This past week I did much better with all of my goals. I wrote quite a bit, I read quite a bit, I rested a lot this weekend and have churches lined up for every Sunday in February. I managed to focus more on others than myself at work which has been especially difficult given the struggles and stress there. I got plenty of sleep and ate well this week, too.
But what I can’t seem to get in the swing of things is exercising on a regular basis. I have tried and tried. My husband is a personal trainer and even that doesn’t get me working out as often as I should.
So my question to you is: how do you stay active? What are your tricks for making yourself exercise, especially when you don’t want to?
Feast your eyes on this bumper-sticker-worthy gamer shirt I found over at Think Geek:
Can you name ‘em all?
$15.99-$17.99, Think Geek
I fully support what my co-worker Curt Harding has to say about the controversy involving the Focus-on-the-Family-purchased TV spot featuring Tebow that will air on CBS during the Superbowl. There’s no need for me to go into it—just read what Curt has to say.
Curt Harding – Super Controversy
Check out this adorable pocket calendar over at Creature Comforts.
This brings joy to every organizational and crafty bone in my body. Check it out!
I found this Memo to Me over on Love. Obsess. Inspire. pretty thought-provoking! How often do we stop to absorb what’s happening around us rather than worrying about what’s happened or what’s going to happen?
Make it your goal today to live in the “now” and appreciate what’s going on at this very moment. Here are some quotes to keep you inspired throughout the week!
The living moment is everything.
D. H. Lawrence
We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.
John Newton
Forever is composed of nows.
Emily Dickinson
It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis.
Margaret Bonnano
We are always getting ready to live but never living.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein
With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well, friends, I didn’t do too well this week with my resolutions. Honestly, I’ve felt sick all week. Not sick sick, but my-body-is-fighting-off-a-sickness-and-making-me-feel-awful sick. Like I-need-a-nap-every-day sick. Like I-can-barely-make-myself-go-to-work-every-day sick. So that has put a damper on my goals.
I am feeling better this afternoon though, which I hope is a sign that the rest I’ve been giving myself has defeated whatever it was that was trying to invade my health.
Here’s to a successful week. :)
A recent blog post on a favorite blog of mine, Tip Junkie, featured a “word of the year” giveaway (the giveaway has ended now—sorry!). The challenge was to pick one word that describes what you want out of 2010.
I found the idea intriguing. I thought perhaps that having a one-word mantra for the whole year might remind me of what I want to accomplish. I chose the word “commitment,” specifically commitment to myself and the goals I’ve always wanted to achieve. This is the year that I want to buckle down and do the things I’ve always wanted to do and never have.
What about you? If you had to choose one word to describe what you want out of this new year, what would it be?
For this week’s resolution update, I’m going to rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning I completely failed at meeting my goal this past week, and 10 meaning there is nothing I could’ve done better to meet my goal. I’ll just straight up say…I did not do well this week.
1) I will write more. 8 – I was consistent with my blogging and journaling.
2) I will read more. 8 – I read quite a bit this week, mostly my magazines.
3) I will honor the Sabbath. 7 – Despite having company over this weekend, I managed to do most of my chores on Saturday and rested most of the day today.
4) I will find a home church. 5 – I didn’t go to church this morning, but I did do some research to find a few more new churches to try in the coming weeks.
5) I will take better care of my body. 5 – I couldn’t get into working out this week. Really, there’s no excuse.
6) I will be more loving. 5 – I had an extremely frustrating week at work, and it’s during those stressful times that I get more caught up in myself and my own needs than I should. I need to be better at focusing on others.
Not a stellar week, but again, there’s always tomorrow.
“Doing your best means never stop trying.”
Check out this Etsy shop featuring amazing wordsmithery—Puncontrollable. Hilarity + wordplay = a happy Misty. I mean, their slogan is “I like big puns.” See? You already agree with me and you haven’t even seen their stuff yet.
