Does My Life Reflect My Values?

As I was reading chapter two of More Hours in My Day by Emilie Barnes, I made many notes regarding a statement she made concerning values. Barnes suggested that we examine our values, change them as needed, and make sure our foundation is built on the Word of God.  During this season where I am setting and trying to keep new goals for the new year,  I felt I needed to consider my goals. Were they reflecting my values? What exactly are my values?

I think to answer the question to yourself, "What are my values?" you need to look at where you spend your time and resources. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." We may say and think our values are certain things, but our day-to-day lives, our time and resources spent will actually reflect what our true values are.

The source for our values should come from God's Word. How will I know what God values if I do not read and study His Word? If I value serving God with my life, how do I do that? If Jesus is truly the Lord of my life, and I value eternal life, does my life show that? If I value being a godly wife and a loving, serving mother, where do I find my examples?

For me, the answer to all those questions are found in my daily time reading and studying my Bible and spending time in prayer. Then I must examine my daily life--the time and resources I spend each day, and see if my life aligns with what I say I value.

I truly value being a wife, mother, and homemaker. I take these roles seriously, and I have spent the last 26 years trying to better myself in these areas. Passages such as Titus 2:2-5, 1 Corinthians 13, and the book of James are full of instruction on how to put these values into practice. In Titus 2 it says to love your husband, love your children. If I need more information on how to love them (or anyone for that matter), I can read and put into practice 1 Corinthians 13. If I need encouragement because of trials I am going through, or advice on controlling my tongue, and I read and apply James 1.

I truly believe that the Scriptures hold the answer to any problem we may have. It is up to us to make God's Word a treasure to us. As we read it and do what it says, our lives will reflect what God values.

Spiritual and Fitness Goals for 2018

I have finally set my 2018 spiritual and fitness goals for 2018. They are subject to tweaking, but here they are for now.

Spiritual

• Read the Daily Bible.  This is a NIV Bible divided into daily readings--you will read the entire Bible in one year. It is also arranged chronologically with thoughts and commentaries scattered throughout. I began on January 1, and so far, so good. Jimmy began reading his again, and this is either is 2nd or 3rd time through.
• Read verses pertaining to worry, anxiety, and fear. I am using a concordance feature on my Bible app to locate verses on these subjects. I am copying them in a new journal that Sam gave me for Christmas.
• Continue to list five things each day I am grateful for in a journal. (I began doing this 21 years ago.)
• Do a better job at memorizing the Bible verses I assign to the children each week. Their memory is so much better than mine. I am making a copy of each week's verse for myself so I can drill the verses more than just at the kitchen table.

Fitness

I have been unsure of what exactly my fitness goals should be at this point beyond exercising on a regular basis. I have somewhat floundered the last three years. Ever since I finished the Rocket City Marathon in December 2014, I have not had a significant running or fitness-related goal. I have half-heartedly trained and run a few half marathons, but I have done nothing consistently. Jimmy challenged me to running at least 2 miles every day. I considered that, but it the end I modified that goal. Here is what I have come up with:

• Run at least 2 miles 5 days a week. Last week was my first week, and I ran 6 days for a total of 19 miles. In years past that would have been not a big deal, but for me right now, it was quite an accomplishment. 
• Beginning this week run at least 20 miles per week. I will excuse myself from the 5 days a week and the 20 mile minimum when we are out of town for an extended period of time.
• Start going to CrossFit again and attend class twice a week unless I am out of town. CrossFit is another fitness area I have been inconsistent in over the last year. I quit completely for a few months after a shoulder injury, but went back because I missed my friends (and coach) in the class so much! I stopped going for the month of December because, well. December! I am debating on taking off this month since I am trying to train for a half-marathon January 27. I will decide in the next few days, but I am definitely going back twice a week in after my race. My sweet coach, MC, is so willing to modify the workouts for me and my shoulder! I love being with the other ladies, so I am going to give it another try!

I have not chosen a word for 2018. I have too many words! LOL! I just finished listening to the Big Boo Cast's latest podcast, and I love Melanie's word for 2018--NO!

P.S. I set up my Instagram, but so far I have no idea what I am doing!

Homemaking Goals for 2018

I started a new spiral bound notebook for 2018. This is in addition to my daily Erin Condren planner. I like to keep a spiral notebook for all kinds of lists that are too lengthy for my planner. I headed several pages with broad categories where I wanted to list things I wanted to accomplish this year in each area.  One of these is cleaning out. We have lived in our current home for 13 years. While we have been married one 26 years, this is the longest we have ever lived in one home. We have no plans to ever move from this house.

So. After living in one space for 13 years, we have acquired all kinds of clutter. You wouldn't see it if you walked into my house, but it is there, hidden! I assigned myself an area or room to each month of this year.  Here is my list.

