Lifestyle Goals for 2010

Welcome 2010!

New Year's resolutions never really seem to stick. So instead of resolutions, this year I'm writing down some lifestyle goals I feel compelled to incorporate into my life.

Jenny's Lifestyle Goals for 2010:
* Write. Without concern for convention or usefulness. Just because I like it.
* Submit small articles to magazines. Who knows?
* Potty train Selah Grace before her baby brother arrives.
* Be active. (The recent adoption of Wii into our home has already bumped this up.)
* Balance being a wife/mom/friend/etc and extend grace to myself when I can't seem to find the balance.

Nate's Lifestyle Goals for 2010:
* Not make any lifestyle goals (fail).

Favorite Things

The Sound of Music was on TV the other night and as I sang along with Julie I started to make a mental list of what some of my favorite things are. I really could make separate lists devoted to the different genres of my life: favorite baby things, mama things, woman things, ministry things, etc. But life doesn't really get to be in separate, clean, segmented compartments. So here it is. Obviously my ultimate favorite things are my husband and daughter, but I'm not putting people on the list. All in a jumble...my recent favorite things:


Costco Baby Wipes
Because let's face it, we've got a lot of diapers to change and buying these puppies in bulk for wholesale prices is the only sensible thing to do. But not only are they great for wiping little bottoms, they are also great for napkins on BBQ night, cleaning up sticky spills in the cup holder of the car, dusting furniture, cleaning mirrors, swiping picture frames, and de-sanding feet after the beach. We have packs all over the house serving all kinds of purposes. They're great!


Our Public Library
I love the public library. We are in there at least once, if not twice a week. Free books galore. Free DVD's galore. Free baby books galore. Free baby DVD's galore. And if that weren't enough...They also have a Friends of the Library bookstore with GREAT books on sale for $1 or less. They have musical concerts. They have a toddler story and dance time where we go have stories read to us interactively and we sing and dance and learn. AND there are two service dogs at this library. One cocker spaniel who as far as I can tell just lays around and lets little kids pet it. Selah loves him. The other is a big collie who's job is to snuggle next to kids and let them read books to him. Selah loves him too. She loves going to the library these days (we're still working on the quiet sqeals of glee). First she looks for the puppies, then she goes and picks out a DVD for herself, then a board book, then hugs the stuffed penguin on the children's rug, then goes to the kids' tables to color, then either sweetly holds my hand while I pick out books and movies for myself or runs amuk "rearranging" books and creating an early exit for us.


Gold Eye Shadow
It's fun and girlie. What can I say? It isn't very inconspicuous, but it's fun to shimmer sometimes.


Chick-Fil-A Sandwich and Waffle Fries
Yum!


Microwave
This may seem like a weird one, but it's true. I didn't like living without a microwave for so many years. Mainly because it takes a lot of forthought and planning or a lot of grossness to defrost meat for dinner without one of these. Also great for melting chocolate perfectly every time and zapping frozen vegetables. It just seems so much easier to make dinner if you have one of these.


Baby Signs
These have been such a joy for our family. Why wouldn't you do them? They are easy and fun to learn, based on ASL and whatever our own little one makes up. Even though Selah Grace can't really speak to us in more than two word sentences, she precisely communicates and has been for quite some time! Thanks baby signs! Her new sign of the week is for Nintendo Wii. She holds one arm out stiff and waves wildly like she has a controller in her hand. Smart little girl. Maybe Mama and Daddy shouldn't play so much?...


Beth Moore Bible Studies
Okay, so I know I said people weren't going on the list, but it isn't Beth Moore that I love so much (although I do) as it is her Bible studies she writes for women. I'm not very good at giving myself a structure, so I appreciate the structure of the studies she writes and I always learn so much about history, about the character of God, and about myself when I do them. They are so good!


Labeler
I like organized closets. Don't be fooled. We don't actually have any of those in our house, but I've seen them at other people's places and I like the dream of having our very own some day. My sister-in-law gave me a labeler for Christmas and I've already run the batteries down using it so much. It brings me great joy.



Double Stuffed Oreos and Milk
I can't get enough milk these days. Also can't get enough double-stuffeds. Oreos are really one thing you can't skimp on and buy generic. Hydrox just aren't the same. There's only one Oreo and they only taste better with pregnancy!

And to make it a nice, round 10 things...


The Hot Glue Gun
I like being crafty and making things. It is incredible the amount of craftiness that can come from wielding this $2 weapon!


Those are my things that I love this week. They will most likely change next week. Any of you have any favorites that life just wouldn't be the same without?

