Final 2009 Recap

I've kept you updated throughout the year on how we were progressing on our goals for 2009, so I won't go into great detail about the things we accomplished this year. Here's a quick recap;

• We met various financials goals like increasing our emergency savings, saving for a car, etc.
• We did fun stuff over the summer like going to the Renaissance Festival, going camping, and throwing fun parties like the Yellow Party.
• We took vacations to Wisconsin and California, both to see family, and had a great time.
• We made family a priority and saw them pretty much once a week. It really seemed to have an impression on our nieces and nephews, I think it's safe to say we're the favorites! :-)

I also set a goal for myself to read twelve non-fiction books this year. I can read fiction easily, and I prefer to read fiction, so this was a hard goal for me to accomplish. I did it though, and read some really interesting books like;

• A Chance to Die (a biography of Amy Carmichael)
• Beyond the Ranges (biography of missionary James Fraser)
• Queen of the Dark Chamber (biography of a Christian woman in China)
• I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebecca (book on marriage)
• Hansi, the Girl who Loved the Swastika (autobiography of a former Nazi)
• Financial Peace (great financial advice)
• Hedges (another marriage book, this one not so great)
• Passionate Housewives, Desperate for God (a book on being a wife, with interesting perspectives on a wife's role in the home.)
• Queen of the Reformation (biography of Martin Luther's wife)
• Revolution in World Missions (a wakeup call for privileged first world countries)
• Created to Be His HelpMeet (an excellent book on marriage)

We also worked on the castle quite a bit, finishing the living room, and guest room, mostly finishing the dining room and master bedroom, and revamping the front of the house for more curb appeal.

It's been a productive and fun year, and we're looking forward to accomplishing lots more in 2010. What was your favorite part of 2009?

Merry Christmas!

From our castle to yours, we wish you a very

Merry Christmas!

I'll be taking the next week or so off of blogging to enjoy the holidays. I plan to be back in 2010 in force!

November Recap 2009

It's December! We woke up this morning to a dusting of snow, which was a nice way to start the month. Come January 1stFebruary I'll be fed up with the stuff, but I like having snow for the Christmas season.

My unofficial goal was to have all of my homemade Christmas projects done by December 1st. Out of five projects I got two completely done. Which isn't bad, but I need to get cracking!Here's how we did on our other goals this month.

• Increase savings for new car We're currently at 57% of our goal.
• Increase emergency savings by 1K. We're at 36% of this goal.
• Stock pantry and freezer with food, meat and non-perishables. I think we can say we accomplished this goal.
• Improve sewing skills. I'm working on replacing my wool coat lining, and if I have to say so myself, I'm doing a pretty good job.
• Continue getting involved in the ladies' ministry at church. I'm working with the leaders to get more ladies involved in the prayer groups for the missionaries. It's going well so far!
• Continue learning piano - Right now I am working on some of my favorite christmas carols like O Holy Night and Carol of the Bells. I'm doing pretty good!
• Develop a consistent habit of devotions. We've been working on this all year, and it's finally becoming a consistent part of our routine. I'm usually even able to stick to it when Luke is out of town.
• Read 12 non-fiction books. This month I finally finished this goal. Hurrah! I read Revolution in World Missions and The Man Whisperer to complete my goal of 12 books!

This month my priority is Christmas. I need to get the gifts done, the shopping done (it's almost finished), the cookies made, decorations up and everything wrapped. I love this time of year!

Summer Goals Revisited

Well, it looks like despite the fact that we had a very busy summer, we actually managed to accomplish quite a bit!

Our to do list for the summer was as follows:

1. Turn up the curb appeal
2. Refinish a dresser
3. Refinish floors in living and dining room
4. Paint kitchen walls, possibly cabinets too.
5. Finish guest room, living room and master bedroom
6. Begin next four big projects: front entryway, back entryway, office and basement

At the end of the summer, here is where we stand.

Turn up the curb appeal. CHECK

Refinish this dresser. DONE

Finish the living room, master bedroom and guest room

Read all about it here

and here

and here.

Begin next four big projects:

The entryway, which we began and finished this summer.

and also the back entryway (which is in progress), the basement (also in progress) and the office (never started that one)

Refinish floors in living and dining room POSTPONED (due to basement renovation) We decided we didn't want to be tracking dust and renovation garbage all over our newly refinished floors. This one got pushed out indefinitely.

Paint kitchen walls, possibly cabinets too. Painting the walls was relatively easy, and I can't believe I haven't shown you pictures yet! The walls are all done, and my plan is to paint the cabinets slowly, throughout the winter.

