Category Archives: motivation

If you dangle a carrot..

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One week into 2017, how’s everyone doing out there?

We’re doing well here, although this coming week will be our first FULL week back into school and work.  I can sure get used to 3 and 4 day work weeks!!!  Nice.  Very Nice!!

Any resolutions?  I didn’t really make any official proclamation of resolutions so to speak.  A few internal conversations with myself on organization and time management and healthy eating and food prep and yada yada yada, but really.  Nothing truly earth shattering.

Our Dave Ramsey train keeps plugging away.  A full year and 2 months in and I remember listening to Dave and at one point him saying that the average of people meeting financial goals through his plan took about 3 years.  That is a long time to be budget focused.  However, if you live another 40-50 years….3 years isn’t so much.  Right?  We’re definitely making headway, using our cash and are far more intentional with our spending.  A long way to go from perfect, but learning and making strides and that is something!

Tomorrow starts a 10-week “Mayor’s challenge” for the town I work in and so I joined with a few  friends.  Our team works towards points and each person needs to attend 2 of 3 workouts each week and at the end of the week the individual male and female winners are awarded $1000.  Hello there $1000 carrot.

My veggies are prepped.  Lunch is made.  Workout plan for the week is a go and now to turn  in for a good night sleep.  I am.  In it.  To win it.  Certainly going to work my tail off anyway.  And with the cold weather all weekend, we got the good cookies made and on their way out of the house via bellies, so I’d say.  I’m ready.

Stay tuned.  It’s only my 400 millionth effort at this, surely one of these will stick.  And for $1000, I am certain to have  a few good habits and results take root over the next 10 weeks!!!

Happy 2nd week of 2017!!

Do whatcha gotta do

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Phew!  Just finished a glorious 7 day stretch of working.  In a couple of weeks I’ll do it again.  Because it was available and Christmas is just around the corner!!!

As we continue along on our Dave Ramsey train, one of the most common things people do when working on paying down debt is work more.  Overtime.  Promotion.  2nd job.  Odds and ends.  You do what you have to do.  While I don’t always jump on the overtime train because I do try to blance home and work, this came at a good time.  I mentioned Christmas, but we also have a marriage conference in December and a kiddo going to Europe in June, so yeah,   Getting some of that while it works for our family!  Fortunately, I do enjoy my job and OT for me means working at the hospital and while it is tough, it’s only a few hours and I go home.  Which is great!

The only unfortunate thing is for some reason I woke up at 3 a.m. today.  Tossed and turned for about an hour and threw in the towel at 4 a.m.  Got up, did my daily readings, prayed, finished The Hobbit and about 6 a.m. fell asleep in the chair for an hour.  It was still early enough to walk the dog and get most of the grocery shopping done before I went in to work, so that worked.  Now, I will just be living off the Diet Coke caffeine until bedtime—-which will probably be somewhere around 8:30!!

The blessing is that I HAVE the opportunity to work OT.  If I do what I have to do, then God does the rest.  Consistently.  Truly.  Honestly.  Every time.

Blessings!

Finally Friday

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Home stretch!  Friday is my FAVORITE day of the week.  Yes, I do have to work, but the light…the LIGHT is so very, very BRIGHT at the end of the tunnel!

Still blogging for the 7 days with the Conversion Diary and friends!!  Woot, woot!  In honor of blogging 7 days, here’s 7 Quick Takes from the week!

1.  Blogging every day is HARD!!!!  Even Jen had a fail day.  Perhaps a fail at ONE missed blog day, but reading her post on her “Day in the Life” made me remember just how hard those years are with littles and I honestly don’t know how you young Mamas blog at all!!

2.  Blogging every day is QUICK!  If I want to do it, I have to sit down and get to it or it’s not going to happen.  Good thing?  Bad thing?  Either way, it’s a blog post.

3.  Blogging every day is helping me to re-prioritize my daily activities and prepping for Lent.  Truly.  I am seeing where and WHEN I can be more productive in certain areas and that is oh-so-helpful in making me a wee bit more organized!  Which I love.

