ADD + OCD And What 5 Minutes Can Do For You

A few months ago I realized I was a mess! My OCD and ADD were overtaking my life! I wasn't getting anything done because I wanted everything to be perfect but while perfecting that oh so important thing (whatever it was at the moment) I would have an ADD moment. I would flitter off over to whatever that shinny thing out the window was. Then I wouldn't return back to that oh so important thing. In a nut shell, everything was half done. Never to be finished.

My house was a mess.

I was a mess.

Then I thought of something so simple. So silly, that it might just be my Saving Grace! I set a timer. Yup, I set a timer. When I hop on my computer, I just turn my timer on for either 5 or 6 min. (It is either 5 or 6 min because the OCD part of me would like the 5 min to happen at 9:00, 9:05, 9:10, 9:15, ect. The 6 min come on, you guessed it, 9:06, 9:12, 9:18, 9:24. And by the way, if you are wondering, there are ten 6 minutes in an hour. That makes it MUCH more even than twelve 5 minutes in an hour!)

Each time the timer goes off, I clean up that number of things. 5 min timer set = 5 things. 6 min timer set = 6 things. This might mean I fold 5 pieces of laundry, or put 5 spoons in the dishwasher then I go to something else for the rest of the time (read e-mails, crochet, or play a game with Caleb) Or if I have something like bills to do or vacuuming I do that activity for the full 5 min. Then relax the next 5 minutes. This means I am cleaning up 60 things in an hour or getting a small project done. 5 things every 5 mins seems so much less scary than 60 things all at once. This way I am not getting distracted either!

I have bookmarked the bomb timer. My kiddos love this bomb timer and have even started cleaning up a few things in their room each time it goes off!

Times that I set my timer:

- Anytime I am on the computer! (I have had my timer go off several times while writing this post)
- While doing a hobby or project
- While watching TV
- While chatting on the phone
- At 3:30 pm when I know I should be starting dinner (I might look up the recipe, then get all items out, then start water, then put ingredients together, then mix them together. So that by the time it needs to go in, all I need to do is get it in and it doesn't feel like I have been just slaving over the stove!)
- So many other times you could use this!

My house has had a dramatic change since starting this a few months ago! We are actually able to invite people over with out having to be embarrassed . We are able to walk around our house with out constantly tripping over something. We are able to take cute photos on the spot AND post them on facebook for friends and family to see (something I wouldn't and didn't do last year because I didn't want anyone to see out mess).


Are you ADD or OCD?? Have you tried a simple, silly 6 minute timer? If not, I encourage you to try it out sometime! Please leave a comment below if you have tried this or have other methods that you have found work.

25 Disney Movie Reward Points

Disney sent out some Boo-nus points today! You will get 5 points for each word you enter for a total of 25 Disney Movie Rewards Points

skully
kitty
clown
felix
mummy

Goals

This week I would really like to establish a routine! Or maybe a list of things I need to get done each day. Something like that.

Also, I have been looking into Money Saving Mom's 31 ways to earn extra cash before Christmas posts and really think these are valid options for me :)

This Weeks Goals :

1. Do all budgeting on Friday
2. 1 load of laundry each day from start to finish
3. All dishes in the dish washer each night
4. Continue to check out Crystal's extra cash before Christmas series and do each to the fullest
5. Keep up on meals and times for child care business
6. Meal Plan
7. Work out 4 days
8. Finish Karen Kingsbury's book Take 3
9. Make Banana Bread
10. Volunteer at Caleb's school
11. Make a list of TTD each day

Hopefully I can get a few of these done this week. It really has helped to have my goals written down for the world to see.

10 Goals This Week

Alright, so I haven't posted my goals in quite a while and I can tell that I have been lacking in motivation. So here I am back at it again. Posting my goals so that maybe I can get something done this week :)

1. Mow the lawn
2. Weed the flower bed and pull out all the dead flowers
3. Put in meals and times DAILY for my business (I have been getting about a week behind)
4. 8 glasses of water each day
5. Go to the gym 5 times and bike for at least 20 minutes of my time there
6. Start dinner by 4:00pm daily
7. Find a way to use up 14 huge zucchini, 30 tomatoes, 4 heads of lettuce, 4 lbs of hamburger, 7 lbs of ham, and 20 lbs of potatoes.
8. Try a new recipe to try and get rid of some of that food!
9. Discharge a few of kids from child care
10. Go to the park (It's starting to get chilly around here and I want to enjoy the park a few more times before summer is over)

Now that I have those listed, I hope this will give me some extra motivation that I need!

