Hello Summer...Let the Ponderings Roll

Well, it's day one of my summer vacation...which is sort of like New Years for me, in that it's time to make some resolutions.  With my days mainly free and uninterrupted by a pesky (but necessary) job, I can focus more on things that need doing.  On the top of the list is me.  I have gotten into the lazy habit of eating foods that are not so healthy over this past school year and the bum knee (I've fallen and twisted it TWICE in the last 4 months) has put a crimp in any kind of exercise.

I was going to post this in my poor neglected health blog, but after a lot of consideration I've decided I'm going to delete both it and my book blog.  It's too much to expect people to keep up with more than one blog, I think.  Pfffft!  It's too much for me to keep up three blogs.  Anyway, any diet, exercise or book posts will be on the main blog.  I'm going to be doing some rearranging and housekeeping around here in the coming days.

Getting back to those "resolutions"....

For starters, I got up this morning and spent some time reading the Bible and praying, which always makes the day go better.  It's unfortunate that on work days it's hard to fit it in until after the morning run.  After that I drug out and dusted off my Perfect Planner.  I was so excited to start the year off with it back in January, but just like the prayer time...it was hard to squeeze in first thing in the day and if it didn't get done then it didn't seem to get done at all.  Getting just those two things done makes me feel so accomplished.  Not to mention...Intentional, which you'll remember is my One Word for 2013.

With my To-Do List written out in my planner...I have a plan for the day.  It's already out of order because of rain (I wanted to weed the flower beds and plant some flowers) and my daughter getting in late (or rather early this morning) and still being in bed.  I want her help in totally emptying out the frig and freezer, scrubbing them and putting everything back in an organized fashion...which, yes, I am aware will last only until the first person goes looking for something, but I will feel better.  It's been making me feel stressed.  Blogging wasn't to come until later in the day, but hey, lists are adaptable and not written in stone.  Just so I actually accomplish some of the things on it, I'll be good with that.

Diet is next on my list of resolutions.  We've been doing a lot of eating out.  That's going to stop.  For two reasons.  Health and finances.  The best part of summer is the abundance of fresh fruits and veggies.  I'm determined to whip our diets into shape.  My daughter has lost 40 pounds.  I'm not sure how she's done it.  She does not eat healthy and other than a few walks here and there I don't see her exercise.  Sigh...I wish it would melt off of me that easily.  It doesn't, so my plan aside from not eating out as much, is to shop the perimeter of the store (dairy, produce, meats) and skip as much of the interior aisles (processed foods) as possible, cut waaaay back on my daily Coke (the soda not the drug) habit and drink water and tea instead, find healthier ways to prepare favorite dishes and of course....

Exercise.  With the weather warming up our pool is now open...and as soon as the water warms up, too, I will be in there daily swimming and doing some other exercises that will be kind to my knee.  I'm going to give the exercise bike a go this morning.  Not sure if the knee is up to it, but I won't know till I try.  As soon as it's healed enough I'm dragging out the Fluidity Bar and getting back into that.  It's very gentle, but really works you out.  I'm hoping the knee heals quickly.

So, there's my summer plan.  I just wish I had gotten motivated sooner.  Next weekend is the Toby Keith concert...at least I'm not seeing him face to face this year...and I have two trips coming up next month.  One to Tennessee for training to teach Kay Arthur's Precept Bible Studies and the second to the beach.  There's no way I'm going to be a beach babe by then, but I can at least jiggle less.

I'm keeping in mind the words of Romans 12:1 -

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.

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Before I go hit that list there's time for a little Pondering with Brenda.  

This week's prompt:  roll

In our house, the most important roll.....is the toilet paper roll.  Not much attention is paid to the lowly TP roll, until it's not there when needed.  Fear of just such a situation has made me a TP hoarder.  There is always a stockpile in this house.  And be honest, if the zombie apocalypse strikes tomorrow you know we're all going to be making a run to the grocery store for milk, bread, eggs, and toilet paper.  It's the American way of coping with disaster!

There's no arguing here about the over or under question.  We all agree that over is the way to go.  Not that it would matter since I seem to be the only person in the house with an understanding of how to work the holder and put a new roll on.  If I have to do it, it obviously goes my way.

My pet peeve these days is that the price of the rolls continues to climb, while the size of the rolls is shrinking...though they've renamed many of the sizes to make them sound bigger.  I'm sorry.  I don't care if you call it Double, Mega, or Jumbo....250 sheets is still 250 sheets.  The shrinking size and rising cost have me wondering if Sears has any plans to bring back its catalog?

A slightly lesser peeve is the rolls found in public restrooms.  I understand they do not want to have "clogging" issues, but the thinness of the paper combined with the locked security dispensers that make it difficult, if not impossible to find the end of the paper, usually means a pile of confetti on the floor before 3 usable squares are pulled off the roll.  And the minute those square are pulled the end of the paper sucks back to the roll and disappears.  Grrrrr!

And that's how I roll!

Intentionally Organized

The week has not gotten off to the best of starts, but it could be much, much worse.....so I am not complaining.  See me not complaining, God.  No need to reach out and show me how worse it can be.  No sir-ree...nothing but gratitude for my blessings here!

