Our vision for 2021

Happy New Year!

Basically no one is sad to say goodbye to 2020. As we look back and assess the past year, my hope is that we can all give ourselves a lot of grace. 2020 definitely did not look like I imagined it would, one year ago. There were many things I wanted to do, hoped to do, planned to do, which simply could not happen. My hope is that we can celebrate the good things, let go of the things we could not control, and move forward with optimism.

So, 2020 in review:

Family Goals

• Attend the temple twice. When everything shut down in the spring, we were afraid we wouldn't get to go at all this year. But we did get to the temple once this year, for the sealing of Valerie's sister Cydney. <3
• Visit Canyonlands National Park. Just didn't happen. We've moved this to our 2021 goals.
• Invite new friends to our home x4. Two of these were accomplished before Covid struck, and we decided to count the visit of our newest sister-in-law as a third. =) All things considered, we feel okay with where this one ended up.
• Take Grandma and Grandpa to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We went in June and had a great camping trip!
• Visit Tennessee. We visited James's family in September.
• Visit Twin Lakes. The most beautiful spot we've found in Colorado. Incredible!!
• Weekly Date Night. Lots of at-home dates this year forced us to get creative.
• Monthly FHE. This was new for us, we've never really done Family Home Evening. But we've loved it! Monthly works well for us.

Xander

• Read and write the alphabet. We're checking off the "read" part, as Xander is officially reading! But the writing part is still a work in progress

Joel

• Ride a bike without training wheels. We worked on this quite a bit over the summer, and it just wasn't clicking, so we took a break for awhile. But without prompting, Joel said he wanted to put it on his list for next year.
• Read a chapter book solo. He sailed through this goal early in the year. His favorites have been the Magic Tree House series and Roald Dahl's books.
• Run faster. In the spring, we set up a course in our cul-de-sac and timed him. We repeated it twice more, including a couple weeks ago, and his time significantly improved!

James

I've really been looking forward to this! It's been quite a year, and some of my goals didn't pan out, but I definitely feel pretty happy about my general growth and progress!

