Month End Update

I started this blog with the intention of being accountable to someone other than myself. When I think of having an accountability partner I think about them checking in to see how I am doing. So every last day of the month I am going to try to update everyone on all my previous posts.

1. Morning Routine-Step One: Setting out clothes for the week.  This has been going great! Every Sunday evening my daughters get excited to go pick out their clothes for the week. If I don't remember, they do! This has definitely helped out with our morning routine by decreasing the time it takes to get ready and eliminating disagreements.

2. Biggest Loser Challenge: Slow and steady, slow and steady. I am working my way towards a healthier me.  I have eliminated soda and junk foods, decreased my portion sizes, and am making healthier choices.  I definitely crave some junk foods and potlucks are difficult but I am definitely making better choices when it comes to what I put in my body.  Tomorrow we have our week three weigh in and my percentage of weight loss is 3.34%. Slow and steady.

3. What's for Dinner: Meal planning continues to make dinner time easier for me.  Of course there are days when plans change but it's easy to just adjust.

4. Morning Routine-Step Two: Exercise: This one has been a struggle for me. I'd love to be able to tell you that I've worked out every morning, but I can't.  The first few days I struggled finding something that I enjoyed (as much as you can enjoy exercise). And there has been the occasional morning where watching the news or laying back down has happened. But I knew this was going to be a challenge for me.  I am working out at least 3-4 days a week so it is progress from the nothing I did before. However, I would like to get that up to five days a week.  That is my goal for next month.

5. Pots & Pans: The reorganization has been a success so far! All the pots and pans look the same as they did in the after pictures, and yes, I have used them since then! It's still fairly new but I am hoping this continues.  

6. Simplify: I finished the first chapter of the book and what I like about it is that it has you pause and take action steps. The first chapter was called "from exhausted to energized."  One of the action steps is to craft a custom replenishment plan, activities that will fill my bucket. That's hard sometimes.  My mind is always thinking of what can I do for my kids or my husband, it's hard to think about doing things for yourself.

Now that I've updated you is there anything that I can help you be accountable for?

Simplify.

Last week while I was online I found Andy Stanley quoting a line from a book by Bill Hybels that caught my attention.

"Simplified living requires more than just organizing your closets or cleaning out your desk drawers. It requires uncluttering your soul."

I started researching the book and the more I kept reading about the book the more excited I got.  As I am trying to unclutter and simplify my own life physically, how fitting that I would run into something that could help me spiritually as well.

Two days after I saw that first quote, the book was delivered to my doorstep.  The book is "Simplify. Ten practices to unclutter your soul." By Bill Hybels. I am not even finished with the first chapter and I think my highlighter may be running out of ink!

Let me share a paragraph with you:

"Simplified living is about more than doing less.  It's being who God called us to be, with a wholehearted, single-minded focus. It's walking away from innumerable lesser opportunities in favor of the few to which we've been called and for which we've been created.  It's a lifestyle that allows us, when our heads hit the pillow at night, to reflect with gratitude that our day was well invested and the varied responsibilities of our lives are in order."

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Here is a link to more information about the book if you are interesting in reading it yourself.  www.simplifybook.com

Before & After: Weekend Project - Results

After: Pots & Pans

So the project that I thought could possibly take me all weekend, ended up only taking me a few hours.  It's crazy how you tend to put off projects because you dread the amount of work and time it will take to complete it and then in reality it doesn't take that long at all.

I decided to switch the contents of the hutch with the cabinet.  The cabinet was just too narrow for the pots and pans.  I recently saw an idea on Pinterest and decided to try it.

Spring Rods

I adjusted the shelf and used four spring rods to divide the space.  On the top shelf I stored my pizza pans, cookie sheets, jelly roll pans, and all my cutting boards.   Underneath I stored all of my cake pans.  Since we don't use those as often I am hoping that we will be able to put them back in the space nicely.  Hopefully it won't end up looking like the pots did before.

