Challenges

Reboot Camp

Image by liftarn via FlickrThere are times in your life when you look at your life and realize a few minor tweaks will make everything better. Then there are times when you need much, much more. I’m in the second time right now. I’m looking around and thinking things could be so much better. I had all these great ideas and plans for the new year. Alas, almost nothing has been done with any of them. At a time like this, minor tweaking isn’t going to cut it. You need a complete reboot, hence my new Reboot Camp. It is almost 10 weeks long and runs from Valentine’s Day to Easter, one “love” holiday to another, so to speak.

My daughter Spitfire and I are embarking on this plan to make positive changes in our lives over the next ten weeks that will hopefully carry over into the rest of the year. We are each setting our own goals, because we have different things that need fixing. At the bottom of the post, I’ll tell you how you can play along.

I’m working on five different areas:

Spiritual
These are the things I’m doing to do to help my spiritual growth.
1. I’m going to attempt to read the bible over the next 10 weeks. This is ambitious considering time constraints and the other reading I have to do, but I’m going to attempt it.
2. I’m going to start a prayer journal. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but instead have been relying on my own overtaxed memory to keep lists of prayer requests and answers to prayer. It’s time to write things down.
3. Complete at least one bible study.

Physical
This includes, diet, fitness and physical appearance.
1. Follow a modified version of the No-S Diet. I’m kicking it up a notch by eating healthier foods during the non-S days and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.
2. Exercise at least four days a week. I’ve been doing Zumba with Bookaddict, but it’s been pretty hit-or-miss. Now it’s time to do something more consistently, whether it’s Zumba, interval walking or T-Tapp.
3. Take vitamins and other supplements. I have them but they aren’t doing me a bit of good sitting in the bottle. ‘Nuff said.
4. Drink more water and less other stuff. I already drink very little in the way of soda but I drink a lot of iced tea. I’m switching to more water and more herb tea and less iced tea.
5. Simplify my beauty routine. For a season, I’m packing up the daytime moisturizer, the nighttime moisturizer, the undereye cream, and the rest and using rosa mosqueta oil instead. I’ll let you know what effect this has on my skin. I’m also paring down my makeup options in hopes that having a quick routine will ensure it actually gets done.

Household
This is about the cleanliness, organization, and systems of the house.
1. I’m instituting certain changes in the way chores, both the kids’ and mine, are done. I’ll post more details about this later.
2. We are working towards simplifying meal preparation and shopping. I have created a master menu and am working on a master shopping list. I’m also making changes to my pantry, refrigerators, and freezer to accommodate and aid this endeavor. Again, I’ll be posting more about this as it unfolds.
3. Starting in March, I want to keep up with the Home Sanctuary challenges. When I was doing them before, my house looked better. This Company Girl has been seriously falling down on the job.

Creative
This encompasses writing and sewing and, well, creative stuff.
1. I’m going to attempt to finish my first novel. I started it several years ago during NaNoWriMo, and have played with it a little, but never seriously. I want to get it finished.
2. I’m going to work my way through at least one of my creative writing books.
3. A massive clean out of my crafting area is in order. Once again, I am simplifying. I’m narrowing down my stuff to needed supplies and basics, a few choice projects and the fabric and patterns for the upcoming season, along with a couple of reference books.
4. I’d like to complete half a dozen or so projects by the Easter. More would be even better.
5. Be more attentive to this blog. I plan to post regular updates on this project as well as other stuff. Stay tuned!

Other
This is a mishmash of other goals in various areas.
1. Keep up with church jobs. I’m working on the church blog, the church Facebook page and going through Care Pastor training. I would like to be more faithful about keeping up.
2. My reading challenges have been neglected while I was working my way through a pile of ARC’s. I need to update my reading lists and see where I am.
3. I plan to read at least 12 books.
4. I’m revamping my homeschooling in several ways. We are trying some new curriculum and I’m carving out time to spend with the younger ones to shore up some areas they are lagging in.

There you have it. That’s the plan. Can I do all it? I don’t know, but I’m sure going to try. I can sure use all the encouragement and prayers I can get though. If you have goals of your own thus far unrealized and want to play along, write your own post about your plans and goals and link to this post. Then come back here and leave me a comment saying you’re participating in the Reboot Camp and leave a link to your post. Feel free to join in anytime during the camp.

