Joyful Gratitude: October 10

I Am Thankful For:

24 pounds GONE
Pinterest
An afternoon thunderstorm
A new month
Seeing and feeling changes
Learning new things
Taco salad
Waking up
Mercies that are new each morning
Front door ready to be painted
Package arrived a day early
Hulu
Driving home at sunset
Cancelled plans
Simple dinners
Finding a dress for wedding
Weather finally feels like fall
Early birthday dinner for The Man of the House
A healthy brunch
Panthers win 3rd in a row

Dedicated to the One I Love

As of today, this guy completes one more trip around the sun and begins another.

And I am the incredibly lucky lady that gets to take the journey with him!  I am so very blessed to have him as my husband, my biggest cheerleader, my shoulder to cry on, and my best friend.

I don't know how he does it, but every year he just gets better and better.  He's even better looking now than at 19 when I first met and fell in love with him.

Happy Birthday!

What Are You Waiting For?

The other day I was thinking, "Once we get past the wedding, things will slow down and I can..."  Then I realized how many times I have said something similar over all the years.

"After the baby is a little bigger, I can ____"

"Once the kids are in school, I'll have more free time to _____"

"After the holidays, things won't be so busy and I'll be able to _____"

Do you find yourself saying the same things?  Why do we do that?  The truth is, things are never going to slow down.  We very rarely have the ideal conditions - if ever.  There is always going to be some reason, some excuse, why we haven't gotten around to doing something we claim we want to do.

Maybe it's time to stop waiting for whatever it is we're waiting to happen or to be in the past before we do the next thing. 

Do today.  Tomorrow may be too late.  Or, you may find yourself at the end of you life saying " I never found time to _____"

Go back to school.

Take that class.

Declutter that closet.

Join that club or group.

Set your goal and take the first step toward making it happen!

Speaking of goals - my weekly goals for last week didn't go so very well.  It's my own fault.  I kept letting myself get distracted and off schedule.  This week will be better.

My goals for October 7 - 13:

•  Create Sunday blog posts for November
•  Ship 3 orders for Etsy shop
•  Find shoes for wedding
•  Make boutonnieres for wedding

What are your goals for this week?  What's on your To Do list? Share them in the comments!

Sunday Inspiration: Masterpiece in the Making

Joyful Gratitude: October 3

I Am Thankful For:

Early mornings before sunrise
Fresh cantalope
Marking things off the To Do list
NOT eating the leftover donuts
Crickets
Podcasts
Change of plans
New front door is installed
Planning ahead
Washi tape
Getting my flu shot
Picking out paint colors
Watching college football
Our favorite teams won
White chicken chili

Currently... October 2019

Right now, it feels more like July.  But the calendar says October.  So, I'm going to go with that and trust that the temperatures will start too cool down very soon and feel a little more seasonal.  I think autumn has been cancelled and we're all just going to wake up one morning to discover that we've gone straight from summer to winter.  I know that some of you have already experienced this and are now digging out of several feet of snow!

Reading:  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  I'm finding it tedious.  I want to like it.  Really I do.  There are bright spots where I start to believe the story is starting to pick up.  Then it starts to get slow and monotonous again.  I don't care for Pip or most of the people he comes in contact with.  Miss Havisham is the only character that holds any interest for me at this point, and we see disappointingly little of her.

Celebrating:  It's a HUGE month for celebrating around here.  First we have the Man of the House's birthday.  Then, after over a year of planning and anticipation - the Female Offspring's wedding happens this month!!

Working On:  Etsy shop orders and wedding preparations

Enjoying:  All the trappings of Autumn. Pumpkin spice coffee, fall decorations, comfort food in the crockpot and the scent of fall candles.

Wanting:  To find some good books about time management, especially those working at home.  Any suggestions?

Needing:  Some new clothes.  Thanks to my continuing weight loss, my pants are all now too big and starting to get to the point where just tightening my belt isn't going to do the trick anymore.  I don't want to go buy a whole new wardrobe while I'm still in the process of losing weight. My solution may be to purchase a few swing dresses that I can wear with tights or leggings and top with a sweater if needed to get me through the cooler months.

Making:  Some changes to my daily schedule and my current system for blogging as well as scheduling my promotions for my Etsy shop on social media

Feeling:  Tired.  I have been trying to go to bed by 9:30 PM and start my day by 6 in the morning.  I'm getting up as planned; however, even though I go to bed early - I am not able to fall asleep until 10:30 or 11:00.  This leaves me feeling pretty tired in the later afternoon and always makes me think that this is the night I'll fall asleep easily.  Which doesn't happen.

Anticipating:  Several things...  The top of the list is probably when my youngest sister comes to visit for the Female Offspring's wedding.  I haven't seen her for over a year and miss her so much!  The leaves have started to change and I can hardly wait until the full colorful display appears.  Oh, and I have a pretty big milestone birthday coming up on the first of next month. 

That's where the beginning of October finds me.  What are you up to this month?

Planning for the Week (and Month) Ahead

I can't believe that it's already the end of September.  This month went by so quickly!

