Saturday, February 28, 2009

It's a Weird Joy

I have a confession to make. I love hearing the little pops of dirt being sucked up the inside chambers and on into the bag when I vacuum. I think it's because I know I'm getting the floor clean, but, anyways, it gets me everytime!! Happy Cleaning Saturday!!

Friday, February 27, 2009

What I Learned This Week



It's usually a good idea to keep the furniture delivery appointment and cancel a coffee date, rather than the other way around. 

According to the post office, the official height a mailbox should be installed is the height  the mailman's hand is when he sticks his arm out the window.

The Magic Eraser is great at getting scuff marks off doors, door jambs and walls. However, scrubbing them for an hour will really make your wrist sore. 

There is nothing like an end to a busy day with a wonderful bubble bath.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

WFMW - Bounce Dryer Sheets to Clean


Every Wednesday, over at We Are That Family, helpful hints and tips are posted in what they call "Works for me Wednesday". I am new to posting to this carnival, but have loved reading the helpful tips for many weeks now. I figured it was time for me to finally get my foot in the door and share what has been helpful for me.

Being a newlywed, I am learning many things. I have learned how to do the laundry without taking 3 days. I have learned how to boil potatoes while my meat browns (seriously, I couldn't do this when we first got married), as well as scrub a toilet (again, something it took me many months to get into). Despite all of this learning, one thing I can't seem to help is burning anything and everything on my pots and pans.

I find it very frustrating to be standing over the kitchen sink scrubbing and scrubbing to no avail. That was, until I heard a helpful tip. I'm not sure where I heard this (probably one of the many many forwarded e mails from my Papaw), but to clean your scorched and nasty pans, you can put a bounce sheet in your pan, cover it with water and let it sit. So, I did this. I took my scorched and dirty pan, put a bounce sheet in it, covered it with water and let it sit overnight. 

I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but sure enough, the next morning I dumped the water and bounce sheet and rinsed my pan. It was as clean as the day I bought it. It amazed me so much that I decided I would do this every month or so to all of my pans so they would always be as shiny clean as the day I bought them. And, for me on this Wednesday, this worked for me!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

An Update on my Coke Fast


I am currently on a coke fast, you can check out my original rantings about it here. Anyways, as promised, an update...I am 1 whole week without a coke and I'm feeling okay. I have been a bit sluggish and tired, but I think it's because I replaced coke with Starbucks. That was a bad idea, so the past few days I have been without both (hence the tiredness -- lack of caffeine) But, the scale has made me happy. I have lost 4 pounds. So, yay to the weightloss, but I am in dire need of a coke. The cravings are so so bad. I'll continue to keep you posted!!

Blocked Goals


As part of our small group, we are going through the book "Victory Over the Darkness" by Dr. Neil Anderson. This book has been amazing at discovering who I am in Christ and what that means. On our small group blog, Faith CYA, the questions were asked:

When has one of your goals been blocked? 

How did you respond emotionally to your foiled plans and blocked goals? What thoughts went through your mind?

One of my goals has always to be a teacher. I remember when I was a wee little one I would teach my stuffed animals from my Monster Math book (I actually think I still have that fun workbook, anyways, I digress). So when I FINALLY completed my student teaching and worked toward getting my license I was completely frustrated by the hiring freeze that is in place now. My goal of pursuing my dream has been put on hold, and I have no clue for how long.

The thoughts that have gone through my head because of that have been riding on a rollercoaster. At first, I was frustrated and upset. What I had worked so hard at achieving now had to be put on the back burner. But, now, I have become okay with it. I had a horrible student teaching experience, and I honestly lost my passion to teach. I knew it was still my goal and what I felt God was calling me to do, but my drive to pursue that goal had diminished. I now see this hiring freeze as Gods way of letting me take a break so my passion could build back up in my heart. The past few days I have had the itch to teach again, and honestly, I don't think that would have happened had I not had this break.

I have never posted the questions and my answers here, but I felt this was extremely important for you all to think about as well. As Jeremy would say, "until next time..."

What's on Your Nightstand?

What's On Your Nightstand

As part of my 101 in 1001 goals, I plan on reading A LOT!!! To help me keep accountable, and also to let you all know what I am reading, I am joining up with the What's on Your Nightstand meme. The 4th Tuesday of every month I will record what I have on my nightstand to read along with what I have read throughout the month. I hope I can give you some good recommendations of books that I loved as well as books that I don't think I would read again. 

I am one of those people who reads 10 books at once (maybe not 10, but too many) and takes a long time to finish all of them. I have been like this since I was in elementary school. I even remember my 3rd grade teacher commenting to my parents that she saw this and thought I should try to change my habits. Well, 18 years later, I am still into that habit. Call it what you want, but I think I just get bored with one book all the time...come on, a girl needs a little variety every once in awhile.

Since this is my first post, I do not have any books to review currently. And, hopefully next month I will have a picture of my nightstand. Right now, I don't even have a nightstand set up (my nightstand books are piled in our guest room where we have been sleeping for the past few days), since Jeremy and I just had our new bedroom furniture delivered yesterday. WOHOO!!

But, here is what is in my pile, and hopefully I can get through most of them this next month:






These are books that will be on my nightstand all year as I go through them daily/weekly:




What did I tell you?? I read a million books at once. I hope you check back with me next month to see what I thought of these books, and, be sure to keep me accountable and reading!!

Monday, February 23, 2009

101 in 1001 Update

This past week was full of steps to start to get caught up on my 101 list. You can check out my full list here, but I will tell you about the few goals I am on the path to accomplishing.

