It's already the 3rd Friday in November?! Aaaaaahhhhh!!! The month has gone by so fast and I haven't really made a dent in the things I need to make a dent in. At some point, I'm sure the stress will catch up with me but right now, I denying the fact that I have way too much to do.
My 3 in 30 momentum has slowed a bit but I'm still hanging in there.
Drag out, sort through and organize winter clothes--Still not yet. We spent last weekend moving and organizing some things, mainly moving clothes from the laundry room into closets and dressers. By the time we were through, I couldn't imagine sorting through stuff. The good news is that the boy has all his winter stuff out and the girls have a few long sleeve shirts and coats. Most of their winter gear is still in bags and boxes. Ugh, I really need to get on this one.
Continue with Bible in 90 Days--I'm doing great with this. I spent most of the week in the Psalms and have moved into Proverbs. I have read many of the Psalms before but never in order and straight through. I was surprised at how dark and angry it sounded in several places. That confused me a bit and I asked my husband to help me understand the anger (he's a bigger Bible scholar than me). His comment was that I was reading them with a New Testament perspective. Jesus forgave all our sins and we should forgive each other. These were written before Jesus though--forgiveness isn't much of a theme there.
Make something crafty that I have pinned on Pinterest--Done. I do get to be crafty again tonight, although not because of Pinterest. My oldest daughter is in a play and the costume director recruited my middle child to help make 10 halos out of pipe cleaners and garland. What this really means is that I will make 9 and she will make 1. It will be a great time of stress bonding for us.
During the month of November, Melissa at Beautiful Mommy Feet is celebrating the wonderful works of God by featuring a different blogger each day who will share a testimony of praise. I am honored to be featured today...my post is titled He Knows the Plans.
I hope that you are blessed by it.
My progress this week has been minimal, at best. Oddly enough, I don't really feel like I'm behind. Actually it's just the opposite. I feel like I may be getting caught up and can really see the light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, I say that and something will go terribly wrong and I will be back to stress kitty stage. But for now, I think I will enjoy the calm before the storm. So here's the scoop...
Pinterest project--Done. I was considering another one but I can't focus on decorative stuff right now--there's too many functional projects to be done.
Bible in 90 days--I'm proud to say I've done really good this week. I really like my new NLT Bible. It's very readable and the notes are helpful. I have made it to Psalm and that's where I will spend the weekend. I'm looking forward to it.
Winter clothes--Sort of. All the buckets my husband pulled out for me to sort through happened to be Ethan's clothes, our clothes (that mostly don't fit and need to go away), and blankets. The girls' clothes are still mia. According to the One Who Knows Where Everything Is (husband), they are in giant trash bags in the garage. So this weekend, it's girl clothes sorting, I hope.
I have decided to put my One Bite goals on hold until after Christmas. I don't feel like I could be very productive with even small changes. I really want my goals through the end of the year to focus on getting settled and taking care of things that are really necessary (just ignore the Pinterest goal above!) I need to re-establish the routines I already have before making new ones. I am going to pick it up again after the holidays. I think the small goals there are perfect for New Year's resolutions and I'm looking forward to bettering myself. Until then, I'm just surviving.
I do want to update one of my goals from last month which was to drink more water. I rarely pick up a soda anymore. I have some in the pantry but it's not a habit like it used to be. I've had 2 people tell me I look like I have lost weight. I have no idea if this is actually true--I don't own a scale and I can't tell that my clothes fit any different. My husband's comment was "I've noticed that your belly lays a little different." Gee thanks honey. The belly that has been there since the 1st pregnancy 11 years ago is "laying different." He really did mean it in a good way and I applaud his efforts. The comment was just funny. He's a keeper.
Today is November 2nd and I am very proud to announce that I have my Thanksgiving menu all planned out! Drumroll please...chicken strips, cheese cubes, fruit/veggies and dip, crackers and spreadable stuff, sliced deli meat--you get the picture. It's our 2nd Annual Finger-Food Thanksgiving Feast! It was such a hit last year that we are repeating it. Honestly, last year was completely an accident. We save our traveling for Christmas so there's just 5 of us to feed. My options are to cook a giant dinner, complete with all the trimmings (can't leave anything out) or go out to eat. I *can* cook a complete dinner with all the trimmings but I just don't want to. It takes forever, gives me stress and is usually gobbled up in about half the time it takes to say the blessing! Meal planning last year was done the night before, walking around the grocery store with the kids picking out random things we wanted to eat. Oddly enough, they were all finger foods. Thanksgiving day was relaxed and casual. I put out the food (not much to cook), and we grazed like cattle all day long, while we watched tv show reruns on dvd. We ate in the living room, on paper plates, with plastic silverware and plastic cups. The biggest stress-maker was keeping the dog away from our plates. It was the best Thanksgiving dinner yet. And since the idea of "normal" is not embraced well by my family, we are making it a tradition. I hope to post pictures and a complete menu/agenda closer to the big event (or shortly after).
November also begins month 2 of my participation in the 3 in 30 Challenge. Last month I picked goals that weren't really hard, but they just needed my attention and a bit of motivation. This month, the goals I chose are different in that one of them is purely selfish, one is going to happen with or without me, and the other is something I'm way behind with.
1. Make 1 thing that I have pinned on Pinterest (selfish)--I'm a compulsive pinner. I have only ever made 1 thing that I have pinned (a battery box) and if I were to be completely honest, my husband made it, I just told him how to do it. So this month, I'm going to get crafty and make something--food doesn't count.