• Daily Spanish study: This went really well. I missed a day here and there, but they were few and far between. This has become as much of an ingrained habit as any I have, so I'm not going to make this an official goal going forward. At some point, however, I'd really like to take some more formal lessons and become semi-fluent one of these days.
• Read 12 new books: This might be a bit more weighted towards the end of the year, but I did it and then some!
• Emperor of Thorns: This is the 3rd in a fantasy trilogy. A pretty fun read, although a bit shallow and overly edgy at times. Be aware that this trilogy is chock full of extremely graphic violence, both standard and sexual.
• 11/22/63: This was such a powerful book, one of Stephen King's best. Imagine being able to travel back in time and save JFK from being assassinated; that's what's explored here. I loved the characters and the general storyline, and it even ended strong (which King often struggles with).
• The Crucible of Doubt: This is nonfiction that deals with faith struggles as a Latter-day Saint. It was valuable to me, and I highly recommend it to members of the Church that are struggling with their faith.
• The Lord of the Rings (counted as 3 books): I technically read this back when I was a kid, but I was much too young to appreciate it, so I'm counting it as new here. And wow, this book is deserving of every bit of praise it's received to date. The prose is some of the most beautiful I've ever read, and Tolkein is an incredible storyteller.
• The Licanius Trilogy (3 books): I suppose these should get their own separate reviews, but I don't feel they differed too much in quality. I picked these up because I kept seeing it recommended to Sanderson fans. It was fun, and I fell in love with Caeden especially, but I was disappointed by the high expectations I had going in. The story was only mildly interesting, and several of the main characters were pretty forgettable. 
• Chasing Gideon: This book follows various public defender systems in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright, back in 1963, that criminal defendants must be provided an attorney if they can't afford one. Chasing Gideon is informative and pretty depressing, but only because the state of public defense in the US is so horrible even today. Very much worth reading to get an idea on how inadequate public defender systems deprive defendants of basic and fundamental rights on a regular basis.
• Dawnshard: This is a short novel between books 3 and 4 of the Stormlight Archive. It was a pretty fun little book, and I enjoyed what happened with the story beats and character developments.
• The Traitor Baru Cormorant: This was my sleeper hit of the year. I went into this not really knowing what to expect, and what I discovered was a powerful fantasy story dealing with very real personal, social, and governmental issues. I can't really describe more without giving the story away, and it's very much worth going in blind.
• Rhythm of War: Book 4 of the Stormlight Archive, this was (unsurprisingly) my favorite of the year. I'll say right off the bat that it wasn't perfect; there were definitely story aspects and characters that fell a little flat. However, this is competing for my favorite of the series thus far. I deeply value what Sanderson did with Kaladin here, and generally speaking, I've never cried as much reading a book as I did here. An incredible continuation of arguably the best ongoing fantasy series today.
• The Green Mile: This is a rare instance of my having seen the movie before reading the book, and the movie was very faithful, so nothing was surprising going into this. It's still an emotional story with an important message concerning the death penalty, criminal justice, and race. Can absolutely recommend, but it's not for the squeamish. There's one execution scene in particular that's one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever read in a book, and I've read some pretty horrifying stuff.
• The Library at Mount Char: A low-fantasy/horror, I enjoyed this a great deal, but I doubt it would appeal to many. There's little exposition, the characters are generally unlikeable, and the violence is incredibly graphic (for real; for all my warnings in a couple of other books here, this is easily top-three most violent books I've ever read). For all that, it was a fascinating story with some really unique ideas and good execution to boot. 
• Starsight: The sequel to Sanderson's Skyward, this was a really fun read. I don't really go for YA, but I enjoyed this a lot, honestly a good bit more than Skyward. It's not especially complex or deep, and I felt it tried a bit too much to tug at the heartstrings, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Ace boot camp: COVID-19 cancelled this; will do this year.
• Come follow me: I did this every week (or made it up in adjacent weeks). I'm going to keep working on this in 2021.
• Get to 190: I made it! I'm at 188 today, but my lowest this year was 182. Holiday feasting has been bad for this, but I've done a lot better about controlling my eating.
• Bake 24 new recipes: I'm baking recipe number 24 today, so I'm counting this as complete!
• Pretzel rolls
• Pizza dough
• Scones
• Baguettes
• Tortillas
• Forest fruit cake
• Churros
• Bagels
• Cornbread
• Triple chocolate cheesecake
• Lemon chocolate mirror glaze cake
• Chocolate chip sourdough
• Oatmeal cream pies
• Steak and ale pie
• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
• Turtle cheesecake
• Peach cobbler
• Pumpkin cheesecakes
• Challah buns
• Mincemeat pie
• Gingerbread cookies
• Carrot cake
• Cranberry tart
• Eggnog cranberry starbread
• Weekly video journals: I've got to be honest, I gave up on this. It's just not my thing; perhaps I'll pick it back up in future.

Valerie

So much of what I hoped to accomplish this year got ruined by Covid. =( I can't deny that looking at my personal goals is a bit discouraging. But I remind myself that it was a weird year, and I can feel good about what I did accomplish.

• Write Allspeaker. I started writing this novel in the spring, then took a break over the summer with the intent to return to it in the fall. However, when we got the green light from our editor in September, all my writing time this fall was dedicated to The Seventh Guardian instead.
• Complete Project 365. My goal was to take a photo every day this year. I did miss a day here and there, but deliberately made up for it each time the following day. I'm calling this one a success!
• Plant a garden. Our first ever garden was a rousing success! It was awesome to eat our own produce all summer.
• Attend Insta-Inspire. Nixed by Covid. =(
• Referee at the Colorado State Championships. Nixed by Covid. =(
• Read 10 new books. I finished 8, and am most of the way through a 9th.
• The Toll
• Where the Crawdads Sing
• Hold On To Your Kids
• The Handmaid's Tale
• Midnight Sun
• Dawnshard
• Rhythm of War
• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
• (almost done!) In Spite of Lions
• Weekly Come Follow Me study. My scripture study was inconsistent this year. I'm resetting this goal for next year.
• Apply to Click Pro. This one I added after Insta-Inspire was canceled. I needed a new photography goal to keep me motivated. I made Click Pro in September.

Our purpose with this poster each year is to find things that we want to learn, improve, and do that are measurable and achievable within the year. We seek a balance of intellectual, physical, and spiritual in our personal goals. We want to push ourselves, without overdoing it.