Caleb Starts T-ball!

Caleb Started T-ball a few weeks back and loves it! My camera has been missing for roughly those same weeks so I haven't been able to take pictures. The lost has now been found and I am able to share these moments again :)

Caleb has a great support team! Below is a photo of Joel and my mom. Visitors who were not captured in pictures include Jimmy and I obviously, other grandparents, great grandparents, cousins, teachers and friends! :

It was chilly on our first day of practice :

They had them practice swinging at the ball. They had the fence catch all the balls. :

Throwing during practice :

And Learning how to catch as well :

GO TEAM! Caleb is on the Java Cone team this year :

Running Home! :

Caleb is playing pitcher. This is his second time playing pitcher.:

Happy he made it home :

Team Photo :

Caleb and his friend Izzy from our church :

Caleb playing at 1st base. Out At First! Good Job Caleb! :

2012 Goals update - April

1) Finish my house so it can be rented out - We are so close to this. I think with just a few more weeks, we could have the house finished!

2) Pay off Lowe's credit card - Paying off has been a slow process but we are certainly paying extra each month :)

3) See family in Pennsylvania - Saw them in March! It was a blast. Maybe I should right a post about that....

4) Pay off Jimmy's student loans - Still trucking a way at this. Money has been super tight lately.

5) Clean out the down stairs - I have been progressing with this as well! I gave away a lot of baby items to a friend in need. Donated a bunch of dishes to my mom's church who help people in need. And have been giving to Goodwill.

6) Save $2,000 emergency fund - We have officially got $1,000 in our emergency fund.

7) Develop 12 new habits - Um... well... about this....

8) Read 1 book each month - I haven't found my kindle as easy to access as I originally thought. Book from the library are slim picking. And that was going to be my main source of reading material.

9) Exercise increasingly - So up until now, exercise has been pretty on and off. However, I just joined my mom's gym and I am hoping to make the most of it! Today I did 2 miles!

10) Freezer meals once a month - Freezer meals? Not quite. But we did get a ton of carrots at the food truck and I shred those up and put them in the freezer.

11) Make cleaning the house more of a priority - I have been trying this. The living room has stayed pretty clean for the most part and I have been working on folding laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer.

12) Date night 1 time per month - We went to Chicago in April for a 30 hour date night! We had a great time and a much needed get away from reality. 

13) Record meal and times daily - Well My food lady will be here sometime soon. Although still not daily, I have been keeping up with this pretty well.

14) Plant and maintain garden during summer - Still waiting for it to warm up.

15) Devote 1 night to family game night - We strayed off track with this one. Glad to be looking at my goals today as a refresher for what needs to be done.

16) Get together with friends 1 time per month - While we were in Chicago, we were able to see an old friend!

17) Write down birthdays and send cards - Wow. What a complete fail this has been!

18) Blog increasingly more - Although this was originally one of my goals for this year, I have found this to be put on the back burner these last few months and I have been spending more family time. I think that was a wise trade off.

19) Read with kids at least 3 times per week - We read almost daily in the car before school!

20) Make and keep budget - Jimmy and I just talked about this again last night. We really need to get this going!

21) Learn to knit and FINISH a project - I made a dish cloth!

22) Lose some weight - I forgot to check my weight today. But I don't think I have lost any yet.

That's where I am for the month of April. How have you been doing on your 2012 goals so far? I would love to hear!

MSM's 4 weeks to a more organized home - Day 2

Money Saving Mom has put up an April Challenge to get a more organized home. Although quite pokey, I am getting some stuff done! Day 2 (AKA April 19th lol) Was cleaning out the fridge.

I took this picture 2 days and decided that we had better eat some of that before I even attempt to clean it out! I sure am glad we did waited :) After using most of it and tossing a few things, here is what our fridge looks like today.

Also got rid of another 7 items :)

MSM's 4 weeks to a more organized home - Day 1

Money Saving Mom has put up an April Challenge to get a more organized home. I have taken the bait, although a little late, and yesterday I cleaned out my purse. 

Yep, all this came out of my purse. It was a mess. This morning my husband was looking for my keys, which are always some where at the bottom of my purse, and he found them almost instantly! He even commented on how much cleaner my purse is!! Ok, it is a great day when your husband can comment about the cleanliness of your purse.