Brand New Year, Brand New Me

It’s that time of year again, when thoughts turn to the changes we would like to make in our lives and ourselves. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, which are as easily broken as they are made, but I am a big fan of goal-setting. One of the areas I particularly want to address in the coming year is Me. I have changes I want to make in both my physical appearance and overall health.

1. Weight
Some of my excess baggage has got to go and what’s left needs to be less jiggly. My new exercise plan starts Monday.

I am not good as putting my life on hold to follow a diet. Therefore, I am invoking diet days. When it’s easy and nothing conflicts, I will eat broiled chicken and salad and other healthy stuff. On other days, I will watch portions and try to make better choices, so eating better becomes less of a diet and more of my normal life.

More fruits and veggies, less sugary stuff. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to give up cookies and chocolate, but I could eat less of both, enjoy what I do eat more, and eat healthier stuff in between.

2. Healthy habits
Why is it so hard to do the things we know we ought to do? I am so bad about remembering to take my vitamins. That needs to change. The vitamins are being put in a more obvious location so I’ll see them.

I also know I need to drink less sweet tea and soda pop and more water and green tea with lemon. I’m going to start off drinking green tea and water. If I have consumed my daily quota of water and 3-4 cups of green tea (doing one month on and one month off), only then will I have something else like sweet tea or soda. With few exceptions. 🙂

Skin care products are of no benefit if you don’t actually use them. The hit-or-miss use of moisturizer isn’t cutting it. It’s time to establish a routine and stick with it.

3. Appearance
I have too much of that “let-herself-go” look about me. I’ve been weeding out my wardrobe some, but it’s time to get serious. I need to have a handful of go-to outfits to put on when I’m leaving the house. I have a couple of basic items that need to be added as well.

The layer underneath is important too, and not just to dh. The stretched out underwear and bras aren’t pulling their weight. It’s time to call in the replacements.

I also need to weed out my makeup. Some of it is ready for the girls’ play makeup bag. I need to figure out the gaps and fill them and then streamline my routine.

I think a round of teeth-whitening is in order.

Something will be done with the hair. I’m not sure exactly what I want to do with it, but it seems to just be hanging there most of the time. A good cut and a styling product or two probably wouldn’t hurt.

4. Accountability
This is the hardest one for me. I’m hanging it all out here on my blog so all of you can hold me accountable. I plan to post updates periodically and let you all know how I’m doing, but if you don’t see anything for a while, feel free to ask. I need all the help I can get.

So how about you? What are you doing to improve your well-being and/or appearance in 2011?

Reading Challenges

I’m signing up for a bunch of new reading challenges for the next year. A great place to learn about reading challenges is A Novel Challenge. I have signed up for way too many, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. To see which ones I have signed up for, take a look at my reading challenge page linked at the top.

July Blog Challenge

Bloggy Moms Blog Challenge this month is all about childhood dreams and aspirations. Here’s my entry.

When I was a kid, I dreamed about a lot of things lots of little girls dream about. At various times, I dreamed of being a dancer, a singer, and a movie star. But outside of those brief fantasies, the thing that really tugged at my heartstrings was being a teacher. I remember writing an essay in the third grade about my desire to be a teacher.

I was heavily influenced by several factors. I had a wonderful first grade teacher I adored who left during second semester to have a baby and came back to the school to show it to us. In second grade and third grade, I had another teacher I thought was wonderful because she would help me with math when I needed it and went to bat for me to fight school policy so I could check books out from the library that were beyond my grade level.

The biggest influence of all was my mom. She was attending college to become a teacher and prior to starting school I actually attended some of her classes with her and was entranced by the things they were talking about. Before all that though, she taught me. She taught me how to finger paint. She taught me how to write my name. Best of all, she taught me to read and read well.

As time went on I turned my attention to other pursuits and interests and dreamed big dreams, but teaching was always somewhere in the background. It’s said that some people have a gifting or personality for certain things. I’ve been told mine is teaching. I teach when I’m not even trying to. I’ve now graduated four students from our homeschool and I never get tired of the challenge. i love figuring out just how to explain something or illustrate it in such a way that the student understands it.

