It’s Monday Morning

These shots were taken a while back, I thought they looked nice. Suffice it to say this will be a random post.

1. The pomegranates were from my grandma’s tree. I love pomegranates. Don’t really appreciate the mess, but after the work of de-seeding them, they rarely disappoint.
 

2. It is 75 degrees here. I wore flips for most of the weekend. Can somebody let Mother Nature know that even in Southern California, 75 degrees is not winter weather? Not really complaining, but still.



3. Did anyone watch the Broncos/Steelers game yesterday? We’re not really big football fans around here, but we are Tim Tebow fans and we were rooting for him.


4. My mom started using the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred last week. She was cracking me up saying she found muscles she didn’t know she had. That’s how Jillian rolls. Love it when a workout makes you feel like that.


5. My baby has two teeth. Only top teeth, no bottom ones. His smile is so cute. I’ll try and catch it this week.


6. I’m thinking some photos of what I’m actually writing about would make sense here. Oh well.


7. I saved all my pennies and got Mr. Dunbar brand new iPhone for Christmas. Well it cam in late last week and he’s a happy guy right now, playing with it, tweaking it, and ordering all sorts of gadgets and gismos for it. Okay, it was a cover and some screen protectors but still. He deserves it.


And that is as much random as I can muster right now. What’s going on with you?

Yes, you’re in the right place

I’ve been making a few changes around here.

Living Intentionally

is now “Lady of the House.”

Sort of goes better with the “ladydunbar” URL.

So stay a while.

It’s only going to get better from here.

Snippets of our Week

Out of town cousins were here this week and boy did these guys play, play, play.

In the mud.

On the fort.

In the mud again.

Around and around and around.

There was lots of chasing, and sharing {or trying to"}, lots of “Hey, you wanna do….” and good good fun.

We were sad to say good bye to them last night but excited that we will see them again in a few short weeks hopefully for some snow, snow, snow.

In the spirit of being up since 4am

Somebody woke up at 4:22am. Usually its Mr. Dunbar, I hear him stretch and then slip out of bed. But this morning it was the Baby, restless and unsettled. So I got up and fed him, then tried to put him back in his bed. Screams soared, so I picked him back up. Teething sucks. So I rocked him with a blanket over the both of us until I heard him start to breathe heavily and then I got up and tried to lay him back in the crib. Again, screams soared, so picked him back up and tried to rock him again….

As I was rocking him I thought of this year and I wanted to actually categorize and organize my goals. {I’m a bit of a type-A}

Anyhow, in no particular order…

This Year 2012:

Be Content: Focus on the blessings I do have

Be Wise: Spend more time daily in the Word and my understanding of it

Be Healthy: Workout 3-4 times a week, continue to improve our menu with healthy and tasty choices, especially snacks for myself.

Be Smart: Shut my mouth when mean words are ready to fly off of it. Listen, really listen. Watch that checkbook (ATM card actually.) Go back up to goal number one: Be content. And embrace new opportunities.

Be Happy: My life is good. Oh so good. I need to remember this and to treasure the small things and the milestones that will be reached this year.

Be Calm: Things will get done. When I am calm this home is also. So get up earlier if I need to get something done.

 

These are from the day after Christmas. Remember, calm. Breathe. Calm.

The kid loves the cell phone, do you see him eyeballing it?

Calm. It will get done….

 

Now I’m off to have a strong cup of coffee, play with a baby, and scrub some floors.

A Brand New Year, Right in the Middle of the Chapter

We celebrated a New York New Year’s this year, complete with Apple Cider, swine- wrapped green beans, and no-egg cookie dough. YUM.

Nothing says “Good beginnings” like Martinelli’s.

We toasted and welcomed in the New Year.

2012.

.

Holy Moly.

2012!!

   

Then we came home, made our kids brush their teeth and went to bed. That’s life.

On Sunday morning, we got up and went to Church. And it was good. Like really good. Like God used Pastor Nathan to tear it up on stage, and it got my mind and my heart situated for a brand new year. Because I was ready, to say Good bye to 2011. Not as ready as I had been in 2010 or maybe even 2009, but ready. Looking back, I think things are actually on the upswing. But looking forward Mr. Dunbar and I are right in the middle of a chapter of life. We are not starting a new one, we aren’t ready to end one, we are just in the middle of one. A chapter I’ll be writing this upcoming year. Care to join me on this journey?

