5 of 52 Weeks of Living Full!!

Hello all!

  I know I'm behind still one whole week, but I plan to catch up hopefully this week with posting twice.  I fell off the wagon being tempted to sit and watch mindless tv.  However, my worst enemy….the internet!  I am so easily tempted to read work emails, work on schedules, read upcoming tasks that need to be completed, which then leads me into free time internet time wasting.  I love the internet!  I will always take time on it because that is where I learn crafts, home decor ideas, recipes, etc.  However, I have figured out the key to a successful balance.  Work first, play later!  Here's how….

     I am not a morning person in respect to hoping out of bed whistling Dixie…..OH NO!!  I want a cup of coffee, no talking, please!  Although on the flip side of that I have discovered I am at my most productive early in the morning.  The further the day goes, I quickly run out of gas, I figure…..it's so late now why bother making the bed now or I'll do that load of laundry tomorrow, and then I am tempted to just sit.  Another wasted day!  So, my new mode of operation…..all started last night with going to bed at a decent hour to get a nice full night's rest.  This morning I woke up feeling fully rested. The minute my feet hit the floor, I made the bed.  Nice! On thing off my list….check!  I resisted the urge to check emails….this was sooooooo hard!  Quickly ran away from my phone and into the bathroom to go ahead and shower/dress…..another pothole averted by not even leaving my room to get coffee (which was freshly brewed and awaiting since I prepared it last nigh ;) ).  Again!  Success!  Once completely showered and dressed hair/makeup and all, I then fixed myself a cup of coffee and turned my head away from the couch and laptop that was beckoning me to sit a while.  Nope! Not going to do it!  Instead I took the dog out, filled his food/water, read a daily devotional, started a load of laundry, made two beds, swished and swiped to toilets, emptied dishwasher…Woo Hoo….now that's ready for dirty dish maintenance throughout the day…check! check! check!…cleaned two bathroom countertops/sinks thoroughly, set out something for dinner….check! check!...then spent 15 minutes walking through the house fluffing couch pillows from last night's lounging, picked up any things that didn't belong/put away, then still had time to clean/declutter two drawers in the bathroom before the 15 minutes was up!  Now, the only thing left to do is to fold/put away the clothes that I transferred to the dryer.

  Yes!  Victory!!!!  I resisted the urge to waste time and now I can sit here guilt free, doing something I love while candles burn filling my home with wonderful smells, and looking all clean and fresh.  Yes, I actually think my house is smiling at me this morning! :)   ahhhhh…… Once I had completed my tasks, I looked at the clock and realized I did this in exactly two hours on the dot from the moment my eyes opened and looked at the clock this morning.  Wow!  Just two hours of my day and I'm dressed and house is company ready, and I have the entire rest of the day to work, run errands, craft, read or whatever, completely free of thinking about all the things I didn't get done today!

  Now, I can do more things like this on the inside of my house…..

 My daughter and I just couldn't wait any longer!  We decorated the front door for Fall this past weekend.  Can't wait for the mums to burst in full bloom.  I'll take another picture when it does.  

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Happy Living Full!

Jennifer

4 of 52 Weeks of Living Full!!

Hi all,

  So sorry for the delay on my mid weekly post!  Since my last post, I finished the rest of my vacation with more successful goal achievements.  First to report, there was I know for sure four….possibly….five days that the tv did not even get turned on.  Now, I did hop on the computer a few times but even those lapses were under an hour each time.

  Second, we had a great time spending time outdoors on our ATV.  We rode trails, had some fun target shooting, found a couple of great spots to put our trail cam and got some great pictures of deer, and turkey.  I really prefer being outdoors in cool/cold weather.  It's just much more comfortable, not to mention the cold keeps many of the scary critters away.  Which brings me to this story…..

  While riding along in our Rhino enjoying the scenery of the woods, spotting tracks, laughing while going over all the bumpity, bumps, we end up on a very narrow trail.  Lots of low hanging branches smacked the windshield while we leaned in toward the middle to avoid being smacked ourselves.  We had done this for three days off and on with no issues, only a few small bugs to swat away some of which were tiny little spiders.  Now I have to just say here….I am no fan of spiders!  They terrify me!  No joke!  So even the smallest of the small cause me to squeal with a quick swatting away to stomping them repeatedly to there death, with a few more good stomps and drag of the shoe just for good measure.  So again, we are just riding along smacking into limbs when all of a sudden I feel a thud on my forehead, and see something just like this……

Researched here...