The filled cabinet

The pots and fry pans ended up fitting in the hutch almost perfectly.  I don't know why I didn't figure this out earlier!  I used the drawer below to store less used items like the roasters, casserole dishes and pie plate.  They barely fit in the drawer but I'm thinking that could work to my advantage.  If there is only one way for them to fit, I will have to put things away where they belong!

The filled hutch

So if you're putting something off because you think it may be too much work or may take too much time, I challenge you to set aside a little time to try to get it done.  You may just be surprised.

Before & After: Weekend Project

Before: Pots and Pans

The home we live in is definitely not our forever home.  I look forward to someday having a house that has more than three closets, more than one bathroom, and enough room that there is a place for everything.  Until then, I just have to be creative with our storage.  One thing that has been getting on my nerves lately is the cluttered and disorganized space for our pots and pans.  I can’t believe I’m going to share this with everyone, but I did promise to be transparent, so here it goes.  Below are pictures of how all our pots and pans are currently stored.

This cabinet is way too narrow and we end up having to tilt pans to even get them in the door.

This is the hutch in our kitchen.  I think I may have too many pans and bowls.

Because the hutch is usually packed, most pans get stored in the oven.

Every once and awhile, I will stack the pots and pans nicely into the cabinets, but after pulling out a pan here and there, it always ends up turning into a jumbled mess again.  I need to figure out something that works better permanently.  

So this is my weekend project. Tomorrow I quit just dealing with the clutter and mess and reorganize it into something that will work for the space and for the family.   

Do you have a project you just haven't gotten around to or you've been avoiding?

My Morning Routine: Step Two

With this Biggest Loser Challenge in full swing, I have already made adjustments to my eating habits but now I need to start making time for exercise.  Knowing that I want to have family time when I get home from work and I usually have a list of things that I should accomplish once the girls are in bed, exercise is not something I want to try to do in the evening.  So that means it needs to be added to my morning routine.

Remember how I said, I get up with my hubby and make him lunch and quickly return to bed to sleep some more before my alarm goes off?  Well, that’s going to have to be a thing of the past.  It’s not like I get great sleep during that time anyway, so I might as well just stay up.  That’s what the logical side of my brain is saying, the rest of me is saying, “Nooooooooooo!”  

So starting today I will be attempting to stay up and exercise. 5:00 am workout here I come. Who's with me? Anyone?  

What's for dinner?

Meal planning is something that I have been trying to do for a long time now.  I started out trying to use a whiteboard, then I tried a laminated calendar that I posted on my fridge, then I moved on to trying an app on my iPad to do my meal planing but I ended up forgetting about them all too easily.  I personally needed to have that piece of paper in front of me, that I could carry around with me* and refer to.

So I created my own meal planning calendar. I fill in the dates then write in my meals with a pencil so if something changes I can easily erase it. Sometimes I will fill out the calendar at the beginning of the week, but I typically fill it out right before I need to go grocery shopping.  I'll sit down and think about what is already in the house and what I would need from the store to make a complete meal and then fill in each day with a meal.  I know of people who have planned out entire months at a time but I've found that it works best for me to plan out 10-14 days at a time.

My planning calendar

Granted there are days that I don't follow my plan or I forget to plan for a few days. For example, Thursday was supposed to be Beef & Rice, but the hubby needed to help out a friend that night so the girls and I ended up having Silly Supper (which is my fun way of saying we're having cereal) instead.  So I just adjust the calendar and move things around.  The planning has definitely helped me save time and money. When you have meals planned out you're less likely to get home, look at your cupboards and just decide, "maybe we should go out for dinner?"

Do you plan out your meals? 

If you don't, I challenge you to try it. Even just start by planning out the next couple of days.  I think you will feel more of a relief when it comes to meal time.  So what are you having for dinner?

