SMART Habit Saturday

Last week I decided to rejoin SMART Habit Saturdays. My goal was to start reading to my girls as a family time. Well, we have started this goal. As a family we all went to the library and picked out a book. As a family we are going to be reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. During the day we did spend more time reading, but as a family we only read at night. Therefore, we got off to a good start, but I will still be working on this to form it into a habit.

Other things I am working on this week are:

• walking everyday


• drinking water everyday


• bible reading everyday


• declutter/ organize something once a day


• One load of laundry a day


• keeping my kitchen sink clean

I hope everyone else has a good week. I will report on how these things go next Saturday! Visit Lara here to visit more SMART Habit Saturdays!

Until Later,

~Betty~

Thankful Thursday

It’s Thursday again, which means it’s time to talk about something I am thankful for.

This week I am thankful for my husband. As I posted here John and I were fighting all last week, but we did resolve our issues. This week I was reminded of some good things about my husband.

This week I chose to work on reading to my children as a SMART Habit Saturday goal. You can visit Lara here to learn more about that. At dinner one night I was talking to John about this and explaining to girls my thoughts and plans about this. John knowing my desire took the lead by taking my thought one step further and said after dinner there would be no more television tonight and we were going to the library and spend the rest of the evening reading. As a family we started reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I can not begin to express how much this just thrilled me. John and I disagree on the amount of time we allow the TV to be on in our house, therefore I was so excited when he decided to do this. It made me feel very thankful for him.

Also I was reminded this week that with all the faults and weaknesses that John has that irritated me so much last week, I am glad John is in my life.
I am thankful:

• For who John is and how God uses him
• For when it comes to the big things in life John is a good husband
• He cares about me & our girls
• He loves God
• Someone that I can trust
• Someone that I can talk to
• Someone that I respect
• He knows right from wrong
• He lives a life with convictions

This week our neighbor had a bad situation happen to her and we went over to help out and got in the middle of a mess. I know God had to be guiding us and protecting us, because I did not think about what could be happening or what could have happen to us. We just reacted to a desperate cry for help from a 10 year girl, who was claiming that someone was beating up her mom. We went over and as John broke up the fight, the guy punched John in the mouth and took off running. The police and the paramedics came and took care of things.
I am thankful

• That we were able to help
• That things were not any worse than they were
• Wonderful neighbors that also came to help when it was needed
• The neighborhood that we live in
• For John’s attitude about the whole thing
• Policemen that protect us from violent people
• Wisdom from God that tells us when we can and should help and when we need to let someone else help

Overall this week I am thankful for the life that I live, for my husband, and for my supportive friends.

You can visit Iris at Sting my Heart to see more Thankful Thursdays.

Until Later,
~Betty~

Weekend Reflections

I like to participate in Weekend Reflections hosted by my blogging friend Judi, however I don’t always get my post written and put on my blog. This is something I am working on and trying to record what is going on in our lives.

When I started this post I had every intention to publishing this on time. However, things that I had no control over prevented me from doing that. I want to record and share this story so I decided to still post it as a Weekend Reflection, even with it being late.

I want to start out by sharing about last weekend celebrating my 12th wedding anniversary with my husband. Let me say that we had the best weekend we could have asked for. For months I have been planning on doing something special for our anniversary this year and I wanted to surprise him. I had so much fun keeping the surprise from him and my friends got involved to really get John going and to make him think we were doing something we were not. One friend told him we were heading south to the beach and another friend told him we were heading north. John was so confused he didn’t know what to think.

It started Friday night and I told him our friends Tom & Michelle wanted to take us to this restaurant to “make up for blowing the surprise.” We were heading to downtown Atlanta and when we turn into the parking lot for the Braves vs. Cubs game (which John is a huge Cubs fan) he looked back at me and glared as if I did something wrong. Lol ! I had convinced him earlier that week that we could not get tickets, because I forgot they were in town when I made our weekend plans. Friends have made the comment of how manipulative I can be, but John has forgiven me lol! So for our anniversary John got to watch the cubs win for a change! The first pitch of the inning was a home run for the cubs! The game was so much fun, because we were not just sitting with braves fans, but baseball fans. It was neat to hear the guys take about the strength and weaknesses of both team, not just the positive about their favorite team and the negative about the opposing team. The braves fan that were sitting around us were having fun watching John rooting for the cubs too, knowing that the cubs struggle to win games. It was such a good time and surprising John was the best.

