2009 Pragmatic Recap

Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife is hosting a 2009 Blog Recap Carnival and, having fallen off the blog wagon over the last month, I figured it would be a fairly painless way to ease back into my blog. I even remembered my WordPress password!

For each month of 2009, I’ve posted the title (and link) and quoted the first few lines of the FIRST post of that month:

January 2009
it’s not like I’m having a baby.

“So why am I NESTING? I’ve had this massive surge of momentum and have been clearing out and re-organizing for weeks. I’ve even been . . . decorating.”

(This post contained LOTS of photos. And now I’m doing it AGAIN. I’ve already made one trip to the Salvation Army, with AT LEAST one more in the next few days. Maybe two, it depends on how much stuff I can pack in the bed of the truck. I’ve already been entering charitable donations in It’s Deductible, the FREE online valuing tool! Hopefully, FirstHusband will also take a trip to the dump in the next next few days.)

February 2009
fast food food, fast.

“Sometimes, I need to feed FavoriteSon fast. Considering what the boy can pack away and how much it can cost, I need to stock some quick, easy, cheap meals.”

(Still – ALWAYS – looking for fast, easy, cheap meals. This post highlights meatball and turkey sandwiches and our family favorite – Cream Cheese Chicken.)

March 2009
walking outside the lines.

“Twice now, I’ve walked the track during FavoriteSon’s track practice. Since they actually USE the track during track practice, I’ve been walking outside the outside lane (lane #8).”

(I did this the entire track season last year! Track season is coming up again, so I’m glad I’ve been reminded of this post. Last year, I found a Track Calculator showing the distance around for each lane of the track. Since I walk OUTSIDE the 8th lane, the distance around is more than if I were to walk in lane 1.)

April 2009
voila!

“Busy, Busy, Busy. The only thing I like better than eating Cream Cheese Chicken is MAKING it. Soooooo easy! Dump everything in a crockpot and come back later. That’s what I’m doing today.”

(By FAR, Cream Cheese Chicken is my favorite FAST recipe. Starting with FROZEN chicken! But this post also highlighted a new product called “Voila” which I use as a base and add more veggies and shrimp or chicken.)

May 2009
Good Thing the Hospital is Nice

“We thought Julie would be home after one night. The doctor actually wanted two and that was before she had a fever of 102 last night maybe tomorrow…”

(This post was written by FirstHusband – a little update after my surgery last year.)

June 2009
7 Quick Takes: 06.01.09

“Kristen emailed me to make sure I was okay and I realized I hadn’t blogged in over a week!

Over a week! What have I been doing?”

(This was a catch-up post with a little of everything from my surgery recovery to what I was struggling/praying about to thoughts about what I was reading at the time to summer kid activities . . .)

July 2009
Pragmatic Summer Recipes

“Kristin over at We are THAT Family is is hosting a themed edition of Works for Me Wednesday this week! Here are some of my favorite summer recipes! Click on the links for the original post and the ingredients/recipe.”

(And AGAIN with the food posts! Multiple recipes for summer!)

August 2009
hi ho, hi ho.

“I’m still here – just working a LOT. And climbing a learning curve for the work projects. Trying to steal hours in the fragmented chaos to actually focus on the learning and the work. The kind of work that requires complete and total quiet, lots of gum and Diet Coke.”

(I’m tired just reading the August 2009 post. I had a LOT going on. And, although it took me a few months, my business website is new and improved – still missing some pages, but for the most part, it’s a MILLION times better than what it was. The client project I was working on did get finished and worked well enough that the client wants more in 2010, so that’s more answered prayer (I was praying for compensated work.) Still purging stuff from my house. Where does it all come from? And I HATE shopping! So WHERE does it come from?

September 2009
Then Sings My Soul Saturday: Desert Song

“This week’s new praise song for our 9:30 a.m. praise and worship service! I can’t stop thanking God for letting me sing it!!! So beautiful.”

(I still really love this song and I’m so blessed to be the one who gets to sing the lead. I LOVE the bridge!)

October 2009
blessings require change. part 2.

“In my post, “blessings require change.” on September 30th, I shared how God gave me an opportunity to give my minivan to a family who needed it.”

(A testimony to God’s AMAZING power. I’m still so thankful that I got to be a part of this miracle. More answered prayer came when I got share the story with my entire church as I delivered the message at all four services on Women’s Sunday in October. I had been praying for God to bless me with more opportunities to serve Him with my voice – singing and speaking. He answered my prayer when I was asked to deliver the message AND lead music that Sunday. God is so good.)

November 2009
expensive tedium exposed.

“I’ve been reading a little C. S. Lewis lately. Today I read the November 1st and 2nd entries from “A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works.” He’s a tough read. I may have mentioned before that I respond to his writing in a number of different ways.

Sometimes, I think he’s a pompous windbag who delights in using words the common man (that’d be me) has to look up in a very old dictionary because . . . ”

(Just some C.S. Lewis prompted thoughts. Reminding me what happens when I spend time alone – abiding.)

December 2009
what is it you do exactly?

“When someone asks me what I do, I know they’re talking about work. Outside my home. Other than being a mom. I usually answer, “I’m a trainer and consultant.”

Often, that’s the end of it. Sometimes, if they’re interested, they’ll wrinkle their eyebrows and ask something like:

What is it you do exactly?”

(Don’t be alarmed if you still don’t understand what I do, even after reading this post. Most likely you fell asleep in the middle of reading it.)

So that’s a little of my 2009. I’ve still got some work to finish up on the client upgrade which consumed much of my November and December, but I hope I can keep up with the blogging. It’s a great source of stress relief. I’ve got a few other projects coming up, both in computer consulting and faith based speaking, but I’ll talk about them later – well probably not the computing part – that can get significantly boring for most normal people.

Me? I know I’m not normal. One of my favorite Christmas gifts is the terabyte external hard drive FirstHusband got me. oooo. ahhhh. Time to start transferring the family movies from tape to digital storage. But I’m thinking I might want two terabyte drives. As a backup. hmmm.