I am in growth!

I have known about the Sidetracked Home Executives since about 1993 or 94, when my husband was in graduate school and my daughter was very young. I heard them on Focus on the Family and they spoke to me.

Anyway, I have been “in the box” off and on for years. I spent a lot of time doing Flylady which is kind of an offshoot of the SHE system. I met a lot of wonderful Flylady friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with, but I honestly feel the box system works better for me.

It’s easier to carry the 3×5 cards around from room to room to know what to do next rather than a big binder, and I think it’s easier to add or take something away from the box, too.

Anyway, I bought myself a big card file and set things up from the Happiness File, another book by the authors of the Sidetracked Home Executives which is like my get organized bible.

With Christmas come and gone, I decided that Dec. 26 would be my New Year and I would get back on track with Weight Watchers and my home.

I searched all over for my box and my organization books. Yes, I get the irony of not being able to find the box and books that help keep me organized. Finally, I found them on the floor next to my husband’s chair. He’d been watching me go through, literally, every drawer and shelf in the house trying to figure out where these things went. See, about a month or so ago, I had planned to get back in the box and i knew exactly where I had done that planning – on my side of the sofa/recliner he sits in. Everything got moved for Christmas and I knew the stuff had to be nearby. He must have moved them off his end table to the floor!

So, I spent a good chunk of yesterday figuring everything out again and planning my days/weeks/months. I knew that today would be a half cleaning day and I would do all my before bed stuff so we’d be ready for today.

THEN:

All the drains in the house backed up. It was pouring outside and we have a huge, lovely live oak tree outside our front door and we thought we’d handled the root problem, especially since we had a “weed” tree (I don’t know what it was the but arborist said no one actually plants those trees) taken out of the yard, too.

Guess not.

We quickly packed up all of the stuff we would need and headed to the in-laws’ house to spend the night since we couldn’t flush anything.

So, now Roto=Rooter guy’s been here and we’re back. But my card file system is already out of whack as today was supposed to be a cleaning day and Steve said we needed to run to the store to get cleaner as the toilets backed up into the tubs.

I didn’t get home until after 10 am which messed up my morning plans. However, the system is new-ish to us and this happens every time I try to get back in the box. Not the drains but something pops up to throw me off the system.

I figure I’ll do what I can card-wise today and just keep going. It’ll be better than it was, if not perfect. Flylady says that you’re never behind, you just jump in where you are. She also says even housework done imperfectly blesses your family.

I will keep going.

Here is my modern take on the annual Christmas letter. This will end up on Facebook where I “live” and most of my friends and family are there, or at least their kids are so it is my hope that everyone who needs to will see this.

What can I say about 2011? It was a pretty good year in a lot of ways, but as years go, it had its ups and downs.

Noah started the year preparing to take his First Communion and playing basketball with a team at the YMCA. Juliette was starting her second semester as a junior in college and beginning to stress about getting a summer internship.

Steve and I were continuing our same jobs, he working for CCT and worrying, at least at the beginning of the year, whether he would have a job by the end of the year, with budget cuts at the university. I was, and continue to be, still working as Mom and CEO of the Brandt family, as well as writing fantasy novels.

Noah moved from basketball to soccer, still at the Y, and we began to notice that he wasn’t as competitive as the other kids. He was content to have fun and play, but winning wasn’t as important to him. He joined another basketball team in the summer, and while we loved his coach who took great pains to explain the plays and the goals of the team, even going so far as to design a play that worked to Noah’s strengths, passing and blocking, after that “season” finished, we decided not to sign him up again for a team sport. His non-competitive, easily distractable nature seems to lend itself to less athletic pursuits.

In March, Steve and I attended a writes’ conference in Houma, LA, where we each pitched our latest books to an agent. She told me to try to cut 35,000 words from my book and contact her then.

I cut 29,000 and sent her an email in August. To my surprise and delight, she remembered me but said she was much busier than she expected. She suggested I try to find other representation and if that was unsuccessful, to contact her again in December. I did, it was and I will be sending her another email by the end of the year.

Steve decided not to contact her again because he feels his book needs more work that he has time for at the moment.

On a side note, our friend Jo Templeton also pitched to the same agent at the same conference and while she, too, was unsuccessful in getting representation, the agent’s words helped her plot the second and third books in her series and her first one was picked up by Crescent Moon Press, release date to be announced.

Speaking of Crescent Moon, I took a job with them as content editor. At the moment, I have three books I’m working on, but it looks like all three will be finished, or my part, anyway, soon, and I hope to see them released in 2012.

Noah took his First Communion on May 15.

Juliette started a book review blog, Paperbacks and Frosting, and while she didn’t get a summer internship, she is now finishing up one she got for the Fall Semester, with Paige Wheeler at Folio Lit.

