Tackle it Tuesdays #6 (Goal Setting)

One month in the new year has come and gone and I'm not any closer to getting my goals for the New Year in my routine. This week's Tackle it Tuesday is getting my goals and routines on paper and to start implementing them this month.

Here are the areas/routines that I would like to establish and accomplish this year:

1. Spiritual

2. Physical

3. Daily Routines for Work

4. Daily Routines for my Home

The first area, which I feel it the most important is setting goals and routines for my Spiritual Life and Well-Being. I think this is key to making sure that all of my other goals will be meet.

1. Have a small devotion and prayer each morning. I have several devotionals to choose from. I think I will start with "God Calling" Edited by A.J. Russell. Here is what the inside cover says about the book "Here is a devotional that will bring the reality of God and His constant concern for you into your heart every day of the year. Whatever your circumstances, God Calling cannot fail to bring you closer to God. It will help you overcome your daily worries and draw you ever closer to the peace you're seeking."

2. I am involved in 2 Bible Studies this Spring semester, they are Pathway to Purpose for Women: Connecting Your To-Do List, Your Passions, and God's Purposes for Your Life by Katherine Brazeltonand 12 Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur. Each study doesn't involve intense study like a Beth Moore study would but each needs attention. So each day I need to devote time to reading and doing the homework in each class. My plan for this semester is to alternate each day for reading and studying each book.


The Second Area is Physical, I would like to lose the extra weight that I have gained. Here are some concrete goals (establishing and carrying them out will be another story):

1. Start drinking water each day (as I take a drink of my Dt Dr Pepper!). I don't particularly enjoy drinking water. Most of you know that I'm a die hard Diet Dr Pepper fan and drink 6 to 7 cans a day. So weaning my system into drinking more water will require more effort on my part (and a miracle....I think that I will add this to my morning prayer to God....please encourage and remind me to drink water instead of soda each day!) I know this is key to achieving the over all goal...losing 50-74 pounds.

2. Start working out at least 3-4 times a week. My kiddos get on the bus by 7:45 am each morning, I can be at the gym each day by 8:00 am and get a good hour work-out in before tackling my day. So...here is my plan for the week:

Monday-Work out 8:00-9:00 am
Tuesday-Work out 8:00-9:00 am
Wednesday-Work out 8:00-9:00 am. Weight Watchers meeting at 9:30 am.
Thursday- Work out after Bible Study/Lunch at home or at gym (depending on my mood)
Friday-Work out 8:00-9:00 am.

3. Start counting my points each day with Weight Watchers. I am allowed 26 points per day plus an additional 35 points for the week. I can add those 35 points equally to each day or save them for a special treat during the week, like a dessert, dinner out etc!

The third area, I need to tackle is establishing specific routines for work. I run a competitive soccer league and there are times when I don't have as much work to do and times where I can't seem to get anything done but work and I really don't to be working at midnight! I think establishing specific routines each day or setting a time line will help those weeks not seem so overwhelming.

Here is what needs to be accomplished for the month of February for work:
1. Brackets set and email out to teams. Need to complete by Friday.
2. Email referees regarding the remaining Futsal schedule. Get schedule set by Wednesday.
3. Email coaches and managers regarding the CMSL Referee Clinic. Need to complete by Wednesday.
4. Set up email group list for Spring 2007 season. Run a test email. Need to complete by Friday.
5. Email referees regarding the Spring season. Need to complete by end of next week.
6. Get black-out dates on spread sheet. Complete by 2/13/07.
7. Spreadsheet to Mick, all registered teams and amount due. Complete by 2/9/07.
8. Referee and Futsal pages sent to webmaster. Complete by 2/15/07.
9. Start working on schedule. Complete by 2/23/07.
10. Schedule coaches meeting and AGM. Complete by 2/12/07.


The last area is establishing daily routines for getting my house in order and de-cluttered. This, I believe, is also key into having a happy and healthy home for my family. I get emails each day from the FlyLady and haven't looked at them much during the last couple of weeks and my house looks like it! I like how she divides your home into zones and each week she tackles that zone. For the month of February, however, I'm going to make a general To-Bo list of everything that needs to be done and tackle it over the month of Feb and starting in March after I have put out all of my Hot Zones I can start the weekly zones and work on keeping my house clean!

