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 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.

SMART Habits Saturday

It is SMART Habit Saturday time again. If you are new to SHS you can click here to find out more about it.

I have been struggling with my goals for a couple of weeks now. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to participate this week, but I need to continue no matter how I am feeling. Here are my list of goals that I am doing well on and have been making a difference in our home:
Clean Kitchen sink nightly
Load of Laundry once a day
Declutter something once a day
Eating more fruits & veggies

Here is my list of goals that I am continuing to work on
Exercise Monday – Friday
Drink water daily
Reading my Bible daily

This week I am going to refocus on these goals and to help me with my exercise, eating better, and to loose weight I am going to find and organize healthy recipes that I can cook for myself and my family. In other words I am going to put a little more effort into cooking and planning for my family.

I am thankful for participating in SHS and for all the encouragement from the other participants. If you have wanted to set some goals and make some changes in your household and have not yet participated in SMART Habit Saturday now would be the time to get started.
Anyone who participates in SHS for two weeks in a row by the end of March will be entered into a drawing to win Laura’s 5 free Organizing Bags, three large and two small! To join SHS or to visit other participants just click here.

Until Later

~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday

Well I did eat healthier this week and walked around my neighborhood about everyday. However, I did not loose any weight this week. Yes I am a little discouraged, but I am not going to give up. This week I am still going to try to eat healthier and to walk the neighborhood. I am going to cut back on the tea drinking and really try to drink more water:( . I am still continuing on my other goals of keeping my sink clean, one load of laundry a day, scripture reading, and declutter at least once a day.

To learn more about SMART Habit Saturday click here. If you would like to join SMART Habit Saturday click here. Thanks for Lara The Lazy Organizer for being our host.

Until Later,

~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday # 10

I am so glad to be participating in SMART Habit Saturday. If you are new to SHS and want to know more information on this please visit Lara The Lazy Organizer here.

As I look around my house and look at my list of goals I am realizing how much of a difference I am making in my home. The dishes and the counter top are cleaned, my laundry is caught up, I have decluttered my girl’s clothes, areas of the house are becoming decluttered and all that feels good. I am really starting to see a difference in things. Not only am I noticing how things are looking I also see how it is affecting my family and they seem to be better at picking up after themselves, or maybe I’m quicker to remind them to put things away, but, whatever, it is working! I am very happy with myself in these areas.

As I am looking at my goals and I see what is working, I also see what is not working. I am still struggling with my exercise and water drinking. This has been a challenge for me. However, I am not going to give up on these goals. I really do want to be healthier and to loose weight. This week I am going to work on these goals. My plan is to walk around our neighborhood once a day this week. The weather here is getting nicer and I can easily walk during the day with my day care kids. Also I am going to decrease my goal amount of water to drink. Instead of 64 oz I am going to try 48 oz. I have a bottle that I keep in the refrigerator and instead of trying to drink 2 of them I am going to try to drink 1 a day. Hopefully that will help me to get back into drinking water. Along with trying to be healthier my new goal this week is to eat more fruits & vegetables and less sugar. I am going to try to stay completely away from sugar this week, except I am going to allow myself to drink sweet tea. I have decreased the amount of sugar I put in my tea. I have already gone to the grocery store and have made my menu plan for next week, so hopefully I have set myself up for success. We shall see. I will let you know how it goes next week.

If you want to join SMART Habits please visit Lara the Lazy Organizer here.

Until Later,
~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday # 9

I am running 2 days behind on everything. But here is my SMART Habit Saturday update.

If you have wanted to set some goals and make some changes in your household and have not yet participated in SMART Habit Saturday now would be the time to get started. I have some great news.

Anyone who participates in SHS for two weeks in a row by the end of March will be entered into a drawing to win Laura’s 5 free Organizing Bags, three large and two small!

Now that would be enough motivation for me to start participating. I would love to have these Organizing Bags. Therefore, if you have been thinking about joining go here for more information and join us.

I have been working hard trying to declutter and organize my house. Things around here are starting to look pretty good. I want to be able to keep my house always looking good. Therefore for Week 9 my new goal is to declutter my house 15 minutes a day.