Noah went to soccer camp this summer again, and took swimming lessons.

We did not go on a family vacation due to timing issues and conflicts in scheduling, and all of us have decided we can’t let that happen again. We need to take some time off!

Noah, Juliette and I did Vacation Bible School again this year, and as always, we loved it and it was exhausting! Next summer will be interesting as the school is undergoing major remodeling and it will probably interfere with VBS, as far as space and ease of movement throughout the school/church campus.

In August, my sister-in-law Elizabeth and I met up in Nashville for five days before school started. It was a lot of fun and we saw lots of touristy things and even went to a show at the Grand Ole Opry. We’re considering making this trip an annual event, although the venue will change.

Steve traveled a lot this year, more than usual as he has been given more and more responsibility as his seniority at CCT increases and because some people left due to the anticipated budget cuts which didn’t happen as expected. He went to Seattle twice and several other places this year.

At the beginning of October, my in-laws took us all to Shreveport to the Red River Revel, a big art fair. It was a lot of fun and we spent a little too much money, but we’re hoping to go back next year.

Thanksgiving was held our our house this year after two years of spending it in a condo in Orlando. I think just this week we finished all the turkey leftovers!

Our Christmas tree is up and all the presents have been bought!

I hope your 2011 was a good one and that 2012 will bring you all you desire, but most of all, I hope you receive all you need to become the person God created you to be. Some of those gift may be in the form of trials. We know that gold is refined in fire, and that the cross comes before the crown. May prayer for you all is that you receive joy and happiness and love but most of all perseverance and strength.

You are all my friends, but more than that, you are a soul God loves and Jesus died for. You are more precious than gold and were created in the image of our God.

For that fact alone, I love you. Not for what you may do or what you have done. Not for who you were or who you may become.

You. Just you. You are loved!

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to all!

This morning, after breakfast, my husband told Noah to put his breakfast dishes in the dishwasher.

Noah, in typically dramatic fashion, said, “I’m just your slave.”

Steve said, “You’re my slave? Because you have to put your dishes in the dishwasher? You need to understand slavery and what it really was.”

Noah is a history geek. He doesn’t understand history, but he knows a lot of stuff – dates and things.

Noah: Oh, I know. Abraham Lincoln ended it.

Steve: Yes. There were more people than just him, but yes. Let’s talk about these dishes. Who ate breakfast off of them?

Noah: I did.

Steve: Slavery isn’t about taking care of dishes you ate off of. Who does the laundry in this house?

Noah: I help.

Steve: You help Mommy sometimes, but who does the laundry? Who makes dinner?

Noah: You guys.

Steve: So I guess we’re YOUR slaves.

…when it’s not National Novel Writing Month, which I won, by the way!

I actually got to over 50,000 words on Tuesday (thank you, Rowdy Girls), and felt miserable yesterday with what I think is a sinus thing as I had a headache for three days.

Anyway, I had a brief doctor’s appointment this morning and headed off to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. Oh, I did get about two pages written in the waiting room of the doctor’s office where I found a convenient outlet, so yay!!

I got some gifts at the mall and came home by way of our local Target to get wrapping paper and some other gifty/Christmas-y stuff.

Tangent – What’s with the Justin Beiber wrapping paper and ornaments???? Seriously???

I get Toy Story, Thomas the Tank Engine, even Sponge Bob. Those are kid things and cute, for the most part.

But Beiber??? And there was blue Beiber paper that said Happy Holidays??

I just don’t get it. I don’t get the pink, orange, blue and teal ornaments, either nor the glittery fish ornaments in those colors, but whatever….

Anyway, I went to the checkout and chatted merrily with a wonderfully friendly woman, and it was looking to be a fabulous day.

Until I ran my RedCard through.

We got an email a while back saying we were late a payment on the RedCard. I didn’t see how that could be as I pay every bill when it comes in, but when I paid bills two weeks ago, I sent in the full amount and thought no more about it until today.

I came home, called Target and found out that they haven’t gotten ANY of our payments!!!

Six months ago, we had this issue with payments for the RedCard were going to my husband’s old Target Visa card. That was settled easily, and I changed the bill payment record with our online banking to the RedCard number.

Turns out I typed an 8 where there should have been a 9.

That’s an invalid number and our bank should have been redepositing the payments because Target should have been bouncing the checks, but that hasn’t happened at all.

Now it’s only three months worth of payments but it is enough to damage our credit rating.

After I talked with a nice Target woman on the phone and went through the online banking screens and discovered that the money was not put back in our account, another woman came on the phone and said she had to talk to Steve. His name is on the card, he’s the primary account holder and he needed to just tell her that he’s aware of all this.

I guess we have to find out where the money went – who’s been cashing these checks and get our money back and our account dealt with.

That’s why I didn’t come home and dive right back into The Pigsty Princess!