Here is what I need to get done this month:
1. Catch up on laundry and put laundry away! Not just set it in each room.
2. Run sweeper in each room.
3. Mop kitchen and bathroom floors.
4. Dust.
5. Organize my closet.
6. Pick up LR and FR and return items to appropriate rooms.

This list doesn't look like much but with my work schedule, it's a doable plan for this month.



Okay....now that I tackled my goals for the month of February, you will need to check back and see if I'm getting them accomplished! Check out other Tackle-it-Tuesday participants at 5 Minutes for Moms! Have a good week!

Tackle It Tuesday #4 (GLH's Closet)

My first Tackle- it-Tuesday post was tackling my daughter's room with the intentions of tackling her closet in the near future...since we were iced in for the last three days, I have my laundry caught up and the house pretty well cleaned. So last night, I emptied out her closet and gathered all of the supplies I had purchased to start on her closet...well I had to go back to Home Depot because I had the wrong size shelves and brackets. Oh well...after all that...

Today my tackle is to put everything back into her closet- organized since my sweet hubby installed the closet organizer. And we have another day where we don't have any place to be this evening because school was canceled due to the ice storm, therefore, most of our evening activities have been canceled as well and I can keep working until her closet is finished!

Here is the before picture:

Here is her room after everything has been removed from her closet...I can't believe there was that much in her closet!

Here is the completed project...We added two bars for clothing, one high for things that she doesn't wear that often, her dance cosutmes, etc. and one lower for the clothes that she wears on a regular bases. There is room to add more. There are three shelves and one more that I haven't installed yet. I still need to go through some of the rubbermaid boxes that I put back in her closet and sort the barbie clothes (there are 2 boxes that I need to go through) I moved her Barbie dolls to the back of her door and moved from her door to the closet to hang her dance bag and baton bag on each day. I put together her Bitty Baby storage chest, it's in the closet as well. We purged 3 Barbie doll vehicles and kept only 2...the pink convertible and the gray VW Bug. It looks so much better and more organized...and it's only 10:30 am! What else am I going to tackle today??? I added a small to-do list below the pictures.

To-Do Today....

1. Update registration form on CMSL website.
2. Update teams registered.
3. Go to the bank.
4. Clean off my desk.
5. Tackle hot-spots through out the house...LR, Hallway and Bedroom.
6. Put sheets on boys bed.
7. Wash GLH's sheets and make her bed.
8. List for OAMC (Shop Wed AM)
9. Dishes. Had boys put them in the dishwasher while I went to the bank! Smart Mom!
10. ??????

Check out more at Tackle-it-Tuesdays hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom There are some great tackles!

Clutter...Why It's Good!!!!???????

I came across this article on another post...I highlighted the areas that really struck me. I am a messy person by nature but have such a need for organization...my house runs so much smoother when things are organized. So I'm not sure why I'm a messy person...It's a very interesting article. Tell me what you think!

Clutter: New book strikes a blow against the cult of über organization
By Valerie Finholm
THE HARTFORD COURANT
01/10/2007

Every year, you make the same resolutions. You're going to lose weight and keep the house clean. No more backpacks, coats and shoes strewn across the living-room floor; no beds unmade or socks unmatched.

Not so fast, say Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, authors of the new book "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder (How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place)."

The authors claim that if you're moderately disorganized — that is, you scatter things, mix things around, let things pile up, do things out of order, be inconsistent and wing it — you're probably more efficient, resilient, creative and in general more effective than someone who is highly organized.

"The fact of the matter is there are a lot of things to like about being messy that have been hugely ignored," Freedman says in a telephone interview from his home in Boston.

The authors pooh-pooh the notion that they're just slackers trying to justify their own bad habits.

Abrahamson is a professor of management at Columbia University's School of Business who has written an academic paper on the benefits of messiness, and Freedman is a business and science journalist who has written for publications such as the Atlantic Monthly and Newsweek. Freedman says the book is based on hundreds of sources, including surveys and numerous interviews with people — messy and neat.

The book's most compelling argument for the benefits of messiness and disorder is that they save people time and make them more efficient.

"There are people who spend all day keeping things in their places who really wish they had time to do other things," Freedman says. "But they feel obligated to do this."

As for the office, a survey done by the authors found that people who say they keep a "very neat" desk at work spend an average of 36 percent more time looking for things than people who say they keep a "fairly messy" desk.

