Goal #25 Purchase bedroom furniture--Started

Hubby and I went looking for bedroom furniture last week. We found some stuff we LOVED. However the bed alone cost $1700. We could have done it, but we've worked really hard to move toward debt free and that felt like a lot of cash for a bed. I mean, we've been married 18 years and never spent more than $50 on a bed frame.

We came home and were both proud of ourselves for being smart and bummed out because we didn't buy anything. Then my hubby came up with a new plan. For a fraction of the cost, he could make a headboard similar to what we wanted to buy, plus we could buy the fireplace, paint and accessories.

Here's where we are after the weekend.

New in this picture:
The homemade headboard--from 2 doors
Hubby got the side tables for $5 each off Craig's List and refinished them
White comforter
Decorative Pillows
1 of the Lamps and both shades
Not pictured but purchased--the fireplace heater (our room is the coldest in the house)

Still to get:
new paint color on walls
new couch for sitting area or something to cover the hideous one currently there
a few finishing touches

A Rude Awakening? Goal #1

This past week was something else. We had planned a family vacation to Tennessee. A camping, boating, family reunion fun time! Four hours into the drive we got a phone call from my husband's family. His father had a stroke.

The next few days were full of mixed blessings. His father is improving a little more each day, but it's going to be a long process. We felt blessed to be half way to him when the call came in. It was good to see him and many others in the family. What a blessing it is to have such a strong family around to help lift and support each other.

Now for the wake up call. Between my father-in-law and the family reunion, Nathan and I were reminded that we need to take better care of ourselves. No one can make us eat healthy and exercise. No one else can make those decisions for us. But we can decide to do those things so we can spend more years with our children and future grandchildren.

Nathan and I both decided last weekend that NOW is the time.

We are going to run the Country Music Marathon in April. The full. We've decided it's going to be our way of celebrating turning 40.

Training starts Monday, but today I started with walking and weights.

Goal #1--Run a Marathon will be checked off on April 25th, 2015

The Country Music 1/2 Marathon 2008

Starting #40 Set up a high school scifi/fantasy short story contest

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Perhaps it's because I just finished judging a short story contest for high school students. This was my third year and I've learned a lot from the experience. I think I'd like to do my own contest that is genre specific.

Imagination Begins With You is not specific and the talent is widely diverse. Which is wonderful! However, I keep thinking that if I could judge areas that I am more invested in, I might be able to give better feedback to these young writers. They are starting earlier than I did and therefore I feel they have the chance to really excel at this craft.

The plan:

• Talk to the creator of IBWY and see how he pulls it off each year
• Research some different methods for the students to submit their stories
• Find scifi/fantasy authors who would be willing to judge
• Pick a topic
• Market, market, market!

Goal:

Have the rules and regulations, a website, facebook page, twitter account and judges ready to go by August 1st. With a November 15th entry deadline.

Summer project! 

Starting #34 Update Family History Book

I've started looking into updating the descendants book that I made for my grandmother ten years ago. To be honest I feel a little overwhelmed. The program I used before is no longer on my computer and I don't know where the file is anyway. That means I will have to start from scratch. The original book was over 100 pages with scanned documents, photos and stories.

Where to start?

I believe I'll start with typing up all the stories. Maybe even try using the Dragon software my hubby bought me. Then I'll have to start begging all my relatives to scan and email me pictures for the book.

I also downloaded a new program that is compatible with my old PAF genealogy file. Hopefully that will make adding the pedigree charts and family group records easy to include. It's called Ancestral Quest 14.

I'll let you know what I think when I get a chance to sit down and play around with it.