Family Goals

• Visit Canyonlands National Park
• Go on 10 new hikes. We really want to spend more time outside this year!
• Camping Trip. Location TBD!
• Monthly FHE

Couple Goals

• Attend the Temple. We're feeling like one attendance this year may be ambitious.
• Make-up anniversary trip. We're planning to celebrate our 8th anniversary later this year, hoping that the Covid situation will be improved.
• Weekly date night.

Xander

• Earn yellow stripe. Xander has struggled a bit with taekwondo, so when he declared of his own volition that he wants to earn his yellow stripe belt, we were delighted!
• Take a painting class. This was another fun surprise. Xander specifically wants to learn how to paint "a real snake."
• Monthly date night with Mom or Dad. We have recently instituted parent-child dates, and we've all been loving them.

Joel

• Ride a bike without training wheels.
• Read two BIG books. We haven't picked them yet, but Joel definitely wants to step it up.
• Cook a meal solo. Joel really wants to learn how to cook all by himself. We're excited to see how it goes!
• Monthly date night with Mom or Dad.

James

Here's what I'm going for this year:

• Come Follow Me complete study: This year, I'm not only going to read the scriptures, I'm also going to follow the study guide a lot more. We'll see how it goes.
• Break brick with a punch: I'm testing for my 4th degree black belt next year, and I really want to punch a brick for it. I need to start on this now, and I absolutely need to break with it this year to make sure I'm ready.
• 18 new books: pretty self-explanatory!
• Knit a blanket: I got back into knitting recently, and this will be my first major project. I've already started, and I'm very excited to try it out!
• Ace boot camp: Same thing as last year. It will all be digital this year, but I want to excel and learn all that I need to to keep growing as a public defender.

Valerie

This year, I have exercised restraint with my list of goals. I take these very seriously, and over the years, I have proven very committed to them. Because of the nature of my goals this year (one in particular) and knowing how time-intensive they will be, I have kept my list much more limited than in years past.

• Release The Seventh Guardian. My third book is scheduled for publication in February. I'm delighted, but I also have a lot of work to do, both before and after it comes out.
• Open Grand Valley Taekwondo. This is the big one! I have been teaching in my garage for the last year, and I am so, so excited to open 'officially' in a commercial facility. Starting my own business is a big step. It's going to pretty significantly change life around here. But this has been my dream for many years, and I am so excited to finally be in a position to go for it.
• Read 10 new books.
• 50 Pushups. I've got pretty buff legs, and want to work on my arms this year. My goal is to do 50 good pushups in one go. If that proves too easy, I'll increase the number.
• Weekly Come Follow Me study. I have recommitted to my personal scripture study.

We are looking forward to an eventful year to come! 

Click Pro

Click Pro: An association of professional photographers pursuing advanced artistic and business development while amplifying the voice of women worldwide. Membership to Click Pro is application-based. An invitation to join is extended on the basis of a 150 image portfolio review.

Click Pro has been on my radar for a couple of years now. For a long time it felt like an unattainable goal. Yet as I have grown as a photographer it started to feel like something I could achieve - someday. In April I made the decision: I would build my portfolio and apply sometime this year. I added it to my 2020 poster of goals for the year and set to work.

The application process is rigorous. 150 images is a lot. The portfolio needs to flow one image to the next and feel cohesive as a whole. It is graded on a rubric that includes seven categories, each with a possible score of 6 points. The minimum score for admittance is 32.  These are the categories:

Exposure

Use of Light

Color & White Balance

Composition

Processing & Cohesion

Technical Basics

Creativity & Intention

I joined a prep group with women who were also in the process of curating portfolios to apply. Over the summer we have given feedback to help each other get closer to the goal. Closely examining the work of others - measured against the Click Pro standards - really helped me fine-tune my own portfolio. Four women in my group applied before me: two were accepted and two were rejected. I was both intimated and encouraged by the feedback they received. 

I have worked so hard this summer. It has definitely been frustrating at times, as I have striven to conform to the strict standards of this organization. But I have learned a great deal and I am a better photographer for having gone through the process. I don't think I have ever been more delighted to receive an email than receiving my Click Pro acceptance letter.