They have t-shirts, totes, kitchen towels, and more! Here are a few of my favorites:
via Puncontrollable on Etsy
via 
Another week has gone by…here are my updates on my resolutions:
1) I will write more. I’ve been blogging pretty consistently (as you can see). I didn’t, however, write in my journal last Wednesday like I was supposed to. I think I’ll be doing that tonight—I need to.
2) I will read more. I didn’t read on Thursday, my designated reading night. I talked to a friend instead, but I hadn’t talked to her in a while so it was worth it. I did read quite a bit during the rest of the week.
3) I will honor the Sabbath. I worked hard on Saturday to get my chores accomplished so I could rest today. We did have to go look at a house today (we’re in the market) but we couldn’t go and see it yesterday—the realtor was busy. I prepped dinner last night again so I wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
4) I will find a home church. I went to another church again this morning, and I’ve been praying for God to show me where He wants me to be!
5) I will take better care of my body. Confession—this is not going well. I’m stress eating. And I only worked out twice last week. But I have to remind myself that twice is more than zero, and I have to remember that this is a new week with new opportunities. I can do this!
6) I will be more loving. I haven’t done well this week to focus on what other people need rather than my own feelings. Work has been very stressful for me lately and I’m getting swept up in my stress rather than how I can be a servant for others. I need to improve on this.
Overall, not an excellent job, but blogging about this stuff is keeping me thinking about what I need to do. I think it’ll be better going forward!
Organizing is all about saving you something…saving time, saving space, saving money, and even saving your sanity. One easy way I’ve found to save myself all of these things is to menu plan.
The gist of it is that you make a list of meals you’re going to eat for a week (or until the next time you know you’re going to the store). I always go grocery shopping on Saturday, so I usually make my meal list on Friday or Saturday for the rest of the week. Then I generate my shopping list from my menu. Here’s an example from this past week’s menu:
Here are the reasons you, too, should start a weekly menu plan:
You will save time. While you’re in the store, you will have a grocery list made out specifically for the things you’re going to cook in the coming week. You’ll know exactly what you’re shopping for and you won’t have to waste time in every aisle trying to decide what you want. You’ll also save time every night at home. When you come home in the evening, you know exactly what’s for dinner. You won’t have to spend time thinking about what you’d like to cook. It’s already been determined.
You will save space. Since you have a shopping list based on a specific menu, you won’t be tempted to buy a bunch of food you don’t really need. You’ll only bring home ingredients you need for that week, thusly saving space in your fridge and cupboards.
You will save money. While you’re at the store, you’ll be less inclined to impulse-buy. If you really stick to your list, you’ll only put things in your cart that you really need. You’ll also save money at home. When you’re making out your weekly menu, take a look at what you already have on-hand. If you have 3 boxes of pasta, choose a pasta dish to make one night that week; that’s one fewer thing you have to buy to make a good meal.
You will save your sanity. I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to come home and use my brain power on after work is, “What in the world am I going to make for dinner?” Already knowing is a huge burden off my shoulders. With a menu plan, you can also avoid those times when you were intending to cook hamburgers tonight, but you forgot to take the meat out of the freezer the day before. Since you have all your meals written out (preferably in a visible spot—we keep ours on the refrigerator door), you can check the night before if anything needs to be prepped for dinner the next day.
I got my magnetic meal planning notepad from a free giveaway from Betty Crocker—I’m not sure what I’ll do when it runs out! You could always make your own menu plan template to fit your needs, but here are a few printable options that might be of use to you:
1) Here’s a creative meal planner from futuregirl, complete with fun illustrations and including a column where you put reminders for the next day’s meal (“take the steaks of out the freezer”).
2) Here’s a clean, easy-to-use menu planning template from one of my favorite blogs, I’m An Organizing Junkie. It even includes a spot for “recipe source” (which is always good for me to note so my husband doesn’t have trouble figuring out which cookbook the recipe is in when he’s trying to be sweet and start dinner without me).
3) There are some great meal and menu planners available at Vertex42—they have different formats to choose from (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.).
4) There’s a detailed menu plan template over at Unclutterer that has space to write in not only dinner but breakfast, lunch, and snacks as well.