• January--storage room
• February--kitchen
• March--garage/back porch 
• April--Sam's room
• May--den/living area
• June--my bedroom and bathroom
• July--schoolroom 
• August--the "secret room" (a room off of Olivia's closet that houses the kids' outgrown toys and lots of other stuff that needs to be purged!)
• September--guest room and bathroom
• October--laundry room and hall closet
• November--foyer and dining room
• December--Leah's room and the upstairs built in desks/bookshelves

I also have a detailed checklist of drawers, closets, shelves, etc. in each of the above rooms. While I want all the cleaning out done right now, I realize that it did not get junky overnight, and it will take me the entire year to get through it. I hope I do not lose my stamina!

Winding Down the Holiday Season

We have experienced the best two weeks ever! All of my children and their spouses have been here, and it has been so wonderful!

And now they are leaving.

Julie and Big Sam left yesterday at 6:30 AM. We all cried and hugged and prayed, and then they were gone. They arrived in Serbia this morning, and had a 5 hour car ride to their home in Craiova, Romania. They should be there soon.

Olivia and Brian leave tomorrow. More sadness!  But we have crammed so much fun into these two weeks. Fortunately, Clay has a few more days here at home, but then January 8 will come, and we will be a family of four again. I suppose we will start back to school that day, but I am not really ready.

Julie and I are having our own little book club. I gave her and Olivia each a copy of More Hours in My Day by Emilie Barnes. That is one of the first books I read as a new homemaker, and it gave me so many ideas that I still use today. When I went to Amazon yesterday to buy myself a copy (I cannot find my copy anywhere! And I looked through it just a month ago!), it was unavailable. I bought three copies in early December, but now Amazon has no more. Strange.  So I bought it for my Kindle. Julie and I are going to FaceTime each Friday morning at 8:00 (my time--4:00PM her time) to discuss a chapter. I am so excited!

I worked a little bit yesterday and today on my January clean-out project, my storage room. I am overwhelmed! I am not even sure I can get it all done in one month! So far I have cleaned out and organized all my scrapbooking supplies (and who knows if I will ever scrapbook again, but if I do, I am ready!), and generally made a huge mess in the room pulling out boxes and making piles everywhere. Plus it's super dusty in there. Yuk.

It's just January 3. Let's keep on working on our new goals and resolutions!

Something New for 2018: Instagram

Big Sam's brother, Abe, and his wife Grace spent a couple of days with us over the New Year's weekend. While we were visiting Grace encouraged me to join Instagram (get an Instagram account? whatever the right way to say it is). So. I am going to sign up for Instagram and try to figure it out. I have no knowledge of how it works, how I will connect with other people, how it will will relate to my blog, etc.
But, I am excited to figure it out! Julie is getting an Instagram too, so we will have fun learning about instagram together.

I have begun some of my January goals. I am not sure what my exact exercise goals are, but so far I have run both yesterday and today. 4 miles total. That is a start!

I made a list of 12 areas of my home that I wanted to clean out, organize and deep clean. I assigned each area to one month of the year. January's space is my storage room. I may not finish it this month, but I have big aspirations! I plan to begin today. I wish I had a couple of days that I could block out and do it all at once, but I don't. So I plan to work in small chunks of time with hopefully a few blocks of 3-4 hours. It looks so bad in there that I don't even want to take before pictures! (But I might).

How are your January goals and plans coming along?

A Few More Goals

How is your new year going? Have you set any goals? Are you keeping them so far?

I decided how I was going to cover my gospels reading each month. I plan to divide each gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) into 6 readings, and read one gospel each week. So this week I am reading 5 chapters of Matthew each morning and on the sixth day I will read 3 chapters.

I set a running goal for 2017. I want to run a total of 1000 miles this year. That is an average of 20 miles each week. Until last year had little difficulty reaching this goal since I was training for marathons or at least keeping a consistent long run. I ran only 699 miles in 2016. I have run 10 miles so far this week! I also decided to record my miles on Daily Mile again. If you are on Daily Mile please ask me to be your friend!

I am still working on my reading list. I am currently reading the play Our Town in preparation for the English class I teach. We are also reading Huckleberry Finn later this semester, and I have not read that before. I did read Our Town in high school, I think.

My homemaking goals for 2017 are to keep up with my weekly housecleaning chores and to tackle a few major projects throughout the year. In January I plan to completely clean out my closets and drawers--all my clothes, using the Konmari method. I have divided my house into four zones, and I aspire to clean each zone each week--one zone per day. Other major projects I have include a big clean-out and reorganization of Sam's room, helping Jimmy clean out his workshop, and deep cleaning the entire house (ceiling fans, baseboards, light fixtures, windows, etc.)

I think that's all my goals for now!

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year!