I never became a movie star and the major dancing I do is in my living room with a baby or toddler in my arms. The closest I’ve gotten to being a singer is singing in the church choir and a short stint doing some performances for charity. However, every day I have the honor of being a teacher. And I couldn’t be happier.

7 Quick Takes Friday

—1—

Wow. What a week. Crazy stuff has been happening around here. I thought summer was supposed to be a more laid-back season. Uh, yeah. Not so I’ve noticed. We have been going non-stop with no end in sight.

—2—

Bookaddict has graduated high school. Four down, six to go. She’s planning to take a year off to pursue her writing. She’s one of the most disciplined people I know when it comes to her writing. Almost every day, she’s up before anyone else, working on it. My novel would be finished by now if I was that disciplined. Hmm. Something else to work on.

—3—

Bookaddict and Guitarzan are serving as interns at our church’s summer camp. They are leaving Sunday and will essentially be gone until the end of July. We’ve been running hither and thither to make sure they have everything they need to that time. It’s a wonderful program that provides leadership training and the opportunity to utilize what they’ve learned.

—4—

I have so many things I want to accomplish this summer. I have major house shoveling out, er, I mean, decluttering, projects to do.The first one on the schedule is redoing the front room to make it a highly functional office/workspace. I have boxes to go through, bookshelves to assemble, craft and sewing stuff to organize, schoolbooks to shelve and supplies to organize. Oh, and I also have several boxes of papers to sort and file or shred. Ugh. It’s going to be glorious when it’s finished, but right now it just looks like a lot of hard work.

—5—

I have piles of reading to do. I already had a lot with the various reading challenges I entered and then I got into book reviewing. Now I have books arriving in the mail that are starting to pile up. I definitely need to carve out some time this summer to get some reading done. Perhaps I should declare the hottest part of the afternoon to be rest and reading time.

—6—

Spitfire is still here visiting and we are having adventures. We’ve done some fun shopping and she’s been a tremendous help with getting the interns ready to go. She’s also keeping me well supplied with makeup, skincare and cologne. She sells Avon and is constantly running across something for Bookaddict and I to try. She’s helping with the War on Frumpiness. Now, if I can just remember to use all of it.

The other day we had car trouble and it took us almost two hours to get home (normally a twenty minute trip). At one point we were stranded on an overpass with big trucks zooming around us. Not fun. Fortunately, after the car sat a bit, we were able to get off the overpass and out on a less-traveled road.

—7—

Speaking of the War on Frumpiness, it’s been a slow painful battle with many casualties. Some of these include my collection of baggy t-shirts and some lazy habits. Both keep trying to resurrect and creep back in. Old habits die hard. Let’s face it, the reason it’s such a battle, is it’s easier to throw on some mom jeans or sweats and a baggy shirt, run a comb or brush through your hair and stick it in a ponytail and go along your merry way. Skincare and makeup and fixing hair take time and effort. Looking for cute , stylish tops that fit in your budget takes time and effort. When those things become habit, it’s gets easier. The time has been carved out and you just do it. It doesn’t take any more time to put on a cute top than to pull on a baggy T.

A small victory was scored yesterday when I found two tops, in the exact colors I needed for choir performances next week, hanging on a clearance rack. They are both a flattering style and a nice, inexpensive addition to my wardrobe. This is great timing. We have a major skirmish coming up next week, when our church is doing a week-long conference flanked by weekend church days and I have to look put together every day for nine days straight. Help! Send reinforcements!

—————–

I hope you have had a wonderful week. A special shout-out goes all the Home Sanctuary Coffee Girls stopping by. For more of 7 Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary. Have an awesome week!

The War on Frumpiness: Weight Issues and Self Confidence

One of the things that frequently contributes to feelings of frumpiness for me is knowing I’m a few (OK, quite a few) pounds over optimal for my body. It makes clothes shopping a hassle and getting dressed to go somewhere a chore. When I’m conscious of every bump and bulge, it’s hard to walk tall and be confident. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon I’m wearing baggy clothes to cover up and blowing off putting on makeup or jewelry. I develop a “why bother” attitude and let myself go. This is a sure path to frumpdom.