Here is a link to my accepted portfolio:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/188189745@N08/albums/72157714054071586/with/49822519508/

Here are the scores I received:

• Exposure Triangle: 5

• Use of Light: 5

• Color & White Balance: 5

• Composition: 5

• Processing & Cohesion: 3

• Technical Basics: 4

• Creativity & Intention: 5

I am scraping in with the minimum acceptable score but I'll take it! I am thrilled. I honestly expected to be lower in the color & white balance category as that is something I have really struggled with - but also what I have worked hardest to improve this summer. I was bummed to be docked so much on my processing score as I generally feel like editing is one of my strengths but they cited specific photos and I could definitely see the weak spots they were talking about. They were very complimentary about my composition and creativity, and cited my use of color as my greatest strength. That made me happy! I've been asked what benefits I receive as a member of Click Pro. Because I am not in business there are some I'll miss out on - listing in their directory and business opportunities. I do gain access to members-only learning resources, and I'm excited about the continuing education there, as well as feature and mentoring opportunities. But honestly for me the biggest benefit at the moment is being recognized. I have friends and family who admire my photography but it's incredibly validating to have an unbiased, professional voice say "yes, you are a great photographer." And I have a badge to prove it. =)

Looking back on 2019, and looking forward to 2020.

Happy New Year!

It is time for one of our favorite traditions: our new year's poster. Each year we create a poster board with our goals for the coming year. The goals must be quantifiable, so that we can check them off as they are completed, and they must be achievable within the calendar year. At this time we like to assess how we did in the previous year, and look forward to the new goals that we have set for ourselves. 

Family Goals

This past year we did very well on our family/couple goals:

• Successfully move to Colorado: Knocked this one out of the park.
• Family camping trip: We went to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in September, and it was amaaaaaazing.
• Go stargazing: We planned our trip to Black Canyon specifically to accomplish this goal. It's a "certified dark sky" area because of the lack of light pollution. The star gazing there is breathtaking.
• Find a new martial arts school: The week after we moved in we joined Academy of Self Defense here in Grand Junction, and we've been enjoying learning Shorin-ryu.
• Trip to Tennessee: We ended up visiting twice this year, in March and December.
• Create a family budget: We did this over the summer and it's been going pretty well.
• Attend the temple twice: We made it three times this year.
• Weekly "Come Follow Me" family study: This goal evolved over the year. We'd been doing something different for our family scripture study at the beginning of the year, so we set the goal to study from CFM once a week. But at some point we dropped our other schedule and moved to CFM daily with the children. All in all we feel we've been doing well with our family scripture study.
• Weekly date night: Sometimes it's with kids in tow, sometimes it's at home after they're in bed, and sometimes it's kid-free. But each and every week this year we have planned and gone on a date. This is a goal we will probably set each year forever!

And our family goals for 2020:

• Attend the temple twice: Two times a year seems the most practical right now, though we wish we could go more. We are assigned to the Monticello Temple, which is about 3 hours from home. 
• Visit Canyonlands National Park: Never been, but this year is the time!
• Invite new friends to our home: We decided we need to be more social. 
• Take Grandma and Grandpa to Black Canyon of the Gunnison: We loved it so much, we want to share!
• Visit Tennessee: We're going in the summer this time, because we want to see all those trees green! And go swimming. =)
• Visit Twin Lakes: This summer we were driving home from Denver when there was a mudslide near Glenwood Springs. We ended up on this horribly long detour (our 4 hour trip ended up being 9 hours!) But there was a bright side, because we ended up going through this incredibly beautiful area up in the mountains. We decided then and there that we had to come back.
• Weekly date night
• Monthly Family Home Evening: We've never really done FHE, but decided we wanted to set aside time for a formal family home evening each month: lesson, activity, treats and all.

James

It's been a long and busy year for both me and our whole family. I got a new job, we moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, and we've all grown a bit older and (hopefully) wiser. However, let's see how that translated into completing my New Year's goals for 2019.