 
Now just imagine it dangling from a silk thread from the rooftop of the ATV, swaying closer to my face from the momentum of the vehicle, splaying it's legs out in a defensive display of aggression!  I did what any rational thinking person with a severe case of arachnophobia would do….screamed bloody murder, and since my door was not an option due to the menacing, furry, eight legged monster, I chose to dive over my husband out the drivers side.  Yep, that's right….it was all out Dukes of Hazard style head first and out as fast as I could move!  My husband didn't even have time to put the brakes on from my clamoring over him.  The minute I hit the dirt he and I had to grab the ATV in order to keep it from continuing on down the hill without us.

  As a result I incurred some terrible bruises!!!!

  Needless to say, I had my fill with nature at that point for the rest of the vacation!  I'l be perfectly happy to not go out again until the cold weather hits and I see the creepy crawlies more rarely.

  On a much more mundane note…I was able to crochet some more.

 I love doing this!  My employees love them in the prize bucket!  It's a win, win. 

  We also made attempts to find a home on property to begin our more sustainable living.  We saw a house but it just wasn't The One.  The search continues.  I know that when it's meant to be we'll find our perfect little farmhouse on a nice piece of land. 

  Well, that's it for now.  I'll post again soon revealing what I accomplished in week five.  

Happy Living Full!

Jennifer

 

3 of 52 Weeks of Living Full!!

Hi all!

  

  Into week two of Living Full, and I'm getting better each week at reaching some of my goals!  I'm on vacation this week, so the cleaning schedule has not been followed exactly, but basic things are being kept up which is just fine with me.  We have definitely done more things outside this week!  We cleaned up the boat, and ventured out on the ATV in the 3500 acres of hunting land that is a stone's throw from our driveway.  Well, not literally a stone's throw, but we could easily walk to it if we wanted to. ;)  TV has hardly been on at all the past few days.  It is amazing what you can do in a day when it's not wasted away on mindless tv watching!  Even though we are on vacation, we have opted to not sleep in too late and have been out and about.  We are gathering gear for the hunting season quickly approaching and are looking forward to setting up our new camera for capturing photos of the wildlife nearby this week.  We recently saw an unbelievable picture of a large black bear captured on one of our neighbors camera.  As I mentioned previously…we live in a neighborhood with manicured yards, and kids riding bikes in the cul de sac, and it's amazing to think we have so much wildlife surrounding us that we have barely noticed due to our face paced lives!

  I have also had a chance to crochet some more dishcloths like these for the prize bucket at work……

  You can find this pattern here.

  Well, off to enjoying the rest of our vacation.  I want to soak up as much family time as I can!  See you next week.

Be sure to join in on the link up that I shared my post on here….

Happy Living Full!

Jennifer

2 of 52 Weeks of Living Full!

Good Morning all!

  Week one down, and I was successful at checking off a couple of things on my original goal list. I pulled out my journal and jotted down a new Flylady schedule for myself that I think will be much more realistic with my current work schedule. You can see my original post in that series here.

Here's my new plan…subject to change as necessary…(tweaked even further before putting in this blog)


Daily (Sunday's will be beds, kitchen, Hot spots only)
~Make bed
~Clean/Maintain clean kitchen
~What's for Dinner?
~15 minutes tackling any Hot Spots
~15 minutes of Zone cleaning
~15 minutes of Decluttering
~Swish & Swipe
~1 Load of Laundry

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
~Vacuum
~1 Hour Home Blessing (Wednesday Only)
A home blessing will consist of: sweep/mop, clean mirrors, clean purse, any Zone or Decluttering that can fit into the remaining time left in the hour

Tuesday, Thursday
~Dust
~empty garbage (Tuesday)

  I think these cleaning goals will be much more manageable.  My house will stay in good condition, company ready in 15 minutes or less, which makes me very happy. :)  Having my home in much better order will allow me to do things I love guilt free.  Like this great free crochet pattern I stumbled across (searching with intent, of course)…..

Face Scrubbies for Prize Bucket at work

Hmmmm…..I think I need to add "more personal pampering" to my goals….as I am in desperate need of a manicure!

  Changing your lifestyle and/or bad habits can be a bit harder than expected.   While I did significantly cut down on the mindless web surfing and tv watching, I feel I could have done much better.  I'll highlight some successes from my original list.

Living full during my free time by…..
~Watching less TV (can do even better)
~Rearranging my Flylady cleaning schedule to better suit my current schedule (may need further adjustments)
~Spending more time outside
~Getting in fun exercise (ie: walking our dog, practice clogging with my daughter, seeing how many steps I can really squeeze in a day, etc.)
~Crafting (crochet, candles, repurposing, sewing, maybe something new) Already started others ;)
~Learning to make as many things possible all natural and from scratch (food, cleaning supplies, makeup, beauty products, etc.)
~Learning how to be more self sustaining (gardening, living off the land)


Hopes and dreams…..
~Become even more minimalistic (will post on how we made the decision to downsize out of want rather than necessity)
~Find a house on land and out of a neighborhood
~Have a nice size garden
~Have farm animals

  So all in all, not a bad start on this Living Full journey I'd say!  Hope you all had a wonderful week as well!

