bit.

Will I do it again? Most certainly.

I am … how do you say?

OUTTA SHAPE!

We downloaded the C25K app on our phones (Kyle and I). We laced up. Dropped Iva off at my parents’. And off we went.

Major lesson learned: Good running shoes are important to have. Shin splints are not fun to have. Will be making that investment ASAP.

Nevertheless … check. It’s off The List.

I’ve had supplies for caramel-making on hand for a couple of weeks now. At some point, though, I developed a block about how to go about making them. And the more reading I did, the more confused I got.

I had always thought that conventional wisdom was that you don’t stir caramels when they’re cooking – something I picked up from some cooking show along the way, I’m sure. But the best-looking/sounding recipes I found all strongly advocated for frequent stirring. I gave up my preconceived notions and ‘conventional wisdom’ and had great success with the recipe and tips I found here: http://www.giverslog.com/?p=3168

Are you all, like me, realizing this list isn’t dwindling fast enough? hehe.

And that goal is a moot point now because my friend Cassie BROUGHT ME A NEW ONE all the way from Kentucky! Sweet, sweet girl! She had access to a free one and snagged it on my behalf. So … check!! AWESOME!

And speaking of Cassie … have you heard her great news?! I shouted it on facebook last Friday with lots and lots of exclamation points. Her son Sam (photo to the left) has been going through cancer treatments for … too many months. (He was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at four months old.) He has completed his treatment and had some scans on Friday to determine if the ‘spots’ that remain on his liver were still active or not.

They’re NOT! There is no more active disease in Sam’s body! None! She tells the story better than I do.

Please keep praying for Sam’s continued health. He’ll have scans again in three months.

I cheated and had my mom help with a few of the roses. I feel no guilt about that at all!

Emily will be adding these to her bride/bridesmaids bouquets for her wedding next month. She’s making other fabric flowers as well, and so these are just a small part of what will be a beautiful finished product. I cannot wait to see it all together!

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And my pictures aren’t NEARLY as pretty as those that made the inspiration so inspiring, but these are delicious and easy! I made them last Tuesday night to take to my small group on Wednesday night and … the recipe was easy and the cupcakes were delicious.

A cuter (and more eager) kitchen helper cannot be found!

This picture is bad. It makes the cupcake look flatter than it really was. I just didn't pull the wrapper down far enough to illustrate.

Whipped Cream! I did it!

And when my sister-in-law found out (by reading my list) that I’d never whipped my own cream she texted me and said, “You will never go back! It’s easy and so much better than the store-bought stuff.”

I believe!

Ok … check  and check! I’ve still got a lot to do, y’all!