A Book Review: One Bite at A Time

Yes, a new post today! Amazing, isn't it? After about 3 weeks of silence, I'm finally getting back online. January is always a busy time for me. This year it was a time to evaluate my life, celebrate the lives of my girls with their birthdays AND visit with my parents who flew out from California. January was a good month...it just didn't leave a lot of time for blogging.

During January, I did manage to work on one of my goals for 2012 to read more. While my parents were here, I managed to read One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler by Tsh Oxenreider. Thanks to my sister Jamie and an awesome Amazon.com Gift Cards from Christmas, I was able to download this book right to my Kindle. Gotta say, the the Kindle does make some things simpler!

Author of Organized Simplicity and creator of the blog Simple Mom, Tsh is forthright and clearly states that approximately 50% of the content can be found online at SimpleMom.net for free. However, I think it's totally worth the $5 to have the info compiled and in an easy-to-read format. As the title states, the book includes 52 projects that are from one (or more) of eight different categories:

• Living Green
• Living Well
• Money Management
• Organizing Your Mind
• Organizing Your Space
• Relationships
• Taking Care of Yourself
• Time Stewardship

Tsh includes a handy little table that illustrates the categories that each of the projects falls under. I really love this table because it gives yet another way to tackle the projects. Sure, you could tackle one project each week and work your way through the book. But, if you know you have an area where you want to grow, such as "living green," the chart helps you identify specific projects that can help you get started. It's a nice way to work toward any resolutions or goals you've set for yourself in the new year. So, as February begins, I think I'll be taking on my goals one bite at a time.

To Run or Not To Run?

The other day, I cracked open my library copy of The Happiness Project. I haven't gotten far into reading it, but it has already gotten me to thinking about changes I could make in my life. In Chapter 1, the author talks about boosting energy by exercise. Exercise? What's that?!

Although I used to be a fit dancer back in my high school days, those days are far behind me. Dancing was the only form of exercise I ever did. It was fun, and I loved it. In my college days, I tried out the gym but it just wasn't for me. I tried running once or twice, but I certainly didn't love that. However, I know enough about running to know that it takes consistency to make it more enjoyable. This week, I've been thinking...what if I start running?

A friend from MOPS is thinking of starting a running group with the hopes of running in a local half-marathon. Half-marathon! That's 13 miles! That sounds like 2 1/2 hours of torture. But part of me is wondering, What if?

I certainly haven't decided to run a half-marathon, but I am toying with the idea. Part of me likes the challenge of doing something difficult that I've never even considered. Part of me likes the idea of doing it with others. So, if I could find the time and energy, it could be cool. Luckily, it is one form of exercise that doesn't require special equipment except shoes...and I've been wearing Asics Gels for the past 15 years anyway. And so I contemplate...

Has anyone ever discovered a great love of running? Or do you find it to be just plain torture?

Goal for 2011: Scrapbooking

Last week, my sister Jessica posed the question, "To scrapbook or not?" It got me to thinking about my albums that are languishing in my bedroom. Once upon a time, I found great joy in scrapbooking. Then, I started dating Brett during my Senior Year in college and scrapbooking fell by the wayside. One of our first "dates" was actually working on a scrapbook for his summer trip to Europe. Believe it or not, that was his idea. I guess he was trying to win me over or something. (In case you were wondering, that album was never finished either. We haven't touched that album since that date. Yikes!)

So, one of my goals this year is to begin to catch up on my scrapbooks. I have several in various states of completion -- France 1997-1998, Wedding, Ella's Baby Album and Lucie's Baby Album. I think that first and foremost, I need to finish my wedding album. I began it in 2001 when I got married. Perhaps I can complete it before we celebrate our first decade of marriage at the end of March. What an anniversary gift that will make! It's funny...when I initially asked Brett if he minded if I made our wedding album instead of leaving it to the photographer, his response was something along the lines of, "Well, as long as we actually get a scrapbook put together." What a patient man!

So, I'm open to tips! Anyone have some great ideas on how to get an album finished?

New Year's Goal #2: Purge My Closet

For MONTHS, I've been talking about purging my closet of unused clothes. And that's all that I've done...talk about it. So, it became one of my goals for the New Year. However, because I do it so rarely, cleaning out my closet was such a daunting task. I haven't really done a thorough sorting of it since I was pregant with Lucie over two years ago. At that time, I boxed up clothes that I could no longer fit into...and there they sat until yesterday.