And I really am feeling thankful this morning.  Tired (Megan called me at 1:45 a.m. to pick her up at work...lots of call offs and not enough to keep everyone busy so 3 got sent home) and wheezy (I think this bug has possibly left asthma in its wake...waiting for a call back from the doctor), but thankful.

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I spent my weekend figuring out my Planner Perfect planner and getting started with it.  I can't say enough how much I love this system lifestyle.  If you've been following, you know I chose "intentional" as my One Word for the year.  All my reasoning behind the choice can be read here.  Long story short, I am tired of feeling lived by life and want to live intentionally, taking back the control.

I shared, along with my One Word, a bit of wisdom concerning the achieving of success that goes something like this:

Q:  How do you eat an elephant?
A:  One bite at a time.

When we set goals we tend to look at the whole, ginormous, overwhelming picture.  When we do that, we set ourselves up for failure.  The idea behind the elephant question is that you can't swallow the elephant whole, you have to eat one bite at a time.  It will take time, but the elephant will get eaten.  Same thing goes for the goals we set.  We can't wave a magic wand and *poof* there we are....done!  What we have to do to successfully reach our goals is have a plan and then put action to it.  That's where the Planner Perfect planner comes in.

The idea is to set your goals for the month and the day, too.  You write those down, of course, but not as a list of tasks to be done on the calendar.  No, there are blank pages to write them down and then (pay attention because this is the key) break them down into steps.  You look at your goals and ask yourself what you need to do TODAY to help make that happen.  You can break it down as detailed as you want.  For me, the more detailed the better.

I followed the plan I had written out for yesterday and guess what?  Everything ran smoothly, I got tons of stuff done, (and this is huge) I wasn't stressed because I knew exactly what needed to be done.  I'm a little off track today because of the whole sleep thing, but that's okay.  I just do what I can of today's plan and just move the rest to another day.

It really feels like I've found what I've been searching for and it almost feels wrong that it's so simple and easy.  Even my Bible study time seems to confirm that I'm doing the right thing.  I read 1 Corinthians:11 and that's the chapter that talks about the body being made of many parts, each part having its own job to do, and each part as important as the others.  It really felt like the Father was reminding me not to compare myself or my life to other women.  I am me and they are them.  We each have our own unique place in God's plan.

*Just a bonus tidbit...I created a couponing notebook yesterday.  It's just a 3-ring binder with dividers for each catagory and plastic pocket pages (like the ones for baseball cards).  I actually found a package with assorted sizes of pockets made especially for couponing at Walmart.  They were with the baseball cards.  Anyway, it was so easy to find everything and check items.  I've always used coupons but have never been this organized and while I don't have any desire to become an extreme couponer (seems to me they buy huge quantities of stuff they don't even need), I am pretty pleased with the $26 I saved.

Elephant on the Menu

Happy New Year to you and yours!  I am excited to welcome the new year and new opportunities.  The year 2012 was not the best around here.  Oh, there were moments of joy, but it seemed there were more difficult and even heart-breaking times.

The year ended with us trying to offer comfort to dear friends who are facing a parent's nightmare.  Their daughter's boyfriend (and the father of their grandchildren) is dead....shot twice in the head in a robbery gone wrong.  Drugs were an issue.  Their daughter now sits in jail along with two others, charged with robbery, conspiracy, and homicide.  Two babies have, for all intents and purposes, lost both their parents.  There is nothing we can say or do to offer comfort.  The only hope lies in the God of comfort and peace...the peace he offers is beyond our understanding.  I pray and trust he will bring something good out of even this.

Moving on to better things.....

I promised to reveal my One Word for 2013 and here, without further ado, is my word:

The One Word is supposed to describe how you want to live or who you want to be.  It's a word, one word, that you can focus on each day.

When I began to think about what my word would be a few jumped to mind right away.  Then I narrowed the field to two.  I couldn't seem to decide which one was the right one.  So I prayed for an answer.  I looked back at my blog searching for clues.  I kept my mind open to confirmation.  It seemed that "intentional" was the word that most often came to mind.  I've often had the feeling in the past few years that life was living me, rather than I was living it.  Not the most pleasant feeling.  Then I started reading a book on simplifying life.  The introduction alone has shaken my world.  The authors explain that to change things we have to have a plan, but then there has to be motion to move the plan forward.  

We (I) make great plans, but they never happen or we start but fizzle out.  Why?  Because we are daunted by the big picture.  We don't know how to make it all happen.  What we need to do, instead, is think about what step we need to take each day and then take that one step.  The authors offered this nugget of thinking and I'm clinging to it.

Like eating an elephant, goals can't be reached in an instant.  We have to be intentional.  We have to take the first bite, chew it, swallow it.  Then we can take the second bite.  It will take a while, but eventually the goal is reached because it's a lot easier for our minds to deal with just one step at a time.  We don't feel overwhelmed and give up.  We can celebrate the success of each step.

So, INTENTIONAL, that's my one word for the year.  I'm going to eat the elephant this year....one bite at a time.