• Rich Mullins > everything.

• Five Iron Frenzy’s music is actually even more relevant now than it was 15 years ago. Don’t believe me? Anthem could be the theme song for this current election year and Get Your Riot Gear fits in perfectly with the Occupy movement. There’s a blog post on this topic, but it’d be a several thousand word essay on Five Iron, and let us be honest – no one wants that. Except me.

• The self-titled Sixpence None the Richer album is indeed fantastic, buuut I think I’ve actually come to prefer their 1995 masterpiece (that’s right, I said masterpiece) This Beautiful Mess – it has that great early 90′s feel with a track list full of great songs.

• The first Jars of Clay album, sadly, does not hold up all that well. In fact, I never made it all the way through a single song without hitting skip. Much Afraid, though, is largely fantastic.

• I still love Sarah Masen. All of her albums.

• The O.C. Supertones kinda/sorta/almost hold up, in an ironic 90′s youth group van music sort of way.

• The Newsboys have yet to produce anything nearly as good as Take Me To Your Leader or Going Public. If you think any of their albums since then are as good, or better, you are wrong. And I will fight you if you think otherwise.

• Jennifer Knapp’s Kansas album is perfect, and resonates even more now than it did when it was released. I remember seeing her opening for Audio Adrenaline and The O.C. Supertones in the fall of ’97 and being instantly smitten, along with everyone else in the audience. Also, I find it amusing that 15 year old me had even less of a chance with her than I could have ever possibly guessed.

• Audio Adrenaline stayed consistently great to good throughout their entire run.

• I am pretty much sick of Third Day.

• You guys? MXPX’s Life In General and Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo are still so good.

• Skillet’s music has, somehow, gotten even better over time. Who’d have guessed?

• Why didn’t Seven Day Jesus ever make a second album?

• And why did we ever love The W’s so much?

• dc Talk: Um, not as good as teenaged Jason would have argued. That’s all I going to say about that.

How about you? What was your favorite album growing up? And, does it still hold up?

1.  Another four weeks of the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge.  During January, I cleaned off our kitchen counters and went through the kitchen cupboards and drawers.  I purged a lot of stuff, and found new and better homes and storage ideas for things which had kind of been wandering around the kitchen from this place to that looking for an ideal home.  Our garage sale stash now has our “big” item (we like to have one big thing we’re trying to get out of our house a year), and many little kitchen items.  There has been an awkward little week (this week) that is both January and February, but luckily for me, this week’s task is to organize your cookbooks and recipes – something I am well on my way to doing already.  If anyone would like about fifteen back issues of Food Network Magazine, I’m systematically going through them and copying or pinning the recipes (if I can find them online) and then recycling or getting rid of the magazine.  Let me know!

2.  Go see one movie this month in the theaters with Husband – We’ve already picked out the movie we’d like to see in theaters this month, The Secret World of Arietty.  (We are big Studio Ghibli fans).  Now we just have to hope that it comes to theaters in town before the month is up.

3.  Read 25 books in 2012.  Still plugging along at this one.  I only managed one book in January.  Hopefully I’ll manage at least 2 this month.  Note to self: pick books that are not 500+ pages long for every book you read.

4.  Set a bedtime and bedtime routine.  This may be tough.  Husband is on a varying start schedule during the week.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he starts work at one time and Tuesdays/Thursdays another time.  We use the days he starts later as an excuse to stay up way past where we should be going to sleep.  However, LP still gets up early no matter what day it is.  So I’m going to set a bedtime for me, at least, which means lights out.  And I’d also like to start a routine to help me signal to my body that it’s getting time for sleep.  Nothing super fancy, just brushing and flossing my teeth, washing my face, reading a bit, and writing in LP’s journal.

5.  Switch to more cost-efficient and safe cleaning supplies.  I confess, I started this one a bit early.  I’ve been wanting to start using cleaning supplies that don’t contain as many harsh and unpronounceable chemicals in them for a while.  I’ve already switched to home-made anti-bacterial and all-purpose cleaners, and I plan on making up some batches of homemade laundry detergent, shower cleaner, glass cleaner, and fabric softener this month as well.  I need to buy some more heavy duty spray bottles.  There are a few things that I am sticking with the harder, commercial cleaners (or at least not-homemade).  These would include toilet cleaner, cloth diaper soap (we use Rockin’ Green or Charlie’s, both of which I feel comfortable using) and most likely dishwasher soap as I haven’t found a blend of organic or home-made dishwasher soap that actually works in our dishwasher to my satisfaction.

