Regrouping

 I am sitting here by  my living room window as I write this post shaking my head. It's snowing again!! How many storms has this been? We are going to get another 10 inches. I can't wait for the spring thaw! Better yet, I can't wait for summer. I am a little nervous because I have to get ready for work and I am never keen on driving in the snow.  Comes with the territory when  living in New England. When will i ever get used to it?

  January sure had been a busy month!  I would like to report that it also was a very productive one.First and foremost, I am keeping up with my daily Bible reading working my way through Genesis, Luke and Psalms.  I have missed a couple of days along the way, but have made up mu scheduled reading the next day by doubling up. This is really a good feeling. I don't want to miss a day!  This past weekend Molly and I went on a women's retreat organized by a good friend! We really enjoyed the time we got to spend with each other as well as a group of ladies we didn't know. I am so proud of myself for jumping out of my comfort zone and doing something totally unexpected for me. And in the process, I got to meet a wonderful group of ladies!  Molly and I have been able to spend a lot of quality time together lately. A couple of weekends ago we got to go to a scrapbook class and made a fabric journal. I am still perfecting mine hoping to put it all together soon. The other big thing that I was able to accomplish this month was a makeover of my sewing room. It looks great! Molly finished painting it for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I finally put the finishing touches on it . I am so excited. It looks beautiful!

 I did accomplish a lot of things this past month, but there is soooo much room for improvement. I had a lot of down time feeling tired and ended up sleeping days away. Every time I make progress, I end up taking a few steps back.But the great thing is that I have made progress.Here is the blueprint for this up coming month: 
1.  I would  like to continue to move forward and in these coming days focus on not only reading my Bible, but meditating on it so it is in my heart and not just my mind.
2.  Take time to send a handwritten note of appreciation to 10 people, and pray especially for them.
3.   Make a baby quilt by the end of February in time for a baby shower that I will be attending.
                                              That should be enough for now! ........... 

A Peek Into 2011 Thusfar

So far 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty good year. I know it is only 11 days old, but I am off to a good start. My world at this moment is peaceful and productive.  I will savor each moment while it lasts. I have accomplished more in these 11 days than I have in a long time. Let me tell you what I have been up to!
 I am beginning again my quest to keep my "stuff" organized. I took a bit of time yesterday before the trash truck came to throw stuff away that  was not useful anymore or broken.

I haven't been quite as tired as I usually am. I have only been taking brief naps. That is giving me more time for my to do list. I better get as much done as I can now!

I have spent more quality time with Bill.  We both are so tired all the time we find ourselves on our rare evening off together sleeping in front of the TV. Last night was busy with taking Nathan to dance class while Molly and I went to a wake for a friend of the family.Bill and I did manage to have a nice dinner together and when I came home we sat together to review the day. That meant so much to me. I think sometimes we take each other for granted. This is an area I need to make a big effort in.

I am planning on reading the Bible through this year. This is the most important thing on my wish list. So far I have kept the commitment. Right now I am reading Luke, Psalms and Genesis. I have had the TV on a little less these 11 days and spending more time in reflection and meditation, focusing on Christ rather than me. Perhaps this is what is giving the motivation for all of the other stuff.  I want so much to continue on this path that I have set for this New Year. It really feels good. In the mean time, I will forge on to keep this momentum going for as long as possible. Keep posted!

Well... Well...Well!

I love the beginning of a new year! I always find myself very productive in the beginning weeks before everything takes a tragic turn back to the way it was. I have been very busy in organizing my time and putting it to good use. I have not been feeling very tired so that helps a lot. My daughter Molly is going to paint my sewing room next weekend! Yay!! This is her birthday present to me. My birthday is in November, but we had to wait till mid January because she has been busy with school and school activities. I have been looking online and in magazines to find tips and ideas for decorating my room and better organizing it. I have alot of my supplies already organized in clear tubs which is a great thing. But the clutter in the sewing room will make it very hard to do any painting. So this week I have been doing more organizing of the clutter. I am at the point where now all I have to do is move all the furniture to the middle of the room so that she can start masking off the room and paint. That forced me to organize even more. I have put most of my material in one area of the attic stored in bins. I am not quite organized enough to say that they are neatly folded and sorted by color, but at least a third of my stash has been. While I was in the attic, I started organizing other stuff up there as well. I have the Christmas decorations organized (or half way) in one corner. At least they are all in that corner. There is a bunch of Christmas stuff down in my basement too which is all in one corner. That's a great accomplishment for me.
I didn't stop there! I started purging the attic of things that don't work and needed to be thrown away! I sort things into 3 piles, to keep, to throw away, and to donate. Now I have a little bit more walking space in the attic. Where did the trash bags go? I need to take these piles and bag them to send to their appropriate places.
Back to the sewing room I go!  This is very exciting. I can't wait to see the finished product. I want to make this room a functional space where I can be free to create in an inviting environment. Without clutter.  I will keep you posted on my progress as the weeks go by!

A New Year, A New Beginning?

Okay, it's January 3rd. Three days into the New Year. Where does the time go? I have had so many things on my mind that I would like to accomplish in this year, but I am not going to obsess about making resolutions. That always seems to end up in disappointment for me and also getting frustrated with myself that I didn't do what I have promised myself  I would do. That being said, I think I am going to have to take things day by day and perhaps make myself a "wish list" of things that I would like to accomplish and review them throughout the year. I hope that doesn't sound ridiculous or wimpy.
Here is my wish list for 2011:
1. Be better at reading my Bible and praying. This is always at the top of my list every    year.And every year there is so much room for improvement. I know that if I put Christ first in everything I do, that would be a great start for having the rest of my life fall into  place.
2.  Organize my house. I had such high hopes for getting each room in my house organized and try to reduce the clutter, but that all fell apart quickly. Why does life have to get in the way?  I started out pretty good, but when I got something organized and "decluttered" , it didn't take long for things to pile back up.
3.  Spend more time one on one with my kids and husband. I love them so much, but sometimes I don't think they know that. I need to stop being so "busy" with what I want and focus on the more important.
4.  Spend more time sewing. I waste alot of time looking finding new projects to do, that the stuff I do start gets ignored and ends up as clutter.
5.  Re organize my pictures, get them printed and into scrapbooks. I am excited about this one!  I found the best scrapbook store close to me. ( I don't know how this place escaped my attention) It has great rooms filled with ideas and inspiration as well as great products. I think I will make this one of my main focuses this year. Now I have to come up with a way to easily catalog my supplies and pictures so that I can maybe even bring them with me to do in down time. This will definitely be a challenge.
6.  Be more of an encouragement to my friends. I used to be really good at this. I want to make more of an effort to send cards of encouragement to my friends like I had in the past. It is always nice to know that you are being thought of..
7.  I have always wanted to write a book. I don't know what about though. I am just throwing this one in as a wild card because I don't think this one is feasible at this time. I am putting it on my list though because I wanted an even number of ten things on my wish list. You never know, this may be the year.
8.  Stop wasting time watching TV and other such foolishness. I think I can cut down on TV time a bit, so I will make this one of my priorities.
9.  Spending time volunteering somehow. There is a program to take dogs to visit people in the nursing homes with. I am going to look into training our chocolate lab Myron to bring. He a bit mellower than most chocolate labs, so hopefully he can be trained. That remains to be seen. I sent in the registration form to take the class in June. I hope that there is still room. This is something my daughter Molly and I can do together if it works out.
10. Spend more time making entries for this blog.
Okay it's out in writing! Now I just have to attempt to do it. Time will tell.