All in all, I'd say we did a pretty good job with our goals. I'm happy with what we got accomplished, and I am looking forward to getting even more done!

October 2009 Recap

For my recap for October, I am going to do something a little different.

We are still making progress on our listed goals for 2009, but I have nothing new to report on that end. I'm still reading non-fiction books, still working on new piano pieces, still sewing some projects. We're still saving, still spending time with family, and still working on the missions trip to Spain.

We've accomplished a lot of our goals for 2009, and we've also worked on the house a lot. This month we've been focusing on the basement renovation, but we are still working on demolition and garbage removal. It is a huge task. We're also still tweaking the floor plans, there is a lot we want to include in the space downstairs, and it is taking some master planning to be able to include everything.

A few weeks ago I listed my goals for fall. So far, we have:

• FINALLY finished Project Curb Appeal. Watch for some awesome before and after pictures at the end of the week.
• Finished the fall cleaning. Just in time for my brother to move in, and I feel like I have my sanity back, now that my house is sparkly clean.
• We had a small birthday party for Lover at the beginning of October. It was a fun day with family, and he got some great gifts.
• We carved a small pumpkin on Halloween, in between handing out candy to little ghosts and goblins.

I'm still working on some of the other goals;

• I've purchased all of the supplies for the Christmas gifts I'll be making for the nieces and nephews, and our siblings as well.
• I've also purchased the fabric to replace the lining in my winter coat. I am totally intimidated by this project, I will letcha know how it goes.
• We're working on stocking the freezer and pantry, although it is definitely harder with another hungry man in the house!
• We're hoping to go to a corn maize before it gets freezing cold. Our weekends have been really busy, so I'm not sure if it will happen.

And of course, we are still looking forward to lots of yummy food at Thanksgiving! That is, of course, if we can figure out who we'll be spending the holiday with. It's definitely a blessing to have so much family, but a challenge as well!

Don't forget to vote today!!!

September 2009 Recap

Wow, where did September go? It's hard to believe we are already in October. Here's how we did on our goals this month:

• Plant a vegetable garden The critters really went to town on our gardens this year. We harvested a lot of peas and blackberries, but the tomatoes, sunflowers, cucumbers, peppers and cantaloupe all got eaten before they were even partially ripe. I left what was there on the vines to feed the critters into the winter, and declared the garden a lost cause this month. I think we may do peas again next year, but that's it. I didn't really enjoy the gardening. Flowers are much more my thing!
• Go to California My brother and sister in law had a baby at the beginning of the month, and so I flew out there to see them all for a couple of weeks. Lover was able to join me for one of the weeks, and we had a great time visiting and cuddling with the new little one.
• Get together with family more often This was a month for family! We surprised my mom with a trip home for her fiftieth birthday at the beginning of the month, and spent just about every day of the two weeks with her, my brothers and my mom's family. It was great catching up with everyone. I'm so glad we got to do something nice for my mom's special birthday.
• Plan a missions trip to Spain This is progressing nicely, and it looks like we are planning to go to Spain next spring. I am so excited about getting to go back to where I grew up!
• Continue learning piano I am working on a new piece, and now that the weather isn't as nice, I'll be inside more... so more opportunity to practice! :-)
• Read 12 non-fiction books this year. I killed this goal this month. As of last month I had read 5 books, my total at the end of September is 9 books! I also read four novels this month too. Can you tell that Lover was away for most of the month?

This month was all about family, so we didn't spend hardly any time on the house. We did a little more demo in the basement, and some gardening outside, including removing the ivy. That's about it! My little brother is moving in with us in November, so we are focusing on the house this month. Hopefully we'll have lots to report next month! For now I'll leave you with a picture of my sweet little nephew. Isn't he wonderful?

Fall Goals

In honor of the first day of fall, I've made up a list of goals to be completed before December 22nd.

Productive goals:

• Finish up Project Curb Appeal
• Replace lining in winter coat
• Update grocery database with essentials for pantry and freezer
• Stock freezer with basic meals
• Fall cleaning
• Make Christmas gifts for siblings
• Make Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews
• Pick apples, make apple pie and applesauce, maybe can some of the sauce?

Fun goals:

• Go to a corn maize
• Have a birthday party for Lover
• Eat lots of food for Thanksgiving
• Carve pumpkins

Ambitious? Yes, but attainable, I believe. :-) I'll letcha know how it goes.

August 2009 Recap

We're more than halfway through the year, so I thought I would make a list of accomplished goals so far for 2009.