6.  Make a will.  Husband and I both have been saying for two years (since we first took FPU) that we need to make out a will.  Now that LP is around, this is doubly important.  So in honor of Valentines’ Day, I’d like to get that done so it’s off of my mental to-do list.

Do you have any new resolutions for February?

1. The 30 Day Challenge – The radio station that suggested this wanted to know how your life could be changed by listening to only Christian music for 30 days in a row.  I learned that I don’t listen to music very much.  This wasn’t much of a challenge for me, except when we drove across the state to my in-laws’ house.  I suppose that I should try to listen to music more (and by that, Christian music more) so that L gets exposed to music, but that’s a resolution for a different month.

2.  The 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge – I made it through four weeks!  I have successfully followed these weekly challenges, despite having trouble getting them delivered to my inbox every week.  I have gone through and purged all of our cupboards but one (the last large pantry cupboard, of course) and I think I’ll try this one for another four/five weeks – until the end of February.  Our kitchen looks much…sleeker?  I eliminated a lot of things I was storing on the counters by going through my cupboards and eliminating things that should be stored in other rooms as well as starting to add to our garage-sale pile.

3.  Not worrying about dieting – this is the one where I didn’t quite make it.  I’m really looking forward to going back on South Beach and hopefully we can manage that at some point in February or March.  I’ve started a Pinterest board with South Beach friendly recipes to help us with meal planning (one of the hardest parts of any diet change!)  so that when we do decide to head back to the Beach, I’ll have lots of options and will be less easily swayed to go out for pizza.

4.  Read 25 books in 2012 – I’ve finished one book so far “Death Comes to Pemberley” (very good book!)  I am about half way done with three other books and have got about 500 pages left on “War and Peace”.  (It’s on my bucket list).  I think this will definitely be a challenge for me as I don’t get much reading time except when I collapse into bed at night.  Husband and I, however, have started the 40 Day Love Dare, which will count as a book and also is a great way to work on improving our marriage.

5.  Go see one movie with Husband a month in theaters – Like I said in my original January post, I’ve already accomplished this for January by going to see Sherlock Holmes 2 on New Years Day.  I have no idea what to go see in February, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Stay tuned, next week I’ll be posting my February resolutions (I’ve got them almost all lined up!)  And please feel free to share with me your resolutions and how you did with them!

So I’m going to try and do resolutions a month at a time.  Here’s January’s.

1.  Husband and I are taking KLOVE’s 30 day challenge.  We started yesterday.  It involves listening to only Christian music for 30 days in a row.  We’ve both made playlists of all our Christian music (I also put classical on mine b/c I don’t think I could survive w/o classical music some days) and have put them on our ipods.  We’re eager to see how listening to only uplifting music will influence our lives over the course of the next 30 days.

2.  I’ve started the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home challenge on Home Storage Solutions 101.  I’ve told myself I am only committing to four weeks at this point, and if I can manage it and a 9 month old at the same time, then I’ll commit to another 4 weeks in February.

3.  I’m resolving to stop worrying about dieting until I’m done nursing L.  Both husband and I would dearly love to go back on South Beach (we successfully lost almost 50 lbs between the two of us in two months last time) but that isn’t an option while I’m nursing L  as it would drastically affect my supply.  Her health is priority and while this doesn’t mean we’re going off the deep end in our eating habits (we try to eat healthy b/c LP’s primary source of nutrition is still me), it does mean that I’m not going to overstress about eliminating the sugar that isn’t obvious or start running/walking/whatever.

4.  The one year long challenge I’ve committed to is trying to read 25 books before this time next year.  I thought I could easily accomplish 30 books in 2010, but I was hard-pressed to do this with a baby, so I’m not pushing myself as hard this year (since soon I’ll have a toddler!)