• Daily Spanish study: I count this one as achieved. I didn't quite do it every single day, but I was really aiming for consistency, and I achieved that. I'd guess I only missed a handful of days across the entire year, and it shows. I can now at least mostly understand written Spanish and I can engage in basic communication.
• Daily reading/audiobook: I didn't achieve this one, but I'm chalking this up to a bad goal (for me). It turns out I don't really do well in forcing myself to read everyday. Instead, I do much better when I can find a good book and tear through it over the course of a few days/weeks. This is reflected in my goal for 2020. 
• Settle finances: This was too vague a goal, but I feel that we mostly accomplished it. We set out a rough budget, have mostly kept to it, and have ideas for how to improve it in this coming year.
• Create and follow a personal exercise plan: This was a resounding success. I've been doing Karate pretty consistently since we started shortly after moving here, and I've also started calorie counting with Valerie (turns out it's a lot easier doing it with someone than by myself). I've lost over 15 pounds this year, and I still have a ways to go for my ultimate weight goal.
• Weekly video journal: This, on the other hand, didn't go too well at all. Out of the possible 52, I only got maybe a quarter of those. I'm reemphasizing this for 2020 and will set myself up to do better. I really feel that this is important for me.
• Bake 12 new recipes: I blew past this one only halfway through the year. The ones I have listed on the board that I made are the following: Bloomer loaf, glazed doughnuts, filled doughnuts, maneesh, banoffee pie, sourdough, eclairs, cast-iron pizza, pesto star bread, lemon cheesecake, sourdough focaccia, and cinnamon star bread.

That done, let's look at my goals for the coming year.

• Daily Spanish study: This one just follows on my previous goal. I'm going to continue in Duolingo for this year, but I'll probably have to shift to something else by the time 2021 rolls around
• Read 12 new books: As noted above, I think this suits my reading style a lot more. It will also give me a bit of a challenge and encourage me to find books I like as opposed to books that I can read every day. I'm most excited for Rhythm of War (hopefully it comes out this year)!
• Ace boot camp: Every new attorney in the Colorado Public Defender must do what's called a boot camp after they've completed basic training. What I need to do is find a complex, real felony case and prep it for trial. I then spend a week at this boot camp being grilled on and testing out each aspect of my trial prep. I'm a bit nervous to be honest, but I feel confident that I can do well so long as I'm prepared, and that's really the point of this goal.
• Weekly Come Follow Me: This past year we did Come Follow Me with the family, and it went fairly well. However, I was never really prepared enough, and I want to change that this year. Every Sunday, I'm going to read through all of the material and the thoughts included in each section so I can more readily discuss it with my family.
• Get to 190: I started the year at 215, and I'm down to 200 (even lower than that before Christmas and its attendant feasts). I believe another 10 pounds is realistic and challenging, so we'll see how it goes!
• Bake 24 new recipes: This will be significantly more challenging than last year's. I've run out of the easy recipes that I want to make, and 24 recipes is a lot (especially considering I also want to lose weight...). I'll just have to get more creative!
• Weekly video journal: I'm determined to do better this time around. I'll set a timer in my phone for each Sunday and make sure it gets done.

Those are my goals. I hope to be a better, healthier, wiser, and more experienced man by the time next New Year's rolls around. Wish me luck!

Valerie

I feel generally quite pleased with how my goals went in 2019. Let's examine:

• Earn 5th Dan: In January I completed my Master's Test and earned my 5th degree black belt in taekwondo. It was a ton of work, especially considering that I had a baby in December. It was an achievement I'm very proud of.
• Finish "The Seventh Guardian" revisions: Finishing Book 3 has been on my posters for several years now, so it was a HUGE relief to complete this goal. We'll know how to move forward when we receive feedback on this draft from our editor.
• Project 52 with Clickin Moms: The goal was to take at least one photo each week following specific prompts. This was a fun goal that has set me up for this year's photography goal, see below.
• Journal weekly: I'm counting this one as complete, though I did miss a few weeks here and there. Like James, I was aiming for consistency and I feel I achieved that.
• Learn Photoshop: This was a scary goal for me, but in May I took a class that basically changed my world. I have come to absolutely love Photoshop and editing in general, and view it almost as a separate awesome hobby from photography.
• Read 5 new books: I ended up reading 8 new books this year. I read Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Assassin's Quest, Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians, Just Mercy, The Orphan Keeper, and Muddy. 
• Finish the Duolingo Spanish tree: I'm suuuuuper close. It doesn't help that Duolingo added a bunch of new content this year! I feel good about this goal even though I didn't quite complete it.
• Take a yoga class: This one just didn't happen. =P

Now for my 2020 goals:

