Visit a waterpark

We visited Timber Ridge using a Groupon.  We drove up Sunday morning, got a little McDonalds on the way and arrived about 11am.  It was a quick hour drive.  Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures, but the kids had fun and Josh had a blast on the water slide.  Caitlyn enjoyed the toddler area and met a new friend.  We brought food to make lunches in our room, since we had a large kitchenette.  We watched a movie in our room.  It was nice to have a living room for the kids to sleep in and a bedroom for us.  Caitlyn didn't take a nap, but we did go back to the water park in the afternoon.  We checked out connect four from the front desk to play, though it is a bit old for Josh still.  We had dinner at the restaurant and the kids actually ate.  They were showing Casper the friendly ghost movies in the "theatre".  Josh enjoyed watching it, sitting on a large stuffed bear.  The kids slept well.  As we were getting ready to go eat breakfast, the power in the entire building went out.  We decided to up to the Grand Geneva for breakfast.  By then, almost an hour later, the power was back on, but we decided to swim in the main pool for a while.  Just as we were ready to be done, our new friends showed up and Josh had fun swimming with their son as well.  I don't remember if the kids fell asleep on the way home.  We requested and received day passes to return again, so I imagine we will go back some time.

101 things in 1001 Days, Take Two

101 things in 1001 Days Start 10/5/2013 End: 7/2/2016

For the Sake of Being a Responsible Adult

1.                  Get Up At 5:00 Am Every M- F For One Month and get housework or work or work out completed before the children wake up.

2.                  Learn How To Change TheOil On My Car

3.                  Learn How To Drive Stick Shift

4.                  Update My Will

For the Sake of the House

5.                  Put Bead Board Somewhere

6.                  New Flooring For House

7.                  New Refrigerator – Save First Then Buy, No Financing

8.                  New Stove

9.                  New Microwave

10.              Paint Our Bedroom

11.              Put up pictures on the walls in the master bedroom

12.              Scan Pre-Digital Photos

13.              Take Pictures Of TheWhole House, As If For A Magazine Cover (Before & Afters)

14.              Know in what town the next house will be

15.              Buy a DSLR camera

For Money's sake

16.              Become A Mary Kay Sales Director

17.              Pay Off (Both) Cars, So We Have No Car Payment

18.              Create a Budget

19.              Stick To The Budget for a month

20.              Have A No Spend Month

21.              Sell baby items and clothes at resale 

For my business

22.              100 new customers

23.              10 quarters star

24.              Earn the On the Move and Fabulous 50s as a Director

25.              Earn a Diamond Bumble Bee

26.              Have a regularNanny/Babysitter that comes at least 2 times per week

For 100% selfish reasons

27.              Get A Facial

28.              Have My Teeth Whitened

29.              Make new friends that I can get mani-pedis with, go to lunch, go shopping with; get parenting, relationship or work-life balance advice from.  Do that one time each

For Health's Sake

30.              Run An Entire 5K 

31.              Complete An 8K 

32.              Complete P90X

33.              Complete A Monthly Breast Exam For 6 Months In A Row

34.              Improve My Posture

35.              Plant An Herb Garden and use the herbs in cooking

36.              Work out with a personal trainer weekly

37.              Reach Four New "Tens-Places" In My Weight

38.              Do 10 pull-ups consecutively

39.              Do 200 Sit ups

40.              Do 100 pushups

41.              Floss every night for a month

42.              Play a game of volleyball

43.              Play a round of Golf (not mini!)

For Spiritual Growth

44.              Read The Weekly Torah Portion For 3 Months In A Row

45.              Create and employ Traditions for the Shabbat

46.              Join a Temple

47.              Keep a Gratitude Journal again

48.              Create new affirmations and read them each morning for a month.

49.              Make a list of 100 things that I like about myself and stick it to my mirror

For Mental Growth

50.              Improve Photography skills: Take a class and put into practice 2-3 items learned

51.              Each Letter Picture of the Alphabet Project

52.              Take a long exposurephoto  

53.              Watch 10 classic movies

54.              Read 10 classic books

55.              Ask 20 friends tosuggest a book and read them all.

For the Sake of my Marriage

56.              Another installment of the Husband Project

57.              12 Dates in 12 months: Plan each date ahead of time. 