I spent several hours yesterday making plans for 2017 and transferring information to my new Erin Condren planner. (Love those planners so much!). I used cute stickers and wrote all my family's birthdays, Jimmy's days off, and vacations and such for the entire year. Next, I started on my 2017 goals. I began with prayer and looking through my Bible for verses to inspire me this year. I also chose my word for the year:

JOYFUL

I jotted down verses that would help me be joyful and also to be mindful in my service to the Lord and my relationship with Him. My original list included nineteen verses, mostly from Matthew, but I chose one more to have an even number of twenty. I copied the references of the verses in the back of my planner, but I plan to also write them throughout the planner. I want to read these verses on a regular basis and also memorize them this year. Hopefully I can blog about them as well. 

Here are my focus verses of Scripture for 2017:

• Matthew 5:16
• Matthew 6:21
• Matthew 6:33
• Matthew 7:21
• Matthew 11:28-29
• Matthew 16:24
• Matthew 22:37-39
• Matthew 23:11-12
• Matthew 25:40
• Matthew 26:41
• Mark 4:19
• Luke 6:45
• Luke 10:41-42
• Galatians 5:22-23
• James 1:2-5
• 1 Peter 3:4
• 1 John 5:3
• Psalm 46:10
• Isaiah 30:15

I have made my tentative Bible reading and study plans for 2017. I want to do the Bible in 90 days at some point, but not right away. I also plan to finish copying Galatians, and copy the other books of the New Testament that I have not copied yet. Another goal I just decided on today is to read all four Gospels once a month. I don't know my method for this yet, because I just made this goal about two hours ago.....may one gospel each week?

Julie and I both mapped our Happiness Project goals for each month. Here are my themes for each month:

• January:  possessions
• February:  health
• March:  books and blog
• April:  service
• May:  pleasure (hobbies, fun outings, etc.)
• June:  homemaking
• July:  homeschool
• August:  mothering
• September:  friendship
• October:  marriage
• November:  eternity
• December:  family

This all sounds great, but the reality is I will probably live the theme of WEDDINGS from April until the end of July....because guess what???  Olivia is engaged to me married too!  So I have two weddings to prepare and plan for....seven weeks apart!

June 3:  Julie and Sam

July 22:  Olivia and Brian

The last category I brainstormed ideas for is books. I haven't made my long range plan yet, but I always have a list of books that I want to read. I am reading a few books right now, but I want to create a booklist for 2017. I will share that when I complete it. 

Olivia, Julie, Sam, and Brian are all here for another week, and we are enjoying them all so much. My house is full, and of course so is my heart.

Oh. I am going to restart the book club (Better Than Before). If you are participating, continue to read the first chapter on distinctions. I will post about that chapter Monday, May 9.

Happy 2017!

Ten Year Goals

I recently read that in order to meet future goals, you have to begin making steps in order to achieve them right now. For example, if you want to have $1000 saved in twelve months, you have to start putting money back right now.

I thought about where I would like to be in 10 years. What would my life look like? What kinds of activities would be filling my days? After I made this list, I asked myself "What can I do right now or on a regular basis to insure that I meet those 10 year goals?" I tried to be specific.

For example:
Goal-- In 10 years I hope to be in good health and able to exercise on a daily basis.
What I can do now-- schedule check-ups at appropriate intervals, continue running, CrossFit, and/or walking at least 5 days a week, try to eat whole foods as much as possible and limit sugar and Cokes.
I can't just hope for good health in 10 years. I have to do something right now in order to make that an attainable goal.

I listed goals in other areas as well:  spiritual, marriage, family, travel, writing, hospitality, and service.  I am still working on the what I can do right now in order to meet those goals part of my plan.

How about you? Can you set some 10 year goals for yourself? Can you begin working towards those goals right now? Think about how old you and your children will be in 10 years. Try to imagine what your life will be like then.

Then make your plan.

Today

Hail State!

Lynn, Leanna, Leigh, and I (the only one without an "L" name!) and our families had the best time at the MSU/Texas A&M game today.  We had a breakfast tailgate beginning at 8:00 AM this morning.  Then we enjoyed beautiful weather and a fantastic game at 11:00.

We were joined by a dear friend (our preacher) and his dad who happen to be Texas A&M fans. I hope they are not suffering hearing loss from all the cowbells. Clang! Clang!

It really was a fun day...the only sad spots were that Jimmy had to work and could not join us and Olivia and Julie are far away at their college.

November Goals
So far, so good. On this 5th day of November I have managed to read/study my Bible every day, wrap one present each day (I am about to wrap today's present after I finish typing this), and I am on my way to blogging 5 days this week.

Praying for Others
Trey (our preacher) mentioned this in a recent sermon--often times we tell people that we will pray for them, and we have every intention of doing so, but the reality is that usually we forget to actually pray for them.

