project 365 - day four

Being New Year's Eve, it seemed appropriate that my photo today captured something of either an "ending" feeling, or a "new beginnings" feeling. For those that aren't sure what they're looking at, this is a time capsule. I think it's kinda both. We'll plan to open it again next New Year's for a little walk down memory lane.

project 365 - day three

Project scrap room is firmly underway, so today's photo turns our attention to Owen. Specifically his teeth, though frankly you can't really see that there are any missing in this picture. His top two front teeth have needed to come out for WEEKS. They've literally been sticking straight out of his head that long. Driving me insane. Seriously. We've had him wiggling them and wiggling them and they wouldn't come out, and it skeeved me to wiggle them and/or pull them myself so I've been waiting and waiting for nature to take it's course. Finally his coach asked him if he wanted him to pull those teeth out and Owen said sure, so he came home with two teeth in his pocket. Overjoyed isn't even the word.

project 365 - day two

Being the spontaneous kind of girl that I am, I decided rather impulsively today that I needed to completely reorganize my scrapbooking space. So I figured it would be fitting that today's photo be a "before" shot. With luck, after will only be a few days away, as the destruction remodeling has already begun.
The photo here shows about 1/3 or 1/4 of my scrapbooking stuff, and doens't nearly convey the level of disaster that I operate in around here.

project 365 - my day one

Well, based on the comments on the Becky Higgin's blog it seems like today is the day to start on project 365, because the kit runs Sunday-Saturday so it makes the most sense to start on a Sunday. So here I am. Woohoo. I put ink in my photo printer (though I am still contemplating getting a new one, cause even with fresh ink it's not looking fab). For my first pic, I decided to do the Christmas tree. It's always a little sad when Christmas is over but the decorations are still up. It's just not as magical after the 25th. Oh well.

I would have made this a portrait, but the photo slots in the kit are all for landscape, so I guess all my pics will have to be landscape.

goals/resolutions for 2009

alright, I've been thinking about the seven key areas, and here is what I've come up with:

• career
• continue to grow and expand my business
• financial
• pay off all debt besides house (target date Feb. 09)
• save at least one month’s expenses in the bank
• spiritual
• work on my own personal character flaws
• physical
• continue working out with my trainer
• cardio at least 3x a week
• intellectual
• read something non-fiction at least every other month
• family
• get back to using the keys to recognize the kid’s achievements
• get back to scrapbooking
• get back to following the flylady principles
• social
  
  • continue to meet new people through Heart Link
  • continue blogging and expand my online social network

40 tips for a better life

I'm trying to catch up on email and I had this one from my mom. Worth repeating. And I should note that I could probably do better on pretty much all of these than I currently do.

40 Tips for a Better Life - 2009

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.'
5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.
7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake..
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants. Eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, or issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the negative blues away.
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'
26. Forgive everyone for everything.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28.. Always remember that God can heal everything.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change
30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends wi ll. Stay in touch.
31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)
37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the ride.. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
40. Share this with as many people as you can.

Merry Christmas!!

Since I don't know that I'll have a chance to get on the computer tomorrow, I wish you all a very merry Christmas! And I leave you with a couple last minute ideas to make Christmas even more memorable for your little ones:

• Reindeer food - if you're not already doing this tradition every year, you simply must start! We've been doing this since Owen was a baby and it's SO easy and cute. You can make Reindeer food out of just about anything (oats, cereal, etc.) but I like to use birdseed. If you don't have birdseed, pick something else. There are no rules, really. Well, except that you need glitter. Ya know, since they're magic reindeer and all. Mix it up in a baggie and let the kids sprinkle it in the lawn right before bed, so the reindeer have something to eat while Santa is inside leaving his presents.
• Santa photo - If your kids are starting to doubt that Santa is really coming to their house and leaving them gifts, check out this site, it just might keep the magic alive another year - http://www.capturethemagic.com/.
• While you're at it, how about having the kids write thank you notes to Santa to leave with the milk and cookies?

Okay, I need to do some work for a few hours before my mommy gets here for the weekend. Hope that Santa is good to you all!

project365

My girls over at Hilltop Memories posted about this today, and I am honest to God thinking about doing it. Am I crazy? Perhaps. Let's see, an entire two years behind on pics (Oh. My. God.) and I am truly contemplating taking a full 365 more in 2009? And let's face it, it'll be more than that, cause there will be events at which I will want, no need to take more than one pic in a day. Guaranteed. So is it wise to bring this into my life? Honestly, I don't know, but MAN that kit is cute. Really thinking about it. If there was a pre-order I woulda already done it.

merry merry merry

We went to watch the lightshow at Wiregrass mall tonight. Since using the video feature on my camera is beyond me, especially when holding a small blonde who no longer wanted to walk on her own, I decided I'd hunt a down a video on youtube to share the experience with those of you in blog-world. It was cute, well done, and it's nice to have something like that right here in our little neck of the woods. It makes it feel a little more festive here, ya know, given that it's been in the 70s and 80s and when you grew up in the north that doesn't make it feel too Christmasy sometimes. So fun light shows are a good thing.

In other news, I bought my work fishies one of those 10 day feeder things so I'm officially not going into the office until 2009. Woo. The downside of that is that I had to haul both my laptops (Dell and Mac) home today so I could work from home for the next couple weeks. Not light. But we'll just go ahead and count that as my strength training for the day. ;)

unmotivated

Not sure what my deal is, but I can't seem to get inspired to do much of anything today. Granted, it's almost 1am now, but it's pretty much been like this all day. Lots of wasting time, playing around on the computer. I did just scrapbook four pages, but they are nothing spectacular. But at least that's four more done than I had before. Being almost two years behind, I'm now going for quantity over quality. Oh well. I would take pics of them, but I can't seem to find my camera. Oops. I hope that I can pull it together more tomorrow and actually get something accomplished. To do: groceries, home depot (blinds for my master bedroom) and clean master bedroom. Oh, and laundry. Ugh. It doesn't seem to matter how much laundry I do, there are always at least five loads more. I simply don't understand how that can be.

clean and fresh

Gretchen with Rover Done Over came over tonight in her kick ass dog grooming mobile. My doggies are freshly bathed, and nail trimmed, and Jasper is even de-fluffified (anti-shedding treatment). What a beautiful thing. I met Gretchen through my Heart Link meetings and she's a complete sweetie. Her boyfriend helps her out in the van, esp. when she's doing large dogs like mine that can be difficult to get into the tub, and he seemed like a very cool guy, too. So if you're ever in Tampa with a stinky dog, give Gretchen a call!

setting goals

There is so much out there about goal setting. I'm sure you've heard it. Goals should be specific and measurable, etc. A very long time ago I heard something on Dave Ramsey about setting annual goals in seven different categories. I did that last year, but quite frankly I didn't do very good follow-up and I am not sure I even know what all my goals were, nor if I met them. So with the new year fast approaching (three more weeks!!) I figured I need to start thinking about my goals for next year. I guess these are similar to resolutions, in a way. Though maybe really resolutions are typically thing you're not going to do, whereas goals are things you want to try to do. I don't know, whatever, semantics. Anyway, here are the seven categories, in case anyone else wants to play along at home and better yourselves for '09, as well:

• career
• financial
• spiritual
• physical
• intellectual
• family
• social

I don't know what my goals are going to be yet in these areas, but at least this gets me started. I can actually think of a few off the top of my head, maybe more than one in some areas. Apparently I have a lot of work to do.

blog content

so I don't forget it, this is an awesome blog about blogging, courtesy of Chris Brogan, specifically about creating awesome content. Wonder how many of these rules I break. lol.