The Simple Life at Home

Here we are, back at Saturday again. Time to check in and see how we are doing with the development of habits we wish to develop. If you aren't taking part, blog or no blog, you are missing out. Just the very act of setting goals for yourself is very motivating.

What I've done is to make up a chart of the habits I'm working on. It's posted on my bathroom mirror so I see it many times throughout the day and am reminded of what I should be doing. While I am still far from perfect, I have seen improvement in just about every area. Here's a quick update:

• Devotions each morning Doing better with this since I started my "Daniel" study. I am loving digging into the Word.
• Vitamin each morning Still haven't gotten this one down.
• Bed by 11:00 Only managed to do this once this week :(
• Bedtime Routine (wash face, moisturize, brush teeth, floss) About 50:50 on this one
• No Sugar Doing really good on this one - hardly had any sugar at all this week
• At least 5 Servings of Produce Much improvement here - I'm loving fruit and veggies
• Shoes on in the House Still hate to wear shoes so no go here
• Mini-Pedi each night (file calluses and slather with Vaseline) Doing this about half the time
• No Binging Starting to see much improvement here - down to maybe once a week instead of almost daily
• No Food After 8 pm I've been out almost nightly this week, so having dinner late has been causing a problem here
• 5 Min. Stretching Starting to implement this a few days a week
• Walk at least 20 Min Still struggling with fitting in exercise :(
• Breakfast Doing really well on this
• Calcium Tablet I hate doing this (it's huge)! Need work on it.
• Floss Improving, although I hate this too.
• Strength Train Also struggling with this. It's a laziness issue, I know.
• No Soda This is where I'm seeing the most improvement!! Yeah!!
• Don’t Salt Food Doing really well here too!!
• Drink 64 Oz. Water Doing super good here too!
• 1 Hour of Quiet (No tv, no radio, no yelling kids - just time for my mind to be quiet) This, I have come to think is a fantasy, but I will continue to strive for it!!

For more great Smart Habit Saturday participants, hop on over to The Lazy Organizer!!

Good Morning and welcome to another edition of The Lazy Organizer's Smart Habit Saturday!

Well, Smart Habit Boot Camp continues this week. Just in case you missed the habits I'm working on, here's a list:

Devotions each morning
Vitamin each morning
Bed by 11:00
Bedtime Routine (wash face, moisturize, brush teeth, floss)
No Sugar
At least 5 Servings of Produce
Shoes on in the House
Mini-Pedi each night (file calluses and slather with Vaseline)
No Binging
No Food After 8 pm
5 Min. Stretching
Walk at least 20 Min
Breakfast
Calcium Tablet
Floss
Strength Train
No Soda
Don’t Salt Food
Drink 64 Oz. Water
1 Hour of Quiet (No tv, no radio, no yelling kids - just time for my mind to be quiet)

Some of these I'm not doing well on (like being in bed by 11 and the walking), some I'm doing great on (cutting out soda, getting my water quota in, and having breakfast). Most I'm doing so-so on.

So I continue to go on, each week, earning more and more checkmarks. I know that I didn't get to where I am now overnight and I won't get to where I want to be overnight either. But having this whole big list of things to work on has really proved something to me.

It's showing me that I can make small steps and still be succeeding. Sure, maybe I don't get every checkmark every day, but each one I do get gets me closer to my goal. I don't need to make a huge overhaul of my entire life in one fell swoop - I just need to slowly change the small things.

It's all those small decisions that got me to this point - this weight, this lack of taking care of myself, this kind of dry desert my spirit sometimes seems to be in. Each little decision over the course of the last few years NOT to do something for myself has led me here.

And each little decision now to take care of myself will lead me home.

This week, I'm going to continue working on the habits I mentioned last week. I can't honestly say that I did very well this past week, but better than if I didn't have something to aim for, I suppose. Posting the chart up on my bathroom mirror gives me a daily reminder of what my goals are.

I know that most people probably think it's better to work on just one or two things at a time, but trust me when I say that I seriously am so out of whack right now that I need to improve every area of my life pronto! Having a list of 20 different things that I'm working on is helping me to try to find balance in my life - everything from my relationship with God to having pretty feet is covered!