Saturday we went back to Atlanta and went shopping at The Container Store. I have read several blogs talk about this store so when I learned there was one in Atlanta I wanted to check it out and we did. John was even starting to get excited about organization :)! We then went to the hotel and had the whole swimming pool and hot tub to ourselves. I guess most people don’t use the pool in the middle of the afternoon. We ended our evening by going to a comedy club to see Jon Reep. Because of John’s sense of humor and that he likes to laugh, he really enjoyed this. It was our first time to ever go somewhere like that. It was good. I was worried a little bit of what the jokes may be like and if it would stay clean or not. There were some things that I did not approve of, but overall it was good.

Sunday we had a Caravan, a Christian scouting program at our church, celebration for our girls. We enjoyed our girls and then later that night we went to Stone Mountain Park to watch the Laser show.

It was an awesome weekend, I could not have asked for anything better!

This past week Bethany, my 9 year old, went to church camp. She had a great time. I remember as a kid I loved to go to church camp. I’m glad Bethany is enjoying it as much as I did.

The other big thing about the week was that John was off work and we fought all week. It is amazing that we went from having the best weekend ever to having one of the worst weeks of fighting we have ever had. We went from the highest of high to the lowest of the low. The good news is that we were able to work things out and were able to resolves some issues. I have to be honest; I was worried there for awhile. It didn’t look like we were going to resolve some things, but we did! Praise the Lord!

You can visit Judi at Mommy of Two for more weekend reflections.

Until Later,
~Betty~

Thankful for Organizational blogs/ Back to SMART Habit Saturday

I have not always been an organized person. However, for the past few years I have been making it more of a priority. I used to look at my clutter and know that it needs to be put away in a neater and more organized matter, but just didn’t know how to do it. Organization doesn’t come to me naturally, so it has always been a struggle for me. Last year I found some organizational websites which began to help. Then I started blogging and I found Laura the organized junkie and I learned practical ways to become organized and seeing her pictures and reading her posts really taught me how to BECOME organized, not just telling me that I needed to be organized. I learned how containers and boundaries can make a difference in my home and how they can help me to be clutter free and how they help with a sense of peace I can have in my home. Don’t get me wrong, I still have far to go on my organizational journey, but I am so much farther down the path than where I have been. Also just to be clear, I do not judge or think less of anyone else that chooses NOT to have an organized or clutter free home. I respect people’s decision to choose for themselves. The fact is we all have the right to decide for ourselves about our homes. I’m just saying that for me, I wanted things to be different in my home. I was tired of things being a mess, not being able find things, and it always taking hours to clean up to have anyone over for dinner. I find that I enjoy my home and family in a different way. I love the feeling of my home being cleaned and organized.

Also on this journey I found the Flylady who talks about starting out small and setting up routines. She teaches how to become & STAY organized in your everyday life. These principals have helped me to keep my house clean & organized throughout the day, although I don’t follow every single principal of hers.

As I continued to blog I found Lara The Lazy Organizer. She started talking about how smart it is to set goals and form habits. She even started a weekly blog carnival called SMART Habit Saturday, where we choose a new goal or habit to work on each week and post about it on our blog. I started out doing this every week and then I took a break from blogging and stopped posting about my goals and habits. However, these habits have also helped me to have an organized home and have helped me improve other areas in my life. On this journey I am thankful for these ladies that share their experiences, knowledge, and encourage others to better themselves. The knowledge, the habits, and the goals that I formed have made a difference in my life and my home. Therefore, this week I was thinking about things I wanted to change in my life and about my family and thought it would be good to start participating in SMART Habit Saturdays again.