And above are the seven items that I got rid of. 

Life At Home

So life has been a little busy around here lately. Just going to post a quick re-cap of the last few weeks.

Caleb was sick.
Jimmy was sick.
I was sick.
Then Joel got sick and went into the hospital.
Joel got out and felt good enough to go on Vaca.
Got ready for vacation to PA to see family (on of my 2012 goals!!).
Went to PA :).
Totally forgot the charger for Joel's pump while visiting PA.
Found out PA hospitals are useless and decided to never move there.
Had an amazing time in PA and Joel took a bottle well enough to keep him at weight.
Had "make up" Dr's appointments when we got home.
11 Dr's appointments in 6 days.
Spring break.
Joel won't even look at a bottle.
And now here we are. :)

We have also been working on the house TONS. And by "we", I really mean Jimmy. With our kids and the child care kids, it's been hard finding a time where I can go help out and be kid free. But I do have to say that Jimmy has been doing an amazing job! I am super impressed with the house each time I get a chance to go over there! The upstairs is almost completely finished. Just a few more things to do. And all that's left on the main level is the dining room/kitchen. I am blessed to have a driven husband. If it were up to me, it would probably never get done.

Today I did get a chance to go over there. I got the upstairs picked up and vacuumed and then got a call from my sister-in-law who was stuck at the air port. So although my time was short, I did get Something done! I also got a few drawers from a file cabinet.

I quit my job at McDonald's. They were getting ridiculous. And that's all I'll say about that otherwise I might just got into a rant. lol

I have donated plasma 3 times. This is NOT a fun experience! But... it does pay the bills so to speak. Just from going those 3 times, I have gotten $80. No to bad if I say so myself. The first time, I got pretty sick all of a sudden. Then they gave me some water stuff and I felt much better. The second time, I lost about 70 ml of blood because they couldn't get it back into me. I ended up not being able to go back for a full week because my arm hurt. And to top it off, I had a pretty large bruise for about 10 days. Then when I went back the next time, they were only able to take like 100 ml from me before my body wouldn't give them any more. They were able to give me back my blood that time though. So, this week I am going to attempt at it again. Maybe with the other arm. Did I ever mention my immense fear of needles?

That's all for now. Hope to update a little sooner next time!

Weekly Goals

This weeks goals:

1) 10 minutes of extra cleaning in each room this week

2) Vacuum main level of the house

3) Donate 10 items 2 times this week

4) Finish Taxes

5) Conferences for Caleb

6) Start new Child Care Kiddo

7) Return pop cans

8) Make dinner menu for this week and keep to it

9) Pray with family every day/begin March habit

10) Write 2012 goals review
11) Get all of Joel's invites out
12) Post face scrubbies on to etsy
13) Finish Money Saving Mom's book

Cleaning mama! - Tub 10 min tidy up

Tub Before

Tub After

Although there is not a huge difference, our tub has been peeling each time some one has a bath or shower for the last 3 years. I finally got sick of it and scrapped it for 10 minutes. Ten minutes went by a lot quicker than I thought they would and I feel great about the little bit I accomplished.

I have been making the same excuse for the last 3 years as to why I didn't do it right then. Here it is, "The tub might be wet and I don't want to get my socks/butt wet from sitting in it." What a crock of crap that excuse was! My husband took a shower this morning and it was completely dry when I did my 10 minute tidy up at 10:15.

Along with scrapping the tub I also took 10 minutes and washed my shower doors. We have the see through glass doors and yes, they took me 10 minutes to clean. I really don't know the last time that I cleaned them. The look great! I am so glad I did it. I kinda cleaned the frames to them too. I am so glad I took that 20 minutes in my bathroom today and I certainly don't miss those 20 minutes at all. 

This ties in really nicely with my 2012 of making cleaning the house more of a priority.

Cleaning mama!

After starting my new meds the other day for my OCD and ADD, I feel like a new me. I am not sure if the meds are really working this fast or if it just my mind. What ever it is, I'll take it! I have gotten so much done this week. I plan to blog for the next few days about my cleaning accomplishments this week. I am certainly making headway on my 2012 goal of cleaning. Today I used money saving mom's 2 hour house cleaning checklist. And although I didn't get near all the way done (Joel woke up then I needed to get Caleb from school), I do feel like my house looks a million times better! Here's a peek at what I got done today:

This is the pile of dishes after my husband had already done a load in the dishwasher this morning. 

