Hey there, everybody!

Ready for Thrifted or Grifted results?

Another close one, but you guys pulled it out! You sharp-eyed readers, you!

                     Exhibit A- 42%                                 Exhibit B-57%

2011-12-272

Dress: Gap ($13), Shoes: Nine West/Marshall’s ($5)

TOTAL: $18

Dress: GW ($5), Shoes: Nine West/GW ($3)

TOTAL: $8

And the commenter that I chose for the 5 free entries into our Shabby Apple jewelry giveaway is: ShopRubyJeans (whose blog I love, by the way!).

She said:

“HHHMMM!!! I went with “B” as thrifted only because that’s how I always did it in school when we had those stat testings… I just closed my eyes and circled a bubble… 🙂 So I say “B” it is… I also noticed the small scuff on the “A” shoe but hey I figure if I can scuff my shoe so can she.. :)”

You got it, girl! Way to circle the right bubble!

And now…It’s time for:

five days five ways | 5 Things Thursday

…and this week’s theme is:

newyearsresolutions

I would love it if you would link up (or leave comments about) 5 of your own resolutions, but if you’d rather just link up 5 pieces of randomness or a different theme, I’m totally fine with that too!

The “rules”:

  • Please link up to your specific “5 Things” post rather than your blog’s homepage, and

  • Please place the Five Things Thursday button (left sidebar) somewhere on your page or post so that others can join in the fun.

That’s it!

Happy list-making! : )

Here’s my list of the top 5 things I hope to accomplish in 2012.

1. Stress less.

Stress-ZebraStripes

via

I’m the world’s least perfect perfectionist, and I’m can be really inconsistent about what I let get to me. Sometimes, it’s the big stuff. Sometimes, it’s something I know is not worth sweating, and I still obsess over it (okay, maybe too strong a word, but it paints a picture).

When I find myself caught up in worry, big or small, I want to choose to believe what Jesus said in Matthew 6:25: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

and 27: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifeb?”

I struggle with this verse because I feel like, “If I don’t worry about stuff, it won’t get done!”

But the truth is that I can accomplish things without stressing over them, and I hope to embrace that truth this year.

2.  Go to bed and get up earlier.

sleep-wellness

I have a feeling this will help with the not stressing bit from #1. I can see a direct correlation between my ability to gracefully cope with the “little stuff” (i.e. puddles of pee, lost keys, ) and how many hours of sleep I’ve gotten the night before.

3. Kick a really bad habit to curb once and for all.

bad habits

via

I’ve struggled with this particular problem since I was 4, and while that’s all I’ll say for now, please know that the prospect of updating you guys with good news is major motivation for me.

4. Become a prayer warrior.

prayer-image

via

Our family prays before meals, before trips, before bedtime, when we’re thankful for rain or safety, when we’re concerned for the health of a loved one…to name some of the more common instances.

And I have little conversations with God all throughout the day (that all too often go something like, “Jesus, please give me patience,” or, “Lord, HELP!”).

But 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says: “Pray without ceasing,” and James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

So, I want more.

I want to be the kind of righteous intercessor who powerfully and effectively prays on behalf of my family, my friends, our nation, and our world.

5. Teach my children Spanish.

spanish

It might seem like a no-brainer since I taught it at three different high schools for 6 years (total), but teaching your own children Spanish is hard.  Mostly, because when they’re really small, a lot of what you say to them involves commands that you really want them to understand:

“Don’t touch that!”

“Come here now!”

“Wipe your bottom!” ; )

We’ve dabbled in it, but now that the boys are a little older, I’m going to be intentional (something else I’d like to work on) about it as part of their homeschooling.

The list could go on, but I’ll stop there. I’m not usually a New Year’s Resolution kinda girl, but I’ve also never had the chance to have such a large accountability group on my side (that’s you guys), so I figured I’d go for it!

So, what about you guys? Anything you’re itching to change, quit, or get better at?

 

 

21 Comments

  1. Thanks so much for stopping by, Rachel! And thanks for the compliment. I used to hate having my picture taken, but now I’m kind of grateful for the “kindnesses” the camera does me. Believe me, I’m nowhere near gorgeous, but I appreciate your sweet words just the same!

    And shame on you for having bad kid planning timing and therefore sabotaging your efforts to think through those uber-important New Year’s resolutions that are somewhat (okay, *fairly* for most of us) unlikely to be remembered a month from now. ; )

    Enjoy those birthdays, girl!…as much as possible, anyway.