The leaves are starting to change into their fall colors here.  Which feels weird, since we're still having temperatures in the mid- to upper 80s.  It looks like autumn, but still feels like summer.  This led me to wonder how the leaves know that it's time to change color when the weather doesn't feel like it should be happening.  Thanks to the internet, I now know that it has to do not only with the temperatures but also the amount of sunlight as the days begin to shorten.  I feel like I probably should have known that (and probably did learn it in school at some point, but just forgot).

Sundays are my day to think about my weekly goals.  It's a nice way to prepare for the week and wrap my brain around what needs to be done in the days ahead.  Since yesterday was so close to the end of the month, I also took time to look at my schedule for the month and focus my monthly goals.

Last week was a mixed bag of results...

1. Ship at least one order ✔ Two orders, actually.  Thankyouverymuch.
2. Complete order for Winnie the Pooh hat ✔
3. Prep my gratitude posts for October ✔
4.  Drink 80 oz of water everyday - Nope.  Not even close.  I think I made it over 64 ounces only two days last week.  I don't know why I struggled so much with this one.  I think part of it was that I didn't drink my usual 16 ounces as soon as I get out of bed in the morning. 
5. Go to bed by 9:30 PM - I did pretty well with going to bed by 9:30.  Unfortunately, my system was not used to this and I usually didn't fall asleep until 10:30 or 11:00
6. And get up at 6:00 AM ✔

Goals for the week of September 10 - October 6...

1.  Find a dress for my daughter's wedding
2.  Write something for the blog everyday
3.  Ship one order for Etsy shop
4.  15 minutes of cleaning and organizing each day in my office

Goals for the month of October...

1. Lose 5 pounds - Meaning I must behave myself at birthday and wedding celebrations
2. Receive 15 new orders for Etsy shop
3.  Write 15 blog posts for November
4.  Regular posting on business accounts for Pinterest and Instagram stories
5.  Find dress for wedding - I know, I didn't leave myself a lot of time for this.  But I also wanted to give myself time to lose what weight I could with Weight Watchers before I bought the dress.
6.  Read articles or listen to podcasts daily to develop knowledge - I have a bad habit of saving articles about personal or business development to my bookmarks or Pinterest and never actually reading them.  They don't do me much good that way.
7.  Write something for the blog everyday - this doesn't mean I'll be posting every day.  I just want to develop a better habit for writing daily.  Whether it's an actual post, a rough draft, or even just an outline for an idea.

It's going to be a busy month between the Man of the House's birthday and our daughter's wedding (which also means family visiting from out of town).  But by breaking each of my goals down into weekly and daily tasks, I should be able to accomplish everything on my list. 

What are your goals for this week?  What's on your To Do list?  Do you have monthly goals for October?  Share them in the comments!

Sunday Inspiration: It Doesn't

Joyful Gratitude: September 26

I Am Thankful For:

Getting to pick up the Grand Kid from school

Pretty mums for the front porch

New kitchen curtains

White pumpkins

Clean workspace

Trying a new recipe

All my Autumn decorations

Hearing the Male Offspring move about in the morning before work

Sunset

Reaching another weight loss goal

Chilly morning

Bridal shower flowers

The Man of the House picking up dinner

Plenty of help

Bridal shower

Silly games

Mimosas

Relaxing after the party

The Panthers win!

New Week, New Goals

The past two weeks have been c-ra-zy!  While I have managed to accomplish many of the goals I have set for myself; I have also dealt with several last minute changes to my planned schedule.  Low key, sort-of-but-not-really emergency type things. Nothing major.  Just the kind of things that can throw you off kilter a little bit.  Especially when you're in the middle of planning a bridal shower.  But, it's all good...

Interruptions are going to happened sometimes.  It's just a fact of life.  The big thing is how you react and respond to them.  You can let it completely mess you up and divert you from meeting your goals.  Or, you can go with the flow and just do the best you can with the circumstances where you find yourself.  It certainly makes like less stressful.  Even when it is full of stressful situations. 

Honestly, my knee jerk reaction is often to become overwhelmed when things don't go the way I expected.  I think hope that I am slowly learning to better manage when changes come along.  

Hopefully, things will calm down for a little while, (at least until we get a little closer to the big wedding date next month)  and I can stay on schedule and meet all my goals with no problem.

My goals for this week include:

1. Ship at least one order
2. Complete order for Winnie the Pooh hat
3. Prep my gratitude posts for October
4.  Drink 80 oz of water everyday
5. Go to bed by 9:30 PM
6. And get up at 6:00 AM

Did you meet your goals last week?  What's on your To Do list this week?  

Sunday Inspiration: What We Need

Joyful Gratitude: September 19

I Am Thankful For:

Finding the energy to run errands

An exciting end to the first Monday Night Football game of the season

Cute little pumpkin decorations

Vegetarian tacos

Getting a lot accomplished

Finally watching season 3 of "Victoria"

Conversations with the Male Offspring

Last minute text for a lunch "date"

An unexpected day with the Grand Kid

Supplies for bridal shower

The Man of the House helping with shower prep

Big wholesale orders

Running into the Female Offspring and the Grandkid at the store

Gumbo

Finalizing plans

Having the family together for Sunday football and dinner

Sunday Inspiration: Inside of You