Umm.... The dishes on our stove.

The crock pot on our floor...

Yeah, we had a few dishes to do. Did I mention we were all sick this last week?

My new water glass counting system. I saw this on pinterest and thought I would give it a try.

It goes like this, for every glass of water you want to drink, you put a rubber band around your wrist. (I used those jelly bracelets and put them on my left wrist). Then each time you drink a glass, you take one off. Or in my case, so I don't loose them, I put them on my right wrist. Then each morning I put them back on my left. Well this was about 2:30pm when I realized that I still had all eight on my left wrist!

Here's my pile of dishes after I did another load. (And the ones on the stove and floor you ask? Still there)

And behind those formula cans and the pot... My microwave :)

Before I cleaned off my counter. Yep, that's a Christmas vase in the corner there...

And after. Yes, it's still a Christmas candle warmer but we don't have the money to buy a new one and I really like the smelly stuff.

So that's my clean up project for today! I decluttered my kitchen tons and it looks so much better.

Blurrrrrr of a week

So here's my blurred recap of last week.

Feeding tube supplies:
Our supplier never called for Joel's feeding tube supplies so I called them
Feeding tube supplies came next day
All feeding tube supplies that came were wrong
Fiddled around with trying to get the right parts
Got the right parts now we're in good shape

Icky Sicky Family:
Caleb says he wasn't feeling well after snack
Caleb pukes then feels totally better, no fever or anything
I bring Caleb to school
I find out that there are only 5 kids in class because everyone has flu
I bring Caleb to grandma's because Joel has Dr's appointment
Caleb feels better and goes back to school
Jimmy wakes up super sick on Sunday
Jimmy is sick all day Sunday
I get sick Sunday night
I call into work Monday morning and I am sick all day Monday
Now we are all feeling better for the most part
Oh, and Joel never got sick YEAH!!

Joel's new feeding schedule:
Went to said Dr's appointment for 2 hours
Thought we would be going back on the bottle
No such luck
We are doing changes every 4-5 days for the next month or so
I got eerked
I called back the Dr and told him this tube thing wasn't working
Convinced him that we can go back to the bottle in the next few weeks!!
Still going through major changes for the next month
Joel seems to be doing really well with these changes so far

I did go to the Dr's yesterday to get some meds. I was diagnosed with boarder line OCD and boarder line ADD. In combination with each other, I want every thing to be perfect but don't have the attention span or focus to do it perfect so I just don't do anything at all. Yep. That pretty much sums me up. I started meds today so I am praying that this will help me get back on track.

This week I am hoping to get a few things done.

Dinner with my sister on Wednesday
Find directions to the hospital more than an hour before we have to leave
Get Caleb to the hospital for teeth cleaning
Finish Joel's invites
Pay bills
Turn in all paperwork for Joel's insurance
Clean off desk so I can find paperwork for Joel's insurance
Finish tax papers by Wednesday

Weekly Goals

I have one single goal this week. Broken down into three parts.

1) Call Doc for ADD meds
2) Go get ADD meds from pharmacy
3) TAKE ADD meds

I have been driving myself nuts lately! I can't get anything done, my house looks like a mess, and I can't even focus when I do have the motivation to get something done. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was a little girl and started taking meds in 1st grade. I don't know when I stopped taking them or why I stopped taking them but I remember going back on them for a while in high school for a very short period of time. I tried them out again about 4-5 years ago but couldn't handle swallowing the pills ( I have an aversion to pills). So now here I am again. A total mess.

Do have experience with ADD?? Do your children, spouse, or yourself have ADD?? I would love to hear your input. I would love to hear any suggestions! Please leave a comment below. Even if it's an anonymous comment! Thanks all :)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Chicken, cream cheese, spinach, noodle

Tuesday - Ham, Potatoes, and Carrots

Wednesday - Lasagna

Thursday - Scalloped potatoes and ham

Friday - Grandpa Bill's veggies and biscuits

Saturday - Hot dogs and Mac N Cheese

Sunday - left overs

daily report

Yesterday I drank:
32 oz of coke
oz of water

The ways I worked out were:
20 min of hula hoop around my waist
15 sit ups
5 push ups
15 seconds of plank
1 min march in place
3 min jog in place
2 min jumping jacks
1 min squat and kicks

I also looked for some bracelets to put on for this great pinterest idea!

daily report

I guess I wasn't quite as motivated as I thought I would be but I will still report that I did 11 min of hula hoop around my waist, and 2 min of hula hoop on each arm for a total of 15 min yesterday! I only drank 32oz of coke and about 64 oz of water.