I struggle a lot to get Bethany, my 9 year old, to read books. I know she needs to be reading daily and it is always a battle with her. John and I have been talking about this and discussing ideas of how to get her to read. I was over at Lucy, An Ordinary Mom’s, site and read about her goal of reading to her children and God used that post to convict me to work on that goal with my children. Therefore, I decided that I would make that my goal this week. I am going to go to the Library and check out the Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie, book and I want to have a special time each night before bedtime and read as a family. My thinking is if we try to do this as a family time, Bethany may not fight it as much. Please pray for me I will need it. So this is my goal this week and I will report next week to as how it goes.

Please visit Lara here for more Smart Habit Saturday post.

Until Later,
~Betty~

In my Weekend Reflections I am going to share how my awesome weekend with my husband, celebrating our 12th year wedding anniversary, went from the highest point to the lowest and how we worked it out. Please come back and read my story.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for God Blessings in my life and how He provides for me when I need him. One issue I really try not to blog about is finances and any situation relating to that, but I really must share this story in order to Praise God and give Him the glory.

Last week I was working on our budget and for various reasons I knew our expenses would be increasing this month and our income would be decreasing, which is not a joyful or fun position to be in. However, I continued to list our expenses for the month and then list our income for the month. In some ways we were coming up short. I rechecked some categories and was going to make it work. I do our budget in a spreadsheet and each bill has a category and I add or subtract money into each category as I need to. One of the categories that we pay is tithe. We believe in giving 10% of our income to our local church that we attend. When we get paid I put 10% of our income into our tithe category and keep track of it that way. Usually what happens on the weeks that we get paid, as I’m sitting in service on Sunday mornings I will write out our check. Sometimes I don’t always remember the exact amount that is in our account, but I’m usually pretty close to the figure.

Well, last week when I was working on our budget I felt like I should figure out the exact amount in our tithe account and write out the check. After figuring out our expenses and income I knew it was going to be really tight and we would be short on some bills and would have to go without some things. I didn’t have any solutions. I prayed about our financial situation as I have been for several months now.

You see, John & I are both looking for a different job that pays better and will be able to take care of our financial obligations and our needs. Therefore we are playing a wait and see game. We are sending out resumes and praying that we get interviews and then jobs, but that is as far as we are in the process. We are waiting for God to lead and open the right doors and trying to trust Him while we are waiting, which can be a challenge.

So back to the budget, I really felt like the Lord was telling me to write out the tithe check first even if that meant other bills may not get paid. To be honest, I struggled and was tempted not to pay our tithe this time. I just couldn’t see how some of our bills were going to get paid and we would make it through the month. As I was struggling with writing out that check I felt the Lord reminding me of the scripture verse

Malachi 3:10 which says:“Bing the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

The other scripture verse that the Lord brought to my mind was Matthew 6:31 – 32 which says, “So do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

And Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Chris Jesus.”

As hard as it was I did write out that check and told the Lord that I did not see how He was going to provide, but I would trust Him. I gave my plan to Him and told him here is what I’m going to pay and how I’m going to spend our money, if He wanted me to do something different then He would have to provide something different. At that moment I felt more of a peace and trust than I had in a loooooooooong time! When John came home I told him of my conversation with the Lord and what I was going to do and was going to leave it at that. I did not share this specific situation/ concern with anyone other than John. Can you guess what the Lord did?

Later that night I received an unexpected check that more than covered the amount we needed for the rest of bills, and some extra that we were able to go out and celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. God knew not only what our need was, but what the desire of my heart was too. Because I trusted Him and was obedient, even when it did not make sense to me He blessed me beyond what I could imagine or have asked for. This was bigger and more than what I would have even thought to ask for. God showered His blessing on us and I felt so loved.

I don’t know how God is going to work everything out from this point on, but I know I can trust Him and I know that He will provide and come through for His children. I am so thankful for God’s love, blessings, and guidance in my life. I give Him all the glory. If you have experience similar to this or how God has blessed you at the time you needed it, I would love to hear about it. We should share how God has blessed us and this is my way to share how he is working in my life. I hope God is blessing you too.

Please check out Sing My Heart for more Thankful Thursday posts.