In order to really start the year off right, we had our annual goal setting dinner. Every year since we’ve been married we go out to dinner the first week of January and set goals for our year. Goals for our family, goals for God, goals for money, goals for achievement. Some years have been rough. Some years not so rough. This year it was good. Real good. It was real. Ever had one of those conversations with your spouse? You should.

But before I get too serious, let me show you our dinner.

We ate at Wood Ranch. There is nothing better than a good dinner. Only a good dinner that is free. Gotta love those Christmas gift cards. Thanks Judy.

Fresh baked garlic rolls. YUM. I think I ate an entire basket by myself. Good thing I don’t have any diet resolutions.

Look at Mr. Dunbar smiling over his pulled pork sandwich.

That sauce in the middle, in that little tin cup, A. MA. ZING. Seriously, it revolutionized the sandwich from something that you could make at home to something worth paying for.

Now for my dinner. I ordered the Chop Chop Salad. Do not order this salad. Blah. Blah. Blah. But they did exchange my salad and got me the Natalie, in like 2 minutes flat.

So, I’m still raving about Wood Ranch.

Anyhow, back to the real story. Mr. Dunbar and I set our goals for the year. BIG goals. Bigger goals then we’ve ever set, which is funny because in reality, they are probably the most small goals we’ve ever made, but we are going to really accomplish them. And I’m excited. 

That’s why on my new header, whenever I get it up, you’ll see that it says something about an “authentic life.” True, I do live each and every day intentionally. But seriously, my intentional-ness has a lot to do with laundry and dishes, along with math facts and menu planning. With some potty training and video games thrown into the mix. Not headline stuff people.

But my hope for this upcoming year and this blog is that you will see the authentic side of  myself and this little Dunbar family. I am deciding to let go of outdated beliefs, old identities, and just plain baggage that I’ve held on to for so long. You know, those truly unrealistic expectations.

I hope you stay a while as we journey through what God has in store for us, as we decide to invest our time in family and fun, and as we conquer each of our goals to get us to the end of the chapter we are in the midst of. I know its not going to be easy. My pulse gets a little faster when I think of what we are going to do this year.  I’m still planning on keeping the general gist of the same blog, and perhaps some WIWW (those are harder than I thought) , along with some recipes, and who know’s what else. Hair tips?Genn and I are going to do a Vlog at some point, I’m going to conn her into doing my hair extra big and letting you all see it. Ha. And I’ve got some other ideas of people and things I’d like to introduce here as well. 

It should be fun and if nothing else, it will be authentic.

Happy New Year. And Welcome 2012!

Goodbye 2011

Another year, come and gone. Gee, I blinked and now its December 30th. Well, okay, I didn’t really blink, since I was awake for most of this year. Somebody in this house wasn’t really a “sleeper.” I can officially say I spent 3/4 of this year without ever really hitting REM sleep.

I’d like to say one of my goals for 2012 will be more sleep, but in reality it won’t be, I’m just hoping for some more quality sleep.

I guess I’ll wait until next year to really lay out all of my goals.  Goals sound so much more attainable than resolutions, don’t you think?

This guy is actually looking more and more like his Daddy. I love him so. The daddy and the baby. And my other two, too.

So goodbye 2011. I’m going to spend today doing chores and paperwork and then tomorrow soaking up the last day of the year.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year’s celebration.

See you in 2012.

~mrs. dunbar

WIWW- Christmas and little of what I got

Hello there.

This is me, on Christmas.

This is me nonchalantly taking pics of myself on Christmas.

This is the top that my brother had to ask if I made out of mom’s old curtains or tablecloth? {Funny guy.}

Funny guy is on the end. The top draped nicely, I thought. And here’s the best I can do for a full outfit shot.  

details: top-marshalls, pants-gap, shoes-piperlime

accessories… forgotten at home

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and a few of the things mr. dunbar got me…

jeanne oliver leather cuff. 

new watch. isn’t this band fun? I love it.

goes perfectly with my new sparkly tom’s.

and my biggest surprise… a portable hard drive. I didn’t even know these things existed until mr. dunbar brought one home to swap out music with a guy from work over a year ago. its itty bitty and it will hold a ton of pictures. hooray.

I also got some pjs and undies and tupperware. I love gifts that I will use ALL. THE. TIME.

he did good. real good.

~mrs. dunbar