Currently...T'was the night before School re-starts

It's been GREAT! 

I LOVE Winter Break.

I feel rested, relaxed, refreshed, fat and fluffy.

Listening:  To football! I adore football and basketball season. My U of A Wildcats won yesterday in college basketball and today is football WildCard Weekend....I am in sports heaven. Having the games on in the background was a great accompaniment while I cleaned and sorted yesterday and now today it's fun to blog, email and plan while my football boys duke it out on the field. I am definitely the sports geek in the family and I LOVE the big TV for my games. Bring it on baby.

Eating:  Too much!! I need to go back to work to get my healthy eating habits back. I think I made it a personal commitment to not deny myself anything this Winter Break. Man was that a delicious but bad idea! What did I get for Christmas?!?!
 #@*&%$^# pounds!!! I am relieved to be back in command. So...here's to my good health! (Walk away from the Cheetos, lady....)

Loving:  A new Yoga class. My new books. My organized work shelf. Tidy files. A clean slate - in more ways than one.

Reading:  The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough for Book Group this week. I was reading another book last night but after some pretty wild nightmares 2 times in the night I have decided to set that one aside for a bit. To be bluntly honest my heart can't handle tragedy and children...

Feeling: Quiet and content. I went to a therapeutic yoga class this last week and just got a different perspective on looking at things. It was awesome. I also just have a sense of still and acceptance that feels nice today. I will most likely feel different when 4:45 am comes tomorrow morning but for a change it feels cool to be ready for a new semester. Maybe having some ideas of changes I want to make in me makes a difference too. Nice.

Watching: Castle,Person of Interest,Jack Reacher,Les Miserables. Wow, oh wow! Jack Reacher was a fun and wild ride. Rich loved it and has been reading book after book since the movie. I laughed when we attended the movie over break as it was a 10:1 ratio of men to women. what a crack up.You had to be between 20-60 years old too. It was so fun to see the author of the series in a cameo role in the movie. I think I was one of the only people who noticed who he was but it sure made me smile. On a very different tone, I was in Les Mis heaven from start to finish at the movies on Friday afternoon. I promised myself I would not sing (too loud!) and I kept that promise. It's a good thing I didn't promise myself that I would not cry. I did. Buckets! Les Miserables has been my favorite of books for several years now. My favorite musical for even longer (okay, Wicked is climbing that ladder too..) but seeing the raw emotion and the stunning effects I truly came away with such a sense of redemption. A sense of awareness of how we can overcome the natural man and become better people. Rich and I have talked about it for days. Was it perfect? There were a few weak roles but it will certainly be MY vote for movie of the decade. (Too weird to read a vehement bashing of it by a good friend on Facebook this weekend. I wondered if she had really been to the same movie. Hmmm) Wow, that was a soapbox.

Wanting: A job for my husband. I haven't written about this hard thing in our lives but I decided to just lay it out there and put it in print. He is so amazingly positive and sees this as an adventure and has just begun to appear to show a little ...dare I say, doubt?!? Being unemployed after a certain age is not nearly as much 'fun'! Being the only 'employed' member of the family feels weird. I am grateful for my job and the security that I have. I am just wanting one for Rich too. That's all.

Thinking: How cool it was to hear from 4 of my 5 kiddos yesterday. I had a great talk with 3 of my boys and Jennie and I had a texting marathon of sorts. Love it. My kiddos are pretty darn incredible. I also feel so blessed to have gotten to watch little Tinsley over the break. Cuddling, cradling and rocking a baby has the best benefits. You get to think and relax too. It was amazing. 

This Week: Report cards, Book Group (Yeah!)Dinner with the in-laws, dinner with J&K, date night, seeing my work friends again,writing my resolutions down (in cement?!) planning a church lesson for next week and writing more thank you notes! The week sounds great. 

Wow, there is nothing like a great Winter Break to have me feel so relaxed and ready. Can we do this again???