We spent the day at the beach Monday. We planned for lots of rain, this is the Oregon Beach. We got the boys boots and Zarek a raincoat. There was actually only a little rain in the morning, when we went to ride the carousel and when we came out it was dry!

photo by blmurch

You can tell that I’m an old married lady because my idea of a perfect date is a date where my husband makes all the plans and I don’t have to make any decisions.

I would love to be brought flowers and make the date a surprise because that is always the best. But then let me have time to get all nice and dressed up too.

I would want to go out and eat, but somewhere we have never been or that we rarely go. I’m tired of going to the same place over and over.

And please no movie, because it seems that date nights for the last year and half have all been going to a movie. But I’m too old to go mini golfing. Maybe a nice walk in a moonlit garden. I once tried to arrange a date like this but it rained and ended up being expensive. But if this is a perfect date money does not matter.

I would hope that talk of little ones would be missing this night and that we could just enjoy each other’s company and learn a little more about each other and how things are going for each other since we don’t see each other as often as I would like.

And maybe we would end the night with a kiss and 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Ah, I miss sleep.

Part of the 30 day challenge

The following vlog is all about 5 tips I learned from last week, so if you are planning on a stay-cation now or in the future I hope this helps you out.

And here are some of the best photos from our trip:

I had a new baby boy and who can describe the joys of a new child in your life. It is amazing, he is amazing.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

We had a family crisis this year and that’s all I will say on it. But the second most challenging thing was my mother’s illness.

I have never been separated from my family before. We have always lived close by. And then as my mother got to her new home across the country she became gravely ill. It was such a struggle for me, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just fly across the country with my two little ones during the flu season. So I made the choice to stay home and correspond with my aunt. This was such a hard choice.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

Finding a new church home has been a great blessing this year. We have become members of the church. I have started making close friendships at the church. And I have even gotten to enjoy helping out in the children’s area.

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?

Being demoted at work to part-time has been a true obstacle but it turned into a blessing. The lack of money has been hard but having the extra time with my boys has been wonderful. And on top of that because I’m part-time my schedule has become more steady which is so much easier on both me and the boys.

5. Pick three words to describe 2009.

Faith, Love, Joy

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2009 (don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you).

Boys, struggle, Faith

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2009 (again, without asking).

Struggle, Faith, Boys

8. What were the best books you read this year?

The Bone Series, Wheel of Time: Knife of Dreams, The Ordinary Princess, The Jesus Storybook Bible

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

TJ, Wendi (my SIL), Andrea (my BF)

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

I’m not pregnant anymore, that’s pretty big. But on a serious note I’ve been working on my relationship with the Lord and have been growing closer to Him.

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?

I have made a point to take better care of myself. To not rely so much on others for my happiness.

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?

We have become members of a church, I have been going to Bible study regularly, and have been volunteering at church. I have also been trying to take time each day to read my Bible and pray, to have a quiet time with the Lord.

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?

Just last month I have started a new diet and have scheduled exercise into my week.

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?

I have made some great new friendships at church. Which was one of my goals this year. I have been wanting to gain some new christian friends.

15. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home?

Lesson time with Zane this year was one of my absolute favorite things this year. Though I don’t if you would count that as home management.

16. What was your most challenging area of home management?

All of home management but most of all housekeeping and laundry.

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

Probably surfing online and Facebook.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

Spending time with my boys and TJ. We made a point this year to spend more time together and to have more family time. This was one of the greatest things about this year.

19. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?

To put God first in your life and all things after.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2009 for you.

God is faithful.

Survey found a (In)Courage.

This may be cheating for My Place & Yours, because yes this technically is not a photo but a screen shot. But my secret weapon is my Google Calendar. I love my Google Calendar. No matter what system I try I always end up back at my Google Calendar.

Now the above image may look like a colorfully garbled image but there is a system to it. I can look at each calendar individually or I can have a few open to sync everyone in the household or I can have the whole thing open but that is a bit overwhelming.

But let’s dissect my Google Calendar I maybe you too will run out and get one.

Let’s start with a blank calendar:

This is what your calendar will look like with nothing on it. Okay, let’s start adding things. One nice thing about Google  Calendar is that you can sync to other calendars. Google offers multiple holiday calendars you can sync to your calendar. I can also sync Google Calendar with my favorite online to do list Remember the Milk.  (I have the phases of the moon on my calendar, though I can’t find how to add this option anymore.) Let’s add those options:

You will see a little blue check next to the date. If I click on that and it gives me a drop down of my  remember the milk to do list.