• Write "Allspeaker": This is a novel I've had on the back burner for awhile. I've taken a break from writing for a few months after finishing Book 3. But this coming year I'm determined to complete a draft of Allspeaker.
• Complete Project 365: This is a goal that I'm nervous about. The goal is to take (and hopefully share) a photograph every day this year. I am pretty close to shooting daily as it is, but I want to be more deliberate about it. My hope is to discover more creative perspectives in shooting my daily life, and  to become more consistent in style.
• Plant a garden (and hopefully keep it alive): I have never grown a garden before. I have, at most, planted pots of cherry tomatoes. So this is a pretty big undertaking for me! We redid our landscaping this year, and included a garden space. I have a lot to learn but I hope to find at least some success!
• Attend Insta-Inspire: In April I will be going to a photography retreat in Phoenix. I am super nervous about it. I am purely a hobbyist photographer so I have a bit of impostor syndrome! But I hope that it will be fun and that I will learn a ton.
• Referee at the Colorado State Championships: What with our moves and having babies, I've been out of the referee circuit for a few years. I want to start getting back into refereeing taekwondo, so I've set a modest goal of working this one event in 2020.
• Read 10 new books: Five was easy last year, so I'm pushing myself a bit more by setting my goal at 10. I've found it hard to make time for reading since having children, but I'm a lot happier when I do.
• Weekly Come Follow Me study: My plan is to dedicate time each Sunday to actually study the scriptures for the coming week. We do pretty well at reading scriptures with our children every day, but my own personal study has been lacking, and my goal this year is to take the time for myself.

Joel

When James and I started talking about our goals for this year, Joel jumped in and said that he wanted to set some goals too. So we talked about it with him, and these are the goals he decided to set.

• Ride a bike without training wheels: He's pretty close, I don't think this will take him long.
• Read a chapter book solo: He's become such a good reader, so this will push him to the next level.
• Run faster: Joel was adamant about this goal. I don't like vague goals, but we haven't figured out how to measure it yet, so we're putting it up as is.

Xander

• Read and write the alphabet: Xander surprises me with the things he picks up all the time, but the alphabet has been slow in coming. So we're determined to master it this year!

Summer Bucket List

At the beginning of summer the boys and I created our "Summer Bucket List." Joel, Xander and I came up with a bunch of things that we wanted to do over the course of our summer. We have enjoyed having adventures and checking things off! I thought it would be fun to recap all in one place. I didn't get photos of *everything* but I got most!

Make a cardboard rocketship

Run in the sprinklers

Visit 2 new parks

Visit 2 new parks

Swim lessons

Visit the Colorado National Monument

Eat otterpops

Make a sidewalk chalk mural

Camping

Go down a waterslide (I didn't get any shots of the slide but it happened!)

Find a cool new picture spot
This was obviously one of my additions to the list. We had fun exploring this local lavender farm!

Lake day / Build a sandcastle

Roast s'mores

Eat snowcones

Go to a museum - Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Gelato on Main Street

Bowling selfie!

Explore a local orchard

The last thing we have to check off is our upcoming trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison where we will be camping and stargazing. We were planning on going in June but ended up having to reschedule for September. We'll still count it. =) But as Joel starts school this week our summer as such has come to a close. It's been a good one!

Home Sweet Home

Our new home brings us so much joy! So naturally we wanted to show it off. =) We moved in on March 30th and have been settling in nicely (sans an unfortunate adventure in our crawl space--ugh!). Today I finally felt like everything was looking good enough to take some photos and do a video tour. Happily I present, as Xander likes to say, "my Colorado house!"

And because I'm me, I also took photos. Joel insisted on being in every single one, because he's silly and awesome like that. 

View from the front entry

"Family room"

"Sitting room"

Dining room

Glorious kitchen

It's so silly, but I just love the pantry door

Kitchen

Kids bathroom

Playroom

Playroom

Office

Master bedroom

Taekwondo shrine in the master bedroom =)

Master bath <3

Holley dojang in the garage

Backyard

We have major plans for the backyard. I will probably end up posting progress updates, but we'll see how it goes!

Backyard

We are seriously in love with our new home. The interior is everything that we really wanted, and we are excited to invest time, money, and effort into the backyard to make it equally nice. It is so wonderful to finally feel like we can put down roots. It's time to make our house into our forever home!