Merry Christmas Morning

Last year was Selah's first Christmas, but she was still a little baby and just working on crawling toward presents. This year she was a much more enthusiastic participant. She still didn't know why there were presents under the tree, but she did have a marvelous time exploring the wonder of Christmas morning. It was so much fun for Nate and I watch her little face light up in discovery!

Here's a little montage of the morning. From our home to yours...

Holiday Movie List and the Missing Piece

There's just some movies that we grow up watching around Christmas time that become stamped into the holiday tradition. In fact it almost doesn't feel like Christmas until I've seen them. TNT's 24hr marathon of the Christmas Story on Thanksgiving Day seems to herald in the beginning of the Christmas season with John-the-Baptist like "Prepare Ye The Way" proclamation. It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on the 34th Street seem to be the quintessential holiday movies about family and recognizing the treasure right under your nose. Others are newer, but seem to be instant classics. These are the movies Nate and I enjoy watching year after year (in no particular order):





And yes, I love watching each of these movies (sometimes in the middle of July b/c I've missed them since December) but do you see anything wrong with this picture? (Not with my movie choices, but with their absence.) This is Christmas after all.

Walk down the thought road with me for a moment. It will become clear in a minute...

My cousin married a man from Venezuela. In their culture they hide the baby Jesus in the nativity set on Christmas Eve and put him back in the scene on Christmas Day, the celebrated day of his birth. Happy Birthday! Today after spending almost an hour in a Target parking lot waiting for a spot, making a return, and walking away almost in tears, after talking with my husband about the budget for the month, and after forgetting to do the advent calendar as a family before putting the little one in bed, I'm beginning to feel like the hands of hurriedness and impossible expectations have hidden our Jesus from our Nativity season. He's just a little baby, and is easily hidden behind mounds of packages!

Something feels off. Especially now that we have little ones in our family, Nate and I want to try to bring Love back into the Christmas picture. We need some divine inspiration to know how to do this without retreating to some equally unholy place of asceticism. Even if you don't believe in Jesus, you do believe that Christmas time is supposed to be about Love. Right now it feels like there is a lot of Love missing from the Christmas season, at least in San Diego.

It just doesn't quite "feel like Christmas" until I've sung along with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye or recited the Pledge of Allegiance to bless the food with Aunt Bethany. But shouldn't it really not feel like Christmas until we put baby Jesus back in the Nativity?

Opposites Attract

Five years ago when Nate and I were dutifully and eagerly sitting through our premarital class (respectively), the facilitator enthusiastically announced to everyone that ONE couple was completely opposite in every category and on every spectrum of the Myers Briggs personality assessment we had recently taken and wasn't that fun! That one couple was us. Nate is an ISTJ. I'm an ENFP.

Essentially this means that...
Nate is:
Introverted - Recharges his batteries through alone time.
Sensing- Gathers information through facts and details
Thinking- Makes decisions based on logic
Judging - Works in a linear, methodical, scheduled path
(Nate likes to joke that this last one boils down to the fact that he makes sense and I don't. To him and other ISTJ's, I'm sure that is true.)

I'm an:
Extroverted- Recharge through socializing
INtuitive- Gathers information conceptually through chunks
Feeling - Makes decisions based on feelings and how those choices will affect relationship with others
Perceiving - Works in bursts of inspiration/passion

This personality typing stuff just fascinates me. I don't think we can put all our eggs in this one basket to try to explain ourselves or use it as an excuse to justify poor behavior, but it does shed a lot of light on how we do daily operations.

I was recently reading about our two types and came across the following explanations. ENFP's: "In love relationships they are intensely loyal but are often looking to make the relationship a little better or think its not quite what it could be." That's so me. ISTJ's:"In love relationships the ISTJ is a strong believer in taking responsibility. They also say the things they mean. Often they are accused of being uncaring but they view the benchmark of commitment by actions and not words." That's so Nate.

Opposites attracting is not a new phenomenon. But why does it happen? Surely it isn't just some cosmic joke, but a God-ordained plan. Apparently Nate and I need a lot of our rough edges smoothed out, because trying to live well in a marriage with someone who receives, processes, and expresses life differently than the way you do it can be a very grating and baffling thing! (And we're not even opening the can of proverbial worms surrounding the fact that he is a man and I am a woman.) But Nate and I both love the way the other was made! I may never understand how parties can be so draining to him and he may never understand making decisions based on anything and everything but logical data. Just doing daily life together and trying to appreciate those God-crafted differences instead of strangling one another is a pure act of worship! Although we may not fully understand the why's of eachother, there isn't a chance we'd change one another. We are definitely a couple of opposites with strong polar attraction. Love you babe!