Here are some solutions:

• Stop right then and there and pray with that person.
• If it is a prayer request that you are receiving online via FB, a blog, or an email, make a note of it in a notebook, on a sticky note, or notepad. Then transfer that list to a master prayer list. 
• If someone asks you to pray for them in person, write it down on a notepad or piece of paper, or enter it somehow into your phone. Again, transfer the information to a master prayer list.
• On a daily or other regular basis, pray for the people on your master prayer list. I just start at the beginning and go down the list, page after page. I pray for a certain amount of time each day, then I stick a sticky flag at the name where I left off. The next day, I begin praying at that place on my list. Whenever a prayer is answered, I put a check mark and the date. I also date the entries I make when I list the person and their request. When I have prayed the entire list, I start back at the top.
• If you at least scan your list each day in addition to praying for a portion of it, the names of the people and their situations will be in the back of your mind. Then, when you have snippets of time you can recall people to pray for. I prayed many prayers while feeding and rocking babies in the middle of the night. When I have had periods of anxiety and could not sleep, I prayed for others. In fact, praying for other people is good medicine when you are feeling down.

I think that is all for today. I'm off to wrap my present for the day!

November's Goals

Well today is the first day of November!  Have you thought about what you would like to challenge yourself to accomplish for the next 30 days? Of course you can begin a 30 day challenge on any day of the month, but I am beginning a few things today. There is never the perfect time for really anything, so just do it now!

My Three November Goals

1. Read my Bible every day. While I already have Bible reading as a well-established habit, it seems like about once a week I fail to read early in the morning, and then my day marches on, and I never get to it. Usually it's on my long run days--I have to leave my house at 6:10 to meet Leanna, and I don't set my alarm clock early enough to do any Bible study before it's time to leave.  For November I will read/study my Bible every single day. Which means if I skip it in the early morning, I must create time to do it before bedtime. 
2. Blog 5 days a week. Blogging every single day is not going to happen, but I plan to post something 5 days a week. I'm not set on any particular 5 days each week; I'll do them as I can. 
3. Wrap one Christmas gift each day. 

That's it. I like to set reasonable, attainable goals. 

Speaking of wrapping Christmas presents, I stocked up on wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby last weekend. They just put it out, and it's 40% off. I know they will eventually have it 50% off, but I need it now. 

More 30 Days of Fun

Toward the end of my Whole 30, I realized the principle of doing something for only 30 days could be applied to so many things. The possibilities of things one could accomplish in 30 days are endless.

Here are some ideas I have:

• blogging daily for 30 days
• reading the New Testament in 30 days
• wrapping at least one gift a day (This would be a great challenge to attempt close to Christmas holidays.)
• writing one letter a day to different people
• running at least 2 miles a day
• working on a sewing or crafting project (Set a minimum time goal each day--15 minutes.)
• cleaning out closets or storage areas in your home (Set a minimum time goal for this too.)

I am so excited to choose one of the above 30 day challenges and to get started. I can't decide which one to begin with!

Can you think of other 30 day goals you can set for yourself?

***Update on my "sweet tooth". It's back!  :)  I tried the sugar cookie again today, and it tasted good! I have decided to not do the official reintroduction phase of Whole 30. I am not eating every unhealthy thing in sight, but I have enjoyed tortilla chips the last two days!  I still have not had a Coke, and if you know me, you know this is a big deal. I am not craving one, so I plan to go a bit longer without drinking one.  I have, however,  developed a taste for unsweet tea.

Share your 30 day challenges.  I love a challenge, and I love getting new ideas from people.

Hello Blog

I am still here.  We have all enjoyed so much having my two college girls home for a month.  Olivia had to fly back on Thursday (she is in the school musical and had to go back early for practice), and I will be taking Julie to the airport on Monday.  It has been a fun and really packed month.

I began our homeschool studies last Monday.  I had to make two road trips last week, and we had company for part of the week (and that was so much fun!), so we did some school each day, but only one day of all subjects.  In the book Better Than Before than Lynn, Leanna, and I are reading for our running book club, Gretchen says to remember progress, not perfection.  So that may be my new motto.  I have been discouraged for some time now over my lack of being successful in various areas of my life.  Lately I succumb to giving up when I can't do it all or just like I envision it. But that really is not good.

So I am going to aim for progress.

I set many, many New Year's goals.  In fact, I gave each month a theme!  However, I was discouraged the very first day when I failed to meet my checklist.  But since it's just January 9, so I have still have time.
I did begin the B90 Challenge (read the entire Bible in 90 days). So far I have been able to keep up with that, and this goal is the most important one I have set for the next three months.

I've been taking pictures of a few of my favorite things (just random things), and I plan to share those soon.

Happy January!