I also wanted to address the 12 new habits for 2012. Yep... lets just be honest, I forgot about them. My January habit was a complete fail. We wasted SO much food in January. But I do feel like I am much more aware of the food in our house so I am hoping that will help us out as we continue to develop that habit through out the year.

On to February. Yep... lets just be honest about this one too. I forgot about it til, well, Now. So we are starting February's habit a little late but better late than never. My February's habit was to pray with my family every night. I am simply a forgetful gal. I am also a procrastinator. Like a really bad one! But this is a biggy not to forget so I am printing pages right as I type this that say, "Have you prayed today?" I am posting them on Caleb's bedroom door, which is in the middle of our house and you literally can not go into any other room with out passing his door. I am also posting in the bathroom above the toilet paper roll because it is a rule in our house for all family members to go potty before they go to bed. I am also going to color them red so they are not something we can miss. If you have any other ideas to help me remember please post them below. I could use any suggestions :)

I will be posting our success/forgetfulness on our praying as well.

Feta Dip Recipe

Here is a super simple but oh so Yummy recipe!

This feta dip recipe is:
1 Tablespoon of oil
8 oz crumbled feta
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 loaf french bread

Yes folks, that's it! And there is no spoon needed to put it on the bread. Simply fold the bread in half and pinch some dip in between the bread and scarf down.

Work out & drink report

I am finding that I am not motivated unless I have some sort of accountability! So here I am again, blogging about what I have accomplished. A few of my 2012 Goals addressed getting healthier this year. One of those is exercise increasingly. If I don't make it a habit/routine, I forget about it. If I have a 3 days a week thing for exercise, I forget about it. I HAVE to make exercise a daily thing. If that means 1/2 hour on the bike or 10 jumping jacks, Exercise must be daily for me. I hope to blog about my accomplishments and failures for the day.

Yesterday I did:

Nothing for exercise. But I did spend a few hours at the Dr and go across town one way and across town the other way to return our new-to-us cell phone that was broken when we got it! Caleb has been really naughty lately which just isn't him so I have been dealing with that as well. Joel had a rough day too. I also went to bed a few minutes after 7. I was Whipped after just a stressful day. 

I will be reporting back daily about my exercise, work out, or extra movement I did each day. Also, by working at McDonalds, I have had tons of FREE coke. I have been drinking over 64 oz of coke each day! I am going to try and cut that down. I will be reporting how much coke/water I have had each day as well.

Drink:
32oz coke
64 oz of water


The tables are turning on my drinking habits lets hope they can continue!

Toss Out Tuesday

Here's what I tossed out this week

Bananas that I had cut up and frozen, took out of the freezer to bag, then forgot about it. 

I am not sure what happened to these sausages! They were frozen before there expiration

date, and cooked the same day I thawed them. But they were BAD.

Even my husband wouldn't eat them which is saying something

These are things I planned on cooking but never got around to making the meal so they went bad.

The milk was just not finished fast enough either.

Ok, I swear this time I cleaned out the entire fridge! These were from October and September!

What did you toss out this last week? I would love to see a link if you posted it

to your blog or just list the items below. I could use some motivation this

week since I did so bad so PLEASE post something :)

Work out & drink report

As I posted yesterday, I am finding that I am not motivated unless I have some sort of accountability! So here I am again, blogging about what I have accomplished. A few of my 2012 Goals addressed getting healthier this year. One of those is exercise increasingly. If I don't make it a habit/routine, I forget about it. If I have a 3 days a week thing for exercise, I forget about it. I HAVE to make exercise a daily thing. If that means 1/2 hour on the bike or 10 jumping jacks, Exercise must be daily for me. I hope to blog about my accomplishments and failures for the day.

Yesterday I did:

10 sit ups
4 push ups
10 second plank
1/2 hour bike
1/2 hour P90X stretching disc

I will be reporting back daily about my exercise, work out, or extra movement I did each day. Also, by working at McDonalds, I have had tons of FREE coke. I have been drinking over 64 oz of coke each day! I am going to try and cut that down. I will be reporting how much coke/water I have had each day as well.