5.  Finally, I’m going to try and go see one movie in the theaters with my husband a month.  (And yes, we’re taking it one month at a time.)  While I don’t particularly care for spending nearly $20 to go sit in a dark room with a bunch of people and loud noises and bright screen and not talk, it’s important to him so I’m going to try and accompany him once every 30ish days.  Fortunately, January is already checked off as we went to see Sherlock Holmes yesterday.

Are you resolving to change anything this year?

Day one:

One month:

Two months:

Three months:

Four months:

Five months:

Six months:

Now I just have to think up something clever for her 7 month photo…

The truth is, there are a lot of ways having a child changed me that I did not expect.  There’s the obvious overwhelming sense of responsibility – thrown in your face the moment you bring your child home from the hospital and they do something you were not prepared for.  The thoughts of “I have no idea how to do this” pinging through your head as you’re trying to get your child to stop crying, or you clean poop out of your hair for the third time in one day, or you realize you’re out of diapers/wipes/energy/food/clean underwear and haven’t showered in a week.  There’s also the obvious worrying for your child.  About sickness and SIDS, and people with ugly dangerous motives coming into contact with your children.

And there are the lifestyle changes.  You can’t play rock band at full volume until 3 am anymore.  Mariokart is a dangerous game to play because it inevitably causes me to break out in profuse profanity.
Your pets barking/meowing loudly for your attention is a nuisance during naptime.  You can’t pee alone (at least for a while).  If you’re going to a friend’s house, you can take the baby, but what if said visit falls during naptime or at bedtime. Commercials about making memories can bring tears to my eyes.  Stupid Tollhouse Cookie commercials.  I can’t watch movies or games where children are threatened (I had trouble with it before, now it’s impossible).   I’m even struggling with shows that are crime dramas or comedies because in the beginning, someone usually is murdered, and that somebody is some Mama’s baby.

There’s the change in how I treat my own parents.  There have often been times when I realize if Lu had said the same things I did to my parents, I would be dreadfully, terribly hurt.  And then I AM dreadfully, terribly hurt because of the crushing guilt.  I’m a pessimist (or as I like to call it, realist) a lot of the time, and when I see my kiddo lunging to be held by me, a huge toothless grin on her face, a tiny little voice says to me “and someday she will be a teenager and possibly be screaming that she hates me.”  It’s that same pinging that tells you that you’re unequipped to take care of another human being – just a little smidgen of truth to make an illogical statement painful.  We try now to see our parents much more regularly because we want to be good children now.  We hope that LP would/will do the same to us.  And also because we want to convince ourselves that they still want to see us, and not just the baby.

There’s the changes that mothers don’t talk about often.  Or often enough, in my opinion.  The fact that there comes a point in those fresh new days of motherhood (or before), when you realize that if this little person ever disappeared from your life that you would forget how to breathe, how to blink, how to function.  That, as the quote goes, a portion of your heart is walking around separately, will make its own decisions, will disobey you, and will always be bound to you.  That’s why that voice of doubt can hurt a mother so easily and deeply.  It is hard taking care of another person, especially a helpless little person – which is how the majority of children come bundled into your family.  It is hard and rewarding and the greatest tool of teaching God has put into my life so far.  The amount of daily sacrifice is incredible and I would not change a bit of it.  You cannot go back from having a child, and that is probably the most life-changing portion of it all.  That you cannot go back and if you are the right type of parent, the idea of going back is inconceivable.

We own all the books in hardcover and have read them multiple times.  We have seen all the movies in the theater and own all of those which are out on DVD.  We know what a muggle, a grindylow, and a squib are.  And we have handknit house scarves (I’m a Gryffindor, Husband is a Ravenclaw).  And although the books came out while I was in high school, Harry himself is two years older than I am (he was born in 1980).

The majority of the meaty Harry Potter series came out while I was in college and just after.  While Harry was living with his friends and learning at Hogwarts, I was doing the same at college.  When Harry was growing to be best friends with Ron and Hermione, I was growing closer to my best friends.  And while Harry was wooing Ginny, husband was wooing me.  I didn’t grow up with Harry, but he grew up while I was watching and experiencing the same things as he was.  (Ok, minus battling Voldemort).