I hope this helps you in your future cooking and shopping endeavors!
What do you do to save time, space, money, or even sanity when it comes to your meals?
While I can’t play the guitar, I’m pretty wicked awesome at Guitar Hero (you know it’s impressive), so any time I see a sweet guitar I get a little giddy. Well, this Koopa Troopa guitar is not only sweet but geekalicious as well. (Now somehow we need to get James Hetfield to use this baby in concert…)
via Joystiq
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Lost in a Good Book is the second in the Thursday Next series (Thursday Next is the name of the main character) by Jasper Fforde. I read the first book in the series, The Eyre Affair, when I was in college and just loved it. The series is full of literary references—you’re sure to notice tons of them, and probably miss a few, just because there are so many! In Lost in a Good Book, Thursday dabbles in Jurisfiction work, going in and out of literary works that many people will recognize (Great Expectations, “The Raven,” etc.). In this second book, there’s an unpublished play by Shakespeare in question, and Thursday gets to meet the Cheshire Cat. There’s also some time travel, a pet dodo, and even some zombies!
Everything about the way Fforde writes is engaging—he uses wordplay effectively, throws in so many literature references you can’t keep up with them, uses entertaining yet easy-to-follow dialog, and creates believable characters in whom you become immediately invested when you begin to read about them.
I would recommend this book to any English or literature student and anyone who has an appreciation for either of those things. I would, however recommend starting with The Eyre Affair. I enjoyed the first book in the series more than this one, and it also helped me understand a lot of what was going on at the start of this second novel. Definitely worth the read!
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
~Emily Dickinson
It’s been one week since I posted about my goals for this new year, but I feel like I’ve already made strides to achieve all of them. Here are my updates:
1) I will write more. Well, for starters, I’ve written 7 blog posts already (not all have posted), including this one. I’d say that’s more than I was writing. I’ve also committed to writing at least 2 posts a week and have scheduled this writing time in my planner (Sunday and Monday). I scheduled time to write in my journal every Wednesday and I managed to accomplish that this past week. I also created a bookmark folder in Firefox for “things to post about” so when I see something online that makes me think of a post I can write, I have it saved. I’d say I met this goal this week.
2) I will read more. I finished reading my 9th book of 2009 just before the year was over (Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fford; book banter post to come). I’m already reading quite a few books (you can see the list of my current reads on the right side of this page), and I’ve started reading two more books this past week, Severance and The Big Over Easy. I’ve designated every Thursday as reading night, and I’ve been keeping up with reading all the blogs to which I’ve subscribed. I didn’t read this past Thursday (it was New Year’s Eve so I was busy), but I did read a lot this past week. I feel like I’ve accomplished this goal this week, too.
3) I will honor the Sabbath. I thought this would be a lot harder for me than it has been. I usually have a slew of chores to do on the weekend, so this week I wrote them all in my planner on Friday and Saturday, and that included prepping tonight’s dinner yesterday to minimize the work I’d have to do today. We’re having slow-cooker pot roast, so there’s minimal hands-on time anyway (I planned this on purpose). I’ve written all my recurring weekend chores on a post-it that I will stick on every Saturday so I make sure I get them done that day (laundry, grocery shopping, giving the house a quick tidying up, etc.). The only thing that some might consider “work” that I’ll be doing on Sunday is writing my resolutions update post, but I don’t consider that work. Writing (anything) is something I enjoy. I realize the day isn’t over yet, but I think I’ve succeeded this week at honoring the Sabbath.
4) I will find a home church. I’ve written it in my planner every Saturday to decide where I’m going to go to church the next day, that way I’ve committed before my alarm goes off the next morning that I have somewhere specific to be. I attended church this morning and I’m keeping a list of all the churches I’ve been to with some notes about my experience there to make it easier to track where I’ve been. This week, I’ve done as much as I can toward this goal. This one will just take time.
