In other news, I received word that a piece I submitted to Chicken Soup for the Soul will be published in their book “Here Comes the Bride” this May. My story is “Dad’s handout,” a heartwarming moment about my Dad on my wedding day.

Kedron is hard at work on his own project too. Last year during the month of February he created a Michigan related graphic each day of the month to “share the love” for the mitten state. He is repeating the design exercise this year. You can view his site and download any of the free graphics. Be sure to check back regularly as he’ll be adding new designs each day! (The designs are currently only in an Illustrator format but will be available soon as .jpg too!)

That is all.

Well, except for this: funny story and surrounding thoughts over at Circle of Friends today about being overlooked. Silly waiter!

The new vehicle came with a anti-lock brakes. Although we’ve had a mild winter in Michigan, over the past couple weeks, I’ve been thankful for those vibrating brakes under my feet. It’s the strangest sensation to hit the brakes and feel the ABS system take control. I’m thankful though, because it works much better than the old method of pumping the brakes which still resulted in me sliding all over the road!

Read the rest at Circle of Friends!

PS – I still need a few of your addresses, check the previous post please! I’m making a post office run today, so fun!!

Here’s a recap of my day in picture form:

These were sitting on the kitchen table when I went to bed. It was sooo hard to sleep that night!

This is what was inside the boxes!! Yay! No more day old coffee for me!

This was my birthday headband. Yes, I wore it when we went out to dinner

My afternoon treat to myself. The chai charger (chai tea with a shot of espresso) was free because it was my birthday! Soooooo yummy!!

My boys did the dishes that night. Sigh.

Lil Miss read me a bedtime story.

I really couldn’t have asked for a better day!

And now for the winners!! If your name is in bold and is surrounded by ****, that means I need to you to please email me your mailing address at supergirlamelia at gmail dot com.

St. Patrick’s Day towel – **Suzanne**

Easter Towel – **Tanya**

Knitted Towels – **Jessie H**, Paige and **Jenn Baker**

Book -  Mom

Luggage Tag – Anne

Flip Flops – Karen

Caprisun Zipper pouch pencil size – Joy, **Jennifer**

Caprisun zipper pouch coin purse size – Susie, **Jen Griffin**

Key rings – **Erica**, Jennifer H., **Thrifty Girl**, Jen Gusey, Cindy, **Cessie**, **Jenelle**, and Holly

Thanks so much for joining in my birthday bash! It was lots of fun! I hope you enjoy your birthday gifts from me! I’ll send them out this week! Lots of love and hugs!

I am halfway to 70. It feels strange, yet good at the same time.

For a little bit of perspective on how the world has changed in 35 years… I’m sure my Dad will correct me if I have the details incorrect, but the story goes something like this…

When I was born, my Dad was in the army and stationed in Okinawa, Japan. My birth certificate is unique: “American citizen born abroad.” I don’t dare lose it because getting another copy is a nightmare. My Dad said my birth cost him around $9 out of pocket. Of course, he had to make sure I knew that as we were shelling out a thousand or two for the birth of our kids. The funny part though is that the three minute phone call back to the States to tell my grandparents about my birth cost more than the hospital bill, and the phone connection wasn’t even that great. Now you can video chat with someone halfway across the world for free.

I’m incredibly thankful to be living during this amazing time in history. I’m especially thankful for you! So in honor of my birthday, I’m throwing a bloggy party, and the gifts are for you!! Leave a comment below to say Hi or Happy Birthday . I have lots to give away. Take a look! Feel free to share with your friends too. Your friends are my friends

A luggage tag that I hand embroidered a cruise ship on

A pencil case made of Caprisun juice pouches

Little key ring finder thingys I made!

2 knitted kitchen hand towels

2 little kitchen hand towels I sewed that look like little dresses, Easter and St Patricks day

A novel about a talented pianist, her dreams and her faith AND her name is Amelia :

Pink flip flops I crocheted around. Dreaming of summer...

Housework is one of the most challenging jobs for me because the sense of completion lasts for such a short length of time. (Can you tell I’m a first-born, task-oriented person?!) Within minutes of vacuuming the floor, kids track in dirt and  disperse trail of crumbs. I had to learn to live with the satisfaction that at least I removed one layer of dirt.

I think dishes and laundry are the most monotonous for me. Now that my kids put away their own laundry,  even they see the monotony of it. Saturday they asked, “Laundry again? Why do you have to do it every day?” I looked at them and asked, “Why do you have to wear clothes every day? If you’d stop wearing clothes I could stop doing laundry.” They looked at me for a second while the thought registered and then the giggles started. Humor definitely helps dispel the drudgery of housework. I try to employ humor to help me whenever I can.

So goes life. It’s a never ending cycle of dishes and laundry and vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms. It seems as if you take just one day off  a pile builds that you can’t un-bury yourself from. When Mom gets sick, for just one or two days, no matter how much Dad does to help keep things running, it still piles up. (Mom, I really, really appreciate all you did for us growing up!)

While we were still living in Florida (and my tile floors were WHITE, and my children were toddlers), Kedron read a book called Getting Things Done by David Allen. He shared the principles with me from the book and one stuck with me – getting to zero. The principle for business people is “inbox zero,” meaning by the time you leave work each day you’ve dealt with your email inbox or your desk inbox and everything has been read, dealt with and filed so that the next day you are starting from “zero.”

I immediately saw how “getting the house back to zero” could help me not feel like I was continually catching up or living under a pile of housework. I analyzed what I struggle with the most and determined that by the time I went to bed each night those items would be at “zero.” Here’s my zero list:

1. Dishes – all out of the sink and off the counter, either by loading/unloading/re-loading the dishwasher, and washing, drying and putting away the bigger items  (such as pots and pans from dinner). By the time I go to bed the kitchen counters and table are all cleared and clean.