Until Later
~Betty~

Weigh In Update

I am participating in the May Day Challenge, which you can learn more about it here. It is weigh in time again! I have not been weighing myself everyday this week. It has been about every other day and that seems to be working okay. I still only record my weight on Saturdays.

Here are my stats:
Beginning weight: 212.6
Last week weight: 211.6 (which was a gain of 3.8 from the week before)
This week’s weight: 210.0
Loss/ gain: -2.6 :)

Summary of Past Week:
This past week I did not do my structured exercising everyday, but was more active than normal. I did not make my goal of water intake everyday, but did drink more than what I was drinking. I am making baby steps in the right direction; I just have a long way to go. Also this past week was my time of the month so I was always hungry and had a hard time to stop eating.

Plan for this week:
My plan for this week is pretty much the same: to drink more water and less tea. I also need to get back into my exercise plan. I am still setting boundaries for myself and trying to follow through with them.

My boundaries this week are:

• Drink four glasses of water everyday
• Exercising 5 days a week
• No sugar, except in my tea (which is half of what I used to use)
• No Pop (soda) except on Saturday and Sunday and then only one each day
  

My challenge this week will be to follow through.

Please visit Tales from the Scales here to visit more challengers or to become apart of the challenge.

Until Later,
~Betty~

Menu Plan Monday

I really have been learning to be more organized and I love the progress I have made. One thing that I have started awhile ago is planning out my weekly menus. I used to participate in Laura, The Organized Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Although I have continued making my menus I just have not posted them here for awhile. Since I have been struggling with continuing posting and knowing what to write about, I thought by posting my menus that I keep anyways might help me to get back into the routine of posting on my blog. Therefore, here is my family’s menu this week:

Monday:
Lunch: Chicken Lunchmeat Sandwiches, carrots & peas, and bananas
Snack: Gram Crackers
Dinner: Italian Chicken, cheesy vegetable melody, potatoes

Tuesday:
Lunch: Grilled Cheese, green beans, oranges
Snack: Pizza Rolls
Dinner: Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Wednesday:
Lunch: Fish Sticks, French Fries, Pineapple
Snack: Snack Crackers with Peanut butter
Dinner: Hamburgers, onion rings

Thursday:
Lunch: Chicken Wings, corn, Oranges
Snack: Cereal
Dinner: Fajitas

Friday:
Lunch: Tacos
Snack: Peanut butter bread
Dinner: Omelets, toast, hash browns


To participate or to visit more menus please visit Laura here.

Until Later,

~Betty~

May Day Challenge Weigh In

It is Weigh In time again. I have not done very well this week with my eating and exercising. As much as I don’t want to admit it I had a weight gain of 3.8lbs this week.

Here are my stats:
Beginning weight 212.6
Last week weight: 207.8
This week’s weight: 211.6
Loss/ gain: +3.8 L

Summary of Past Week:
I’m not surprise of my weight gain. I know there were days when I did not make the best food choices this week. I am not going to give up. This is the point where I usually fall off the journey and say forget it for awhile and eat and drink whatever I want and try again later down the road. However, I’m not going to do that this time. I am recommitting to this challenge right now. I’m not going to wait for a few weeks.

Plan of this week:
My plan for this week is to drink more water and less tea. I am struggling with drinking water. I am learning that there is just no easy way to do this; I will just have to do it. I have limited myself to only have Mt. Dew on the weekends, which is such a BIG step for me. I’m going to reflect on why disciplining myself on drinking water is so hard for me. As a mom, I can set boundaries and discipline my children and follow through with my guidelines, but it is so hard to follow through on the guidelines I set for myself. I don’t mean impossible, just hard. This week I am working on self discipline and following through on the boundaries I set for myself. These boundaries are:

• Drinking four glasses of water everyday


• Exercising 5 days a week


• No sugar, except in my tea (which is half of what I used to use)


• No Pop (soda) except on Saturday and Sunday and then only one each day

My challenge this week will be to get back on track and to follow through. To find out more about this challenge or to visit others please check out Tales from the Scales here.

Until Later,
~Betty~