"That's because it takes time to put every paper in its place in a filing cabinet or folder," Freedman says, whereas messy people tend to put things in "surprisingly sophisticated" piles that they can easily access.

The authors also found that a messy house is more nurturing to children, "who by their nature love a mess." Freedman says he interviewed many middle-age people who grew up in antiseptic homes and who "still remembered being screamed at for running across the carpet or leaving a glass someplace."

Freedman — who acknowledges that he and his wife are "a bit on the messy side" — says he first became interested in the benefits of disorder while writing a magazine article about a physics professor who discovered that certain kinds of scientific systems worked better if you made them messier.

Freedman wondered whether this theory might apply to the home and office as well, and he teamed up with Abrahamson to investigate the topic.

Freedman says they found that messiness hasn't always had a bad image.

"They didn't even have a word for it until the 19th century," he says.

That changed in Victorian times, when people began to accumulate nice things and wanted to keep them perfectly clean, he says. Then, with the invention of appliances, he says, cleanliness "got really, really out of control."

That led to the growth of today's "professional organizers."

Freedman says these organizers operate on the premise that most people have a lot of "neatening" to do, "a job that requires a big commitment — expertise, a large block of time and an array of paraphernalia."

"Organizers reassure the clients that they'll ultimately be much happier having gotten rid of their stuff," he says. "But is it really true that people won't regret getting rid of some items that are cast out in the name of straightening up?

"In fact, all kinds of wonderful, valuable and useful things get thrown out in the name of organizing. Almost anyone over the age of 40 has had the experience of realizing with a pang that their childhood collections of baseball cards or comic books or Barbie dolls would be worth a fortune today, never mind their sentimental value."

Barry Izsak, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers and the author of "Organize Your Garage in No Time," disputes Freedman's contention that an organizer's main goal is to give things the heave-ho.

"Most organizers' mantra is that we don't throw anything away. The client needs to make that decision," says Izsak, owner of Arranging It All ... From Your Closets to Your Life, an Austin, Texas, company that guarantees clients will be able to find anything in their home or office within five seconds. Freedman says he has nothing against neat people but still wonders: "What are you getting out of it, really?"

He says clutter-free homes don't say much about the people who live in them: "While in a messy house, things are lying around that you don't necessarily want visitors to see, they give a sense of the family that lives there."

I had to laugh about the last statement! When my house is messy, I know what sense it tells me and I'm sure it's telling visitors the same thing! As a messy, are you now more incline to not clean up because it means that you are a creative, more effective and resilient? Are you in the present state of nurturing your children and if you keep a clean house it says you aren't nurturing your child?

I am a messy by nature but after reading this article...I still so much want to be a really organize person! I hate clutter...I have been purging and throwing things away and it feels really good! I haven't missed anything that I have thrown away...but I'm not going to throw anything away that has sentimental value to me. What I have noticed about having areas organize and simplified is that when it gets a little messy....it's much easier to pick up and put back in order because there isn't all of the clutter that is getting in my way!

So....by nature what are you? Are you a messy person or do you thrive on order? Take my poll:

Will Exercise For Comments

I'm joining Trying To Catch Up in her exercise challenge...I will exercise for Comments!



Here is my commitment for January:
Blogger Pledge:
I will exercise for comments.
Time Period: January 1- January 31
Type of exercise: Sit-ups
Pledge: 1 sit-up per comment

It appears to be pretty easy.. every day I will check my blog for the number of comments received on blog posts that day. I will do sit-ups for every comments placed on my blog. For example, Barbara, posted 5 comments on my Thursday Thirteens Blog and therefore, I need to do 5 sit-ups. You can either leave me one long comment or several little comments to encourage me to do more sit-ups!

You can support me by commenting on my blog or making your own pledge to exercise for comments. Let me know if you are pledging too. I will visit your site and comment to support you!

Tackle It Tuesday #3 (My Car!)

Okay, I'm rather embarrassed to post what I'm tackling today...it's really bad....it has never looked this bad...I really can't show these pictures....oh well...here is the embarrassing picture of...my car looks like a bomb has gone off in it and this is what I'm tackling today...it is also on my January To-Do List so I get to remove an item after I get it completed! Yeah for me!...yes this is the car from the "Works for Me" Blogger that has the glove compartment organizer....