2. Laundry – dirty clothes are picked up off the floors and put in the hampers, and all laundry that was washed and dried that day has been folded and put away.

3. General pickup – all main living areas have been generally picked up, mail and school papers dealt with, coats/boots/hats/gloves picked up, and toys picked up off floors of main living areas (not bedrooms, I only deal with those once a week). But if we’ve built a fort, or we have a craft of school project in process, I leave that up to play with or work on.

Getting back to zero is a family effort. The kids and Kedron do their part to pick up and put away their own things. And while it’s a daily goal, it’s not a hard and fast rule. If it’s been a long, crazy day and we’re getting home late from something and I’m exhausted, I let myself rest and leave it for the morning. Or if I realized at 9 pm that one batch of brownies is not enough for Little Miss to take for her class birthday treat, I leave the brownie baking mess for the next day. But on most days, we get things back to zero, and I go to bed and wake up feeling the satisfaction of completion and not like I’m continually playing  catch-up. On the days that I do the bigger cleaning jobs, like bathrooms, vacuuming and mopping (or dusting, which is usually only right before my Mom comes to visit , those jobs are easier to get done because the rest of the house has stayed fairly picked up all week long.

In my goal to stay steady in all areas of my life, getting the house back to zero each day greatly helps me with housework!

Read the rest at Circle of Friends!

Yesterday morning I had a mini-meltdown. I was overwhelmed with my book project, laundry, dishes, and a five-year-old who does not go to school everyday and especially misses his sister on Mondays. By noon, I had resigned myself that I might not get to write a single word that day. I felt like a horrible mom to keep saying, “Not right now. Please, just give me 20 minutes to finish this stuff!” With the pressure of a looming deadline, I did what any reasonable woman does. I sat down for a little cry.

In the midst of my tears I felt God speak to my spirit, “You’re wasting time with this little pity party. Ask for help.”

I sat up, still sniffling, and began to pray. I confessed that I cannot do these things alone. I cannot be a writer/mother/wife/Bible Study Fellowship leader and do any of them well without God’s help.

Then I felt God whisper, “Keep going. You know what’s next.”

I choked down my pride and sent my in-laws an e-mail asking if there might be any Mondays that they would have free for T-Rex to hang out with them. Within a couple hours, we had worked out a schedule for the next few Mondays. I know that T-Rex and Papa will both have fun making memories.

I felt peace for the first time that day, and I began to relax. I finished the chores. I built a fort that took up the entire living room. I played sword fight on the Wii and let T-Rex win (don’t tell him!). We even worked on his letters and numbers.

Then my sister-in-law showed up with soup for dinner. She has four kids aged 3 and under. I should be the one making her dinner! Yet she insists that to make a little extra for us is no big deal. It’s a big deal to me.

Another friend sent me a message just to stay she prayed for me and my family that day. This time, the tears were out of thankfulness for the blessings I knew I did not deserve.

I asked for help. I received way more than I asked for. And somewhere in the course of that day, I wrote 1/4 of a chapter, and I didn’t even stay up past 11 p.m!

My kids have been enjoying this challenge, and were excited to see what the next verse would be. We discuss the verse most mornings before they head to school. One afternoon last week, Little Miss on her own, fixed a snack for her brother and his friend. When I complimented her on how thoughtful she was, she asked, “Was that serving the Lord by helping my brother and his friend?” I LOVE that it is sinking in and they are seeing how their actions relate to the verses we are memorizing!

It’s not to late to join. Check out this post for verse B, and to enter the give away for a Starbucks gift card!!

Yes, I took three months off. I didn’t run, I didn’t walk (other than to the fridge and back!), I did nothing physical at all. Every year I have no trouble staying active through the spring, summer and fall, training for a handful of half marathons. Then October hits and I feel I deserve a break. So I take a few weeks off. Then the holidays hit and next thing I know, it’s January and if I don’t start doing something fast I’ll be shopping for all new pants.

Really, all I want do do November through March is sit on my couch with a cup of coffee, curl up under a blanket and just hibernate. I think the bears have it figured out. So I was puzzled how to get motivated and avoid the winter workout wasteland (or should it be waist-land since mine tends to expand?!). Besides not wanting to shop for new jeans, I struggle with the blues through the winter months. We barely see the sun, and it’s not easy to get outside. Exercise helps battle those winter blahs.

At the end of the year I saw my Daily Mile friends posting their total miles for the year. That’s when I got the idea to run 1,000 miles in 2012 (I did less than 500 in 2011!!). That turns out to be not quite 20 miles per week. I can do it if I stay consistent. It will mean being the most consistent I’ve ever been. It means I can’t take three months off.

I’m off to a slow start (8 miles last week, 13 this week), but I know I can’t just jump right into 20 miles a week since I took three months off. I ran my first six-miler on Saturday and by mile five, my legs felt like lead. What I love about using Daily Mile is it helps me keep track of what I’ve done, just like my prayer journal does. I can look week by week and see those glaring holes of inactivity.

If you’re on Daily Mile, look me up – I’m Amelia R. If you’re not on, check it out. It’s like Facebook but for exercise. No matter whether you run, bike, swim, do yoga or lift weights, Daily Mile can help you track your workouts, as well as encourage others to reach their goals. They also have fun little widgets that show how many doughnuts you’ve burned, how far around the world you’ve gone or how many tv’s you’ve powered.

Here’s to staying steady in all areas!!