How I did this past week:
I am noticing I am doing better on my organizational goals than I am on my healthly goals. I still have a lot of work to do to make these goals a habit. However, this is a process & a journey right? So I will continue. Here is how I did:

Week 1 Clean kitchen sink nightly This is still going strongly.

Week 2 Drink 8 glasses of water a day I am not doing well with this habit. I am trying to refocus.

Week 3 Exercise Monday – Friday I have struggled with this also. I am not doing good here.

Week 4 Read my Bible daily I still need to work on this habit. I am reading more than I was, but have not been doing it daily.

Week 5 Sort my girls clothes Completed

Week 6 Organizing tax receipts Completed

Week 7 Continue with same goals Continuing

Week 8 A load of laundry once a day I did pretty well with this goal this week. I have our laundry all caught up and it feels good. Now only if I could be doing this good on my health habits!

If you want to participate please visit The Lazy Organizer here.

Until Later,
Betty

SMART Habit Saturday

It is SMART Habit Saturday time again

If you have wanted to set some goals and make some changes in your household and have not yet participated in SMART Habit Saturday now would be the time to get started. I have some great news.

Anyone who participates in SHS for two weeks in a row by the end of March will be entered into a drawing to win Laura’s 5 free Organizing Bags, three large and two small!

Now that would be enough motivation for me to start participating. I would love to have these Organizing Bags. I think I want them as much as An Ordanary Mom wants them. lol Therefore, if you have been thinking about joining go here for more information and join us.

I received a phone call this week from a friend who does not blog and she told me that she has been following my blog and has been encouraged by me recording my goals that she has set certain goals for her house. I was shocked, but encouraged. It is a great feeling knowing that as I write about what is helping me, someone is reading it and in turn is making a difference in them.


Okay time for my new goal this week. For Week 8 my new goal is to do a load of laundry once a day. I plan to start a load in the morning after my shower before I get the girls up and ready. Then when I get back from taking Jody to school I will put the load in the dryer.

How I did this past week:
Week 1 Clean kitchen sink nightly I have been doing very good with this goal. This has become an established habit.

Week 2 Drink 8 glasses of water a day I have struggled with this one this week. I need to work on this and just do it.

Week 3 Exercise Monday – Friday I have struggled with this also. I was doing pretty well for a few weeks and now it’s hard to get back into it. I am going to refocus this week. I have started a new post on Fridays that I am calling Fitness Friday. I will post there what my progress is on losing weight and getting healthier.

Week 4 Read my Bible daily I have done better with this goal than the last two, but still need to work on this.

Week 5 Sort my girls clothes I have completed this and have gotten rid of 6 bags of clothes. YEAH! :)

Week 6 Organizing tax receipts With the help from my husband this chore has been completed. YEAH! :)

Week 7 Continue with same goals I was able to complete some goal, but not all. I will continue on.

If you want to participate please visit The Lazy Organizer here.

Until Later,

Betty

SMART Habit #7

I’m back for SMART Habit Saturday. If you are new to SMART Habit Saturday you can click here to learn about it.

I have to be honest here and I did not do very well at all with my goals this week. I took the week off from Blogging so I could get a lot of work done. Do you think that happened? NOOOOOOOOO! In reality I got less done. That doesn’t make sense to me, but that’s what happened to me this week. I think that by blogging it keeps me accountable to what I need to do and reading other blogs encourages me and gives me ideas of how to keep balance in my life and get done what I need to get done. I was considering quitting blogging; however I have decided to continue and to use my blog to meet my needs.

Therefore, I am not adding a new habit this week, but will try to get back on track and continue to work on my current goals to make them a habit. I did realize this week that keeping my kitchen sink clean has pretty much become a must do habit. My husband has even realized that this must be done and has helped out many times. Now I need to get working on getting my other goals to become a must do habit. Speaking of my other goals, I have to share what my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day. One of my one time goals was to organize my taxes and receipts and I have been struggling with this. For Valentine’s Day John agreed to take an evening (and longer) of his and do this task for me. He is even setting up a system on the computer so that it will be easy to enter the information monthly from this point on and has agreed to take over that job for the next year. I received the best gift ever and money wise it did not cost us a cent – just a lot of time & effort. Oh how grateful I am!