58.              Convince Jared to spend a vacation unplugged.

For the love of Family

59.              Visit a Waterpark

60.              Halloween Costume as Family

61.              Buy a bike trailer and go on a family bike ride.

62.              Go to a drive in movie

63.              Watch the Sunrise

64.              Go fruit picking

For others

65.              Compliment A Stranger Once A Week

66.              Send Birthday And Holiday Gifts (for parents, sisters and brothers) Ahead Of Time

67.              Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity

68.              Continue the note of gratitude or encouragement.  One person per month

For the sake of making things

69.              Complete the remaining 5of 15 Repertoire Meals I Can Do By Heart

70.              Make Monogrammed Drinking Glasses With Paint And Bake Pens.  As a gift?

71.              Create or Identify myfavorite cocktail

72.              Sew/Alter an item of clothing from the Thrift Shop

For fun

73.              Go On A Hot Air Balloon Ride

74.              Go To The Kentucky Derby With A Great Hat

75.              Host A Dinner Party For 10 Adults (Murder Mystery?).  Guests from various aspects of my life

76.              Host A Summer Sunday Brunch

77.              Scuba Diving

78.              See An SEC Football Game

79.              Take An Alaskan Cruise

80.              Take An Extended-FamilyTrip To Disney World With Firestones

81.              Take Family To (Muskegon County) Michigan For A Family Vacation

82.              Visit Arlington RaceTrack

83.              Visit the Lyric Opera

84.              Visit 2 New States in my50 States by 50 Goal

85.              Visit An Art Gallery

86.              Visit Yellowstone

87.              Go to the Grand Canyon

88.              Visit New Orleans

89.              Visit Quebec or Toronto

90.              Visit a new Country

91.              Shoot a gun at the shooting range.

92.              Buy a coloring book and color every page.  Encourage the children to color with me

For the Internet?

93.              Win A Contest From A Blog

94.              Host a Pinterest Party.  Each guest brings a food item, a craft, and wears an outfit (Inspiration).

95.              Choose 30 items to wear, only those for a month.  No new clothes.  Should this include jewelry?  Shoes?  Purses?

For the list

96.              Set up the items that will need long term, step by step, or monthly planning.

97.              Write A Letter To Myself On Day 1 To Be Opened On Day 1001

98.              Blog About Each Task As It Is Completed (Pink Mom Blog)

99.              Donate $5 For Every Task Not Completed

100.          Decide if I want to do another list

101.          Inspire One Person To Make A List Of Their Own

Traditions

I think over the course of this list, we have started to develop some birthday and holiday traditions.  Food is often a component!  other things to consider: activity or reading books we have or check out from the library, art/craft, toys.  places to go.

Birthday
had the idea to put streamers on the door and balloons in the room, but this kind of freaked Josh out for his 3rd, birthday.
Sign above entrance to kitchen
For the kids, 20 questions video interview (Josh's 4th birthday video)

Rosh Hashana

• round challah from Deerfield's bakery, ordered 1-2 days ahead
• Apricot Chicken
• Honey Carrots (Boil in sprite, drain, drizzle with honey while hot)
• apple kugel
• sliced apples
• honey
• (Chocolate) Honey Cake 
• wine 
• apple juice

kids coloring pages
books
other toys/activities: shofar (plastic, Jared's real one)
cards to send to family/call to wish a happy new year
China

Yom Kippur - break the fast with dairy/breads

Sukkot
at the Chicago Botanic Gardens

Fall: pumpkin/apple picking.  Corn maze.  Goebberts or Didier farms

Channukah

• party
• dreidel game
• books
• potato pancakes

Winter: Hot Chocolate on the stove

Thanksgiving -

• Veggie Tray using the blue dish from Mexico.  TS spinach and herb dip in the center.
• BLT dip, 1/2 recipe
• Brie en croute on blue plate.

• Turkey, 
• Gravy, 
• Green Bean Casserole
• Stuffing
• Noodle Kugel
• Sweet Potatoes
• Mashed Potatoes
• Cranberry Sauce
• rolls, Brown & Serve
• Salad

• Pecan Pie, Apple Pie, Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate and Caramel Sauce

New Years - this has changed as our children get older and the need to be home with them has changed.

Tu B'Shevat - we are starting to create traditions for this.

Valentine's - the kids usually celebrate this in school so we don't have anything

Purim - still in the process

Passover (menu)
Weekly Menu: Brisket, Matzah Lasagna (which I Only make during Passover), various Chicken and Salmon.  MATZAH CRACK!

Sabbath - next list

July 4th (Memorial Day, Labor Day)  4th of July Fireworks on Payton's Hill and parades have become fun traditions

Halloween - again mostly through school, but we do enjoy getting dressed up for my sister in law's mom's adult party and trick or treating around our little neighborhood with friends.

15 recipes

These two are in my repertoire:

1. Chicken Pasta with Broccoli and Carrots
2. Turkey Meatloaf

These I created:

1. Tacos: can use ground beef or Turkey.  Brown.  Add 2 tbsp seasoning.  serve with tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce.
2. Guacamole: McCormick seasoning packet.  two ripe avocados, mix in food processor, as Jared likes it mousse like.
3. Chicken Salad: leftover cooked chicken, mayonnaise, celery and/or onion, craisins, salt, pepper, dill weed.  Mix together.
4. Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.  Can use ground beef or turkey.  brown, drain fat, add jar of veggie pasta sauce.  Meanwhile cook spaghetti.  Serve sauce over pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
5. Mac & Cheese Primavera: Velveeta, cooked chicken, frozen veggies, garlic salt, pepper, pasta.  Cook pasta, add frozen veggies last couple of minutes. Drain.  on low heat, add cubed Velveeta, seasonings and chicken.  Stir until cheese has melted and chicken is heated through
6. Casserole: Meat, pasta or rice, cream of something soup, frozen veggies, seasonings, some milk or water sometimes cheese on top. Bake 375 for 45-55 minutes
7. Meatloaf: 1.5 lbs ground turkey or beef.  Breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, seasonings, diced carrots. Bake 375 for 50 minutes.
8. Salad: 1-2 heads romaine lettuce, cut up and put through the salad spinner.  pick from these veggies, but try to get a variety of colors: tomatoes, red pepper, carrots, orange pepper, yellow pepper (you already have green from the lettuce).  Sometimes I  use bagged lettuce with purple lettuce in it, or cabbage.  If you are trying to use up other veggies like onion or celery that can go in too.  Croutons, shredded parmesan cheese (in the specialty cheese section).  Good Seasonings Italian Dressing, in the carafe but the store brand; about half the bottle.  Craisins. put all ingredients in the bowl and mix.  Sometimes I'll add chicken or bacon bits, sunflower seeds.

I didn't get to all 15 but 10 is a good start.  I'll finish this next time around.  

Photo-A-Day

I really wish I had kept up with this.  I was good for a while, but then stopped.  I picked it up again, and even put a daily reminder on my calendar, but my subject was too mobile!

http://pinkmomah.blogspot.com/search/label/PADphotoADay

Inspire

Sara says she was inspired to create a list of her own, though her list is 30 things to do before she's 30 in a year and a half.  I think this is completed...inspiration is not exactly a copy, and her list is admirable.

Buy a coloring book and color every page

I did buy the coloring book and started to color a little bit.  I even bought my own markers.  Jared told me he thought it was silly or something like that I wouldn't share the book or my markers with the kids.  I guess it's true, since the only reason I was doing it was for the list.  Though I think that partially made me not work on it.   I think I thought it would be child-like, easy, simple minded to have that to work on.   It's like anything else on the list that takes time, I didn't plan for it.  Didn't build it in to the regular schedule.  I'm not sure if I'll keep it on the next list, since I don't know if the reason behind it was good enough.

New Moms

I've met quite a few new moms since starting this quest.  Many of them are stay at home moms, Jennifer M is one.  Kimberley S. is another.  others are work from home moms.  At the beginning of the year I would have said Holly C. who is a realtor, but since the summer of 2011, I haven't seen much of her.  As I write this I hope that Laura K. will be one.  The actual task says to meet these woman, but I really want to have woman who are my friends who are WAHM or SAHM.  I think it's kind of funny to list friends, but I think it is one way of achieving this task.

I am going to publish this at the end of the quest to see what friendships I can develop over the rest of the 1001 days.  Like this author, I want woman I can do specific tasks with: get manicures, get lunch, play dates, dinner with couples, ask for parenting, relationship, or work life balance; new customers;

SAHM
Prajina
Kim S.
Jennifer M.
Donna.
Laura(Kirk and Nick's mom)
Christina C.
Katie E.
Michele F.
Jennifer K.
Kerry (soccer)
Christy S.
Anne

WAHM
Robin R
Laura K
Holly C
Sherry G

Part time Working Moms
Ann W.
Kim F.
Shandrika (soccer)
Jenna S.
Ann L.



Update 9/2012:  I'm discovering that stay at home moms are easier to come by.  Probably because of the meetup group I am in.  Also, because that is what I am.  Relationships with WAHM are harder to develop...is it because they are busier, or because I have trouble identifying with them.  Or I am not exposed to them as much?  Maybe I will try harder to meet some.  How?

Update 2: 10/2013: It's interesting that the list of people I started with is not the list of people that I see now.  Certainly SAHMs are more common in my regular routine mainly because of people that I have met through Josh's activities.  There are several moms new to our neighborhood too.  And now that Caitlyn is in activities, I am meeting new moms this way too.  I have to think about this one more for the next list.  I think I will create a category for moms, one for which I enjoy doing certain activities with, as noted above.  Also, since I have a remember the milk item for calling friends, I think I will add these moms to my list and invite them to do the things we like to do together.

Write A Letter To Myself On Day 1 To Be Opened On Day 1001

I wrote this letter and read it today...life was busy and though I was looking forward to opening it on the 28th, I didn't have a chance.  I wasn't really sure what to write, though I won't share the complete details of what I did write.  I think because I didn't know what to expect and since I was at such a crossroads at the time I started.  I was even remarking to Jared a day or so ago, how I can't believe it's been almost three years since I left Lincoln.  I am happy with the things I did accomplish, but I am disappointed I didn't accomplish more.  Some were too big of goals, some I didn't make SMART, the measurable, or specific enough.

Next time I write this letter, I think I'll prioritize my goals more.  I also realized I forgot to work on this project at times, and went months without completing or working on goals.  I find that is certainly an aspect of my Mary Kay life too.

I did like how I spoke directly to myself at the end, encouraging.