I'm considering this:
or this:
2. Drag out and organize winter clothes (with or without me)--It's that crazy time of year in the South where you will be wearing shorts one day and a heavy coat the next. I turn on the heat at night and a/c during the day. My closet is great. I don't rotate clothes based on the seasons. What's in there is in there all year, or until I outgrow it, stain it, or wear it out. My children, however, need me to get out their winter clothes and sort, toss, donate, etc. This is going to happen with our without me. If I want it done right, I may as well do it myself. So by the end of the month, the kids' closets will be winterized. Can I just say in advance that I HATE THIS GOAL! But it must be done. All dreading aside, it *will* be done.
3. Get back on track with Bible in 90 Days and finish before the end of the year--I started this challenge long enough ago that I should already be finished. I thought it would be easy...what's 12 pages a day? It's not easy and I'm ashamed to admit that I have let life get in the way. I have made excuses...I don't have time (yes I do), I can't focus (try prayer and coffee), I will make it up tomorrow (no I won't). So no more excuses. I'm picking up where I left off (2 Chronicles) and just moving on. I won't finish in 90 days, more like 150 days. But I will finish, and that's what is most important.
So there you have it. My 3 in 30 November goals, out here for the world to see. Thanks for stopping by! What are your goals for November?
October has been a pretty good month for me. When I started the month making goals, I wasn't sure what to expect. I like goals, but I've never been very successful at reaching them. In the past, they have been more like targets--really big targets that I usually don't even come close to reaching. This time was different. The support has been wonderful. I like linking up with the groups and knowing that even though our goals are different, we are on the same schedule. I think blogging my progress has been very motivating too. My successes and failures are forever enshrined in internet land, good, bad or ugly. It's scary but it works.
October 3 in 30 Goals
1. Drink more water--still doing really good with this goal! In the interest of full disclosure, there is a soda on my desk right now--my co-worker brought it to me and I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm cutting back. It's good, but not as good as it was a month ago.
2. Keep up with laundry--My washer was fixed late last Friday night and was going strong Saturday. By Sunday evening, I was all caught up and soooo thankful that it was done. The kids are finally putting it together that if they will bring me the dirty clothes from their rooms, I will wash them. Apparently that's a novel concept to them.
3. Sunday morning meals--We had Sausage, Egg and Cheese Quiche for breakfast and Taco Soup for lunch/dinner. Planning ahead really works well.
One Bite At A Time
This week, I did not tackle the paperless kitchen challenge like I thought I was going to do. I just wasn't sufficiently motivated for that. I did manage to cut down my magazine clutter by quite a bit. The challenge was really magazine and book clutter but most of my books are still in boxes. In fact, I know I have a box of magazines somewhere too but I couldn't find them fast. I tackled just what I had in my living room and kitchen, and managed to toss about 30 back issues after pulling out a few recipes and decorating ideas. I will most likely revisit this challenge when I find my box of magazines, if the husband didn't toss them when I wasn't looking.
Next week, I have no idea what my goals should be. It's time to think about November and I'm not ready for that yet.
How did your week go? Have you made plans for November yet?
I didn't manage to post or link up with my 3 in 30 or One Bite progress last week :/ It's been a crazy busy week. Maybe I should make a goal next month to actually keep up with my progress reports! The past 2 weeks, I have been partly successful with my goals:
3 in 30 Challenge
1. Laundry--My goal this month was to not get behind with my laundry. I don't mind doing it if I can keep up but when the Laundry Fairy doesn't visit everyday, I get overwhelmed and ignore it until we run out of underwear. I have to say that I'm doing very well with this challenge and I *love* having a clean laundry room. Of course, Murphy's Law says that when the routine is going well, something will disrupt it. My something was a broken washer. The agitator broke last weekend and we had to order parts for it. They should arrive today and thanks to my handyman husband, it will be working like new very soon. Unfortunately, I have a pile of laundry waiting for me when it gets fixed. On the bright side, my "one load per day" goal has spoiled me and I can't wait to get back into my routine.
Just a side note, if you ever need parts to keep an appliance running long past it's life expectancy, I highly recommend PartSelect. Their website allows you to select your appliance by model number, then it gives you a diagram of the parts. You pick out what's broken and order what you need. If you don't know what is broken, they can help with that too. A word of caution, my bank card does not like to let me order from them (I believe they are Canada based). It declined my card several times before I had to verify with the bank that yes, I was indeed ordering washing machine parts from Canada. So if that happens to you, just call the bank and get them to manually authorize the charge (at least that's what works with my bank).
2. Water--Not only am I replacing my afternoon soda with water, I have almost completely cut out soda altogether and kicked my artificial sweetener habit. I am reviewing a book by Beth Aldrich called Real Moms Love To Eat and one of the things she is really adamant about is cutting out artificial sweeteners. Normally I wouldn't give that much thought but this time I did. I switched to 1 cup of coffee every morning (with real sugar) and I can count on one hand the number of sodas I have had in the past 2 weeks--most of them non-diet.
3. Sunday Meals--There have been 2 Sundays since I started this challenge and I am 50/50. The first Sunday, I made Blueberry Soup and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins for breakfast, and Beef Stroganoff for lunch. It really did smooth the process. It was a fair amount of extra work but it was worth it. The 2nd Sunday we went out of town so we had cereal for breakfast and a late lunch at a cafe.
One Bite At A Time
So I had big plans to make some homemade staples...didn't happen. I still have plans but I really want several hours (in a row) of free time to dig in. When that happens, I will let you know how it goes. Until then, I am going to move on to another challenge for next week. It seems senseless to hang on to this one just waiting for a few free hours. Next week, I'm going for "Paperless Kitchen."
How did you do with your goals this week?