The Bodily Woes of Pregnancy

It seems that once you become pregnant, all hell breaks loose in your body. Yes, there are the upped number of hormones making you even more emotionally unbalanced than was already happening just because of your shear womanness. There is the hyper-production of serotonin that sends your inner ear, brain, and stomach all out of whack. That's the lovely stuff that makes you sprint to the toilet and cling to the porcelin rim as if it were the last life preserver on the Titanic. Yes, there is the gassiness and the back pain and the disturbed sleep. We all know about this litany of woes. And I won't even begin the discussion of what my breasts have been through with pregnancy, breast-feeding, weaning, and pregnancy with no break in patterned cycle in sight for years...

But now, my second pregnancy in I'm learning about new ones. Like, what is this sudden shot of pain in my groin that makes my leg buckle beneath me? And WHY does it feel like my hip popped out of it's socket and somone is kicking my knee in at the same time? These are new and they HURT! Are you kidding me? This second one has happened on and off, but today it happened so painfully I was calculating the cost/benefits of a trip to the ER and picturing myself in some sort of hip-to-toe brace. So maybe that was a dramatic thought, but it was painful.

Nate talked me through waiting out the pain and letting it relax for a few minutes. Through his athletic knowledge of anatomy and sports medicine and my wicked Wikepedia skills, we have self-diagnosed that this is a problem with my iliotibial band. Usually reserved for runners, cyclists, and weight-lifters this gives lateral pain in the knee. However, there are those of us who are lucky enough in pregnancy to have this pain come on sharply and all the way from the hip through the knee and below where the it band attaches to the tibia. Excellent.

"ITBS can also occur where the IT band connects to the hip, though this is less likely as a sports injury. It commonly occurs during pregnancy, as the connective tissues loosen and the woman gains weight -- each process adding more pressure." -Wikepedia

I finally figured out why the arches of my feet have been cramping. I need more arch support because I'm increasing the weight and pressure on them. Now my I.T. band is sending me to the floor. Basically my body is rebelling against me getting "fat". I'm trying to tell it that this is only temporary and for a good cause!

What's In A Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." -Juliet

It's that time. That time to seriously start considering names for this new baby. For a little boy, it appears that this is easier said than done. With our daughter we had three names Nate and I both really liked, but Selah Grace was always the clear winner. I have a couple more girl names saved in my back pocket if we ever find ourselves needing a pink name again.

But boy names...Nate and I just can't agree. I've been teasing him about giving the kiddo a cowboy-ed up name to continue in the pro rodeo business like his second cousin, Hunter. We have Levi, Earl, Wyatt, Cooper, Colton, Buck, Reno, Walker, and Dallas on that list. I think I have cousins with a lot of these names. And to tell the truth I like a lot of them myself. There are also some awesome names in the genre of famous cowboy star horses; Pardner, Trigger, Champion! So many possibilities!

Selah was (lovingly) nicknamed "The Beast" for a while by some friends before she was born because she was making me so sick. That has a nice ring to it.

The boy names I like in earnest are ones Nate doesn't like and vice-versa. My theory is that this marvelous little child already has the perfect name that is his and we just haven't discovered it yet. I'm sure it will hit me when it is revealed to me and I will just know that this is my baby's name!

Hopefully it is sooner than later or else we'll have to take our old pastor and friend, Brian's advice and name the kid Bach. Coupled with our last name, we'd have a little slice of baklava!

A Christmas Miracle

Please appreciate the asymmetrical Arsenio Hall cut on the troll with hot pink hair. I was definitely in safe hands when Nate was my cut stylist in Malawi!

Last night we had our community group Christmas party, complete with the white elephant gift exchange. Some gift items included: snorkels, a used dog scratch-prevention collar cone, and what was dubbed the "before, during, and after" packet replete with tic-tacs, condom, and cigar. We ended up getting a used Jenga game (which I am actually very excited about growing our family game stockpile) . What did we give? An awesome collector's edition of troll dolls from Nate's childhood. There was just about one for every holiday, plus others with the bonus of one-of-a-kind haircuts Nate gave them sometime back in the late 80's, early 90's. Who wouldn't want that? Not me! I was so glad to gift them away. But a Christmas miracle happened. As I was cleaning up from the party after everyone had gone home I kept remeeting these curious little guys! In the silverware tray. On the spice rack. In the shower. Behind the t.p. tray. (Still missing a few but they're less worrisome than the real pumpkins we can't find from the autumn decorations of last month.) I thought I had finally gotten rid of these little ones after taking up space in boxes for years, but now they are back. They apparently are in our home to stay. Obviously I am forcing something that isn't meant to be. Maybe they will be seen again next year as the white elephant. Maybe I should just throw them in a bag with Nate's Ninja Turtles that are sitting on a shelf, waiting until our kids are old enough to play with them. But from now on, you might want to guard your coat pockets when you come over to our house. You might just walk away with a new fluffy-haired friend!

