Happy Tuesday Week #2 - Feeling Good About Myself

For this week's Happy Tuesday post, I want to share a triumph that I had this week.  For basically all my adult life (or, at least my motherhood life) I have been overweight and out of shape. And like so many of us, my self-image is really poor when it comes to my physical self.  This issue has negative ramifications on nearly every aspect of my life, and again, like so many of us, I have really struggled with this.

My triumph this week was that I completed three straight weeks of working out with my husband five mornings a week.  We're using the Biggest Loser game for the Wii.  I love it - if you can love sweating and hurting and being out of breath and heart racing.   ;-)

Celebrating Freedom for All

In honor of today's national celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King and his contributions to American freedom, I took a few moments today to listen to his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.  As a white woman born in 1968, I have a difficult time putting myself into the shoes of all those gathered in Washington DC that day in August 1963.  My life experience does not include blatant or subtle discrimination, hatred or violence against me.  I have not suffered injustice.  I have been blessed with opportunity and equality.  I can't imagine an America as described in the history books.  All I can do is remain grateful for my blessings, and treat all others with kindness and respect, and teach my children to do the same.

New Kitchen Accessories

As I mentioned in my post the other day about accessorizing the blank spots that remain after un-decorating for Christmas, I went shopping at Home Goods and Hobby Lobby to find some new and interesting stuff for the house. As things usually go, I didn't find much stuff for the places I was thinking of, but I did find some stuff for an area that I wasn't really shopping for.  Isn't that usually the way?

In this empty spot in the kitchen where our peppermint kitchen Christmas tree used to be...

Post-Holidays Blank Slate

Like many other folks out in blog land, we're doing a lot of cleaning and freshening up around our house since we took down the Christmas decorations.  I kind of like the sparse look, especially when it's all nice and clean like we made it today.  It gives a fresh perspective, a chance to breathe.

Oops! That didn't take long!

Well, last week I wrote about joining in on MCP Project 52, where you contribute one photo per week for a year to a weekly themed collection. I jumped in once, and then promptly forgot to do it this week!  Oops!

I'm not giving up - I'll still try to keep up with those weeks that I remember, have time, etc.  Just like anything else - don't let one little bump in the road stop me from the journey, right?

The theme for next week is "Shades of Gray".  Here's to second chances!

Want to join in the fun?  Visit MCP Project 52 here.

Enjoying this view

Yesterday we had a nice, easy, light snowfall, just enough to put a lovely blanket of white on the landscape.  I had just a moment to step out onto the deck in the morning before work and snap a few photos of the yard.

Happy Tuesday Week #1 - Things That Made Me Happy Today

Happy Tuesday, everybody!  Thanks for dropping by - we're having a party today to celebrate all things Happy!  I hope you'll link up and share something that catches your eye, makes you giggle, puts a smile on your face, or lightens your heart.

Belated Blooper Before and After - Half Mustachioed Santa

A week or so ago, there was a blog party at Between Naps on the Back Porch where posters would show their blog bloopers from 2010.  At the time, I didn't think I had anything to offer, since I've only been blogging for a couple of months.  But then as I was putting away the Christmas decorations last week, I found that one of my Santa figures had a little boo-boo that I hadn't noticed before.

This particular Santa had made a prominent appearance in two of my most popular blog posts - the one about my German Smoker Santas and the one about my Christmas Eve Table.   In both posts, this poor Santa showed off his little boo-boo for all to see.

Some favorite things today

Today, a quiet Saturday in mid-January, I'm enjoying the nice slow pace of life, and finding comfort in some warm and cozy mid-winter things...

Home-made potato and ham soup for dinner

MCP Project 52 - Week 1 - Something In Your House

Here's my first entry into the MCP Project 52.  This week's theme was "Something In Your House".  You've seen this photo before, but I thought it would make a nice entry this week, and since I did take the photo within the past 7 days, it counts toward this week's assignment.  Just barely!   :-)

Putting Christmas Away

MCP Project 52

I've been tossing around the idea of joining the cool kids and attempting do the "Photo A Day", or Photo 365, or whatever you want to call it.  The idea being that you capture snippets and snapshots of your life every day for a year.  You can of course purchase special albums or scrapbooks to store these photos in - and I've been sorely tempted to do that too.   After all, shopping for scrapbook supplies has been one of the most habit-forming addictions of my life.  I think I'm over it now.  Or, I should say, I'm a recovering shop-aholic.  Anyway, I've been tempted to set the 365 goal for myself, but then I realize that I'd be setting myself up for disappointment after a while.  (I'm not being cynical - trust me, I cannot do a photo every day for a year.) Then I saw this idea today on Pioneer Woman's photography blog.  How 'bout just 52 photos per year?  Using the MCP Project 52.  Yes! that's more my style.

True spirit of giving?

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I was reading hundreds of blog posts from all over blog land, all with so many great ideas for making the holidays merry and bright.  I don't remember where I saw this tip, but I loved it and wanted to try it.  The original post was about how to inject some creativity into the packages that we mail to someone, and showed an example of using fresh cut pine boughs and scented pinecones instead of packing peanuts.  I loved this idea, and was excited to try it on a package that I was sending to a family member.

Happy Tuesday

I've been pondering the question lately:  What becomes of a blog that's entitled "Holidays at the Harris Home" when the holidays are over?  I know that I don't want to be done blogging, but the thing is, I'm not really into any holidays other than Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.  And I'm not even all that much excited about New Year's, but I include it here because it's kind of a package deal, you know?  But I just can't get myself excited over blogging a lot for the other holidays that come up in the year.  Don't get me wrong - I love me a good day off of work!  and I do get all Federal holidays off (helloooooo MLK Day! You scrumptious day off just two weeks after New Year's, you!)  But our family life doesn't really revolve around any of the other holidays, we don't really decorate, we don't have parties, we don't do countdowns.  With the exception of birthdays and Christmas, I guess we're kind of the non-celebratory types as it turns out.  (Is that bad?)

Closet Clean-up Before and After

I'm working on getting a little more organized around here these days, like a lot of you.  Putting the Christmas stuff away is a big job these days, and takes quite a few days in a row to get it all done.  But here  was a quick and satisfying organization project that only took an hour or so.

Before:

The De-Santa-fication Process Has Begun

"The de-Santa-fication process has begun. "  (Name that movie.)

New Year's Day around here most often is filled with un-decorating and football.  And maybe a little Rose Parade thrown in for good measure.  And of course the pork and sauerkraut that brings good luck all year long.

We've made it through about 95% of the dismantling, and about 50% of the packing away.  With breaks for cleaning, eating, and watching football, I anticipate that it will take both today and tomorrow, off and on, to complete. I hope to be done by dinner time tomorrow night.  Until then, these are some of the views we have around our house.