What Are You Doing In 2013?

Happy New Year!!!

What are you doing in 2013?  Are you like me-making a goal list and seeing what you can accomplish?  I do it pretty much every year.  I can't say I always do great, but I like making the list anyway.  =)

This year I am going to try harder to reach my goals!  I have some big ones, and I've already gotten started on one or two of them, so I didn't wait until January 1st to try to get started.

Just a few are:
1.  To buy a new house in our new town.  We own a house that we need to sell first, and then, it's house shopping for us!  I've found a few I want to look at, so we'll see what happens!  Here are a few pictures from one of the ones I really want to see:

 Nice, open space!

 Lots of elbow room!

 Master bedroom!

Master bath!  Wow!

2.  Hit my goal weight.  I'm not going to say exactly what that is, and I'm good with it fluctuating a few pounds, but I will say that I have about 20 pounds to go.  I've already lost a little over 30.  Go me!  And to keep moving in the right direction, the family joined a gym, and I can proudly say that I've had several one-hour workouts already!  Over the holidays, we've neglected the gym, but with such a strong start, I'm confident we'll be back on track real soon!

3.  See if I can't get this blogging thing down pat!  I took a looooong break from blogging, but really, I enjoy it, have already put a few years into my blog, and don't want to quite give up yet.  I want to focus more this year!  Less surfing, more purpose online!

Changing my theme from mostly light-hearted stories, into a blog that covers more areas of family life, and a little bit of pastoring life, and some of this and that.  So we will see!  I have 38 followers thru Google right now-I'd love to make a short goal of climbing to 100!  Care to help me out?  =)

What about you?  What are one or two of your biggest goals for 2013?  Leave me a comment and let me know!  Then stop back on January 3rd and join my Motivational Blog Hop, or read the entries!

A Question And 5QF!

Here we are, coming up on the end of another year!  I'm the type who almost always sets goals for the next year, how about you?

If you've read my blog in the past, you've seen that I have written mostly about humorous things that have happened in my life, such as the time I accidentally stole some elderly man's shopping cart.  Or the time my daughter's friend asked if Pennsylvanians hunt with machine guns.  Ah, the good times!

Over time, I ran low on stories, and there was a time I hit major brain block, and felt no inspiration.

And then, life took on some great changes, and my hubby and I and our children (the two who still live at home) moved to a new city and started a Pentecostal church.  I decided to change the theme of my blog, and share more things that are relevant to real life, every day living.  I have a few posts in draft that I plan to start posting in January.

I've found that one of my greatest desires in life is to write.  I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm hoping my fellow bloggers can help me out here because I do have a question:

How do you continue to have fresh ideas? 

This is the fear I face-that I'll begin to blog again, but will quickly run out of ideas.  I started this blog just about four years ago.  At one point, I decided to quit blogging, and took about a year off.  A few months back, I decided to blog again.  Have you had any similar experiences?

I would really love to have some input, and I thank you in advance.

5QF!

1. If you bake during the holidays, what is your favorite thing to make? I don't normally do any special baking for the holidays, but this year, Amber and I are getting together with friends (a lady and her daughter) to make cookies!  

2. Present giving: Gift bag vs wrapped box?  I usually wrap things. Gift bags are great for those odd shaped things tho!  

3. What do you keep your thermostat on during the winter/summer in your house?  In the winter, 72 to 73 is good in this house.  I know that seems just a touch high, but it is most comfortable there, and Dan feels the same, which is unusual.  It's probably has something to do with this house that we are currently renting.  It's an older home, and maybe just doesn't hold the heat in as well.  For summer?  The thermostat is off, and the air conditioners are on.  Not sure what temperature is most comfortable tho.

4. When thinking of your "Christmas to-do list" what percentage "done" are you? Oh.....I'd say I'm about 30% done.  Dan and I will probably go out together someday soon to get our children their gifts.  I do have a few things, but need to finish up.  I'll admit-I'm having a hard time figuring out just what to get for my 14 year old son.  He's not much into video games (thankfully!), and it seems the choices are limited for his age group!  Any ideas for me?  