  2. luv this post! i luv seeing everything again. my main resolution is to be more routine-y (i’m sure i just made up that word ;D) i think it would make my life so much smoother (ok ok i KNOW it would) i’m such a free spirit loosey-goosey person that routines are hard for me,BUT i want the peace of cohesiveness much more.

  3. Thank you! I didn’t know I had to put it in the html… I knew what to copy, just not where to put it. 🙂

  4. Both of those dresses are awesome! And you are completely gorgeous, by the way!!!

    Great resolutions – I seriously need to sit down and think about mine. Something about the holidays and every one of my kids having a birthday (I have really bad kid planning timing) has kept me from doing a single bit of deep thinking.

    (sigh)

  5. Sounds like you’ve got some absolutely great goal for 2012, Tami!

    I AM TOTALLY with you when it comes to seeing things as tasks to be completed and forgetting to enjoy the journey. Then, I look up and realize that I’ve survived instead of lived for the last 2 months.

    Thanks for the great reminders. May the Lord bless you as you endeavor to honor and please him in these areas this year. Happy New Year’s!

  6. Thanks for linking up, Erin!

    Hmm…well, it should just be that you copy the code from my button and then paste it into the html of your post (so, when you see all the funky symbols and colons and backslashes and stuff…that’s the html…you probably already knew that, but just in case : )). And then, when you go back to the “pretty” mode, the button should show up.

    Does this help?

  7. Great resolutions, I think I can work on most of those as well. I linked up, but I couldn’t figure out how to put your button on the post. I’m new at this whole thing. 🙂

  8. Pray, love, and invest in others…..my life long resolutions. These are five for this year though.:)
    1. Trust more, believe in others more and seek to find the best in them. 2. Reach out…sometimes with a family of four children, home, hubby, and graduate school I tell myself I’m too busy to meet a friend for lunch or do other activities….this year I will instigate more with my friends. I also don’t post very much on facebook and lately have been feeling like others are so willing to share, even the little details of their lives, of which I’m am blessed by, leaving me thinking that I should believe they might like to hear what’s happening in my wonderful and crazy world.(My grad work is in Psychology, so I’ll let Abby proof that last sentence..) 3. Improve on last years gains in the area of exercise and healthy eating, making good food and exercise something fun for the whole family by including them in it more often. 4. ENJOY THE PROCESS! I sometimes look at life and grad school as a task to be completed and know that I should slow down and embrace everything more finding more meaning in all of it. 5. (This is the only one that I have put on a resolutions list before…..I think this will be the year though, for several reasons) Photos…I’m really bad about taking the pics and then that’s it. I want to frame some, scrapbook a few, and organize the others….(I did just purchase over 400 photos! that I had uploaded to Kodak from our Europe trip….that’s a start).

  9. What a wonderfully refreshing list of resolutions! I found your blog when I googled tufted ottomans, diy… and I am so glad I did! Just clicked to follow through google and facebook! Love the fact you love JESUS! And I pray he blesses you greatly this coming year…. I will be back to check on that for sure! xoxo Jules from blesid.

  10. and to think, i like the thrifted outfit best!

    oh resolutions. i always start out with exercising, but when you do it for a while and don’t see any changes, it’s really disheartening, and i figure why bother! i’m also going to try to not buy as much unnecessary thrift store items. i get caught up with blogs about thrifted decor finds, and then i go out and spend money i wouldn’t normally spend…just to say i saved b/c it’s from a thrift store!

  11. Oh My GOODNESS!!!! I feel like I just won a Trip to Hawaii…. 🙂 Okay so maybe NOT Hawaii but 5 bonus entries to your LOVELY giveaway!!! So exciting.. We homeschool as well and Even though my parents speak Spanish I DON’T maybe it has something to do with my closing my eyes and circling the bubbles…. For our children’s second Language we are doing Sign Language which they quite enjoy and its fun to watch them teach there 2yr old brother who is picking it up REALLY fast..
    Have a Wonderful and Blessed New Year!!!

  12. I so understand about teaching your child another language. I speak multiple languages and started out teaching my daughter Russian, but we never really got past the basic commands. Then my husband accepted a job in Germany. We send our daughter to German kindergarten, but in truth, she gets most of her language now from me. It was really the push that I needed to make her a true polyglot.

I love hearing from you guys!