Yesterday a huge rainstorm rolled in so we stayed inside, and I gathered up the resolve to tackle my walk-in-closet, my dresser and the 5 or so boxes full of clothes. It took the better part of the day, but I finally finished last night. Four trashbags and one box full of donations, this is what my closet looks like:



Got your own closet to purge? Some ideas to make it a little easier:

• Enlist the help of a friend. My hubby helped me out by taking care of the kids when my project took longer than their naps, but I didn't have anyone helping me decide and sort the clothes to donate. Some help might have made it a little more fun AND easier to make decisions.
• Put on music or a movie. To trick myself into thinking that this project was at least slightly enjoyable, I played a movie on the computer in my room. Usually when I work on a project like this, I choose a movie that I've seen before (or a story that I know very well) so I can still concentrate on the task at hand. Last night, I chose Mansfield Park on Hulu since I've read the Jane Austen novel several times. Personally, I didn't care for this version of the movie because it was rather unfaithful to the book, but it did keep me going.
• Organize discards as you go. I made the mistake of throwing my discards on the floor rather than sorting and packaging them up as I went along. (This is where a friend would come in handy!) The result? A huge mountain of clothes that I needed to deal with AGAIN. My girls enjoyed scaling the mountain. I, however, did not enjoy tripping over it and being discouraged at the sight of it because it reminded me how much work there was yet to do.
• Choose a way to organize the "keepers" that works for you. I chose to organize the "keepers" by color within broad categories. I put all my slacks, jeans, dresses, skirts and tops in sections. Then, I organized each of those sections by color. This helped me see at a glance what colors of each type of item I own. Hopefully, this method will help me keep it organized because it is easy to see where the clean laundry is to be put away. The added bonus is that it just looks nicer sorted by color!
• Reward yourself! Before you start the task, decide how you're going to reward yourself when you complete your project. It will keep you focused and give you something to look forward to when you're done.

So, what was my reward? A clean and organized closet...and an online shopping spree for some new clothes at Victoria's Secret with some of my Christmas gift money! I LOVE shopping for clothes at VS -- they have a great selection of clothing and almost always have great coupon codes. Right now, they are having their Semi-Annual Sale, and I scored some great deals on clearance items. I linked up to VS through Ebates for an extra 2% cash back AND used the coupon code VS20XTRA (good until tomorrow) for an extra 20% off clearance purchases. I can't wait for my order to come!

New Year's Goal #1: Start Saving

Happy New Year (plus two weeks) everyone! Two weeks into the new year?! Yikes, you might say that life has derailed my blogging just a bit. December and January are busy months for my family. But, we're in the home stretch of the busy season -- Ella's birthday is in less than two weeks. Once that is past, then I can really focus on the next task -- working towards my goals for 2010!

Along with the new year comes the inevitable new goals for the year. As I've said before, I'm great at making lists and plans, but not always so great at sticking with them. However, I continually have hope that I can and will follow through with such plans.

In the past two weeks, I've been contemplating life and change. I have a HUGE long list of goals that I want to strive for in this new year. Realistically, I know that I won't achieve all that is on my list, but I want to give it a shot. I just might take some cues from an article I read this month in Real Simple -- "9 Secrets of Motivated People" by Lesley Alderman.

My list of goals is still evolving, but one thing that is at the top is the financial goal to start saving money. I've always been a saver, but with one (teacher's) income and a family of four that can sometimes be difficult to do. In addition, my husband and I have recently been making some grandiose plans for our future which will require us to kick the savings up a notch. Ever the helpful big sister, Jessica gifted me with a copy of The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey for Christmas.



As Jessica said when she gave me the book, some people might be offended by a gift of a finance book, but I wasn't. I knew that this book was instrumental in turning around my sister's financial life, so I knew that it was worth a read. I spent the days following Christmas reading it, and I'm glad that I did. I'm still processing it all, but I do feel empowered that my husband and I can reach our financial goals if we really work at it.

In the past year, I've heard many extoll the benefits of using a cash-only system. After seeing the post-Christmas/Birthday Season credit card bill, I decided to give it a whirl. I downloaded the free envelope template from Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs and made myself some cute cash envelopes. Although I've only been doing it for two weeks, I have been far more conscious of the money that I spend. Time will tell if this system works for me and if it will keep more cash in my account.

Happy New Year and good luck on your own goals!