Julie A. Duncan

At dinner tonight, we discussed the idea of New Years resolutions and the fact that today was the last day of 2010. Greg and I offered up several ideas to the girls to help them understand what a new year's resolution was: vowing to make your bed everyday or trying to keep your room clean, learning your ABC's by the end of the year (directed at Hailey...), getting 200 AR points, etc. Ashley kept saying her new year's resolution was to play Star Wars (because they had just finished watching this for the first time with Greg). I tried to explain that this wasn't a 'what do I want to do tomorrow' exercise but setting goals for the entire year. Jordan said her goal was to sleep every day. Admirable. Hailey ignored the entire conversation. Later, as I tucked Hailey into bed, she wanted to look at a book. I handed her a flashlight and then commented that I wanted to buy her a lamp for her birthday. She was quite excited since sissies both have lamps. Then she said, ...

Greg and I just watched a movie called Push . In the movie, there were people that were able to "push" thoughts into other people's minds to make them believe and do what they wanted them to. In the movie, they could create entire histories in the person's mind, even make them have memories of a brother the person didn't have. It was a very interesting movie and that was only one of the superhero qualities the people had. I've decided that Greg is a pusher. He is able to make me do things I hadn't planned on doing. Like right now. It's 10:30 at night and we're starting another movie. I had planned on going to bed at 10:30. And yet here I am, doing what he wants rather than what I wanted. Or is it what I wanted? Is he a pusher or am I just a gullible follower that will just do whatever my husband talks me into? Nah. Fact is, I guess I'm here because I love him. I've loved him for 17 years now and expect to love him another 17 and more. S...

I'm slow. Very slow. It seems like everything I do takes me twice as long as it would take somebody else. Today I worked at putting Christmas decorations away. I spent at least six hours on it. Probably more. Why did it take that long? Part of the reason is that I'm also doing other things. When I take one thing into another room, I end up doing something in that room. So I searched all over for the missing Christmas book and Santa hat. I didn't find them, but when I showed the girls the books that were there, they wanted to read the other Christmas books that I didn't wrap. So that took time. Then I separated out all of the sequins, beads, and pins that the girls had dumped together during cleanup for our Christmas decorations craft. That took time. I was also listening and sometimes watching Warehouse 13 as Greg had it streaming from Hulu while I was doing all of this. So apparently, I lack focus. Greg, on the other hand is very speedy. When I left for church with H...

My first new year's resolution is to start journaling again. I miss that aspect of my life a lot. It's something I used to do when I was younger and have just not had the time to do it much anymore. I start and then I stop again. I've decided it's time to go electronic. I absolutely love paper and pencils. I could pour over beautiful journal books for hours at a bookstore. I love the feel of paper. I love the look of paper. I love having handwritten notes and letters. But let's face it. I can't write fast anymore. Even in cursive. But I can type amazingly fast and edit it too. So, this year I'm going to try this blog thing. Blogging. Even my dad had a blog for awhile. This is my first attempt at one. But it's going to be a personal blog. The first thing I did was to set the privacy settings so that I was the only one that could read it. Eventually these ramblings will be read by others, but not today. My hope is to eventually publish this as a book usin...