The Turquoise Dresser

Some people rescue shelter dogs. They maybe start off with one or two and then before they know it they have 13 dogs packing around their home, all saved from the brink at the local shelter. I am becoming somewhat of a rescue furniture owner. I have a big soft spot for tired, old, free furniture that is sitting around mangled and down-hearted.

This is a dresser that Nate's parents gave to us when we moved back to San Diego (thank you!) which they had in turn been given from a neighbor about 20-25 years before. I think we can all agree that it isn't doing much for the energy of anyone looking at it. One day a few weeks ago I got a crazy hair to paint it turquoise! A coat of primer. A coat of turquoise. A rub down with some sandpaper for "old worldy" effect. A final coat of sealer. And tada! A brand new piece.


This is our "new" dresser in turquoise. It's just fun and vivacious to have a large piece of turquoise furniture welcoming you into a room. In my mind's eye it has new, simple silver hardware but new hardware costs money and I don't care enough about the hardware right now to pay for it. Before the remodel I really didn't like the hardware, but now I think it makes more sense.

Some other recent projects have included:
~A free end table we got from the gal who's wingback chair we bought off Craigslist. The table was dirty and it's legs were detached. I cleaned it, repainted it with paint left-over in the garage, and spent a few cents on washers and bolts and now it is sitting pretty in our guest bedroom. It kills me to see people throw away great furniture. I love the free section on Craigslist!

~ An interior 6 panel door. My original thought was to turn it into a headboard, but it wasn't quite right in our room, so now I think I'm going to turn it into a laundry table for the garage.

~ We have a broken bedside table that I'm itching to redo.

I promised my husband and myself that I wouldn't spend all my spare time on the Craigslist free section looking for needy furniture to bring home...only occasionally. And Nate, good man that he is, knows it is really futile to ask me why I would choose to bring broken furniture home, or why I would choose to paint them turquoise. I don't know. Because it sounds like fun!

Christmas Elves

Last week I got bit by the Christmas bug and flurried into a crafting frenzy. A glue gun and some floral wire can go a long way! Here are some of the things I made on a tight budget.

Fresh Front Door Wreath

Here's a fresh douglas fir wreath. I cut out a rectangle from one side of a large cardboard box we had in the garage and wired on the branches we trimmed off the bottom of our Christmas tree. It's so fun to have a huge wreath on the door. Plus it smells lovely! And the best part? It was completely free! Cost: $0

Christmas Ornament Wreath

I stole this wreath idea from my friend Hillary who in turn had stolen it from a crafting blog. Thanks Hill! It looks really pretty hanging up and is a very simple concept to make, but it proved to be a bit more of a beast than anticipated, mainly because the majority of bulbs on there are plastic flimsy things from the Dollar Tree. But I still want to make more if that is a litmus test of whether or not you're willing to try. All you have to do is take a wire clothes hanger and shape it into a circle. Gather approx. 80 bulb ornaments in varying sizes. You can do whatever color scheme you want. I think for the next one I'm going to do all silvers and maybe some light blues. HOT GLUE the tops down where the hangers attach. Then, string the ornaments onto your wire wreath base. I added a large bow on top mainly to cover the large gap that occurred after I accidentally dropped my wreath on our hardwood floor and sent quite a number of ornaments flying. Including ribbon and ornaments, Cost: $12

Timeline of Christmases Past

I stole an excellent idea from a friend and hung a timeline of Christmases past in our marriage on the fireplace above our stockings. There are a few gaps right now. Apparently we didn't take pictures during our third Christmas together. My goal is to get some stills made from video we have of that year together. And I'm waiting to add this year's pic after I get them from Costco tomorrow. It's already fun to see our Charlie Brown christmas tree our first year of marriage together decorated with Nate's birthday garland b/c we didn't have ANY Christmas decorations all the way up to this year as we wait in expectation of making our family grow to a family of four. Cost: $0.19 for picture development