Disney and 2015 Goals Update

Disney Group 2015:  The Families

 The Johnsey Family

The Mims Family

 My Family

 The Sanders Family

The Jobe Family

 The Mims Family

 My Family

 The Sanders Family

The Johnsey Family

Goals Update:

From the end of December through the beginning of January, I kept my 2 month old, precious beyond words, nephew for six days.  My goals for that week was were to keep him happy, and to keep my family fed and in clean clothes.  Ha!  It's been a long time since I had a baby to take care of!  But I loved every single minute!  He is so cuddly, and I love him so much!

Then I had two days to shop and pack for our Disney trip.  Then we left, and now we have been home for two days.  I have been working, working, working, on my get ready for the 2nd semester of school, clean out a little bit, and solidify my 2015 goals list.  

I began my 2015 Fitness goal January 10th.  I plan to run 1000 miles in 2015.  I ran a half marathon while at Disneyworld, so that was 13.1 miles.  This morning I ran 2 miles.  So I am up to 15!  But I also did a T25 workout, which is also one of my fitness goals.  I think my plan each week is going to be: run a 10 mile run, a 5 mile run, and on 4 other days each week run 2-3 miles and do a T25 workout.  Those workouts are hard!  And I have only done one!  Once I have done all of the T25 workouts (50 in all, I think) I will probably cut back to running only and increase my miles a little bit.

I have set another goal of trying to sleep 7 hours each night.  I am not sure if I can meet that goal…..6 hours is usually what I get and sometimes even less.  It is really difficult for me to get everyone settled and in bed in time for me to go to sleep at 10:00 PM, which is what it is going to require if I am going to get 7 hours of sleep. I like to get up at 5:00 AM.

I'll share progress on some of my other goals over the next few days.  

And more Disney photos too.  That trip was so much fun!

Happy New Year 2015

I love January 1st and its promise of new plans, goals, habits, and resolutions. (Really, all of those things are the same).

I am still planning my goals for 2015, but here are my categories:

• Bible study
• books to read
• fitness
• healthy eating
• homemaking
• homeschool
• service
• parenting

Three books I am reading and/or rereading to help me lay out my goals for 2015 are:

• Climb Happiness Hill by Alan Bryan
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
• Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

I like to have a plan.  I also like to make attainable goals.  For instance, I will not be joining some of the running community in planning to run 2015 miles in 2015.  That is way too ambitious for me!  However, since I do not plan on running a marathon this year, running 1000 miles in 2015 is a reasonable goal for me.

But also……I need to consider pushing myself a little bit.  I need to make sure that my goals are not too easily reached, then I want give myself an opportunity to grow.

Like most things in this life, it's all about balance.

"The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her own hands."

Proverbs 14:1

"A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps."

Proverbs 16:9

Simplifying

One of my focus word for 2014 is SIMPLIFY.  The other is UNSELFISHNESS.

Today I want to share one way that I have already simplified my life.

Email.

There was a time many years ago that I got online once a day.  Once.  And that was in the morning, after I had completed my Bible study, exercise (I actually ran only 2 miles a day at this time), and I was all dressed and ready for my children to wake up----this was also back when I had only three children, and the youngest was 3.

As I began homeschooling I discovered the wonders of websites dedicated to homeschooling, homemaking, and parenting.  I also began emailing online friends that I met in various yahoo groups (either homemaking, homeschooling, or parenting related).  I joined a homeschool unit study co op, and we communicated and shared lesson plans with one another via email.

But once a day for about 30 minutes pretty much covered it all.  I did have a three year old, five year old, and seven year old, and once they were awake, I stayed busy without much down time until they went to bed.  And then I went to bed too!  So I didn't spend that much time online.

Fast forward 12 years.  I now have 5 children, and my youngest is 8.  I still get up at the crack of dawn each day, but my exercise takes much longer than running 2 miles, and I am serious about beginning our homeschool day with our group Bible study at 8:00 AM sharp.  I no longer limit my online time to 30 minutes, once a day, and I can't get all my online work done in the early morning.

I have a laptop on my kitchen counter, and I use that thing all day long--looking up recipes (mostly my own recipes that I have typed and saved in a document), printing out Bible lessons from our church, reading email, printing out Bible verses, typing papers for Leah, reading email, blogging, reading email, looking up addresses for cards to send, reading email, paying bills, reading email, etc.
Email. Too much email.  And hardly any of it personal.  I also have my smart phone at my side most of the time so I can respond quickly if my husband or daughter who is at college contacts me.  I pretty much ignore all other phone calls and texts until our lunch break or until all of our schoolwork is done.  But, that little red number on the mail icon distracts me--WARNING!  YOU HAVE UNREAD EMAIL!  I do not like that little red number.  So I was scanning and deleting.  Scanning and saving.  Scanning and deleting.  All throughout the day.

Not any more.

