(That, btw Mom, stands for "Oh, my freaking gosh!")
Okay, kids.... like, as if DDR music didn't super exceed my expectations, I just found out that one of my favorite songs from DDR (30 Lives) is gonna be on "Cardio for Indie Rockers."
Yes, you heard right. Indie rock has actually entered the field of fitness. At first, I thought this was a joke. There's a review of it on The Onion, after all. But it's actually available for pre-purchase on Amazon. That is crazy.
I'm still trying to figure out if it's April Fool's day somewhere, cause this just seems weird to me.
I'm not sure this is gonna be a kid-friendly workout, so it may not make it into my library, but still.... c'mon.... how freakin' awesome is that?
So, I ordered DDR X for the family last month. Kinda a Christmas gift, kinda a way to actually save money by not having to join a gym. Whatever. It doesn't really matter, what matters is that this game ROCKS!
Seriously, I knew that I'd get some good cardio, and that it would be tons of fun, but I really never expected for it to have such good music. I'm not typically a club music fan. I mean, it has it's uses, and I really thought that DDR would be about the only good use for it. But I've actually found that I enjoy a lot of the songs just for their musical quality. And I've been pleasantly surprised that there are some fun songs that aren't all club-y.
Here's a playlist of some of our favorites. Great songs, great dances.
So, I was looking for a free e-card for my brother because I'm cheap, but I still wanted to show how very proud I am of him. Today is his 1-year sobriety anniversary.
As I looked for a card that said, "Congrats," I found 2 things that I annoyed me. One was that every single congrats card I looked at had alcohol on it. Champagne bottles graced them all. Nice. How in the world do you send that for a sobriety birthday?
Second, I found this gem. Can you believe that!!!! Congrats on finally getting divorced??? Ugh. What has this world come to? (Although, I have to admit that I did find it funny that both halves of the heart had men on them. Hmmmmm... what is that? Congrats on your gay divorce?)
Anyway, apparently, we can't celebrate without booze, and we're happy for divorce. Man...
A couple weeks ago, I post my New Year's Resolutions. These were, of course, a joke (even though that blood thing would really make my meals more appetizing). I usually don't believe in resolutions because I feel like they're usually just a way to feel like a failure.
But I also realize that there's value to writing down goals, so being inspired by my friend Misty's success and my Pastor Paul'scurrent sermon series, here's a look into what's on my heart for where I'd like to see my life going:
1. Continue to declutter my life. Sometimes, I look around and think "man... I have nothing left. I'm done. I've arrived at simplicity." Other times, I look at the messy living room and think, "For all the decluttering I do, how do we have so much junk!?!"
Decluttering, though, is also about time. Paul talked a couple of weeks ago about forming margin by being intentional to be "productive" at certain times so that we can have that relaxing time -- time to just be in the presence of God, to spend in relationship to our family, and to just not be always going.
2. Love my neighbors. This one was heavily inspired by hearing the vision Trey had for the church he's planting in Evansville. I probably never had much of a heart for serving my neighbors before that. I wanted to get to know them, but probably more because I wanted to know who lived near me so I could have someone to get my mail if I went out of town or something. But Trey talked a lot about the need for community that people have and that he wanted his church to be about loving neighborhoods. This sounded like something I could do. And something I wanted to do.
3. Give Generously. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul (the apostle, not my pastor!) writes about the generosity of the Macedonians. He writes that they gave above their means. This is compelling to me. Billy and I are doing the debt-free thing, and making good progress, and sometimes, it can get easy to get selfish about that... wanting to use all our money to pay off our van, instead of helping people out. We know that it's a good thing to pay off debt, but we also need to keep our heart attitude in check. Our reason for paying off debt is to be more free to give, and sometimes, that giving will need to happen before our debt is paid. I am praying that God will bless me with a giving heart this year.
4. Live in Community with Other Believers. According to Rick Warren (who probably knows) there are a million verses about "one another" in the New Testament. (Well, ok... I don't remember how many he said there are, but the point is there's a lot.) Community is so important to my own personal faith and to the body of Christ as a whole. So, Billy and I are excited to get plugged into a small group through church and be able to find people to weep with, and laugh with, to struggle with and support. We're willing to be vulnerable and open so that we can experience the fellowship of oneness that Christ wants for his Church.
5. Live a life that changes the one living it and the one looking at it. So, that's a tall order, but God is powerful. I'm trusting in Him to fulfill His promise to give me abundant life and to use me to draw others to Him.
For Christmas, a close friend of my mom's surprised my family with a box of presents shipped straight to our door. It was awesome. Ashlyn got a doll, I got a bread serving tray (which I used for my delicious Tastefully Simple Beer Bread - thanks, Jean!).