  Be sure to join in on the fun here where I shared my post…

Happy Full Living!
Jennifer

1 of 52 Weeks of Living Full!!

 Hello all,

 Wow!  Has it truly almost been a year since my last post?!  I miss blogging!  I'm ready to come back.  So many things I want to blog about bouncing around in my head and not quite sure where to start.  I think I'll start at the beginning…..

 Just over 42 years ago I was born……JUST KIDDING!!!  Ha! Ha!  How about I just start back to when this blog began?  A little reflection on what was before moving forward to what's to come.  My first post was almost exactly five years ago.  So much has happened in that time!  I have gone from being a stay at home Mom, who spent my days homemaking and homeschooling to going back to work part time as a Sales Associate, then promoted to a Keyholder, to Assistant Manager, to Store Manager.   What can I say….my type A personality just doesn't allow me to hold back.  It's a constant full boar sprint to any new adventure! Now throw in two moves (one of which was just temporary until we found the right home), my daughter becoming a competition clogger, traveling for clogging and store manager training that included getting on a flight going out of state, renting a car to drive around somewhere I have never been, which is a BIG endeavor for someone who rarely even leaves the county I live in! All the while still homeschooling my daughter with the help of my wonderful husband.    I could definitely not do all that without him in my corner!  My homemaking has definitely suffered as I find myself so tempted to just collapse on the sofa with the family, in front of the TV instead of keeping up with things like the laundry, much more regular sweeping/dusting/vacuuming, well…the list just goes on.

  Where does the time go?  I often find myself pondering on what I've spent my time on. I've discovered that I spend my time on a lot of useless crap!  I'm really fed up with spending my precious free time with wasteful things!  Yep, here we go with the Type A coming out…..again!  Seriously though, there are so many things that I find relaxing, fun, enjoyable that I'm not doing because I've opted to just veg out in front of the TV, or mindlessly scroll through Pinterest (not looking for anything in particular mind you), wasting time on Facebook looking at what other people are doing with their lives, instead of living my own.  I have discovered that I spend a lot of my time full of nothing in particular rather than living full.  I'm sick and tired of it!  Tired of keeping things stashed away in an armoire, or closet to use for a repurposing craft that I never get to, finding crochet patterns that I never use,  reading about how to make more things naturally from scratch on Pinterest, reading about all the ways I could live/eat healthier but never following through.  I'm taking my free time back!  Am I saying that I will never plop in front of the TV, or scroll through Pinterest……No….but I will be much more selective of my TV time/watching, and scroll for things with a purpose of finding something in particular rather than aimless, randomness.  Hence, my new series of blogs…..52 Weeks of Living Full!

  Seeing as I want to spend more time bettering myself and the lives of my husband and daughter, I want to blog about it to help keep myself accountable, but I don't want to spend too much time on the computer either.  This is why I am choosing to just commit to posting once a week with updates on things I've learned how to do, projects I've completed, or goals I have achieved in making better use of my free time.

  With that being said, I'm going to list some things that I would like to achieve during the 52 week journey.  I'll also throw in some hopes and dreams, just to see where life may end up a year from now. ;)

Living full during my free time by…..
~Watching less TV
~Rearranging my Flylady cleaning schedule to better suit my current schedule
~Spending more time outside
~Getting in fun exercise (ie: walking our dog, practice clogging with my daughter, seeing how many steps I can really squeeze in a day, etc.)
~Crafting (crochet, candles, repurposing, sewing, maybe something new)
~Learning to make as many things possible all natural and from scratch (food, cleaning supplies, makeup, beauty products, etc.)
~Learning how to be more self sustaining (gardening, living off the land)


Hopes and dreams…..
~Become even more minimalistic (will post on how we made the decision to downsize out of want rather than necessity)
~Find a house on land and out of a neighborhood
~Have a nice size garden
~Have farm animals

  I'm sure I'll probably think of some more things, but that's a good start I think. :)  I look forward to seeing how many of these aspirations I can achieve from week to week and where things are a year from now.  Until next week…..

  Be sure to check out the Link Up on Raising Homemakers where I linked this post.  Just click on the link below.


  Also linked up with another great site that I just discovered…Our Simple Homestead.  Visit through the link below.

Enjoy living full!
Jennifer