• Increase emergency savings by 2009
• Have garage sale-ing fund up to $100 by start of summer
• Have one month's worth of meat in the freezer.
• Go camping
• Go to the Renaissance Festival
• Throw 2-3 good parties (Culoare Zi and Paul and Mandy's party)
• Finish painting rooms in house
• Plant a vegetable garden
• Go to Wisconsin
• Get together with family (both sides) about once a week

Accomplished goals of goals set for the year: 31%

Goals we are still making progress on:

• Have one month's worth of expenses saved up
• Learn canning: I am waiting for apple season to get in full swing so that I can make some applesauce.
• Go to California: I'll be flying out within a week or two, depending on when this little baby decides to come!
• Read twelve non-fiction books this year Books read to date: 5

Other things we accomplished this month:

• Painted the windowsills outside in the front
• Painted the paneling in the kitchen
• Flew my mom home for two weeks
• Continued with basement demolition
• Planted a garden by the stairs

Summer is almost over but I think we've really lived it up this year!

The Year Of Yellow: Culoare Zi 2009

Summer time at Wendhurst Castle means one thing; Culoare Zi! If you don't know what that is, check out last year's post about the blue party.

The invitations set the tone for the party, with their sunny yellow color and lemon graphic. We included all of the pertinent information, as well as a short fictional description of why yellow was being celebrated this year.

Walking up to our back yard, you were greeted with this little sign;

And plenty of yellow decor to get you in the spirit! I made these pretty oversized paper flowers that we stuck into all the planters,


The tables were covered in yellow tablecloths, and we had decorated with lemons, yellow balloons and other yellow fruits.


I found these yellow tiki torches last year on clearance, and although I initially purchased them for the Mid Winter Summer party we were going to do, they fit in perfect for this party.


The only rule we have for this party is that you must wear something yellow. Last year several people showed up without the color du jour, and were not invited back. This year we informed everyone of the rule, but I also bought some of those hideous plastic leis in school bus yellow for the non-conformists. Here's some friends in their yellow garb and one dissenter with her lei.
She is preggers though, so we cut her some slack. :-)

By far the highlight of our night is the food. We work hard to come up with an easy menu that is filled with foods that either are yellow, or have yellow in their name. Here's our menu for the night;

In case you can't read it, for appetizers we had Yellowfin Tuna on Cheddar and Crackers, and a fruit tray of Golden Delicious Apple Slices, Mango, Frsh Pineapple and a Lemon Fruit Dip.

The entrees consisted of Grilled Lemon Chicken, and Tortilla Patata (a Spanish dish with eggs and potatoes), with three sides, Saffron Yellow Rice, a Grilled Vegetable Medley of Dutch Yellow Potatoes, Summer Squash and Yellow Onions, and Golden Sweet Corn.

Dessert was delicious, as we served Love the Mama Lemon Bars, Banana Splits and Golden Honeydew Melon.

Everyone seemed to have a great time, and Lover's dad even brought along his guitar and played Yellow Submarine and a few other "yellow" songs. It was a lot of fun, and we can't wait till next year!

Next year is red, so start planning your outfits!

Image courtesy of this site

I am linking this post up to Julia's Hooked On Fridays as I love to throw an awesome party, and also to Foodie Friday over at Designs By Gollum, because of all our great food!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

We went to the drive-in this weekend to see Transformers. Despite what you may think, this was a not a noble move on my part to earn brownie points with Lover. I'm such an anti-girl. I like sweet cars, comics and action flicks. I also like a great fight scene. Needless to say, I thought this movie was awesome. :-)

A lot of people gave this summer blockbuster bad reviews, mainly citing a lack of plot. While I have to agree that there wasn't a ton of story or character development, what did you expect? I mean this is a movie about robots, a hot girl, a fun guy, and lots of fighting. And it totally delivers. Side note, has Shia LaBeouf totally lucked out or what? This kid's star is seriously on the rise, and it kind of makes me sick that he is two years younger than I am and has already made more money than I will ever have a chance at. Not that I am jealous or anything. :-)

The soundtrack is pretty awesome as well. I may even put it on my MP3 player for my next workout. Seriously, what better to get your heart racing than the music from the fight scene for a bunch of robots?

In summation, if you haven't seen this movie yet, go see it. You'll enjoy it, believe me. :-)

P.S. The drive in was a double feature, and the first flick we watched was G.I.Joe. If you have to choose between them, go for Transformers all. the. way.

All images from transformersmovie.com

Summer Vacay in Wisconsin

If you were my friends in real life, you wouldn't see me very often, for one of three reasons:

• You live on a different continent
• You live in a different state
• You understand that I am the antithesis of a social butterfly and I can only handle so much soical interaction.