Those presents were great, but Eve really hit the jackpot with her gift. It's a vintage-y Better Homes and Gardens Jr. Cookbook... a new book that is an exact replica of the 1955 book. She was thrilled. I've been bringing her into the kitchen with me a little more often lately, anyway, so this gift gave us a great way to really help her learn to do things. In fact, she actually made our Christmas Eve meal, mostly on her own.
It took me a while to get things organized after the holidays, but here are some pix of what we feasted on December 24th.
With all my health talk lately, it's now time to splurge on the decadent.
Today was Billy's birthday, and I'm a fan of making birthdays as special as possible.
We started the day with a breakfast of pancakes and eggs, e-cards and blog posts.
Then... well, he had to go to work. There was really nothing I could do about that, but it worked to my benefit because I could make his cake without his knowing what was going into it.
See, Billy has happy memories of store-bought ice cream cakes. He's mentioned a couple times how he'd like that again. He's never suggested that my plain homemade cakes weren't good enough, but I know he'd really enjoy a good ole ice cream cake.
But man! Have you ever looked at the price of those things? Totally not in the budget.
So, today, while Billy was slaving away pulling cable. I was slaving away in the kitchen, making my first ice cream cake ever. And actually, it turned out WAY easier than I thought it would.
I started out with this recipe from Rachael Ray. But I did make a few modifications. For instance, I only had half a bag of chocolate chips, so I made do with half the ganache (which I actually thought was plenty). I also substituted cake crumbs for cookie crumbs, since I didn't want to waste the outer circles of the cake layers.
I also wanted my cake to be tall and round (that's more impressive, right!), so I cut my cakes to fit into a 2-qt sauce pan as the mold instead of a bread pan.
I will say that I highly recommend waiting at least the FULL 5 hours of freezing (and over night is probably preferable) before you invert the pan to remove the cake. I thought I'd be clever and ice the cake with a rich chocolate frosting after about 4 hours of freezing, but I ended up with a bit of a lopsided catastrophe. Quite un-ice-able. But delicious nonetheless.
I call it the Shabby Chic ice cream cake.
Needless to say... Billy was thoroughly impressed and raved about the cake.
Today is Billy's 30th birthday. In his honor, I thought I'd list 30 reasons I love him.
Here we go....
1. He always compliments my cooking. 2. He likes good music. 3. He has lots of passion, whether it's focused toward God or binary math. 4. He talks my ear off every morning. Not many women can say that about their man. 5. He takes faith seriously. 6. One word -- Mohawk.
7. He tells me my touch is electrifying. 8. He's never referred to Eve as his step-daughter. 9. He works out with me. 10. #3 t4ug#&t /\/\3 1337 11. He is committed. 12. He balances faith and plans. 13. He dreams. 14. He has a tattoo. 15. He thinks I'm the most fun person he knows. 16. He's the most fun person I know. 17. He rocks.
18. He cares about the lost. 19. He's really, really, really smart. 20. He goes to work every day to support us. 21. And he appreciates what I do at home. 22. He spends his blow money on me. 23. He's intense. 24. He can't remember dates. 25. Happy family memories are important to him.
26. He calls when he's going to be late. 27. He listens to my heart. 28. He seeks wise counsel. 29. He tells me I'm beauty, even before I fix my hair. 30. He's mine!
So, it's no secret that Billy and I have been doing the Dave Ramsey thing for a few months now. And honestly, it's been easier than either of us thought it would be. It's actually probably contributed to the health of our marriage. We've learned to resolve conflicts and to work toward a common goal. But what I'm most excited about today is the sweatshirt that Dave Ramsey bought for me.
Well, alright... but whatever. Like it's been FOREVER since I actually bought any clothes, mainly because there was always something better to do with the money. There was stuff like, you know, dish soap and milk, or toilet paper and TVP. The point is that new clothes are a rare thing at the Chia place.
But now... well, see, now we are really kickin it, cause I actually have "blow" money. Because we're budgeting every dollar on paper, on purpose before the month starts, we suddenly found that we can afford what we need to on our income. Imagine that!
The result of this, though, is that I get to actually keep gift money that I get. So, my Christmas money was actually MY CHIRSTMAS MONEY! Yeah... I know... novel concept, but last year, I felt guilty to spend that money on myself. This year, I proudly wear my Kermit skull sweatshirt (which, by the way, I got on clearance for $8.00, in case anyone's counting.)
Because I know most people do. Uh, that was sarcasm.
I know you don't feel like puking, but still, check out SparkPeople.com's 11 worst foods of 2008. It is pretty disgusting. Like... not as in pig brain sandwich disgusting, but like oh my gosh that looks so incredibly good, but look how bad it is for me disgusting.
Lately, I've been intentionally trying to lose some weight. After Ashlyn was born, my 6-week check up showed I was still about 40 pounds heavier than I had been pre-pregnancy. In the last 2 years, I've shed 20 of those pounds with little effort.