The other goal I did Okay on this week was my devotions. I wanted to spend daily time reading the Bible. I did not read the Bible everyday this week, but I did spend a lot of time in prayer and writing in my prayer journal. This week I am planning to spend more time reading the Bible and praying.

Good luck to everyone who is participating in SMART Habits. If you would like to join or cheer on those who have, please visit Lara, The Lazy Organizer.

Until Later,
~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday

It is SMART Habit Saturday time again. If you want to know more about Smart Habit Saturday please visit The Lazy Organizer here.

Being able to list my goals and trying to set up daily routines and posting them here on my blog is helping me to accomplish my goals. Although I know there are still things I need to work on, but I will get there one step at a time.

I also want to mention that I am really enjoying Joe’s goals. It is fun to see the check marks and to see where I stand for the week.

I have noticed that working to meet my goals have become more important to me and is starting to become a habit. My day does not seem complete and I feel like I can’t go to bed at night until I know I have completed my goals. I’m also thinking about my daily goals early in the day and trying to accomplish them early so when bedtime comes I don’t have to fight myself to complete them.

My goals are listed on my sidebar. This week I completed all my daily goals except I missed one day drinking all my water. Then with my one time goal of sorting through my girls clothes I did not complete the task. I worked on it 2 times this week. Therefore, I will continue with that goal for this next week too.

My new goal for this week is another one time goal. I have an in home child care business. It is now tax time, which means I have to go through all my receipts, expenses, and income…. I know I really should do this throughout the year, but I always seem to wait until tax time to do it. This year I created a system to sort my receipts by month and I have been following it. However, now I have to go through those receipts and record all my expenses. Therefore, this week my goal is to go through 1 month each day. My wonderful husband has agreed to help me and do 6 months of the year and I will do 6 months of the year. I am hoping to have this completed this week so then we can send in our taxes and be done. If you don’t see me this week around Blog World just know that I am working hard on my goals and really want to complete them. I will be back next week for sure and report how I did on the goals.

Please visit Lara The Lazy Organizer to see the other SMART Habit Saturday participants or to join yourself.

Until Later,
~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday #5

It is SMART Habit Saturday time again. If you want to know more about Smart Habit Saturday please visit The Lazy Organizer here.

Week 1 My goal was to clean my kitchen sink nightly. This week with combine help of my husband I have completed this goal.

Week 2 My goal was to drink 64 oz (8 glasses of water) daily. This week I have done this everyday, but one day.

Week 3 My goal this week was to exercise everyday Monday – Friday. This was the hardest for me this week. I had several days that I just did not feel like it and did not want to do it. However, I did meet this goal and exercised everyday. I have started an exercise streak and didn’t want to break it, so I think that helped a lot.

Week 4 My goal this week was to read my Bible everyday. As I worked on this the Lord showed me things about my life, which I am hoping to post about later this week. I did miss one day this week.

Overall I think I did pretty good, but it was not always easy. I am finding that this does keep me accountable to do things I should be doing. Thank you Lara for creating SMART Habit Saturday. Now on to this week:

Since I started SMART Habit Saturday I have choose goals that I want to make a daily task. This week I want to continue working on these goals and form them into a habit. However, I have a one time job that needs to be done. Therefore, this week instead of creating a daily habit I want to work on a one time job that needs done. Currently, I need to go through my girls clothes. I have realized that they have too many clothes. I have some friends that pass on to me their daughter’s clothes when they grow out of them and we are running out of room. I know my girls have clothes in their closet that no longer fits them or they don’t like. I know I am overdue of going through them, but I can’t seem to find the time to do what I need to do. Because these SMART Habits Saturday goals seem to keep me accountable and I try hard to accomplish what I decide to work on I am going to do a one time goal and go through my girls clothes. Hopefully after this week I can get my bedroom back (I have most of the girl’s clothes in piles on my bedroom floor). I will report back next week as to how I did.