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Craft Left-Overs Doohicky

This is a bit of Christmas wimsy when I got an itch to make something decorative the other night but didn't have anything on hand. So, I took an old picture frame, hot glued some left-over ribon around the edge, wired on some scraps of decorative spray, decopaged some old christmas cards to dangle down the center, and added a large bow we had on a gift last year. I don't know what it is either if you're wondering. Just some holiday cheer. It was one of those things that was more about enjoying the process of being crafty than needing the end result to be wonderful.
Cost: $0

Poinsetta Spray Wreath

JoAnne's Fabric was practically giving wreaths away last week for $2 a pop. I got to make four wreaths for our four big windows in our back room by just wiring on some poinsettias and ornaments. They make me happy. Total for four of them: Cost: $12

Advent Wreath

Here's our advent wreath. Depending on who you talk to in the family it is either inconveniently or very conveniently sitting low on the cedar chest for optimum toddler intervention. I made a wreath to go around an otherwise boring gold advent candle holder and then added the "Christ" candle in the middle. Selah like to challenge herself by taking the candles out and putting them back in the little holders. It's a fun toddler game. She hid the pink candle in the house somewhere. I'm still looking...By the way, do you know what the four candles on the advent wreath represent? First Candle: Prophet's Candle, signifying the hope of Jesus' coming. Second Candle: Bethlehem candle, in honor of where Jesus was born. Third Candle:Shepherd's Candle. Fourth Candle: Angel's Candle, because of the joyous proclamation at Jesus' birth.
Cost: $4

It's A....

There you have it! Our baby!

Gender Guessing

Will it be snips and snails and puppy dog tails or sugar and spice and all things nice? We find out the gender of our baby tomorrow! I usually have a pretty good gut feeling, but in guessing the gender of this baby I feel like my superpowers are askew. I think the problem is that I'm trying to compare this pregnancy with my pregnancy with Selah Grace in Malawi. The external circumstances are so different though that I can't get my bearings on what is this pregnancy and what is being in San Diego.

If I had to choose what I think this little one is, I'd say girl. But maybe this is being swayed because I only know myself as a mom to a daughter. Plus, I can totally see Nate being that guy, that wonderful guy, with a wife and a car full of daughters. He will definitely need his mancave built for him full of workout equipment and playstation games if that turns out to be true. It sounds like a blast though!

What do you think the gender is going to be? Here are some clues:
* I'm still nauseas and throwing up this pregnancy, but usually only every other day instead of every day. HOWEVER my doctor gave me some anti-nausea medicine so that could be the difference in the change.

* I'm carrying slightly lower than last time.

* I want to eat all the dairy products and spicy foods I can get my hands on.

Most of our community group friends think it will be a boy. Most of our family thinks girl. We'll find out tomorrow!

Thanksgiving at the San Diego Zoo

Meeting Mr. Goat in the petting zoo with Auntie.

Little gorilla girl.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...Skyfari Buckets!

Over the Thanksgiving break my mom came out to visit and experienced the new Leboffe family tradition of Thanksgiving Day at the San Diego Zoo. Going to the zoo is so fun for us these days. Selah Grace runs from exhibit to exhibit squealing and laughing at the animals while the rest of us chase behind her and squeal and laugh at the sight of her delight. Then, it's time to eat the very large and yummy Thanksgiving buffet at the Treetop Restaurant in the zoo. It was delicious and none of us did the dishes afterwards!

Christian Catch Phrases

The other night during our marrieds community group Nate gave the every-familiar instructions of, "pray as you feel led" and had to stop to comment on the awkwardness of saying and hearing what has become such a trite sounding phrase in Christian circles. We then detoured into a brief tangent on other overly used phrases by our generation in the church circle here in southern California.

Here's what we came up with:

- "Pray as you feel led."
- Wanting things to be "organic" (Not as in food, but as in meeting people or beginning new ministries). Our friend Katherine called a spade a spade and revealed that this is usually just code for unorganized.
- "living in the tension" between two things in life you're trying to balance or figure out.

Are there any Christian catch phrases that make you wish you had a dime for every time you hear it?

You Know You're Pregnant When...

...you have to choose to eat unpurchased snacks while grocery shopping or die.

...you use red lights as opportunities to throw up.

...you big, snotty, ugly cry through comedies like Cheaper By the Dozen 2 and Bride Wars.

...you have to buy new underwear because the bikini briefs that used to do the trick seem to only cover one hemisphere these days.

......you eat grapes, 2 chicken corn dogs, fig newtons, 8 jumbo shrimp with hot sauce, and 1/2 an entire green bean casserole for lunch, while washing it down with a liter of iced tea.