In exactly one week from tomorrow we will know if we are having a girl or a boy. We don't feel strongly it is one or the other and will be excited no matter which it is! So what do you all think? You better put your bets down now! :). I really just want to know what everyone else thinks it is haha!
Goal 1 - To tell the truth I was horrible at exercising this last week! Ugh I don't know what happened....Ok....Well I guess I know exactly what happened. After cross country skiing last Saturday, a drive to and back to Twin Falls Sunday, and a good housecleaning Monday... let's just say that I lost all energy to exercise! Then it was Valentines so I made the excuse not to exercise. I did get 2 days in last week and took burley for a long walk around the park for about an hour. So I guess I'm being a little hard on myself but this week will be much better.
Goal 2 - I'm still going strong with my lists. I now want to do better at adding something more each day. I haven't worked on projects at home lately and put it off, because I know I will probably go sewing Wednesday nights and very often on Monday mornings. But I find I have time that I'm wasting still. So my first project was to finish the two books I was reading. Got them both done and now Im all caught up for book club. Next project, finish that puzzle sitting upstairs!!
Goal 3 - Still doing lovely with being mindful of the budget. Unfortunately unexpected things always have to happen. Like our white car breaking down and having problems! So we are assessing the damage it will do to us this month. We are doing so good I had no problem telling Doug, 'Sure! Go snowboarding! We can afford it!'. after he said, 'Well I'd love to go, but you know it is $50.'. And the even better part? He ended up getting a lift ticket for $25 because someone had an extra and Doug happened to be in the right place at the right time. So I'm still feeling good.
Highlights!!
- Valentines! Oh I do love valentines day! My husband is too sweet, we get to much yummy chocolate, and I love celebrating our relationship. Doug got me beautiful flowers, not red roses, but a mixed bouquet that I loved! Unfortunately my camera is up at the in-laws and I can't post our pics.
- We got to drive and see our beautiful niece blessed. She is growing too quickly and we miss them so much! It was totally worth the 6 hours in the car in one day drive. Yes my back was mighty sore and stiff (the skiing the day before didn't help too much). But like I said totall worth it.
- Monday I deep cleaned our kitchen cupboards and drawers. Everything got disinfected and reorganized. And it is clean! Im so glad I accomplished this big one! I figured after living in this house for 5 years....it's about time that was done!
- We found out our awesome cousins who have been waiting and waiting, were able to have their son born on Friday 10th, just before we went to Twin. They flew to NY to wait for their birth moms doctor to give the go-ahead for the birth. And their son is beautiful!! We were so happy to hear that everything went well, baby is healthy, and birthmom is doing great, and they were able to come home this last weekend. It is a wonderful miracle and blessing in their lives and I can't wait to see him at her shower!!
- Another highlight to everyday is feeling my own baby a little more and more! But I'll give this topic a whole post to itself!
1- I must say I am going to be the most in shape I've been in years! And all while I'm pregnant??! Haha I am loving it! I didn't exercise my full routine everyday this week because my back was killing me on Wed & Thursday. But I did exercise everyday! Woohoo!
2- Still loving and rocking my lists! I was talking to my dad and mom the other day on facetime. I told them about my new To-Do list kind of living and my dad said, "A goal not written down is just a dream." So true. And I do find that when I don't make my list 1st thing in the morning I rarely do what I have already thought through. It just helps to write it down.
3- Finances are looking better all of the time. We decided to cancel a few things that we have been paying that we really don't use. We cut almost $100 out of our monthly spending and it's gonna help savings so much! We did decide to go out to dinner for V-day and I bought some yummy stuff to make, but we are still sitting good on our budget :). See we can still have such fun AND save money!
Highlights-
- I got my blinds cleaned this week! It was one of the big things on my long list of bigger To-Dos! It took a while (and may have been the activity that set off my achy back) but I was so happy when I got done!! I'm glad, glad, glad to have clean windows and blinds to look out of.