Drink:
64oz coke
50 oz of water



How did you do yesterday? Please tell me below or leave a link. I really enjoy checking out your accomplishments so please don't be shy :)

Work out & drink report

I am finding that I am not motivated unless I have some sort of accountability! So here I am again, blogging about what I have accomplished. A few of my 2012 Goals addressed getting healthier this year. One of those is exercise increasingly. If I don't make it a habit/routine, I forget about it. If I have a 3 days a week thing for exercise, I forget about it. I HAVE to make exercise a daily thing. If that means 1/2 hour on the bike or 10 jumping jacks, Exercise must be daily for me. I hope to blog about my accomplishments and failures for the day.

Today I did:

10 sit ups
4 push ups
10 second plank
1/2 hour bike
1/2 hour P90X stretching disc

I will be reporting back daily about my exercise, work out, or extra movement I did yesterday. Also, by working at McDonalds, I have had tons of FREE coke. I have been drinking over 64 oz of coke each day! I am going to try and cut that down. I will be reporting how much coke/water I have had each day as well.

Drink:
64oz coke
8 oz of water so far
I will be drinking water the rest of the day. I am hoping to get to 64 oz as well. We'll see with tomorrows update.

Weekly Goals

This weeks goals:

Family/Mothering Goals
1) Volunteer at Caleb's school

I also found out that I will probably be able to do this for the next few weeks as I won't have any child care kids on Wednesday mornings :)

2) Make morning muffins with Caleb

3) Get invites cut out

4) Hold Joel tons and don't really care if I get stuff done as long as my Joel is ok.

Seriously didn't get Anything done this week! Below is my laundry pile Yikes!

Personal Goals

1) Get to page 150 in Julie and Julia

2) Ride stationary bike 1/2 hour 3 days this week

3) Get 36'' knitted by Friday 

4) Do the Fab Ab Feb. Work out

Home Management Goals

1) Make weekly menu so we don't waste any food this week

2) Get Jimmy's dresser drawers put back in his dresser

3) Get all every thing cleaned up in my room.

Business Goals

1) Continue entering times and meals daily.

2) Do a Fire drill.

3) Exercise with kids each day with youtube videos (They love these!)

Since I totally failed at last weeks goals, I am making them this weeks goals as well. Joel is doing better so hopefully I won't have to hold him quite as much this week

Rental house

As I posted in our 2012 January update we have been rockin' away at our rental house. Yesterday I got to shine up some metal with steel wool and I got to paint the front door. They both looked great by the time I got done! We also had a lease managing company come over and check it out to tell us what they though and kinda give us the low down on what they would do. We were clueless and ended up learning a ton. They do all that crazy stuff that we frankly don't even want to deal with.


Including but not limited to:


* Place free advertisement on leasegr.com
* Advise you on the rental value of your property
* Screen phone calls and walk-in prospects
* Qualify applicants
* Verify employment
* Run (and pay for) credit checks
* Schedule and confirm showings
* Show your property to prospects
* Consult with you regarding applicants (the final decision is yours)
* Collect security deposit and first month’s rent
* Coordinate and conduct lease signing and move-in


They charge 85% of the first months rent and then $75 a month for management. I think this is what we are going to go with. She gave us some pointers on how to make the home appeal to better renters and told us that it could rent any where from $700-$800! Our mortgage right now is just under $500! So this is great news. I am excited to see what the future holds for us and this new adventure.

2012 January Update

1) Finish my house so it can be rented out

We have been rockin' out on this one! Many hours have been put into getting it done.My husband is really the one to thank for most everything. I am typically home with the kids.

2) Pay off Lowe's credit card

We have sent in a few payments but I don't think we got a bill this month so I think I will have to go in and check it out.

3) See family in Pennsylvania

We are planning on going to see Jimmy's family March 8th-13th. 

4) Pay off Jimmy's student loans

We are working on the Lowe's credit card first.

5) Clean out the down stairs

Yep, haven't touched a thing.

6) Save $2,000 emergency fund

We have got the $1,000 saved but haven't started working on the second $1,000.

7) Develop 12 new habits

My January goal was a big flop. I wasted a lot of food. But I did become more aware near the end of the month and I think we are doing a little better.

8) Read 1 book each month

Does like 70 pages count?

9) Exercise increasingly

I did exercise increasingly til last week rolled around. I am hoping to be able to put Joel down a little bit more this week and get back on my bike. I sort of miss my bike time. It was just me, a book, and my bike.