2019 New Years Goals

Happy New Year!

Every year we create a poster with our goals for the coming year. This is one of my favorite traditions! The rules for the annual poster are A) the goals must be achievable in one year, and B) they must be quantifiable, as in, they have to be things we can measure and check off. 

First, I like to review how we did on our goals for the previous year. To be perfectly honest, we didn't do so hot this year. 2018 was a year of upheaval for us. At New Year's we didn't know where James would be working post graduation, so a lot was up in the air. As things coalesced, some of our goals changed or fell by the wayside. 

James:
Did marvelously with his Duolingo study this year, he's been making great progress in Spanish. He did read (or listen to an audiobook) every day. He did obtain a post-graduation job. He did not practice the piano every day.

Joel:
Learned to read! Of course it's still a developing skill, but we love to hear him read beginning books to us, it's awesome. He's still working on his roundhouse. =)

Xander:
His goals were ones that we neglected this year.

Valerie:
I did not work on my novel "Allspeaker" this year. (Although I did make some progress on "The Seventh Guardian" fortunately.) I did pretty well with my photography challenge. Duolingo totally fell by the wayside for me. I did finish my poomsae challenge in time for my black belt test in October. Bike riding didn't happen as intended. But I definitely got pregnant!

Family goals:
We successfully moved to Utah, a location which meant we didn't need to find a new martial arts school, haha. We went on one of the two camping trips we'd intended. James and I did attend the temple three times. We are still working through the Book of Mormon together. We're terrible about walking our dog, but at least we've been on a date every week!

And now I present our goals for 2019!

James:
-Daily Spanish study
-Daily reading/audiobook
-Settle finances
-Create and follow personal exercise plan
-Weekly video journal
-Bake 12 new recipes

Valerie:
-Earn 5th Dan
-Finish "The Seventh Guardian" revisions
-Project 52 with Clickin Moms (ie weekly photography project)
-Journal weekly
-Read 5 new books
-Finish Duolingo Spanish tree
-Take a yoga class

Family/Couple goals:
-Successfully move to Colorado
-Family camping trip
-Go star gazing
-Find a new martial arts school
-Trip to Tennessee
-Create a family budget
-Attend the temple (number of times to be determined when we know what part of Colorado we're moving to)
-Weekly "Come Follow Me" family study
-Weekly date night

We also want to add "Plant a tree" if we end up buying a house this year. But we'll have to see!

We decided not to set goals for the children this year. We've decided  to wait until they're old enough to set their own goals. We feel like we shouldn't be forcing our ideas of what their progression should be, but should let them discover their own interests. Of course we'll be working on things together, but it's a little different when we're setting up checkboxes on their behalf. So we'll revisit those in later years.

We are excited about this coming year. We've got some big changes ahead for our family. Hopefully our move will go well; we are looking forward to settling down at last and hopefully not moving again for a while! =) 

We wish you a happy New Year and a great 2019!

Kieran's Home Birth

My estimated due date was December 2nd. I fully expected Kieran to come late, and did everything I could to prepare myself emotionally for that eventuality. After all, Joel was 7 days late and Xander was 12 days late. I knew it was practically inevitable. But despite all my mental prep, it was still really rough, especially the last five days or so.

On Thursday morning (41 weeks + 4 days), my midwife Karla had me come for a non-stress test. At this stage of lateness, they start to get concerned about the placenta shutting down. The NST was okay, but not great. Kieran's heart didn't have any decelerations, which was good, but he didn't have great accelerations in response to stimuli, which is less good. At that point, Karla gave me a concoction of castor oil, juice, almond butter, and lemon verbena.

I had taken castor oil with Joel, and I had been pretty reluctant to try it again. Online forums are rife with warnings about the risks. But there comes a desperation, and with my midwife's encouragement, I went ahead and gave it a try.

About three hours later, I began having contractions. They were not super intense, but they quickly grew regular and stayed that way through the afternoon. I began to be hopeful! We had dinner, went to the store, inflated the birth tub, and around 8pm took the boys over to my parents for the night.