I have to admit that I've been neglecting myself for quite some time now. I think that after my kids were born, I went into some kind of depression (though I'm not sure that's the right word) wherein I just didn't really care about myself at all - all my energy went into my kids. I put myself on the back burner. Now, many pounds and a lot of self-pity later, I have dug myself into a deep, deep pit I'm trying to climb out of.

As a reminder, here's the 20 habits I'm working on:

1. Devotions each morning
2. Vitamin each morning
3. Bed by 11:00
4. Bedtime Routine (wash face, moisturize, brush teeth, floss)
5. No Sugar
6. At least 5 Servings of Produce
7. Shoes on in the House
8. Mini-Pedi each night (file calluses and slather with Vaseline)
9. No Binging
10. No Food After 8 pm
11. 5 Min. Stretching
12. Walk at least 20 Min
13. Breakfast
14. Calcium Tablet
15. Floss
16. Strength Train
17. No Soda
18. Don’t Salt Food
19. Drink 64 Oz. Water
20. 1 Hour of Quiet (No tv, no radio, no yelling kids - just time for my mind to be quiet)

For more ideas of what other women around the world are working on, be sure to stop by The Lazy Organizer!

Devotions each morning
Vitamin each morning
Bed by 11:00
Bedtime Routine (wash face, moisturize, brush teeth, floss)
No Sugar
At least 5 Servings of Produce
Shoes on in the House
Mini-Pedi each night (file calluses and slather with Vaseline)
No Binging
No Food After 8 pm
5 Min. Stretching
Walk at least 20 Min
Breakfast
Calcium Tablet
Floss
Strength Train
No Soda
Don’t Salt Food
Drink 64 Oz. Water
1 Hour of Quiet (No tv, no radio, no yelling kids - just time for my mind to be quiet)

Better late than never, right?! Sorry this is so late getting posted, but it's been a busy day for us over here.

I'm happy to report that last week's goal of really clearly having a "line of demarcation" between school time and non-school time worked really well. We got so much accomplished this week, school-wise. And that's accounting for the fact that we had a three-day weekend, started back to our support group (losing 1/2 a day), resumed speech therapy, and had a "mom was really sick so kids had to work by themselves day." I'm really, really pleased that things went so well. Everyone seemed much happier with less stress and also with the new curriculum that we began.

For this week, I'd really like to continue working on this habit, as it is a constant source of stress for me, plus I'd really like to work on dealing with my children in a more positive way. I've gotten to the point, or maybe THEY'VE gotten to the point, where relations are strained because they are constantly fighting, which means I'm constantly on edge. Rather than just yelling at them to stop, I need to find better ways to handle my own anger and frustration, while helping them learn to deal with their conflicts in a more productive manner than lashing out at each other.

So, specifically, what should I work on? Well, first, I'd like to stop yelling. Even if I'm frustrated, yelling only serves to upset me, and my kids, more. It's counter-productive, even if it lets me blow off a little steam. Instead, I should take a second to pray and ask for wisdom when there is a conflict boiling over between them.

Secondly, I need to go back to Lisa Whelchel's book Creative Correction and look for some constructive ways to help siblings deal with their conflict. I personally always liked the "making them hold hands" technique. They hate that! But seriously, in order to be productive, healthy adults, they have to learn conflict resolutions skills which do not involve pulling each other's hair or throwing things. I'm just sayin'. Cuz their boss in the future might not like that, they'll get fired and come back to live with me. So it's really MY future on the line here, people!

For more wonderful ideas if you are looking for ways to change the habits in your life, pop over to The Lazy Organizer to see what others are working on. Who knows, you may find some inspiration there to Save your Money, Associations, Resources, and Time!

Good morning, everyone!! Welcome back to Smart Habit Saturday, hosted by Lara at The Lazy Organizer. Last week, the habits I wanted to work on were getting back into the habit of exercising for 30 minutes a day and to have some devotional time before going online in the mornings. I'm happy to report that I'm doing better on both fronts. Not perfect, but better. I picked up a copy of Nancy Leigh DeMoss's book, "A Place of Quiet Rest" and I highly recommend it! It has really been challenging me about my ideas on "quiet time" and encouraging me to spend more time just sitting before my Savior.