10) Freezer meals once a month

I ended up doing a few freezer meals. I did BBQ shredded pork, BBQ meat balls, and some hamburger helper for my hubby to bring to work.

11) Make cleaning the house more of a priority

Not so sure this is totally happening. It's a work in progress.

12) Date night 1 time per month

Jimmy and did get a date night this month! We always fill up on our entree so this time we did it back words and had ice cream first. It was great and we really enjoyed it. Then we had dinner at Carrabba's and after that we went to a nice hot tub place. We were really tired and almost fell asleep while in the hot tub. He drove home and I got to sleep on the car ride to pick up our kiddos.

13) Record meal and times daily

My silly system has been down multiple times this month. It seems as though every time I want to get it going, it is down. I haven't been doing very good at this goal as a result.

14) Plant and maintain garden during summer

It finally started to snow around here. I have been looking a seed books though. Not sure what I am going to do.

15) Devote 1 night a week to family game night

We have actually done this more than 1 time a week! It's been a blast and it's a great time for us all to sit down and forget the busy life we have. We can just be together for that moment.

16) Get together with friends 1 time per month

We did this early on in the month. We went to dinner and got to chat for a while after that.

17) Write down birthdays and send cards

No where close to even thinking about this. I didn't even catch my sister-in-laws birthday til a few days later.

18) Blog increasingly more

I feel like I have been, with the exception of last week.

19) Read with kids at least 3 times per week

We read in the car almost every morning before school. I would like to get some more night time reading in.

20) Make and keep budget

Jimmy and I have made progress on this. We put away our debit cards! I am excited not to have those crazy things around any more. We were spending a ton of unnecessary money.

21) Learn to knit and FINISH a project

Done Done DONE!!! It's not very pretty but it's done. I finger knitted my first item. It was a scarf. Now I am on my second item which is a cowl. IT's going well.

22) Lose some weight

Well.... not really yet.

Weekly Goals

After a busy week of taking care of Joel and even more that I didn't have time to post, I didn't accomplish much at all. But here is a re-cap of my week, and this weeks goals as well.

Last weeks goals:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Buy Bottle Brush

Since Joel won't be eating any thing for a while, a bottle brush is useless.

2) Volunteer at Caleb's school

I had a blast! My mom wanted to see Joel so I got to volunteer twice :)

3) Make morning muffins with Caleb

4) Get invites cut out

I didn't get them cut out but I did have a good friend come over and check out my ideas for his birthday party. I am not very craftsy so it was nice to hear that my ideas sounded good.

Personal Goals
I didn't get anything done off my personal goals list.

1) Get to page 150 in Julie and Julia

2) Ride stationary bike 1/2 hour 3 days this week

3) Get 36'' knitted by Friday

I worked on this a ton but I think 36" was just to bold of a goal. I did get through a whole skein of thread and onto my second though. And I was MUCH further along than the rest of my class. Here's how it looks so far.

Home Management Goals

1) Make weekly menu so we don't waste any food this week

2) Get right paint color for bed room

Even after using their "color matching software", we weren't able to get the right color. We ended up having to paint the room a shade darker.

3) Put Debit cards away and get Cash system flowing again

We did get our debit cards put away! Cash systems aren't quite flowing smooth though. But... no more debit cards!

4) Get all dishes cleaned and put away

Finally got those last hard ones that I had been procrastinating about!

Business Goals

1) Continue entering times and meals daily

My system is down again! I am getting so sick of it. But what can you expect, nothing will ever be perfect, it's the government.

2) Do a Fire drill

3) Exercise with kids each day with youtube videos (They love these!)

This weeks goals:

Family/Mothering Goals
1) Volunteer at Caleb's school

2) Make morning muffins with Caleb

3) Get invites cut out

4) Hold Joel tons and don't really care if I get stuff done as long as my Joel is ok.

Personal Goals

1) Get to page 150 in Julie and Julia

2) Ride stationary bike 1/2 hour 3 days this week

3) Get 36'' knitted by Friday 

Home Management Goals

1) Make weekly menu so we don't waste any food this week

2) Get Jimmy's dresser drawers put back in his dresser

3) Get all every thing cleaned up in my room.

Business Goals

1) Continue entering times and meals daily.

2) Do a Fire drill.

3) Exercise with kids each day with youtube videos (They love these!)