4.  On to other topics…because I need to be quick here!

5.  Last week I shopped CASH ONLY.  Saved about $50.  I’m doing it again.  It’s a little scary, but truly empowering!

6.  Lent is coming and I scheduled my annual physical right in the middle of it.  Perfect time to add eating simply to my goal of keeping Lent simple, eh?  Because who doesn’t get a little motivation from the thought of stepping on the scale for an annual review?  Who?

7.  It’s Friday.  EVERY.  ONE.  OF.  THE.  KIDS.  WILL.  BE.  OUT.  OF.  THE.  HOUSE. TONIGHT.  ALLATONCE!!  You know what that means, right?????  Yesssss, we are catching up on the last two Downton Abbeys!!!  Although we may save the finale and savor it.  Gotta say, I still love Downton, but truly not the most exciting season….nonetheless, I will be having withdrawals and ready for next season!!

Happy Friday, y’all and make it on over to Conversion Diary for other better blogging spectaculars!

Blessings!!

 

A conundrum of sorts…

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Holy cow, y’all it’s almost February!!!  Where in the HECK did January go???  This month, for us, has had our dance card filled EVERY weekend this month and while it certainly keeps us busy, I am a person who needs some downtime.  After a month of go-go-go, we are happy January is almost gone-gone-gone.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time:  All-state concert, Savannah visit with my mom and her Hubby, All-county concert #1 (followed by #2 concert AND LAST this weekend).  All good stuff.  I just need to decompress on the weekends at some point and there’s been very little of that.  The other problem all this busy-ness brings is the whole “physical health” resolutions has taken a back seat with the extra running around.

The interesting thing, and here is the conundrum, is that while I haven’t been wholly UNHEALTHY, I’ve not focused ONE BIT on exercise (got it in when I could or managed to get out of bed in the morning chilliness), nor have I focused on my food (although I’ve stuck to my mostly normal eating habits).  Yesterday, I wanted to brace myself for moving back into regular and scheduled exercise AND food-journaling with our 16 year-old and guess what?  Down 4 pounds.  You’ve got to be kidding me.

No worries though, now that I’ve typed it and am moving back into focus on health, I’ll be right back up….but hopefully not.

Isn’t life crazy like that?

Day 1. Bloggy challenge. GO!

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I love me a good challenge.  I am a goal-oriented person.  Run a marathon?  Just tell me how much and when to run.  Graduate with Bachelor’s degree 10 years later while working and raising up young’uns?  Just tell me which classes I need and when.  So on and so on.  You get the picture.  Give me a goal and watch me go; no goal and watch me flounder.  This week, Jen Fulwiler (you know, blogger, former atheist, reality star, momma, home schooler and scorpion hater) has thrown down the gauntlet of blogging daily.  One whole week.  Monday to Sunday.  I’m a sucker and picked up the gauntlet.  I am not alone, merely one among many….so check us out and let’s see what the week holds!

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Last night, I took my turn in bringing my son and his friends to Orlando to participate in Parkour at a cheer gym.  I’ve managed to get out of this one hour drive (one way) for several months now.  Since the event is for 3 hours I had to find something to do; enter Barnes and Noble.  My caffe latte, cheesecake (oh YES I did), laptop and reading material enjoyed 2 hours of reading, writing and surfing the net.  Bliss.  I may drive again next weekend.  (I kid, I kid)  Therefore, with all that time to myself I was able to quickly brainstorm some posts for the week with pen and paper and ready myself for the week.  Win-win!

That said, getting home and in bed around 1 a.m. (FAR past my bedtime) and up for 9 a.m. Mass necessitated a little nap this afternoon, next time I think we’ll hit the Saturday vigil Mass before we head over.

Before you head over to Jen for more focused thinking/writing/blogging enjoy this psycho Instavid from Parkour I shot.  Of course, now that I know to HOLD THE BUTTON DOWN (unlike regular video shooting) my next one will be a little less manic!  HA!