About a month ago, when I had the flu, I did not feel like looking at my emails one little bit.  That red number kept getting higher and higher, and I did not even care.  I felt too badly.  However I did notice something that served as a wake-up call.  I was getting well over 100 emails a day--closer to 150 I think, and about 95% of them were things I did not even read.  Scan and delete.  That's all I did, and it was eating into my time.  It was time to simplify.  I wanted to simplify my email.  That may not sound like a big deal, but having done it, it has made me so happy!

Here is what I did.

One by one, as I got an email from someone that I know longer wished to get emails from, like all of those stores and websites that I have shopped from over the years, before I automatically deleted it, I scrolled way down to the bottom of the email.  And near the bottom, in microscopic font, I would find the words "unsubscribe".  Sometimes it would say "remove me from this email list", but whatever it was called, I clicked on it.  Then it led me to a website.  This took a couple of minutes for me per email because we have slow internet, but once I connected to the site it was either one or two clicks to unsubscribe.  Done.

It took me about a week to unsubscribe from all of those lists, but the time spent was well worth it.  Initially I hesitated to unsubscribe from my favorite online shopping sites, because I still wanted to receive the great coupons, but I decided that I could probably find the same coupons on the website itself.  Plus I have two really close friends that will forward me any "must have" coupons!

Now I receive less than 20 emails a day, and for the most part they are things that I really want to read.  Of course, I still get bill notifications, but that is only once a month per bill.

And the red number on my phone is always a single digit!

So there you have it.  A simple thing I did to simplify my life.

Where Has January Gone?

I can't believe that it's already January 16.  The month is halfway over.

I had grand plans to list all kinds of goals and resolutions and even choose a focus word for 2014.  And then I was going to blog all about it.  Honestly, I haven't listed one single thing!  I have thought about what I would like to focus on for 2014 (and really for the rest of my life!), but I have not put any thoughts on paper.

Where has January gone?
The first week of January, Olivia was still home from college, so my only plans were to enjoy her company and get the house back in order from Christmas.  I actually did that in one day--13 hours on December 26 I worked and worked until you would never even know that we had celebrated Christmas in this house!  Of course I had lots of help from my hard-working children.

The second week in January Olivia, Julie, and I all had the flu!  I also took Olivia to the airport so she could fly back to school.  I attempted to do some school that week, but since I was sick I didn't accomplish much.

And now it is the 3rd week in January.
I began school in full force at 8:00 on Tuesday morning.  I reviewed our school schedule from the fall, and I tweaked it a little bit.

We are now all meeting at the kitchen table at 8:00 each morning for our Bible lesson.  (Previously we were meeting at 9:00, with the plan that anyone up and ready should work on schoolwork independently until 9:00.  This gave me time to get my marathon training in before the Bible lesson.)

At 8:30, I move to the schoolroom and sit between Leah and Sam.  Julie and Clay work wherever they wish, and I am available to check and/or help with their schoolwork as needed.  I move back and forth between Leah and Sam, and we continue in this manner until about 10:30 or 11:00.

Next, I read Sonlight books to Leah and Sam.

Next, I review any math problems that Clay needs help with and critique his writing assignments as needed.

We break for lunch, and then I do science with Leah and Sam and also finish up any necessary tutoring with Julie and Clay.

The rest of my afternoons consist of laundry, housework, running errands, other chores, and cooking supper.

This new routine has served us well this week.  I think we have found our groove in our school day, and hopefully this success will continue.

Focuses in 2014
In Joshua's farewell address to the Israelites, he reminds them of all that God has done for them and how God has fulfilled every promise He made to their forefathers.  He also admonishes them to remain faithful and obedient, or God's anger will burn against them, and they will reap dire consequences.  Two verses in Joshua 23 stood out to me when I read this last week.

"But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day."  Joshua 23:8

and

"So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God."  Joshua 23:11

These two verses don't directly relate to the two words that I want to focus on for 2014, but then again, they do.

My words are UNSELFISHNESS and SIMPLIFY.

Brother Earl, one of the elders in our congregation, frequently says that Jesus was the most unselfish person that ever lived.  That is so true.  Being selfish is something that I need to work on.  Not in the sense of "That's my plate!  You can't eat off it!" But more in the sense of looking out for the needs of others before my own.  Again, it really is not so obvious…I don't buy a bunch of clothes for myself and then have no money left to buy new shoes for my child who has outgrown his…my selfishness shows up more in my personal daily agenda…I have my own selfish goals, and sometimes they keep me from living a life of unselfishness.  A life of putting the needs of my husband and children above my to-do list--even though the to-do list contains really good things.  Is any of this making sense?  Anyway, I think I need to work on developing the quality of unselfishness in all areas of my life.