The good news is that summer is the ideal time to deal with your body. Some of the best things about summer work on your behalf. How hard is it to eat a piece of grilled meat and a big salad, have a nice glass of iced tea with lemon, and finish off with a big slice of ice cold watermelon? Congratulations. You just had an awesome diet meal. Fresh fruits and vegetables are low in fat and calories and loaded with antioxidants. Lean grilled meats provide protein to build muscle and are great for your hair and skin. Wanting something sweet besides fruit? Ice pops are low cal and low fat too. Juice bars are a little higher but have more going for them nutritionally. Italian ice is easy on the hips as well.

It’s also an easy time to get active. Go swimming, walking or play with the kids in the yard. It’s a great time to be outdoors and moving around. Just make sure you don’t overdo the sun and heat and that you stay hydrated.

While we’re making positive strides on the bumps and bulges, let’s talk about attitude. One of my favorite movies is The Last Holiday. In that movie, Georgia Byrd, played by Queen Latifah, goes from a quiet, plain, frumpy woman slogging through life to a vibrant, exciting woman who had decided to embrace life and milk it for all it’s worth. The transformation is startling. I love the part when she goes shopping and is trying on a ton of different looks. When she finishes, she is stunning and is turning heads when she walks into the room. She carries herself with grace and style and confidence despite the fact that she’s not a size 2.

We can do the same thing. We may not be able to walk in an expensive shop and tell them to make us over, but we can find attractive clothing within our own budget and wear it with confidence. What changes are you making in your war on frumpiness?

Blog Challenge: Best Friends

This month’s blog challenge at Bloggy Moms is on the subject of best friends, so I have to write about my friend that I’ll call November. We met in junior year of high school. It was an inauspicious beginning, complete with insults, but it was a beginning nevertheless. We hit it off and became nearly inseparable throughout the remainder of high school. November left for college right after school to start with the summer session, while I stayed behind and ended up living in her room for a couple months while my mom was out of town.

In the fall, I joined her at college and we were roommates. Let’s just say that two only children should not share a dorm room and leave it at that. It’s a testament to the depth of our friendship that we survived the ordeal with our friendship intact. Then things got crazy. November got engaged and found an apartment. I got married after first semester and moved with my dh. We saw each other off and on the next semester and then lost touch as we went our own ways.

The great thing about true friends is that you can go months without talking to them, but when you do, it’s like no time has passed at all. For the next couple of years, we would go months without talking and then catch up with each other again. Every time we talked, it was like old times. It’s been like that ever since. We’ve kept up via letter, phone, email and now, Facebook. Over the years, we’ve weathered deaths of parents, infertility, straying children, a straying husband, divorce, health issues, and the general blessings and hassles of life. We’ve laughed together, prayed together, cried together and unloaded on each other.

A really crazy thing that can’t even be explained is, although we’ve been best friends since high school, neither of us attended the other’s wedding. However, that was recently made right, when I had the honor to attend November’s second wedding, which was combined with a renewal of vows ceremony for those in attendance. I stood right next to the happy couple while they exchanged vows and right next to my wonderful dh at the same time and we reaffirmed ours. It was an incredible moment I’ll never forget.

It will be 20 years this fall (I’m feeling old now), since we were first acquainted and I still count November among my best and dearest friends. She has impacted my life in so many ways and I thank God for the privilege of being her friend.

War on Frumpiness

I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror and all I could see was frumpy. No makeup, hair just hanging there, over-sized t-shirt thrown over mom jeans, tired eyes, dry skin. Frumpy. Blah.

The good news is that I’m not taking this laying down. I’m declaring an all-out war on frumpiness. From now until July 28th, 10 weeks from today, I’m going to be doing whatever I can think of to eliminate frumpiness from my life and my wardrobe. But this is more than just an outward makeover. I’m working on the inside too. Every few days I’ll be posting about different things I’m doing to improve my health and my appearance, Anyone wanting to join in is welcome. Just comment and let me know you’re in!

More Pockets

Here are a few pockets I finally got around to photographing and uploading:

This is an antique washstand and washbowl and pitcher that are currently next to the bed on my side. At least four generations of babies in my family have been bathed in that washbowl. The washstand was my great-grandmother’s.You can tell this isn’t a magazine picture because there is actually an alarm clock and phone on there. LOL The picture of the lilacs was painted by Princess. Isn’t she talented? The porcelain box in front was a gift from Horsecrazy.