* I have a folder that goes with me daily.  It includes my meal plan calendar, my grocery list, my to do list, and now my blogging calendar.  All of which I'm sure will make an appearance sometime on the blog.  If you don't know this about me already, you will soon find out that I love making lists, checklists, calendars, etc. I'm sure a few people would agree that I can go a little overboard with my lists.

A Big Loser

Today is the first day of an eight-week Biggest Loser Challenge at work.  Being this was the first day, it was the dreaded initial weigh-in day. I have been avoiding the scale the last couple months, even putting the laundry basket on top of it so I could avoid finding out what that number had become.  But today it was unavoidable. 

As I stepped on the scale this morning an overwhelming feeling of disappointment came over me. Those numbers couldn't be right, could they? There must be something wrong with the scale, right? The numbers were definitely not what I wanted to see even though I knew they were right.  Those numbers reminded me how out of shape I am, how uncomfortable I am, and how lazy I've become.

Now I know deep down in my heart that the numbers shouldn't define me. I should be remembering that my body weight is not a reflection of who I am.  But that’s hard sometimes, right?

I am hoping that by sharing this and starting this challenge, it will give me the motivation that I need to do something about the way I feel.  (You only hold yourself accountable for goals that others know about.) My goal for the eight weeks, yes, is to lose weight, but it is mainly to become healthier both in body and mind.  I want to take care of my body; I want to be able to play with the girls and not be winded; I want to not be so tired; and I also want to be able step on the scale and no matter what it says know fully that it is not any indication of my worth.

The hard part... can I remember that the next time I step on the scale?

Our Morning Routine: Step One

For the past few months this has been my morning routine...

Wake up with the hubby and make his lunch for the day. Quickly crawl back into bed to get a little more sleep before my alarm goes off.  Hit snooze way too many times and then run to get myself ready before I have to wake up the girls.  Get the girls up with just enough time to get dressed, get their teeth brushed and brush their hair (well sometimes brush their hair) and get out the door by 7:00 am.  All the while hoping that I haven't forgotten something important!

With school starting again, I've decided the morning routine needs to improve, a lot!  But I also know that if I try to change it drastically all at once, it will only last a couple days and I'll be right back where I started, running around frantic trying not to be late. So we will take baby steps.

Step One: The Clothing Battle

One thing that has been a battle in the morning is picking out clothes.  The girls will pick out something that just doesn't work with the weather or doesn't fit and I will have to veto it.  Chaos errupts!  Crying, pouting, stomping and a battle to put on different clothes begins.  And when you are already rushed it makes it hard for me not to have a mommy moment and lose my patience with the girls. That is never the way I want to start out the day with my girls.

So this month we have started to pick out our clothes for the entire week on Sunday evening.  This way the girls and I can both feel good about the clothing choices and we eliminate one battle in the morning.  I searched online for some Day of the Week Tags that I liked, printed them out and laminated them. Then once the clothes are picked out we hang the tag with the clothes. These handy tags also double as a little reading exercise for my daughter in the morning.  I'll tell her what day it is and she has to go find her clothes.  2 birds, 1 stone.

Now for the part that I will struggle with...continuing to do this every week.  Whenever I try something new, even if it works great, I struggle with keeping it up.  If I'm truly honest with myself, it comes from laziness. Oh, I'll do it later or I'll get to it tomorrow and it gets forgotten.  So, if you happen to see me on a Sunday afternoon or evening feel free to ask me if I have the girls clothes picked out.  And hopefully the answer will be "yes". 

My Starting Point...

In the past, I have started things and have had success for awhile but then my motivation fades.  I have found that the only thing that truly works for me is accountability.  If others know what I am trying to do I am more likely to succeed at it.

"You only hold yourself accountable for goals that others know about.  Tell someone what you're up to."

So in an effort to get my life, home and family organized I am starting this blog so I become accountable to someone other than myself.   Here you'll see the real me. I am hoping to be transparent with everyone and show my successes as well as my struggles and my failures. But who better to share those things with than with friends who can relate and encourage you!  So here's to finding some order amid the chaos that we all have in our lives.