It's a new....month!

I know, I know...you thought this was going to be about the fact that it's also a new year.  Which is also true, but not what this post is about.  I'm not really into New Year's resolutions - partly because if you mess them up, you have to wait for the rest of the year to be over before getting another chance to plan and feel successful, and partly for other slightly similar reasons.

At any rate.

Monthly goals seemed to work much better for me in the past, because it was 30(ish) days to work on a goal, which was short enough to feel achievable, and long enough to work at building habits.

I do have some things that I want to improve on, and posting them publicly to The Internet seems to help hold me accountable.  Probably in part because I hate the thought of having to admit I failed to The Internet.

All this to say, that I'm getting back to my monthly goals.  And I'm kind of excited.

Here they are for January:

1. Read my Bible at least 25 days
2. Exercise at least 10 days (wimpy, I know, but gotta start somewhere!)
3. Meal plan for 1 week
4. Prepare at least 2 freezer meals 
5. Organize one area/problem spot

I'm kind of excited about getting back into my goals.  I love feeling like I accomplished something, as well as being more intentional with my time.  On one hand, when I had kids, I didn't feel like I had time to be doing this kind of stuff, but really, I need goals and organization now even more than I did before.  

I'd love to hear from anybody who is working on goals as well - whether they're weekly, monthly, or for all of 2012.  We could encourage each other and cheer each other on!

Dinner plan this week.

I know it's already half way through the week.  But, I actually had most of this week's dinners planned before I wrote this, so I'm totally counting this as one of my two weeks of meal planning for the month!

Here is what we have eaten or are planning to eat this week:

Breakfasts:  Some combo of apple-cinnamon muffins, home-made yogurt with strawberries, cereal, oatmeal, and fruit.

Lunches:  Salads, leftovers, or sandwiches, with fruit and/or veggies with yogurt-ranch dip (tastes better than it sounds!)

Dinner:

• Monday: Baked Italian pasta/veggies
• Tuesday: Roast/veggies
• Wednesday: roasted Jamaican chicken & potatoes, salad, veggies, and healthy(ish) chocolate peanut butter balls!
• Thursday: Leftover roast with sautéed veggies and salad 
• Friday: Home-made pizza with whole wheat crust and turkey-pepperoni

Now, since it's Wednesday, and we're having people over for dinner tonight, I'm going to go work on prepping the chicken and potatoes, and make the chocolate peanut butter balls. Yum!

May Goals: Housekeeping and such

It's a new month, and time for new goals!  One of my favorite things about having monthly goals is that it causes me to take stock in how I'm living life on a regular basis, and lets me think about what I can change in manageable steps.  I have felt more organized, and more purposeful, and hope to keep moving in that direction.

This month, I'm keeping a few goals, changing some, and adding a new one.

Still planning on reading my Bible.

I'm still planning on exercising, but 40 miles is a little much for me right now, especially as we transition to a new stage of life.  So, I'm going to pick something more realistic, like 25 miles, for this next month.  One thing that will probably make it easier is that we got Isaac a bike for his birthday, so he'll be able to ride while we walk, which will let us keep a good pace, and let him have fun.  I wish I could post a picture of him on his bike, he loved it.  Unfortunately, pictures aren't an option quite yet.  Bummer.

I'm enjoying having an organizing project each month.  It's such a flexible goal, yet with a plan to get something done.  Perfect.

I think I will try meal planning for at least two weeks (I guess).  I was so disappointed that I didn't love it.  I mean, it's cooking and planning, and I love both of those things separately.  Maybe it will grow on me, and even if it doesn't, I'm hoping it will save me time and money.

And, lastly, housekeeping.  I don't really like it very much.  But I don't want a gross house, so it must be done.  And, with Isaac being here, it's even more important.  Growing up, my mom kept a crazy-clean house.  Not the kind that you couldn't be comfortable in, but the kind where you never heard a surprised "ew!" after touching anything, and everything (except my brother's and my rooms) was always picked up.  I don't remember them even having a junk drawer (not sure how they did that...Mom?  Any ideas?).  I'm fairly certain that between my two parents, our house was a unique mixture of white-glove tested and yet comfortable-for-kids.  And I want the same for my kids.  I actually had a system down at one point, where I had all the regular chores broken down by days, so I think my goal for this month is to revive that system.