This is my chest of drawers. The hatboxes and gold book were gifts from Spitfire. The gold book has the Ten Commandments in both Korean and English. The candles and picture I’ve had sitting around the house waiting to be used. I know you’re wondering, so I’ll tell you. There’s currently nothing in the hatboxes. I think I’ve figured out what I want to put in one of them and maybe in another. I want to use them for things I want close by, but don’t necessarily have to be accessed every day.

This is my computer that I blogged about before. Notice the nice clean desktop and keyboard. I just looked and it’s not that clean now, but it’s close. I think I’m going to make that a regular monthly task.

This needs to be tackled every week. It’s amazing how fast receipts and mint wrappers and things accumulate. I already need to reorganize this because I’ve added an eyeglasses case to the mix and now the purse is full again. Maybe I need a bigger bag.

The Pocket Challenge ends tomorrow. I need to take and upload a few more pictures as I wind down the challenge. If you’ve been playing along, be sure to get your pics put on your blog and leave me a comment so everyone can come take a peek.

It’s a Sickness, Really

I have caught a bug. I am thoroughly infected with the challenge bug, reading challenges in particular. I have already joined a few, but I just found a whole new batch that I want to join, so here goes.

First, there’s the Clover, Bee and Reverie Poetry Reading Challenge. There are 4 levels of participation. I plan to do the Couplet level which is only two books.

Next up is the Time Travel Reading Challenge. I’m planning to read three time travel books to fulfill this one. I’ll be doing my own time traveling as I do the Revisit Your Childhood Favorites Challenge. I will be reading five of my faves from childhood. Another form of traveling I’m doing is a bit of globe hopping via The Aussie Author Challenge. I am doing the Tourist level and reading three books written by authors from the Land Down Under.

I’m also planning to do some mystery challenges. First, there’s the MysteryReaderCafe Reading Challenge. For this one you have to join the Yahoo group. It requires reading four books that fit within specific parameters. Another mystery reading challenge is The Marple Poirot Holmes Challenge. For this one, the participant must read two Miss Marple mysteries, two Hercule Poirot mysteries, and two Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

A non-fiction challenge is in the mix too. I’m reading ten books for the Christian Non-Fiction Challenge 2010. I have plenty of books in my TBR (To Be Read) stack that qualify. I’ll also sneak a few in on a couple of other challenges, like the E-Book Reading Challenge 2010. I’m trying the highest level, 20 e-books, ironically enough known as “Obsessed”.

Just for even more fun, I have a couple of challenges that are on the quirky side. The first one is the ThemeQuest Reading Challenge. I’m jumping in on the lowest level, Theme Thing. I’ll be reading 5 books, on the theme of my choosing, which is Peace. Last year was very un-peaceful, so I thought this would be an appropriate theme for the year.

Next up is the What’s In A Name 3. For this challenge you read one book in each of the following categories: 1. A book with a food in the title, 2. A book with a body of water in the title, 3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title, 4. A book with a plant in the title, 5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title, 6. A book with a music term in the title.

To brighten things up, there’s the Colorful Reading Challenge. This one requires that you read nine books with a different color in each book’s title. A really fun challenge is the TwentyTen Challenge, reading twenty books in ten categories in 2010. Check it out.

Whew. That’s a lot. On the other hand, many of the books required for these challenges overlap the ones I’m already in. There are also some cool challenges coming soon, you might be interested in. A few of the ones on the horizon:

March 20-June 20 Spring Reading Thing 2010 at Calapidder Days. (I love this blog!)
April 2010 to March 2011 World Party Reading Challenge
April 10th The 24 Hour Readathon
May1- September 30 Non-Fiction Five Challenge

A great place to find new challenges (and a major cause of my current affliction) is A Novel Challenge. It’s a blog totally devoted to…you guessed it…reading challenges. Take a look and you’ll see that in spite of all the challenges I’m doing, I’m hardly scratching the surface of all the challenges out there.

If you are a reader, there’s probably a reading challenge out there for you. Jump on board one of more of these or some other one and be sure and leave a comment and tell me which one or ones you’re doing!