I love a good list...

I'll admit it, I'm a list person. I typically have 3-4 lists going at all times. I have lists that help my day/week go better, for example a list of things to do that day, that week, and of course a grocery list. I have lists for projects I want to accomplish (both around the house and personally), I have a list of the 100 things I want to do before I die, lists of character traits I want to instill in my children and lists of books to read. Basically, I think lists are like naps. My day is always better if I have one!

I have a bunch of things I want to blog about, but I'm not sure any of them warrant their own post. So with that in mind, I'm going to do my update post in list format.

1. This is the season of Lent. I was raised Catholic and was taught that we should 'give up something to signify Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross'. I always had a hard time reconciling the fact that my abstaining from chocolate, caffeine or alcohol in any way correlated to the sacrifice Jesus made by dying on the cross for me. But recently, I have come across a number of teachings on sacrifice and really felt that God was calling me to give something up to sacrifice something during this Lenten season this year. As I've mentioned, my word for the year is Simplify. So I wanted it to be something that would help simplify my life, my home, my family and yet still be a significant sacrifice. I wanted to feel uncomfortable and I wanted this feeling to cause me to turn to God's word and to God. So at the end of the six weeks of Lent, I would feel closer to Jesus.

For Lent, I am going on a Spending Fast. No, that doesn't mean I'm spending as fast as I can. It means, I'm not spending any money during Lent. Of course I have to feed my family so that excludes groceries and diapers. But that is it. I'm not buying anything until after Easter. The reason that I picked spending is that I'm going to tie this to a six week journey to clean out my house. I have made a list (see!) of all of the rooms and closets and areas of our house and I am systematically cleaning and purging each area. With my goal being that at the end of Lent, not only will I not have brought anything new into the house but I will also only have things in the house that we use, love or can't part with. During this time, I am also going to be working on those areas in my spiritual / mental life that need a good cleaning.

2. We had a snow-less snow day yesterday and are having another snow day tomorrow. I just realized that Monday is not only March 1st but a teacher in-service day. So my kids are having another 5 day weekend! I love this time with my kids, but I do not like this time of year. I am ready for the snow to be gone and for Spring to show up!

3. Grace had her appointment with the Developmental Pediatrician's office at our local Children's Hospital yesterday. This appointment was good but not great. Well, truthfully the only way it could have been great was for the doctor to say 'In the next 2 weeks (or 2 months or 2 years) Grace will start talking, feeding herself, eating table food instead of purees and her mental delays will be completely resolved to the point that no one would ever believe she was this far behind'. But in fact, no one knows why our daughter is mentally and physically delayed. No one can find a physical reason. No one can give us concrete answers. So the next best thing to hear was that Grace was doing physically very well, she is growing and gaining weight, you have all the therapies in place that I would recommend, her school is one of the best and I'll see you back here in 6 months. Without a diagnosis we sometimes feel like we are batting in the dark. We 'think' we are doing the right things for Grace but we (Mark and I) are not clinically trained so it is nice to have a physician reinforce that we are doing all we can for her. And, our hope is in Jesus and His death on the Cross. So we know that one day we will hear her voice, we might just have to wait till we get to Heaven to do that.

4. We have signed up to go on a Family Retreat which is run by Joni and Friends the week of June 21st. This is a week long (Monday through Friday) camp specifically for families affected by disability. One of the comments by the person that invited me struck such a cord with me that I told Mark we HAD to go, she said that they focus on the whole family. The whole family not just the person with a disability. One of my biggest areas of guilt (and I will say that I'm not alone in this) is that I feel as if Grace and her needs have ruled our family for the past 2+ years. Because she needed so much therapy, I wasn't able to focus on John and Luke like I wanted to. Because she just learned to walk and doesn't have the mental capacity to listen, we can't do things that other normal families can do. We can't do spur of the moment, I have to plan every spontaneous outing we have. So when I was told that the siblings get special treatment, it brought tears to my eyes. It still does. There will also be sessions for just Mark and I. And time for Mark and I to be a couple without the worry or concerns of taking care of Grace. I can't wait for this week in June. And I would encourage you to share this link with any family affected by a disability or if this is you, please consider attending a camp.

5. My husband and his father are both pharmacists and back in 1988 they formulated a skin care cream that has been on the market ever since. It is called Formula II Skin Care Cream and it is the best all purpose, over the counter skin care cream on the market. We recently launched a new website, www.formula2skincare.com and we are giving away a free 4oz tube (a $14.95 value) to all new customers (you will have to pay $4.95 for shipping and handling). We also have a Facebook Fan page, you can click here to become a fan and we are doing Twitter promotions all month. I don't tweet yet, but I will be in charge of social media in the near future.

Also, we are looking for bloggers to do a review and giveaway on their blogs. We will give you a free 8oz so you can review our product and give you 1-2 8oz jars to give away on your blog. Please let me know if you are interested in helping us out! Or if you know of any mom reviewer blogs that have a large readership, please let me know that too. Thanks!

Happy Friday and I hope everyone has a great weekend!