So, in summary, my goals are:

1. Read my Bible 24 days
2. Exercise 25 miles
3. Complete one organizing project
4. Meal planning for two weeks 
5. Revive housekeeping system

Wish me luck!  Do any of you have any goals you're working on?  I'd love to hear about them!

April Goal Update: Organizing project checked off!

This weekend was ....busy, to say the least.  We're still in the process of moving stuff around in our house, clearing out the basement, plus clearing out the upstairs rooms for future kiddos.  Basically, we're eliminating 90% of our storage space.  Which, really, is a good thing, because it means that we have to think through how much stuff we really need to keep, and do a good job organizing the rest of what's left.

This weekend, among other things, I tackled the wrapping paper chaos.  Before, it was....awful.  It was not only a big pile of stuff, but had even expanded to a bottom drawer of the dresser in the spare future kiddos room. 

Side note -Funny thing, as we've been changing the purpose of all the rooms, we don't know what to call them anymore.  The room that we used to call the spare room is now the future kiddo's room (which is a bit of a mouthful), the room that used to be the office is....well, I don't know.  But it's not an office anymore.  It's the spare room/exercise room/office supplies room.  Then our room is...well, it's still our room.  But it's also the temporary office, as well as the storage unit.  

Back to the wrapping paper project.  Here's the big pile that it used to be (not my proudest moment):

And the spare drawer:

My apologies for the cell-phone pics, but I was on a roll, and wasn't about to stop to get the real camera!

I kept all the wrapping paper rolls in the tub they were in.  It only made sense.   But for the rest of the stuff, I sorted it all, threw out the stuff we wouldn't use (why did we keep the roll of ribbon that Yarbo had destroyed when he was a puppy?  No clue...), then neatly stacked all the gift bags in one area of the tub, then sorted all the pre-done bows into one area, curling ribbon in another area, and finally tissue paper, little gift-card holders, and the tie-on things (I'm sure that tie-on things is not the proper term, but you know, those things you can tie on to gifts?).  I also included a pair of scissors and tape so that the next time I have to wrap a gift, everything I need will be right there.

The finished tub still looks a little crazy, but the difference is that it's all in one place, and I can fit a lid on it, so it stores much better, AND, best part, I know where everything is in it.

I realize I am disproportionately proud of my project, but mostly because the wrapping chaos has bugged me for about 2 years, and now it's finally organized!  Check that off the April list.  

Musical Chairs in the house

This past weekend was the kind of weekend that makes you need a nap on Monday. We got SO much done!  We have been going through everything in our house, and getting rid of a ton of stuff that we don't need.  We're talking multiple car loads to Goodwill, and way more trash that we can get into our weekly allotted trash can weight.  And the shredder is probably still smoking.  That's right.  We even went through old bills, receipts, etc, and shredded what we no longer need.  We have been making room, and getting organized!

It's a little like a game of musical chairs at our house right now, as we work towards finishing our basement, and getting our upstairs bedrooms ready for future kids.  That is a lot of space to clear out all at the same time!   

We got rid of unnecessary clothing and other odds and ends from our closet so that we could move boxes of stuff from the basement to our closet.  Then we re-sorted those boxes into fewer boxes to pare down the stuff and put them in our closet.  Then we put some other stuff from the basement into our spare room, but then went to the office, which will be the first future kid's room, to start clearing out that stuff.  Once the basement is finished, there will be office space down there for a more organized version of our office stuff.  Until then, we have to find somewhere to stash that stuff where we can get to it.  

On one hand, there is a lot of stuff in transition mode in our house.  But it's also feeling more cleared out, all at the same time, somehow.

Are you tired yet after reading that?  I'm tired after doing all of that.  But it feels good to be making progress!  I think the basement will create a lot of great living space when it's done, and the more cleared out we get the office, the easier it will be to prepare for whatever kiddo placements may come out way.