This is pertinent, bear with me. Several months ago, my husband suggested that we take some vacation time this summer and travel to Wisconsin to see his grandparents and uncles. The conversation went something like this:

Lover: I'd like to go to Wisconsin and see my grandparents this summer, since I'll finally have some vacation.

Me: (Sensing that my uber social husband was planning another social outing)Um, see them like stay with them and talk to them?

Lover: Yes, how else would we see them?

Me: Dunno, maybe we could send them a picture of us and they could send one back?

Lover: Um, no. While we are there we should see my Uncle Rob too, oh and my Tio Carlos. Maybe we'll go see your friend Erica, and our friends in Ohio on the way back?

Me: Wouldn't you rather go camping? By ourselves?

Lover: I'll take you to IKEA...

Me: Sold!

I may have exaggerated that convo just a bit, but the reality is that I am not a real social person, so I am proud of the fact that we spent SIX days with people non-stop, and I wasn't a grouch about it. Of course, the fact that we spent 30 hours in the car by ourselves probably helped too.

All kidding aside, Lover's grandparents are so sweet, and it is always relaxing to stay with them. I am always amazed at how spotless his grandma's house is, and by how much Lover's dad is like his grandpa. We spent Sunday through Thursday am with them. Aren't they just the cutest?

We always spend lots of time playing Skip-Bo, pool, Jarts and there is always TONS of food. Lover's grandma is an excellent cook, and we eat three squares a day. I think I gained ten pounds. :-) We also saw his Uncle Rob, and his crazy Tio Carlos. Oh and we went to this fantastic cafe in downtown Milwaukee with Tio Carlos and Virginia, called the Trocadero. If you're in the area, look them up.

While in Milwaukee we went to this awesome antique mall and had a blast browsing through the store. I tried on a bunch of vintage hats:

Lover found one as well,

and we drooled over many an antique book. (Don't worry, we didn't get any drool on the books!)

Thursday morning Lover kept his promise and took me to an IKEA that is just south of Chicago. Then we played four hundred rounds of the ABC road game whilst driving to Bloomington, Indiana to see my friend Erica. Lover won almost every time, I blame my very poor vision. Or my distraction. Or the fact that I am so busy trying to cheat in order to win, that I miss the letters I am looking for.

I hadn't seen Erica since we got married (she was my maid of honor) so it was great to catch up. We had a great time even though it was swelteringly hot, and of course we ate some more. At this point we no longer fit into our little car. :-) Erica and her sister Heidi have two of the funniest cats, so we had some laughs watching them. A good time was had by all! Sorry, inside joke.

Friday morning we packed up once again, and headed home, with a detour in Cleveland to see some new friends of ours. We went to Houlihan's for dinner, a first for us. Very yummy food and a very interesting ambiance.

We got back to the Castle around 2am, and all was well. I happily informed Lover that we had filled our social quota for the rest of the year and we wouldn't need to see anyone else. He objected, until I promised to buy him a new tool. :-P

July 2009 Recap

July was a very busy month, with something going on every weekend, and lots of projects during the week. Lover spent three days in NJ, which allowed me to finish up some projects we've been working on. We also threw our yearly Culoare Zi party and took a week long vacation to Wisconsin. Here's how we did on our year's goals this month:

• Go camping We went once this month, and it was a blast. Camping is so relaxing and stress-free. Wish we could go more often!
• Go to the Renaissance Festival We went and had a great time, as seen in the post below.
• Throw 2-3 good parties this year. Culoare Zi: The Year of Yellow was a smashing success, despite copious amounts of rain. Pictures to come soon.
• Plant a vegetable garden. The peas were yummy, as were the blackberries. The cukes are growing quickly, we have baby peppers and little cherry tomatoes. The canteloupe are still flowering, no sign of fruit yet. Hopefully we'll get to taste the fruit of all our labor, before the bunnies and groundhogs get to them.
• Go to Wisconsin We spent four days with Lover's grandparents in Wisconsin, and had a great time. It was nice to catch up with them, and some other friends along the way home.
• Read 12 non-fiction books. I finished a Chance to Die in Wisconsin last week. Definitely an interesting read on the life of Amy Carmichael. Non fiction books read year to date: 3

In addition to these goals, we also:

• Made freezer jam
• Painted the front door
• Refinished a dresser
• Replaced the bushes in the front of the house
• Saw lots of family and friends

Can't believe more than half of 2009 is over!

The Long Weekend

Our long weekend was filled with...

crops from our garden

pictures of my little niece in the daisy patch out back

baby bunnies (from our yard!)

pictures of flowers

monopoly and finger puppets

time together

and an impressive fireworks display

What did you do for the fourth?