Simplify.  Another thing I really want to work on.  As in spending less time planning every detail of my life and more time actually living it.  I need to try to not make things so complicated.  This will be a work in progress as I ponder what all I want to simplify.  I just know that my life has felt cluttered lately, but not necessarily with things.

About the verses--in order to live a life pleasing to the Lord our God (no matter what my focus words are for this year or any other year), I will need to cling to the Lord and take diligent heed to love my Lord.  How do I plan to do this?  By immersing myself in God's Word and diligently loving Him.  I will learn how to be unselfish by reading His Word, and I hope to actually practice unselfishness and simpleness by loving God.  Loving God by obeying His Word.

It's a New Year

I'm excited about 2014.  January usually is a very busy month for us--we have two birthdays in January, and then there is the getting back to school.  We are starting our homeschool back on January 7.  I have prepared everything.  (I think.)  I even have Leah's and Sam's spelling words written on the board!  We have all enjoyed a nice long break from school, but next week, we will be working hard.

New Year's Eve we celebrated at Kelly and Lynn's house.  My children wanted to stay until midnight, so we did! It was a nice night of food, fun, and fellowship.  I played Mexican train dominoes and drank lots of Coke!

I began 2014 with a 10 mile run with Leanna.  That was my longest run since December 7, and actually only my 4th time to run at all since then.  I took a much needed break from running during the holidays.  But I am back on track now!  I began Monday with my current exercise plan:  run 3 days a week (3-4 miles two days and 10 miles one day) and do T25 3 days a week.  Jimmy gave me T25 workout program for Christmas, and I am really enjoying it so far.  (I have completed 2 workouts).  I changed my registration for the Mississippi River Marathon from the marathon to the half marathon.  It's about 4 weeks until that race.  My goal is to complete it faster than I did the Disney Half Marathon in 2011.  Since I won't be stopping to take pictures with Disney characters, I hope that this is an achievable goal.

It's the time of year for resolutions and goal-setting.  Also for choosing focus words and reflecting on the past year.  I have set some goals and I am still selecting a focus word.  I began the B90 Bible reading plan for the 4th time this past Monday.

Have you set goals?  Are they general or specific?  I am leaning towards more general goals this year.  I'll share when I get my thoughts together.

Happy New Year!

So Far In July

Yesterday we enjoyed a fantastic 4th of July celebration.  We began the day bright and early by running the Tupelo Running Club's annual Green Street Mile.  The race began at 7:00 AM, but we arrived at 6:30 in order to have time to register and warm up.  The race participants park at the finish line area, and then walk or jog 1 mile up the road to the starting line.  I actually warmed up 1.6 miles, and I wished that I had time to warm up more.

All seven of us ran the Green St. Mile, and everyone was happy with their time.  This was my first time to race a mile---in the past I have either pushed the double jogging stroller or ran with Leah and/or Sam.  My friend Scott graciously agreed to run with Sam, and Leah is fine to run by herself.  So, I ran! And I was happy with my time too!

After the race I bought groceries while my hard-working daughters prepared a delicious lunch!  We invited Scott and his family over for lunch, and we had a fun time!  As usual, when the Doles come over there is much laughter and usually hymn singing as well.

After the Doles left, I was spontaneous!  Jimmy asked me if I wanted to go see Monsters University--in about 15 minutes--and I said YES.  So I told all the children, excitement ensued, and we all went to see the movie, in 3D.  It was fun!

So Far In July

• We hosted a young man from the preacher training in our home for the weekend.  He was a pleasure to have around and to get to know.  We also invited the two teachers of the preacher training for supper, two Saturdays in a row, and that was such a fun time as well.  The men enjoyed a tour of Clay's forge and seeing his handiwork, and they all had a blast riding four-wheelers on our trails.  We made many fun memories last weekend!
• I had a semi-nervous breakdown earlier in the week when I realized the length of my summer-to-do-list, and how the summer is rapidly slipping away!  This list coupled with the fact that it looked like something exploded in my storage room and my schoolroom just about put me over the edge.  I had a therapy session with my good friend Heather on Tuesday morning, and then I was good to go!  I came home and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned in my storage room and schoolroom, and with my girls awesome help, we have it looking good as new!
• I have been plugging away at my race training.  I cycle through being discouraged about all that I have to do and how in the world can I even imagine trying to train for a goal pace for the 14.2 Miler, and being confident that I CAN DO IT.  My mental status concerning running and training varies from day to day.  We will see how it all pans out on September 1. (BTW, this race is on a Sunday, and as a rule, our family does not race on Sundays--so we don't miss our worship service--but the Tupelo 14.2 Miler begins at 5:00 AM, and I am always finished in plenty of time to get home to get ready for Sunday School which begins at 9:30.)
• I tried to recall my focus word for 2013.  Sad, isn't it?  I must not be focusing on it anymore since I can't even remember what it is!  I will have to look at my January archives of this blog to see what my focus word is supposed to be.  However, I am choosing a new focus word (and it may be my original one!), and that is SIMPLIFY.  I am not setting any concrete rules for simplifying, but each day, each challenge or task that I am presented with, I am going to consider how can I simplify this.  Simplifying my life right now may involve cutting some activity, or scaling back my involvement.  I am still pondering how to simplify, and what I want to simplify.
• I have begun my 2013-2014 school planning.  I cleaned out the children's work buckets from the previous school year.  I averaged grades.  I filed samples of their work.  Now I am ready to tackle the upcoming school year.  I plan to order all of my schoolbooks and supplies for the upcoming school year in the next day or two.  I don't really have that much to order.  Now that I have graduated one student, I have all of the curriculum that I need--I just have to order consumable items.  I now own all of the Sonlight Cores PreK through Core 100, plus select books from Cores 200, 300, 400, and the upper level literature courses.  My biggest purchase this year will be two DVD courses from IEW, one for Julie and one for Clay.