I also have a calendar for birthdays but I will not be showing that for privacy to others. I found that you can download your friend’s birthdays from Facebook and upload to your calendar. The application to do this is called Birthday iCal. Very nice feature.

I also have my church’s calendar synced to my calendar so when they have events I would like to attend I can just add it to my calendar.

Let’s add my personal calendar, which is purple because I like purple (you can choose the colors of your calendars from a list of colors). This calendar is where I put my appointments, my events I attend, or things we do as a family.

I keep my work schedule separate to make it easier to add my schedule to the calendar and to be able to find my shifts faster. You can add all day events which are the bold blocks of color or you can add time frames. One other nice feature is you can make things repeat. This month I am working every Monday 10-5:30 so I told the calendar to repeat this through the last Monday in the month.

I also keep my menu plan on my calendar. I love this, it makes it so much easier to plan meals, make a grocery list and link to recipes (in the notes). I learned to this from simplemom.

I also keep a calendar for my online work. Right now I have mainly just the meme’s I like to participate in, but hopefully that will change soon.

And now let’s add my boys calendars. I have a calendar for my husband and each of my boys. If your husband has his own Google Calendar you can just sync it to your calendar and that way you will know when he has plans with the guys or has to work.

My last calendar I have is our routine. I have set up one calendar so that it shows our daily routine so I can make quick reference to it to see what we are doing today.

And that brings us to my full schedule. Which isn’t actually complete for the month. I still need to add date night, family day and I want to add a cookie making party with my friends. But this will be easily scheduled now that I have my whole calendar in front of me. I hope that maybe you to will try out Google Calendar.

If you already use Google Calendar, are there any features that you love?

There are so many things I should be doing right now, but no I am busy making egg pigs. I saw them here and had to make them for Zane’s lunch!!! So this is going to be a boring post because one of the things I should be doing is working on a super interesting blog post for you to read.

Some of the million other things I should be doing. Cleaning my house before my mother in law comes over in the morning. Get ready to go to work tomorrow, find clothes and make my lunch. Work on my calendar for the holidays. Work on my Thankful Thursday posts. Work on an ad for my $2 custom Christmas photo card designs. Play Facebook games, I have people to put into my HomeInn and dishes to serve at my CafeWorld Cafe.

Ooo, eggs started boiling, BRB, have to turn burner down to simmer and turn the timer on 12min.

Other things I should be doing hmm, reading the blog posts in my google reader. Follow people on twitter. Add my photo card designs offer onto my design site, Uniquehorn Designs.

Make my Christmas gift list. Decide what kind of ornament I am going to make people this year. Make my presents for our friends. Push TJ on what he is going to make for our friends.  Decide on a gift for the neighbors to make.

Oh I’m supposed to be writing a monthly update letter about the boys and sending the pictures out of them for the month of October.  Loved the pictures I got this year.

So many things to do so little time and I am making pig eggs. LOL

I need to go cut noses and ears now. Sorry for the boring post but at least I posted for today. LOL

“Why am I the only one who says no to our child in this house?” That was the last question I had for my hubby as we hung up this evening (he calls every break from work).

TJ was worried when I told him how Zane ate his whole dinner including the blueberries this evening. TJ was worried how that may effect Zane’s diapers. It was only a few he will be fine.

Then TJ confessed Zane had gotten raisin bran again this morning. (We have experienced just recently that you should not give your two year old bran.) TJ said that Zane really wanted the purple cereal and wasn’t going to drop it. So TJ added a little to his cheerios.

How about saying no? Can’t we say “No, you cannot have raisin bran it makes your tummy not feel good”. Nope, only Mommy says no. Sigh.

The path went past a field that we were sure had been sold to a developer like most property in our area. But this morning there were cows in the field.

When they got home Zane came running up to me to tell me about the cows.

Zane: White
Me: Oh did you see white cows?
Zane: All white cows
TJ(in the background): Shakes his head
Me: Did the cows have black spots?
TJ: shakes his head
Zane: White Cows
Me: Were they brown? Brown Cows.
Zane: White Sheep
Me: Did you see white sheep too?
Zane: Yeah sheep
TJ: No there were no sheep

Our silly little boy has a very good imagination.