a new year, a new beginning...

Hello all. I apologize for my long hiatus but I needed a bit of time off from all things crafty. Between my paycheck job in the world of retail and my mom job I was a bit overwhelmed, with nothing leftover to get creative with. I took a leave from the Papertake Weekly design team and with great sorrow stepped down from the Our Daily Bread Designs team. This was not an easy decision for me at all. A place on the ODBD team was my dream. But I could no longer keep up the pace and I had no desire to let down Kelley or the rest of the team, so stepping down was the right thing to do. But I am not done stamping or creating. I will be back to it shortly, I promise. But on my terms and maybe with some changes. We will just have to wait and see.

When I started this blog it was a slice of my life and someplace along the way it became all about someone else's stamps; first Stampin' Up! then all the other companies or blogs I have been been privileged to be a part of their design teams. But I am taking it back. So I apologize if you are only looking for stamping (and will completely understand if you unsubscribe, but hope you don't) because I am taking this blog back to the beginning. Look up. The name of this blog is "Debi's Crazy Life: faith, family and stamping.  So I am taking it back to the personal, mixed with the creative and maybe just some fun stuff too.

My life is crazy but a really good kind of crazy. I have a great husband, Jeff and we have been married for 27 years. He has just retired from his career in law enforcement. A huge leap of faith for us, that we can support a family of 7 on his pension and the income from his small business. We have 5 children between the ages of 23 and 9. Two biological and 3 adopted. We have foster parented for the last 15 years. We think we are done but only God knows if we really are. Our kids are all active, very active, in sports and other activities that keep us running constantly. It's a good life, busy but good.

We face some new challenges this year:
1.  Finding balance between our work lives and our family life; having Jeff around a lot more is both a blessing and a challenge.  Some responsibilities have to be re-delegated and we need to learn again how to work as a team.
2.  Finally finishing our house, which we have not made much progress on over the last couple of years.  This years plan is to just take it one room at a time and get it done.
3.  Getting closer and closer to our goal of being completely debt free; definitely within 3 years, hopefully within 2.
4.  Continue on with our efforts to simplify our diets (we have already removed almost all fast food, artificial additives and preservatives) by raising some of our own food this year.
5.  Find an educational plan that works for our youngest son's special needs

On a personal front I need to find myself again.  Crafting has always been my outlet, my one thing all about me.  In house that on several occasions had 10 kids living in it and a husband that works two jobs, it kept me sane, or at least a sane as I am going to be.  Then I decided to throw a job in on top of all of it and try to keep it all balanced, and I failed.  And in taking care of everyone else I have been forgetting to take care of me.  So some personal goals for this year are needed as well:
1.  I have lost 40 pounds over the last 4 years and would like to continue the trend.  I am not really all hung up on the whole "gotta lose a bunch of pounds" thing but who doesn't want to look better???
2.  Right now I walk several mornings a week before work.  I would really like to turn that up a bit.  I used to run, a very very long time ago, really starting to wonder if I could do it again.  Anyone want to do the Princess run with me at Disney in 2014 or 2015?
3.  Start crafting again, on my own terms.  Maybe a scrapbook page this week or a quilt next month.  Whatever is fun and satisfying.
4.  I fell off the wagon over the busy holiday retail season and got re-addicted to diet soda.  That stops right now, just as soon as I finish this last McCrack, aka diet coke.
5.  Make a weekly date with the hubby a priority, even if it is just lunch out on my day off, sandwiched between errands and grocery shopping.

So there is the plan for 2013 laid out in front of me, let it begin...