If you would like to be apart of SMART Habit Saturday, please visit Lara here.

Until Later
~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday

Well it's that time again. It's SMART Habit Saturday. This is where we pick a new habit or a goal you want to form into a habit and you work on it all week and then report on your blog how you did. If you are not participating it is not too late to join. Just go to Lara's site and join in with the group. There is a group that will support, encourage, and keep you accountable to meet your goals. It's great so just go here.

This past week my new habit was to do some type of exercise everyday this week. I must tell you that this was HARD! I did do some type of exercise everyday, but there were several days that I did not want to do any type of exercise. However, knowing that I had to report about it here and because I wanted a check mark and point at Joe's Goals I exercised even when I didn't feel like it. :)

As for the other weeks goals - I am still working on them to develop into a habit.

• Week # 1 - Clean kitchen sink before going to bed. I did do this all, but one day this week.


• Week # 2 - Drink 64 oz water everyday - I missed one day this week ( because I forgot to take my water to church with me) The fact that I put it off most of the day has nothing to do with it. lol :)


• Week # 3 - Exercise everyday. As hard as this was I did exercise everyday this week.

My new habit for Week #4 is going to be to read my Bible everyday. I notice that I struggle with this from time to time. There are times when this is not a problem for me and I do my daily devotions. Then there are times when I can't seem to get into my devotions. I feel like God is laying this on my heart to make this a daily habit.

I am realizing that making these goals really is affecting my daily life and making a difference in me. I always struggle with self - discipline and being apart of this group is really helping me in more ways than just the goals I am listing. If you are not doing SMART Habit Saturday you really should give it a try. If you don't want to be apart you could just send your support and encourage those who are in the group. All you have to do is visit The Lazy Organizer.

Until Later,

Betty

S.M.A.R.T. Habit Saturday Update

*** Updated at the end ***

Well I’m late again on posting my SMART Habit Saturday update. However, I did have most of it written on Friday. Then my husband switched out our computer that I had my post saved to, then went into a busy weekend and on & on & on… you understand right?

Well without more delay here is my update. This past week I made a goal to drink 8 glasses of water a day. I really thought this was going to be very hard since I don’t like water. It really surprised me that I have drank at least 8 glasses everyday this week. There even were days when I drank more than 8 glasses. I know I can’t believe it either. I had a big container that holds 64 oz. I filled up with ice every morning and kept it on my kitchen counter. As I went through my daily activities I would just go and take a drink. When we would had to go somewhere, Upward, Church, or the store I would take my container with me. Before I knew it the water would be gone. When I would notice that not much of the water was gone I would purposely drink more so I would reach my goal. It worked!!!!

I also continued on cleaning my kitchen sink every night. Because I knew I would have to report on that I kept the sink clean. There were a few nights that hubby took care of the dishes and I’m counting that too – I did over see the job :) lol . Because I have set this goal and want my sink clean when I go to bed I notice I will do as much as I can earlier in the day to help me accomplish my goal. It is working!

I do have to admit that I did not keep up with the sink so much this weekend, but I have caught up and starting again.

For this next week I am going to just keep working on these two habits, because I want to make these a lifetime habit. I need all the help I can get, especially with the water.

I will start a new Habit next week. Thanks Lara for hosting SMART Habit Saturday. Please visit Lara to join in on SMART Habit Saturday or just visit others who are participating.

***Update *** A friend of mine just called me and challenaged me to do some kind of exercise everyday this week. She did not even know about what I am trying to accomplish through SMART Habit Saturdays. Therefore I am going to go ahead and add a new goal this week - exercising at least once a day. I guess I knew I should have added this goal, but I was chicken that I wouldn't accomplish it. But I'm going to take the challenage and go for it. We will see what happens.