- I had tons of fun sewing with one of my besties! She is only about a month farther along than me and we sew almost weekly. I made a bunch of reusable wipes a few weeks ago, and this week we worked on making reusable nursing pads! She had all of this super absorbent fabric and we mostly got the circles cut out. So I'll update when we finish them this week. I'm excited :).
- Doug and I started celebrating Valentines this weekend. I decided to make him something special every day of the weekend, including today and tomorrow. He has a young mens thing on Valentines so we decided to do our 'Go-Out' date on Friday. We ate yummy food and I made a fancy cake (I'll post pictures later).
- Saturday we decided to go cross country skiing. It is a little tradition of ours I guess you could say. Normally we rent a little cabin somewhere in Island Park, stay one night and cross country ski the next day at Harriman. But we decided we should save money. So we just took a drive Saturday after a yummy breakfast. And we got to bring Burley with us (another plus to NOT staying in a cabin). Burley loved it. It was beautiful and sunny, and unfortunately I forgot my camera. Boo! Oh well we had a blast!
So this week actually turned out really well in terms of my goals! Here's how I did plus a few highlights of my week.
Goal 1- I exercised everyday (except Sunda)! And I am really feeling great! I find that when I exercise I have a better nights sleep, and I tend to crave the more healthy foods. And that's always a plus!!
Goal 2- To Do lists are my new best friend. I have been so much more organized each day. I find a lot more satisfaction in he daily tasks that need to be done when I make them my purpose. And I don't end up beating myself up at the end of the day when I feel like I accomplished nothing! My house is so much more clean and organized, and it doesn't get to the overwhelming stage when everything needs to be done and I have no idea where to start. I am doing better at little goals I set because they get put on the list and I love to do them just to cross them off!!
It was interesting in R.S. this week someone shared a comment. We were talking about finding our purpose in life and using our Agency to accomplish our purpose. And about how Satan tends to put road blocks in our way, one of them being that we get bored with the daily mundaneness of our tasks as wife and mother. Then this sister shared a comment that went something like this. "When we have daily tasks to accomplish I find that making the task at hand my purpose in life at that moment keeps me motivated, happy, and I even find joy in the task. We talked about finding our bigger purpose in life, but I think we accomplish that bigger purpose by making our scope more focused in smaller purposes throughout our day.". I loved how that applied to my to do listing and found I have been so happy to accomplish tasks this past week. The dishes werent daunting any more. My bed was made every single day! And in the morning right when I got out of it! I'm just loving this Goal number 2!!
Goal 3- Ohh we are doing so good! A week into Feb and we already found three things to cut out of our budget to save money. Plus I did my first of two shopping visits under budget and with full lists. Our household items were written down and purchased along with grocery shopping! That's a first! Haha but I have felt so good and in control with our finances.
We also did our taxes, which ended up not to be as big of a blow as we expected. With both of us teaching lessons we always find we owe the government so much and we didn't do as well setting aside money for taxes as we would have liked. But with all of our medical expenses, plus business expenses we find we owe less than we even expected. So we have a new goal to add into our planned shopping visits and snowballing payments. Our new goal is to pay taxes quarterly for our music lessons. Then we won't have a big chunk to pay when taxes come around, and who knows we may even get a return with a new child entering our family. That'll be a first! So we are saving saving saving!
Our weeks highlights!
- It was a busy week with almost something every night for Doug, so I worked hard to get dinners ready early and we had some good meals together. I love at least having the time to sit down at dinner and talk, even just for a half hour. Meals were a highlight this week.
- Doug had parent teacher conference which means he had Friday off! I had a Let's Play Music meeting Friday morning, but then we stayed in all afternoon and did our taxes! So fun I know haha.
- We played games with some friends Saturday night and had a blast! We love getting together with friends and I always wonder why we wait so long to do it again. So I'll try to plan the next game night over at our place!
- Burley got a bath and turned into a beautiful smelling puffball! Haha his hair is so long and he is always so fluffy after I dry him, I just love it.