5) I will take better care of my body. Late last year there was a solid 5-week time period when I was working out every weekday, and I hope to get there again, but I’m not going to dive right into that just yet. This past week I only worked out once—I know I could’ve done better. This coming week I’m going to work out 3 days, and late in January I’m going to resume the 5-day routine. In the meantime, I’ve found some workout videos to stream on Netflix, and I’ve been writing out some small workouts I can do here in the house as well as some ideas about outdoor workouts so I can choose from a list what I’d like to do that night rather than get stuck in a rut like I usually do. I was also a lot more conscious this week about my food choices, trying to work in more vegetable servings (you’ll find in keeping up with this resolution that vegetables and I have a hate-hate relationship), and I’ve been consistent about getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night. All of these will prove more difficult this week as work is resuming tomorrow. I think I could’ve done a little better this past week, but I have made improvements and plans toward getting better, so I’d say I met this goal.
6) I will be more loving. This one is a little hard to track. I can think of many times this past week when I consciously stopped my thought process to insert positive thoughts of service—I had to make myself stop internally complaining and start volunteering my time and energy (especially to my coworkers) with a happy heart. This was hard for me last week because I had a specific set of tasks I wanted to accomplish and I didn’t because I was busy helping others. But it isn’t about me, it’s about other people. This will take some time too, but I feel like I accomplished this goal this past week.
To help me achieve all of these goals, I’ve put an extra piece of paper in my planner on every Sunday so I can jot in notes and keep track of my progress during the week. And perhaps the biggest stride I’ve taken to achieve all of these goals is adding them to my daily prayer list. “…With God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
Overall, I’ve done well. Here’s to continued success!
How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions so far?
Welcome to Saturday SOS (simple organizing solutions). I love organization; let’s just establish this now. I organize everything—my CDs, my craft supplies, my recipes, my to-dos—you name it, I organize it. I love organization for two reasons:
- Organization is easy for me
- Organization makes my life easier
I realize that not everyone has the blessing of that first bullet. I count myself very lucky to have the organizing gene. But I think everyone will agree with the second bullet—organization streamlines your day. It simplifies the mundane to leave you more time for the exciting parts of life. Instead of searching around for 15 minutes trying to find that recipe I wanted to try tonight, I know exactly where it is—I can find it and start cooking without wasting time!
Admittedly, just because I love organization and it comes naturally to me doesn’t mean every area of my life is organized. Organizing takes a lot of time, something I’m working on managing better and better each day. So to kick off my SOS posts, I decided to find 5 areas in my apartment that I wish were more organized:
- My bedroom closet and dresser
- Wedding leftovers
- Spice cabinet
- My desk
- Holiday decorations
After I had identified the areas that needed a little SOS, I listed some ways I could organize each one.
- My bedroom closet and dresser – get rid of shoes I never wear, get rid of the box of books I need to sell, get rid of clothing I never wear, re-organize the clothing to better utilize space; remove things from bedroom closet that belong somewhere else in the apartment
- Wedding leftovers – reorganize the tote of keepsakes from the wedding, sell or donate the pile of supplies I’ll not need again (this will mean taking inventory of everything I have, researching how much money I can make for everything, taking pictures and posting on Craigslist)
- Spice cabinet – take everything out and throw away expired stuff, organize into categories, find containers, label containers and put everything in its designated space, somehow make measuring cups more easily accessible (I haven’t figured out the solution to this yet)
- My desk – de-clutter the corkboard, remove all paper clutter from desk surface, find a way to make the space more inviting, organize desk drawer
- Holiday decorations – separate decorations into different holidays, get rid of any decorations that we don’t like, buy appropriate containers and store each holiday’s decorations in a separate container (right now they are all jammed into one huge box)
The next step will be to commit to a day to tackle each area, but you get the picture. The hardest part is deciding you need to organize something and then making the plan to do it.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress!
Are there any areas in your life that need organization (think outside the home, too)?
Need to replenish your HP or MP (or both)? If you’ve been busy tanking Illidan and need a pick-me-up or are being chased by a vampire and really need to cast Holy, check out these awesome mugs from Split Reason. And they’re even the right colors! Is it too early for me to start my Christmas wish list for next year?
$10.95 each, Split Reason
