Sometimes I Think I’ve Lost my Marbles… December 13, 2008

…but then I end up finding a good portion of them so all is well. I found these at Hopscotch, a cool toy store in McMinnville.

Despite the fact that I’ve not been very good at updating this blog, there has been progress that I am very pleased with. Let’s get on with me tooting my own horn, shall we?

First of all, I finally got up the gumption to deal with all the boxes of books and piles of books and piles of papers and pockets of miscellany tucked here and there. Now when my guests walk into my home there are not boxes and piles, their eyes can rest easy. I didn’t think I had enough shelves for all the books, but with a little decluttering and compromising everything fits just fine. I do have 2 boxes left that are past/future homeschool materials.

[I need to get on the ball and plan homeschool for January! Augh! Breath...deep breath...okay, and again]

I have been doing a pretty good job keeping up on the daily household cleaning. Although, at the moment I do have sinkful of dishes and over flowing laundry baskets. I plan on today being a housecleaning day. Not fun, but much needed.

I have a goal to be in bed by 11 pm on Sunday-Thursday and to get up by 5:30 am on Monday-Friday. Today I will be working on formulating a routine for myself. I have an assignment to figure out exactly what it is I want to work on right now to move toward becoming the woman I want to be. I chose my weight to be the first thing, but in order for me to lose weight I’ll have to be disciplined. After spending some time writing in my journal about this subject it came down to the point that it ALL hinges on my relationship with Jesus. So much change is needed and desired in my life. In order to move toward this change I need a plan. Yes, the Lord changes people, but I don’t think lying in bed all day is very conducive to this change. (Yes, I still find myself lying in bed when I get scared and overwhelmed.) My conclusion comes down to routine, just as it does every time. Getting out of bed the same day every morning, getting in tight with Jesus, armoring up in my battle gear, and face the day. I think I may need to make sure my armor is on all the time. I think it will make opening my eyes and rolling out of bed much easier.

I will try to post my routine schedule by Monday.

Focus Focus Focus October 28, 2008

That’s what I need: Focus…and a plan…and some determination. The problem is that I feel SO incredibly overwhelmed. I hope I don’t appear that way, though. I really want to look like I have it together. Fortunately none of my kids have taken a picture of me with my head in my hands pretending that the the world is not spinning.

Anyway, I am very much a list girl. I like writing lists. I like marking them off. I like looking at them. They look so nice. I don’t always finish what is on my list, but it give me a place to start. A while back I put together this beautiful household notebook that had all my routines and schedules in it. Each page was in a page protector so I could still mark things off, but later could clean up the page. Naturally, with any good system, it takes consistency and the ability to be flexible. The thing that I loved about my notebook is that when I was having a bad day and didn’t know where to begin I could just look at my book. Of course, there were some things that had to be done that aren’t part of a routine. I would put them on a post-it note on the day it needed to be done. I’m thinking that I need to get back into this notebook. I’m not sure why I didn’t keep on with it. My life is very different than what it was almost 2 years ago so the many things will be changed, but at least I have a starting place.

I won’t be home until Wednesday, but when I get there I’m going to drag it out and start working on it. The first thing I need to work on is finishing up the decluttering of books and school stuff. I’m going to be ruthless. I’ll have to do it while the kids are either napping or down for the night so they won’t whine about keeping some random piece of paper that they can’t even decide what it is or who it belongs to. I’ll post pictures of the progress with my binder and the cleaning up.

Not a whole lot is happening that is blog worthy. Well, it may be blog worthy, but not 35×35 worthy.

Revised List September 9, 2008

1.    Be creative every day!
2.    Finish painting my house.
3.    Have a peacefully decluttered home.
4.    Create a beautiful garden that brings beauty and nourishment that will sustain us with summer goodness all through the winter.
5.    Have a website.
6.    Sew a pretty skirt.
7.    Teach the kids to sew a pillow case.
8.    Find a hair style I love and is easy to manage.
9.    Knit/crochet neat things. (We didn’t really talk about this one much. I know it needs to be more specific.)
10.    Learn the lyrics to 5 Christmas songs: Away in the Manger, Joy to the World, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Blue Christmas, Chestnuts roasting.. (I don’t know the official title.)
11.    Go ice skating with my kids when I am 50 lbs. lighter in March ’09.
12.    Have 4 children who are able to read and are lovin’ it.
13.    Go down water tubes at SPLASH.
14.    Take a ballet class.
15.    Volunteer at St. Barnabus or a nursing home with my kids.
16.    Try no shampoo for 30 days.
17.    Make Candles.
18.    Make soap.
19.    Be joyful.
20.    Get passports for the family.
21.    Donate blood.
22.    Play ultimate Frisbee.
23.    Create a scrapbook for Dusty, Sage, and Ireland.
24.    Work on my weight loss scrapbook.
25.    Read Les. Miserables.
26.    Go rock climbing.
27.    Go snowboarding.
28.    Have a successful photography business!

Yeah..so it isn’t 35 anymore since some of them got moved. Many of these are contingent me losing weight. Some of them are not. My first assignment in accomplishing these goals is to choose 5 strong women of God to share my list with and ask to keep me accountable. I don’t know what that will look like at all. I have chosen the 5. It took me a couple of days. Now I just need to print them up and talk to each one. I feel so foolish. Who does this, anyway?

Progress:

Weight: I’m down a bit more than a pound since Saturday. So, I’ve lost about 7.6 lbs since July 30 and I haven’t even tried. This evening I sat down with a huge bowl of popcorn and lost interest in it. Usually I would have finished it off. I did, however, have a spoonful of chocolate frosting from the container earlier today.

Daily Creativity: I got up, showered, and put on my make-up. I don’t often do make-up. I did it even though I knew I was only going to the feed store and gas station. I knew I wouldn’t even look at myself in the mirror today, but it made me feel better about my looks. I consider it painting. Painting is artistic. Being artistic is being creative.

Decluttered Home: I worked in arranging more things in my bedroom. I had moved a big table and set a bookshelf upon it to hold much of my scrapbooking/cardmaking/beadwork/soap and candle making supplies. I need my that area to get organized so I can effectively sit down to work; whether that be photo editing or something more personal.

Photography: I received money for a job I did in June. I tried organizing my photo library a bit better, but I haven’t figured out a good system yet. I will begin working on my photo sessions in earnest. I have 2 appointments to make and reference to follow up on. I looked around SmugMug to see if it is something I can do right now to help me in the business. At the urging of a friend, I contacted Zoe. Go look at her work. It’s amazing. She took the time to write back. I think I may have just made a new friend.