I think that is all for July so far.  Oh, I finally finished my homemaking binder, and I am so happy with it!  I will take pictures of it and share the details soon!

Setting Goals

Today I have post at The Homeschool Classroom about helping your children set goals.  Since our Christmas break, we only did school two days before our Disney trip, and then two days last week after, and all four of those days have been "no frills". Just getting school done the best we could in between packing, unpacking, running errands, etc.

Beginning TODAY, we are starting school each and every day at 8:00!  Even if I have to get up at 4:00 AM to get my training run in (not really.....if I can't fit all runs except for my long run in before 8:00, I will just run in the late afternoon).  Anyway, today, I am going to follow the steps that I described in my Homeschool Classroom post.  We (including myself) are all going to set some goals and then once a week discuss our progress.  When I wrote this post last month, I truly intended for us to have our goal-setting session on our first day back to school.  We are doing it today.  At 8:00.

Goal # 1 for me is start school at 8:00 AM.

If you want a good run-down of the Disney Marathon experience, please visit my friend Heather's blog.  She actually did the Goofy Challenge with Esther and Jimmy, and she described the two days perfectly!

Choose

Choose

Like I said yesterday, choose is my focus word for 2012.  I have many more things to choose in addition to choosing to be spontaneous.

Jimmy gave a short talk/invitation at our Wednesday night church service a couple of weeks ago.  He said that we are not forced to serve and obey God or follow Jesus.  It is our choice.  A choice that we all must make.  By not choosing to serve God, we are choosing not to serve Him.  That got me to thinking....every action and reaction we make is a choice.  And we are in control of our choices.  From the big choices, the ones that affect the salvation of our souls, to the multiple small ones we make on a daily, even hourly basis, that may also affect our service to God.

So this year I want to make myself aware of the choices I make.  I want to choose the better thing, each and every time.  How do I know which is the best choice? Some are easy.  Some are hard.  But the answer is always found in God's Word, which leads me to my first choice.

1.  Choose to spend time in God's Word.  Daily.  More than once a day.  I began reading the Bible in 90 days for the 3rd time on January 2nd.  I didn't start on January 1st, because I just decided that I wanted to do this again on December 31st, and then I spent a couple of days contemplating how I wanted to do it.  Did I want to read the Bible straight through?  Which version did I want to use this time?  Did I want to read the Bible chronologically?  Which chronological plan should I use?  Where were the 90 day chronological plans?  After much going back and forth, and actually starting two different plans on January 1, I decided to use the straight through the Bible in 90 days plan offered on You Version.  I am using my iPad, and I am reading the English Standard Version, the version I read the first time I did this, one year ago.  I still want to read the Bible chronologically, and I found a great one year plan that includes explanatory notes, but I am going to do it after I do the 90 day plan again.  In addition to reading most or all of each day's readings first thing in the morning, I also am going to choose to read my Bible when I have little snippets of time instead of playing games on my iPad/iPhone.  I like to take my turn with Words With Friends, or play a round of Moxie 2 or Solitaire when I have a spare moment....but this year I am going to choose to read one more chapter in my daily Bible reading.  

2.  Choose to continue to exercise.  I met a huge goal for myself last year.  Run a marathon.  In fact, I ran two marathons last year.  Now, that I have met the big goal, I was unsure of what my exercise goals should be.  So my goal is to just continue.  My short term goal is to complete the 63 day Insanity program, exactly as it is prescribed.  I am currently on Day 23, and so far, so good.  After completing Insanity, I am not sure what my exercise program will be, but it will involve getting back to running, and I will choose to continue exercising!

Right now I am going to have to choose to close this post and get on with my day.  I have many other goals/choices to list, and I hope to get to that tomorrow!

Joshua 24:15

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Colossians 3:1,2

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.