There's dance bags, shoes, markers and kleenexes that need to be picked up....

Backpacks that need to go into the house...newspapers that need to be recyled...

Pretty bad huh?

Tackling Steps:

1. Remove trash-take trash bag to car.




2. Remove all clothes & shoes, take to laundry or to owners room. (major improvement by just doing steps 1 & 2!)




3. Vacuum with shop vac...floors and seats.




4. Wipe down dashboard and seats with Armour All wipes for vinyl & leather.




5. Take to get washed!
   

Here is the final project all completed:

Now doesn't that look much better! It's feels much better! I just love Tackle it Tuesdays!

Organizing Tips for Car:

In addition to cleaning out the car, I reorganized/cleaned out the baskets in my car. I have 3 baskets-1. Has CDs, DVDs, extra deoderant, sunscreen, hand lotion, my husband's "do you have it"kit (which has chapstick, advil, rolaids, fingernail clippers), scizzors, etc., little trash bags and snacks like cereal bars 2. Has cordless headphones for the entertainment system for the car & remote control and 3. has video games that don't require an electrical outlet for the DVD system (they run on batteries and just hook into the DVD source in the back). I also have a rubbermaid box in the back of my car that houses paper plates, a roll of paper towels, first aid kit, car emergency kit, & plastic forks/spoons/knives. I have all of these things stored in my car because as a traveling soccer/dance/baton family we will stop at the grocery store instead of going to a fast food restaurant and get items for sandwiches and it saves me from having to buy these items everytime. It has come in handy many, many times. During the winter month I have an extra box with blankets in it for soccer games as well as our portable chairs.

Here is basket #1:

Change Me, Lord!

As I read my devotion this morning, from Stormie Omartian's "The Power of a Praying Wife," the first thing that I read that hit me hard was...."Change Me, Lord!" Change me? What? What about those who need to change? Why me? Hereis why... Here is my prayer and my conversation with God:

In Psalms 66:18, you say if I regard iniquity in my heart, You will not hear me. I want my heart to be right so my prayers will be answered-not compromised.

Lord, I confess to you and ask you to forgive me for being irresposible, for being angry about things that I can not control, for seeking revenge to those who have hurt or wronged me in some way. I don't want to be a bitter person anymore. Lord, please set me free from anything that is not of You. I desire to live a life Your way-by forgiving, by showing kindness and love to those who I come into contact with each and everyday. Help me to let go of the past and all of the hurt associated with it. Whatever You want, Lord. Show me and I'll do it. Change me. Lord.

2007 New Year's Meditations

During the month of December, I did a lot of reflecting on the year 2006. God revealed to me areas in my life that need some type of change, either for the good or for the bad. Some of those areas were very obvious and some weren't. I also have admired those who keep a regular journal, I have a prayer journal that I started about 5 1/2 years ago, there isn't very much in there. My biggest goal this year is to journal every day, this is were my blog comes in. I really have enjoyed journaling and writing using my blog as a medium. I appreciate the words of encouragement and support that my family and friends (as well as other bloggers that I haven't meet) have given me regarding my journal. In the past, I usually think about my goals for a new year in my head and never really write them down, that away I'm not held accountable if I don't achieve those goals no one will know and I won't know because I didn't write down what my goals were! Writing it in my blog will give me some accountability for those goals.

I have divided my goals in areas of most important to least important. The areas of change that I'm hoping to achieve in the year 2007 are Spiritual, Relationships, Physical, Financial and Daily Living. They all are important but I think without the previous the other doesn't mean anything.

Spiritual

My spiritual goals are to have a daily devotion when I first get up, this means that I need to get to bed early enough so I'm not getting up just before I need to wake up the kids to get them ready for school! I would like to start each day by reading a devotion. After I get the kids to school and do my morning chores and activities, I would like to have a more intense study and quiet time each day. I honestly believe that God is telling me that I don't spend enough time with him each day. With out this important time with him everything else in my life doesn't get blessed. I'm not saying that I haven't been blessed, I have been blessed but I want to honestly say that God blessed every aspect of my life, my family, my home, my career....The most important goal for me for 2007 is to give God every area of my life and I truly believe that my other goals will be so easy to achieve.