Until Later,
Betty

SMART Habit Saturday Update

I have completed my first week of SMART Habit Saturday hosted by Lara, The Lazy Organizer. Knowing I would have to give an account of how I did really seemed to help and motivate me to stick to my goal. My goal this week was to clean my sink every night and go to bed with no dirty dishes in the sink. Because I wanted to make a good impression and look good for the first week and try to fool, I mean impress people who really don’t know me I cleaned my sink every night before I went to bed this week. So now make me feel good and tell me you’re impressed. If you are not impressed you can still tell me you are, I won’t mind – really! lol :). (Side note I’m trying to add some humor to my posts, which does not come naturally to me. How am I doing?)

Okay Okay, back to my new SMART Habit. In all seriousness, which is more me, there were several nights this week that I really wanted to forget about my sink and just go to bed. I even gave up some blogging time to make sure my sink was clean – now you should really be impressed! I did learn that because I knew I wanted to succeed this week and have a good report that I was able to make my goal happen even when I didn’t FEEL like it. One change I noticed is that I planned ahead, which is not normal for me. When I knew we were going to have a late night, I tried to get the dishes done before we left or as many as I could. There were some nights that I just knew I wasn’t going to get them done before we left. On those nights as soon as we came home instead of sitting down and watching TV or going to blogging I finished the dishes right away and what a difference it made. I also realized that with the dishes done at night the next day went a lot better, because I didn’t have the dreaded thought of the dishes to do running through my head.

I am going to continue working on this habit this week, but also I’m going to add a new one to work on. My two goals this year is to loose weight and to get organize. Because I want to make changes for a lifetime I am trying to accomplish this at a slow pace. Therefore, I am thankful that Lara had the inspiration, desire, and idea to start this SMART Habit Saturday. Last week I worked on an organizational task, this week I am going to work on a healthy habit. As I am going to dread this, my new goal will be to drink 8 glasses of water everyday. As I just reread that thought, that’s not a real good attitude to have in order to accomplish this goal. But can you tell this will be a tough one for me. In the past I have been able to drink water when I really set my mind to it, but it just doesn’t last very long. In order to get ready for this new goal I have started to drink more water this week. I realize there are many benefits to drinking water and I do feel better about myself when I drink more, therefore, I just need to make the total commitment and make it a habit – my goal for this week and the next three. My plan is to daily fill a large cup that holds 8 cups of water and drink from it as I go through my day. I am not going to allow myself to drink anything else until the water is gone. We will see how it goes and I will let you know next week. If you have any suggestions about drinking water let me know.

If you are not participating in SMART Habit Saturday and would like to please visit Lara. I am looking forward to seeing how everyone else did.

Until Later
~Betty~

SMART Habit Saturday

Setting goals, making plans, and making changes to be a better person is very common at this time of the year. I have been thinking about things I want to change and what I want to do differently. I guess the new year brings that out in all of us. It is a NEW Year and it is a chance to start over and to regroup in our lives. I have several goals I have set for this year and things I want to change. Most of my goals are things that I have already been working on, such as organization and weightloss. I really want to accompish my goals and not just set them beacuse it is January of a new year. My plan is to use this blog to help me stay accountable and to accomplish my goals. Therefore, I am working on some changes to this blog. Stay posted for the changes.

Along with the changes I am joining SMART Habit Saturday with Lara @ The Lazy Organizer. I know it said Saturday and this post is late, but it is to good of an idea for me to skip over because I was late. SMART stands for: Saving Money, Associations, Resources and Time. You can visit Lara here for more indepth details of each catagory. Lara is encouraging us to weekly pick one daily habit we want to develop and then post about it. Then we need to link back to her site and visit & encourage others who are also participating. You are welcome to join in if you want.

As I stated my goals this year relate to organization and weightloss so I have had a hard time which one habit to pick. My first step in weightloss would be to drink more water, however I chose to pick organization. I have been reading flylady and like the idea to getting organized by developing routines. Therefore, I want to start implementing some of her ideas. My SMART Habit will be, the 1st step in her program, to keep my kitchen sink shinning & clean. Every night before I go to bed I want to make sure my sink is empty of dishes and the kitchen is clean. I will let you know how I do this week on Saturday (hopefully - Maybe Sunday or Monday - but I will let you know). I'm also going to work on drinking more water, but will consentrate on keeping a clean sink.

Until Later,
~Betty~