5. Do you do the "Elf on a Shelf"? If so, is your Elf naughty and what shenanigans has he gotten into?  I am not sure if I had even heard of Elf on a Shelf until this year!  So no, can't say that I do it.  I have seen a few pictures of other people's Elves tho.  Some have been cute.  =)

Well, my friends, thank you for stopping by!  I do appreciate comments, and am really hoping you all will leave some for me with your helpful ideas.  Have a wonderful weekend!

My New Tag Line and Five Question Friday

Guess what I'm doing?

I am doing a 31 day "workshop"-actually it's an ebook with 31 days worth of exercises for building a better blog.

Today was my first day, and the exercise talked about your tag line.  If someone asks you about your blog, you should have an answer that explains what your blog is about.  Your tag line should also tell this message.

So!  It says to ask your friends and family to describe your blog in a sentence, and so I asked my friends on Facebook.  I got one response(so far), and it has STUCK with me!

So here's my SHOUT OUT to Melinda!  Thanks, Girlfriend!  I think my blog has forever been changed in the eyes of my readers! 

Do you know what it is?  Did you see it up under the title of my blog at the top of the page?  In case you can't find it, it is this:

A Chocolate Bouquet

A diabetic COMA waiting to HAPPEN!

or

Chocolate candy crafts and humorous, personal life stories

I had to put the second part in, so that first time visitors wouldn't be totally confused, like I was when I first read her response! 

Yeah, you know me---those pesky Blon roots of mine!  I didn't link "chocolate" with "diabetic"....I linked "my blog" to "coma"!  I thought, what?  Am I really that boring?  (sniff sniff--think I'll take my ball and go home....and eat worms....)

So there you have it!  My new tag line!  If you like my blog, please tell your friends, and when they ask what it is about, tell them it's a diabetic coma waiting to happen!

This is also Five Question Friday, which I think I'm going to try to participate in regularly.  After all, you all DO want to know more about me, right?

Let us begin!

1. What is your favorite Halloween candy?  What does Halloween have to do with anything????  And since this is a blog called A Chocolate Bouquet, you probably can tell that chocolate has something to do with my answer.  Not that I'm a chocoholic, but making chocolate candy crafts tends to usher in a lot of chocolates into my home, and unfortunately, into my stomach.  We gotta get this stuff back out of the house SOMEHOW, don't we???

2. Do you fold your socks?  This is a two fold question!  (No pun intended!)  I wear ankle socks, so no, I don't fold my socks when I take them out of the dryer.  I lay them flat up against each other.
The other side of this is, I still don't fold my socks, but DO crumple them up when I shove them under my pillow during the night.  For more information on this particular habit of mine, CLICK HERE.

3. What is something that you wish you had been warned about?  I wish I would have been warned that house fires make you gain weight!  I would have put new pots and pans and dishes and lots of lettuce on my first shopping list!  Twenty five pounds later, I am now the wiser!  I wish I would have also been warned that gaining weight at 40 is very bad--it doesn't come off near as fast as when you are 20, and you may not have the energy to do anything about it anyway!  Sigh.....(rolling eyes...)

4. What is the most significant difference between you and your significant other?  He is the thermostat Gestapo, and I am the Frigidaire queen!  We are completely incompatible when it comes to temperature!  He won't let me turn the heater up past 3 in our family room(it goes to 5---what a WASTE of two perfectly good numbers!!!), and he's always asking me, when I mention I'm chilly, if I have socks on!

Well of COURSE I don't have socks on!  Every last pair I own is hiding under my pillow!  And half of his socks are under there too!

What a goofy question!

I will admit tho--I am rebellious when he isn't looking, or if I'm up and he's still in bed. (Heehee!)

5. What are three words you would use to describe yourself? (And, just for fun...if your significant other is around, ask him/her what 3 words they would use to describe you!!)
Compassionate, mellow, warped(slightly)

Dan would say themoststunninglybeautifulwomaninI'veevermet, themostintelligentwomanI'veever met, and thegreatestthingthateverhappenedtome.

I already knew what he would say, so I didn't bother asking him.

=D