However, my contractions were not progressing. Karla checked me that evening, and I was only dilated to 3cm. It was devastating to have made so little progress after contracting all day. The problem was that Kieran was still posterior and his head wasn't engaged in my cervix. Karla gave me some exercises to do that would encourage him to turn around. I worked at them through the evening and into the small hours of the morning, and my contractions did grow more intense...until I fell asleep. When I woke up early the next morning, labor had stopped entirely. It was sooooo discouraging!

So now Friday the 14th had arrived (41+5), and I felt like we were back at square one. James and I went to Karla's house at 10am. She checked me again, and to our surprise and relief she announced that I was dilated to 7cm and 70% effaced! But Kieran's head still wasn't engaged. Karla gave me another dose of the castor oil concoction and sent me home to work on moving this baby around.

At about 11am, contractions started up again, as intense as they'd left off the night before. I moved between exercises, working to get Kieran to turn around. My mom brought the kids home for a bit, so we hung out before putting Xander down for a nap, then put a show on for Joel. The intensity of my contractions increased, but the interval stayed irregular, between 6-9 minutes apart.

Just before 2pm, Karla texted to see how things were going. When I told her what was happening, she asked if I was ready for her to come over. I told her I wanted to wait until my contractions were closer together. She warned me not to wait too long.

Then all the sudden, my contractions jumped to 3 minutes apart. After a few of these in a row, I decided that maybe things were moving faster than I'd thought. I texted Karla at 2:20pm and told her yes, I did want her to come over. She headed our way. I called my mom and asked her to come pick up the boys. So in the midst of stronger and stronger contractions, James and I packed up the boys and their overnight things. My mom and Karla arrived within minutes of each other. We said goodbye to the children, and my mom left with them around 2:45pm. It was a bit chaotic there for a bit!

Once they were gone, Karla checked me. I was dilated to 9cm and pretty close to complete. Ahh! So I called the photographer. I think I gave her a mini heart attack when I told her I was already at 9cm. Fortunately she made it over in time! (Unlike Karla's assistant, who arrived about 5 minutes after Kieran did.)

I labored for a little while longer before I got in the birth pool.We had the tub set up next to our Christmas tree. With the lights down low and "Ever After" playing quietly in the background, it felt like it was going to be peaceful and amazing.

But I only got to labor in the tub for about 20 minutes. Karla was monitoring Kieran's heart during contractions, and she grew concerned about the drop in his heart rate. Ultimately she asked me to get out of the tub so that she could control things better. Getting out of the tub was not very fun. We moved me to the floor; I ended up in this weird half-squat position. After another contraction, Karla told me that we needed to get the baby out, now.

There's nothing like the urgency of a midwife in a moment like that. On my next contraction, she told me to push and to keep pushing. In the background, I could hear Karla asking James to call 911, in case we needed help getting the baby to breathe. Now feeling frightened for Kieran, I kept pushing, certain that I was tearing as I did so.

On my third big push, his head was delivered. His body followed easily, and then to all our relief, he let out an enormous cry! James was able to hang up with 911 as we welcomed little Kieran into the world at 3:55pm.

I remember feeling immediately euphoric after the birth of my other children. Unfortunately it took a few minutes to get to that point this time--I'm pretty sure that Kieran bruised my tailbone with his little posterior self. It made it really hard to get into a comfortable position so that I could hold him. Ultimately James and Karla cobbled together some cushions for me to recline on there on the floor so that I could finally hold my baby. (Part of the adventure of birthing at home!) What a joy he was to hold at last!!

Not too long after birth, I called my parents and had them bring the boys over to meet their new little brother. They were all pretty delighted.

After my parents took the boys back to their house for the night, there was much settling in. Karla got Kieran's measurements: 8lbs 2oz, 20 inches long, and 14.5 head circumference. (And no tearing for me, huzzah!)

Karla finished examining Kieran and filling out paperwork. She and her assistant got all the birth supplies cleaned up, got me cleaned up, made sure Kieran was nursing well, started the laundry, then departed, leaving James and I at home with our snuggly little boy.

All in all it was a wonderful birth experience. Giving birth at home is awesome. It's empowering, it's peaceful, and it's sooooo nice to be able to sleep in my own bed afterward. James is the best partner; he was there every step of the way encouraging, comforting, and supporting me. This was our third delivery together, and he knew just what to do - applying pressure to my back, setting up things I would need, and caring for me and the baby afterward. I am more in love with James than ever, and we are both so in love with our sweet Kieran.