Organizational goodness

We're working on finishing our basement to make more living space in our house, and we're making headway!  And, we're getting organized (which just warms my heart...).

So far, we've had an egress window installed, the furnace/AC installed, and we've started getting everything out of the basement - which is no small task!  We've been working at selling stuff on Craigslist and Ebay, donating stuff to the Salvation Army, and giving stuff away.  It feels so good to be getting rid of excess stuff, especially when someone else will be able to use it!

Now to the fun part.  We've started working on what we want it to look like (I find that to be much more fun that discussing which direction pipes and wires will be running, imagine that!).  And, as I started collecting samples, I realized we were going to have to find a way to stay organized, because I'm finding that there are a LOT of decisions to be made.

So, the basement project of the morning?  Organizing all the samples and creating a space for all the paperwork, permits, receipts, and everything else that comes with the basement.

Isn't it just lovely....feels better already!  And Yarbo's contribution to the morning?  Well, as you can see, he is blissfully napping in the background.

Getting organized....Part 2

I've been trying to have more structure in my day, and for that reason, have been trying to get more organized.  I went for about a year without really cleaning my house (my house was cleaned during that time, just by someone other than me, thanks to some really generous family members!), and now that it's going to be me doing all the housework again, I'm finding that I sort of lost my "rhythm" of when things need to be done.

In addition to that, one thing they've told us over and over again in our PS-MAPP classes  is that kids who have lived in chaos need structure and consistency.  Over and over again.  I thought it would be easier to put structure in my life now, then alter it as kids come, then to assume that structure will naturally float into place as kids walk through our door (I've heard it doesn't exactly work that way!). 

So, I created a home management binder with customized daily dockets (printed out a week at a time), as well as monthly and semi-annual chores.  I also have my daily to-do's (picking up, Bible reading, exercise, etc) in there, as well as sections with blank lines for meal planning, errands, general to-do list, and a couple of other things.  I can't say that I stay within the binder every time, but it's helped to get a start on structure.  Plus, I am guessing that the more kids we have in our house, the more I'll have to be sure to write everything down that needs to be done!

I got my dockets from MoneySavingMom.com's website. She offers all kinds of free downloads for home management, including the customizable daily docket, daily cleaning lists, chore charts for kids, and more.  Click here to check it out (these forms are under the "Household Management" category.

Maybe someday I'll be one of those super-organized people I've always admired.  Until then, this has been a good way to remember when to change our sheets!

Getting organized....

I decided a few days ago that I needed to be more organized and intentional in my Bible reading.  And, I wanted to have a way to read through the entire Bible.  For many people, their go-to resource for that is the One-Year Bible, and if that works for some people, that's great!  For me, I always feel so scattered whenever I try that.  Just when I'm really settling in to a passage, it's time to switch over to something else.  I've also seen plans that take you beginning to end.  But I wanted more day-to-day variety.

So, to be clear, I want day-to-day variety, but with structure, organization, and a clear way to see that I'm reading the entire Bible.  And, until yesterday, I hadn't found that.

However.

We got an email from our Sunday School group yesterday that was pretty much perfect timing.  In the email, they had several different reading plans:

Reading Plans - Justin Taylor's site

Why I'm reading the Bible in Different Places

Denny Burk's plan for reading the Bible

For Shirkers and Slackers (read the explanation before downloading the plan)
*Edit: To clarify, the link for the download, and the link for the explanation, is about half way down the page

Read Less and Meditate More

They also had a video from John Piper, who is an author and theologian.  You can click here to watch the video.

I chose the "For Shirkers and Slackers" program, because it fit all the criteria listed above.  You read several chapters out of 1 book each day, but each day is from a different section of the Bible.  If I miss a day, there isn't a cloud of guilt hanging over me, and I don't have to try to "make up" time.  And, with the dated plans, I always get annoyed if they start on January 1 and I don't.   Plus, I get to check off the ones I've done, and I like that.  

I know that not everyone who reads this blog believes in the same way I do, so this post might not be all that interesting for some.   But for those who do, and want more organization in their Bible reading, hopefully one of these plans will be a helpful resource!