The first chapter was all about how we women give and give (until it hurts) and end up drained and exhausted. By pointing out how even Christ, who was fully God as well as fully man, needed to be refreshed each and every day by spending time alone with the Father, Miss DeMoss has made me realize that I'm not a failure for feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and out-of-sync. What I am instead is lacking in time with my Father. That is the solution. I cannot give constantly without being constantly renewed.

My goal for this week is to have fun with my mom while she's here. That should be easy!!

Have a great day!

You know, I'm just going to start over again on this whole thing. I'll do a quick re-cap on things I have started, but then I'm wiping the slate clean and getting a fresh start. I feel like such a loser that I can't seem to buckle down and do the things I know I should. Ugh!

So, my one of my previous habit goals were walking 30 minutes a day. As mentioned before, I was either walking or swimming most days. I've kind of gotten out of the habit of that, but hopefully things are getting into more of a normal rhythm around her so I'll start again.

Another goal was taking vitamins each day. I started off really strong on this one, but have, surprisingly (ha!), gotten out of the habit.

Ok, now that my sins are confessed, and hopefully forgiven, I'm moving on.

My habits for this week are:

• To resume getting 30 minutes of some form of exercise at least 5 days a week.
• To do a devotional before going online in the morning. My blogging addiction is getting out of control and I need to put some checks and balances in place. My first addiction should be to God. I'm being quite convicted that I have so much time to spend on this blog and reading so many other wonderful ones, but yet I don't make the time to spend with the Lord on a consistent basis. Or do all that I need to do in the house.

Those are the goals for this week. Sorry this wasn't more motivational or inspirational, but I'm kind of down on my goal-setting ability this week. Actually, I'm really good at goal-setting. It's the goal-reaching that seems to be a problem for me! LOL!

If you, like me, are looking for a way to get your life into order, be sure to stop by The Lazy Organizer and check out more entries (hopefully more uplifting than this one here today! LOL!) on Smart Habit Saturday. But try to check back next Saturday. I promise I'll try to be more upbeat!

Well, after a two-week break for vacation, I'm back to report on the smart habits I've been working on. It's been really good to have a goal to work towards each week.

Goal #1 - Walk 30 minutes a day. Well, I haven't necessarily walked 30 minutes a day, but on most of the days, I've either done the walking or swam for 30 minutes. Which is a MUCH more pleasant option when it's 94 degrees with 792% humidity! Seriously, when I have walked this week, it's been miserable. I think I'm changing Goal #1 to "30 minutes of exercise each day" and leave it at that.

Goal #2 - Take daily vitamins. Now this is something i can report that I'm doing well on! I've been taking a multi-vitamin daily. I think I should probably add calcium or something else on top of it, but I'll need to research exactly what the multi-vitamin I'm taking gives and what I still need.

Goal #3 (New) - For this week, the habit I'd like to work on is spending 1/2 hour a day on streamlining our home. By this I mean de-cluttering and re-organizing. This would be a reachable goal and would go a long way to helping me reach my overall goal of simplifying our life.

If you'd like to see other women's goals to be inspired by them, check out Smart Habit Saturday at The Lazy Organizer. It's a great source of ideas and encouragement!

Well, folks, my habit for this week was to walk each day for half an hour. And the results? Not so much. Unfortunately, I only got in two good walks. And yet I will persevere. This was just a crazy busy week, as will next week be, but I'm going to keep trying. So that goal will continue this week.

And yet that doesn't let me off the hook for instituting a new habit for this week. This week the habit I've chosen is to start taking my vitamins on a daily basis. I'd like to take a calcium supplement and a B-complex vitamin at the minimum. I've heard B vitamins help with PMS type symptoms. This will make my poor husband very happy if it's true! If anyone else has any ideas for good supplements, please let me know.

So there you have it. This week's goals:

• Take daily supplements
• Walk 30 minutes a day