I’ve been to see all of the Harry Potter movies with my best friend.  During the “learning experience” summer we spent at Cannon Beach, Oregon together, I read out loud each night from one of the books in a horrible British accent…which I then proceeded to keep so long that some of the newer members of our workplace thought I was actually British.  When the fifth book came out, all four of us (me, husband, and my bestie,  and her husband) discussed our theories about future books with each other.  When the fourth movie came out (right around the same time as Half Blood Prince), we threw a Harry Potter themed party opening weekend, complete with themed food like Voldetortes, Pumpkin Pasties, Gingerbeer, and Bertie Bott’s Everyflavor beans.  We went to the movie in our scarves and talked about who we thought was going to bite it in the last book of the series (and my hat’s off to best friend’s husband, who staunchly defended his position that one of the Weasley twins would die, even when all the rest of us scoffed at him).  When the last book came out and I cried at the end, it wasn’t just because I was sad so many characters died, but because I felt like I was losing a friend when that book series ended.  Not my bestie, but the books themselves.  But we still had the movies.

Our best friends live four hours away.  Last November, directly after finding out the gender of our baby, we left for their house.  We weren’t planning on stopping our tradition of seeing all these movies together, of sharing our Harry Potter experience.  They have an Imax theater near their home, so we saw Deathly Hallows 7.1 there.  And we talked about how we thought they would play out the two halves of the movie, where the first would end, what they might cut out, whether or not they would keep the epilogue…if J.K. Rowling would write any more books.  The first half of Deathly Hallows was great.  We loved it.  And two weeks ago, they came to our hometown to go see Deathly Hallows 7.2 with us.  The last movie.  The saddest movie.  The end.  It was perfect.  Many people have complained about the last two movies dragging…and while I’m not the movie critic in the family, I humbly disagree.  If you’ve read the books, you’ll know that these last two movies are perfection when it comes to the Harry Potter movie line.  They make up for the bad CGI in the first movie, the massacre of Goblet of Fire, and the casting of Robert Pattinson for Cedric Diggory.  I cried.  I cried a little during the first half of Deathly Hallows.  I cried the entire second half of the last movie.  And for the same reasons…a bit because these characters I loved so much were dying and a lot because the series was ending.

So when I say I love Harry Potter and I’m a Harry Potter fan, it’s not because I believe in magic or am going to teach my daughter that witchcraft is okay.  It’s not because I wish it was real and feel like my life isn’t complete because Hogwarts isn’t a real place.  It’s because I’m proud of Rowling, for what she accomplished with her books.  I’m proud of her characters, for the growth in their lives and the evil they overcame.  I love Harry Potter because I feel like we grew up together, that because of the books he was in my life is a little richer and a little better and a little more fun.  And now the books and the movie series are both over.

But that’s alright.  Because in a few years, my bestie, her husband, my husband and I are taking our kids to Universal Studios Harry Potter World.

I start my day by waking up around 7:30 in the morning.  I almost always wake up and look like this (seriously!):

I eat and then I sometimes take a bath.  I’m still not sure if I like baths or not.

I get dressed and then I sometimes take a nap.  But we usually read our Bible for the day first:

Which I really like! (Well, any reading, really)

Sometimes I help Momma with chores:

And sometimes I just ride around in the Moby and watch and listen as Momma tells me about all the chores I will get to do someday.  I think it makes her feel better about doing all the chores now.

About 3 days a week if it isn’t too warm, we take a walk around the neighborhood.

I usually fall asleep.

Normally, I take 3-4 naps a day, between 45 minutes and 2 hours.  I also still eat about every 3 hours, but I can sleep 8 hours at night now!  During the day, some of my other activities include:

Tummy time, which I tolerate having on my boppy, since my cloth diapers make my butt enormous. If I’m on the floor, I really hate being on my stomach.  I still have not rolled over, but a big part of that is because my diaper gets in the way.

I sit in my bouncy chair and bounce with my butterflies.  I am only a bit over 11 lbs, so I’m still not heavy enough to get those butterflies really bouncing.

And I get to hang out with my grandparents, too!

Some days, Momma tries to take a fun picture, but lately I have not been into it.  They have been looking like this:

I get very excited when my Daddy gets home.  I like to spend some time snuggling with him.

And I usually go to bed around 9 pm.  And fall asleep almost right away!