18. Stay off the computer for at least one day each week (4/143) - I had tried to start this goal before, but could not stick to it. The past 4 days, I have taken a computer fast. Although by my count, I should be at 7, hopefully this past weekend taught me how to fast each week to get to my goal.

20. Paint the house (2/9 rooms) - Jeremy and I bought new bedroom furniture. We are having it delivered today, but in an effort to prepare for this furniture, we painted two of our rooms. We painted our guest room and our bedroom. I will post pictures soon.

Outside of these two major steps, not much has been done on my list. I recently took a stand to lay off carbonated beverages as I prepare to lose my 15 pounds. Unfortunately, I added more weight over the holidays than I hoped and my 15 pounds went to 20 pounds. In the 4 days since I have laid off the cokes, I have lost 4 pounds. So, I will fix my #1 goal to be 20 pounds, but happily I am going to add that I am 4 pounds closer to that goal.

I hope you all are having a great week, and that I have inspired you to create your own list of goals to stick to!!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Memorize What??


Jeremy and I have decided to get involved with the Crown Financial small group bible study through our church. We were planning on taking it before we got married, but, after talking it over, decided to wait until we were married. I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to it (sorry Jeremy). Not that I don't want to grow closer to God and get out of debt, but we have to memorize bible verses. 

I know part of growing spiritually is becoming closely twined with God's word, and I'm down with that. My problem...I have a horrible memory. Give me a song, I can memorize it. Give me a number, I can memorize it. Give me a piece of text, and I can't remember ANYTHING in it. I don't know why this is. I remember struggling through high school when we had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution, Juliet's soliloquy in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet's "To be or not to be" in Shakespeare's Hamlet. I did finally get them memorized after spending hours and hours saying those silly things over and over. 

Now, I understand, if I can do that in high school, I can surely get through a few verses. WRONG. Do you want to know what this week's verse is?? Well, even if you don't here it is:

"Everything in the Heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your Kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone, and you are the Ruler of all mankind; Your hand controls power and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength" 1 Chronicles 29:11-12

I have been saying this over and over all day long, and you want to know what I remember: 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, I think because it has numbers in it. I just pray that God will get me through this week as I have not only this weeks scripture to memorize, but last weeks as well (no, I didn't flunk and have to repeat last weeks because I couldn't remember it, we were out of town.) I'll let you know how it goes.

Going on a coke Fast...help me Lord!


I don't know when I became such a coke lover. I love all things soda, or pop or whatever you call it. Me, I call it coke. My favorite is Cherry Coke, followed by Mountain Dew and then everything else runs up behind that. As Jeremy and I work to slim our waist lines, I am going to try to give up cokes....t least for a little bit. Yesterday, we went and bought some Pomegranate Green Tea mix that has 0 sugar 0 fat and 0 calories. I made it today and am drinking on it in place of my daily coke. And you know what?? It's mighty tasty. I think I could use this as a great substitute until I get back to loving good ol' H20 like I used to. Be sure to check in to see how I'm doing with this huge coke fast. 

101 in 1001 Update


I promised you an update on my 101 list. I haven't completed much, but I will update you on the few things I have done. If you want to take a look at my whole list and what I have (and haven't) accomplished, just it out here

15. Read 3 classic novels (0/3) - I started reading Little Women this past week. I love the movie, and have always wanted to read the book.

17. Don't watch TV for at least one day each week. (1/143)
18. Stay off the computer for at least one day each week. (0/143) - For each of these I have not kept up. But, it is my hope to play catch up here in the next few weeks. As I see it, I should be at 7 days. So, hopefully I can do some catching up.

19. Finish my latch hook - I have searched high and low for the materials to finish it, and have come up empty. I hope that I can find it soon.

20. Paint the house (0/9 rooms) - Yesterday, my mom came over and we started to paint the guest room. We got the first coat of paint on and will finish tomorrow. I can't wait to show you pictures of our Viking Blue room.

40. Save $2,000 using coupons ($74.40/$2,000) - This is the one task I have been keeping up with the most. I think I have missed recording a couple shopping trips, but on average I am going to pat myself on the back with this task.

42. Plant an herb garden.
43. Plant a vegetable garden - The seeds have been purchased for both of these gardens. As soon as I get some potting soil, I will be in business. I will even post pictures soon.

69. Write and mail at least one handwritten letter per month (2/33) - I just sent off my handwritten letter for this month. I have loved doing this task, and hope to do more in the coming months.

81. Do a thorough study of Proverbs 31 - I have started checking out different studies that I want to get involved with online. It is my hope to fully start this study next week.

I have been slacking a LOT, but I have also been setting the ground work for some great task completion. Check me out next week to see how I followed through.

Monday, February 09, 2009

101 in 1001 Update

Unfortunately, with all of the drama in my life these past few weeks, I have fallen behind on my 101 in 1001 list. It is my hope to play "catch up" this month, and be on track again in the beginning of March. If you want to see how I'm doing so far, check out my list here.

Falling Behind

I am so so sorry that I have fallen behind with my blogging. There has been so much that I have wanted to talk about and share, but things have just been absolutely crazy. I got sick about 3 weeks ago, and am still trying to get over it. There was A LOT of family stuff going on with my Daddy and brother that I hope to be able to talk about some day. And, my Grandmother passed away. Needless to say, and I know it's not an excuse, my life has been a bit hectic. It is my hope to get you caught up on my life and for me to get caught up on my blogging this week.