Relationships

I really need to work on relationships. I have people in my life that I haven't extended grace to, forgiven them or asked for their forgiveness, or made an effort to help our relationship grow. One goal for 2007 is a goal for my marriage. My husband and I have 4 children, our oldest is almost 14 and our youngest will be 6 in June, and we don't spend anytime together as a couple. This year, I will like for us to find time in our schedule to schedule a date night at least once a month-two times would be great but I want to set a goal that I might be able to keep! I also think that it is important that I spend time with each of my children by themselves...like take CSH out for a subway sandwich and a drink and spend time talking with him about...yes...since he is almost 14...the birds and the bees, about his dreams for his future, about being a gentleman and most important talk with him about his faith. My husband needs to take his daughters' out on "dates". We need to nourish our relationships this year by spending time with those we love.

Physical

This next area in my life is a big struggle for me...one I never had a struggle with...my weight. I never had to diet growing up and truly that was a blessing as a teenager to not have a weight problem. I could eat whatever I wanted and I didn't have to worry about it! That's not the case any more, after four children, my metabolism is very different then it was as a teenager. I feel miserable about the extra weight. I am at the point in my life that I refuse to buy the next size jeans....size 14 is as big as I am willing to go. I will wear them even if I have to unbutton the top button and be miserable....I refuse to buy clothes any bigger than that! BUT I have to make some changes which include exercising each day, drinking more water (I drink ONLY Dt Dr Pepper) and watching what I eat as well as the portions. I know that I will feel much better about myself if I can start to add these elements into my daily routine. I would love to lose the 50 (75 pounds would be better) by the end of 2007 but I am willing to settle for achieving the goal of working out on a regular basis and drinking more water. I think the weight will come off very easy if these two elements are in my daily routine.

Financial

I told my husband on New Year's Eve that this was going to be a very good year for us! This year I am going to have all, yes all, of our bills paid off (this doesn't include the house...so I guess not all of them!). Each year we get a nice tax refund and I blow it on stuff... this year I am going to get the carpet paid off that I should have paid off 2 years ago with our tax refund. So I am giving my finances to God each day and asking him to keep me from being self-indulgence and to remind me daily that if I'm going to achieve this financial goal that I need to be frugal and not spend money to be spending money. To help with this goal, I have set our family on a $500 a month food budget. I think I can stay within this budget by using coupons, which I purchased a binder and have my coupons organized, being better at planning a weekly menu. I have noticed that our food expenses have gone down since I joined a Freezer Co-op. So menu planning, using coupons and not eating out will help us to stay in our monthly budget and to help me achieve this financial goal for 2007!

Daily Living

Last area-daily living...this means, my household is organized and clutter free . In a previous post, I wrote about a book that I have been reading-"The Warm and Welcome Home" and what caught my attention the most was that God is a God of order! I would be embarrassed if God knocked on my door and asked to come to dinner! Or better yet, God can see in our closets...even if no one else can! My goal for 2007 is to take baby steps into getting every area of my home in order! I want to be able to welcome God and anyone else who knocks on my door into my home! More importantly for my family! The home should be a save haven that builds up my family, a place where communication is ongoing and creativity flows. This can't happen if my home isn't warm and welcome for my family. This means keeping the house clean, the launry done, the kitchen in order, the pantry and the frig full, the bed made, etc.

These are my goals for 2007. Check back often as I blog about my goals and if I have achieved any of them. I will be excited to see how much of them I have achieved when I reflect in December. Good luck to each of you who have set goals or made resolutions for the New Year.

Original Post (12/30/06)
I came across another bloggers post Sting My Heart about a great idea for 2007! Her blogging friend has posted this idea:

"I would like you to post on your site about your hopes, dreams, goals, for the next year. What would you like to see God do in your life? How would you like to see Him move in things? make this as general or as personal as you feel comfortable. What are your goals for the next year? I am not looking for the "lose 10lbs this year" answer, something a little bit deeper. When you look back December 2007, where would you like to be? Many of us look forward to new changes in the new year, some of use dread the changes. Changes are sometimes good , sometimes dreaded and sometimes dreamed. What is your change or dream for this next year?" From Laurel Wreath

This was really inspiring...I always reflect and think about things that I would like to do differently the next year. But never really thought deeply about those changes, I make a list and lose the next the next week because already broke those resolutions! I'm going to think about my hopes, my dreams, and my goals for 2007 and will post those next year (right now I need to finish the Futsal-indoor soccer schedule!)