I'm just a healthy eater and I don't mind parking far away from the stores, so it has slowly worked its way off. But I'm kinda tired of the "slowly" part of it, and I thought... wouldn't it be nice to be at my goal weight by my... ahem... 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday?
So, by April 5th, I'd like to lose those remaining 20 pounds. I've already lost 3 in the last 3 weeks, so I'm on track to do it.
But anyway, I've learned a little about how much energy my body uses, how many calories I need to consume to maintain weight, and how many I need to lose weight. I've been keeping pretty good at 1200 calories a day.
Some of these foods are at 1200 calories a freakin' SERVING! That, my friends, is just disgusting.
Oh, yeah... and if you'd like to join SparkPeople's 100% free community, please click through the button on my sidebar to let them know I sent you!
I love simplicity. Let me just start there. And really, if I were the bragging type, I would go on to say that I was way ahead of the curve on this whole trend.
Actually, I'm way ahead of the curve on lots of trends. Remember that whole "hair chunking" thing? Yeah... like all the sorority girls had that when I was in college. Dude... I totally did that when I was in high school. Except I never actually thought it was cool, I thought it was a bit extreme, and that no one would ever actually pick up on it. Because I was alternative, see. So, my hairstyle was a little crazy out there. Then, somehow, it got cool. But of course, I was past it by then.
And honestly, I'm kinda done with simplicity, too. Like, not really. But kinda.
Let me explain...
I was toting simplicity WAY back in 2004 when I signed up for (*cringe*) eHarmony. The profile asked me what was one thing I was passionate about, and that was it. Simplicity.
And I still am, but I'm find that as it's becoming a trend, it's also becoming contrived.
The Bible says that it's the heart of the matter that really matters. (That's my paraphrase, but there's all kinds of evidence for it.) It's what's in a heart that will eventually manifest itself in a person's life. So it goes with simplicity.
There are things that we can do to simplify our lives and they bring real relief to an over-scheduled, cluttery existence. But as I've walked this journey for years in the direction of simplicity, I've found that the goal can itself become a clutter in my mind and heart. The goal can raise questions and create burdens to wrestle with. It can stir me and stretch me in healthy ways; it can condemn me and guilt trip me in ways that hinder my progress and push me further away from truly living simple.
One of my favorite bands ever is MxPx. When I was in college I listened to them a lot, saw a couple of shows. And a song that currently comes to mind is "Tomorrow's Another Day." The lyrics that hit me hard go like this:
"There's nothing quite like being sure of what's inside your heart/It's mostly simple, but not so easy to know just where to start."
See, I think that when anything becomes a trendy thing, it becomes really easy to just do it because you want to fit in, or because you're supposed to. I'm not into that.
Galatians 5 in the Bible starts out in a funny way.
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
It seems pretty - uh... duh.... - that being freed means we have freedom. But somehow we always want to put restraints on ourselves.
And sometimes for me, those restraints come in the form of feeling like I'm failing because I'm not downsizing fast enough. I didn't find my 15 minutes to declutter today, and now I'm a slave to that guilt. I kinda want to keep this paper and that knick knack.... even if I don't absolutely love them. And that breaks the rules.
Sometimes, I feel like I'll always be too complicated as long as I'm in America. After all, the simple life of America is far more complicated and overrun by technology and distracted by activities than anything they have in 3rd world Africa.
But you know what? I'm finding out that that's okay.
My heart is that I want to live my life in a frugal way, a simple way, and above all a godly way. And in that, I'm not accepting that simple looks like a certain thing. I'm not beating myself up because I don't have it all together and there's more than could be eliminated. I'm happy with where I am, even while I'm happy to journey a little farther.
What simple looks like for me is an honest life of what I love and what I'm called to. And I beg God to never let that look like raising chicken and milking cows on a farm where I take baths in a metal washtub.
So, I guess all the bloggers are posting resolutions for the year. Here are my top 4.
Parental: Teach Ashlyn to let me go to the bathroom by myself.
Physical: Figure out why Native American War dances haven't gotten as trendy an exercise as Yoga routines. (Hello... have you seen those! Talk about intense cardio!) If I have time, I will then attempt to convince the world that they should be.
Domestical: Learn to cook meat without getting the grossy cooked blood gook all over it. Seriously. Does anyone know how to do this? I have watched A LOT of cooking shows and this has never come up. Not once.
Marriagal: Kick Billy's butt at DDR. There's nothing better for a marriage than competition, from what I hear.
(If you don't know those last two categories, then you totally need to get out more.)
Okay, kids.... like, as if DDR music didn't super exceed my expectations, I just found out that one of my favorite songs from DDR (30 Lives) is gonna be on "Cardio for Indie Rockers."
