In The Refiner's Fire

One of the things I did last fall to combat the financial bummers blues was to "Shop My Own Closet". I decided that since I had this closet full of clothes, I probably really did have something to wear and needed to take stock and see what I had that I liked, and fit and that I could mix and match with other things for a fun, relatively fashionable and pleasant to wear wardrobe. Let me tell you, I have never ever been so thankful that my mother taught me to never buy a top without having at least 3 bottoms in my closet that I could wear it with. Ditto for bottoms - never buy a bottom that you don't have at least 3 tops to wear with. I do own jeans and two denim skirts, so that makes things easier. So, how do you shop your closet? It goes something like this: Step 1: Pick out a bottom. Here's one of mine: Step 2: Go through your closet and drawers and pick out anything that you think might work. My haul: 2 t-shirts, a sweater, and 5 blouses (2 of them white). Step 3: E...

Last week I wrote about priorities and how having a "top 10" list plus a mission statement has helped me in setting up my new schedule. But what good are priorities if we don't take the time to act on them? That has been a continual struggle for me my entire life and I assume it will continue to be for at least quite a while yet, if not for the rest of my life. There are so many things that I would like to do, so many things that would be nice to do, and so many things that seem urgent that need to be done. If I do those things, instead of what really is important, then I lose the time for what is important. Last year at a Scrapbook retreat, I had someone wonder if I ever slept since I made my own bread instead of buying it at the store. Then someone else chimed in and asked if there was anything I don't do. Yes, I do sleep. :) And Yes, there are a LOT of things I don't do. What are some of those things I don't do? I rarely go out with anyone except my h...

This last week was the 3rd week that I'd made it to 3 workouts a week! Whoo hoo! Never mind that they weren't consecutive weeks. At least I had 3 weeks! this year! :) What's different this week? I'm feeling the difference that cutting back on snack food and upping that workout time has made. I don't think I've lost any inches or weight since last week (and yes, I'm too chicken to find out!), but I feel better. I have more energy. My muscles are sorer than they have been for a while. I was able to use my 5lb hand weights longer during class than I have for quite a while. I like all of that! Now - I just need to get the pounds and inches budging.... BUT, in the meantime, I'll take what I can get. More energy is good - I can definitely live with that! How are you doing with your healthy habits? Care to share?

It seems to be hard for me to post on Mondays, so I definitely need to tweak the schedule a little to make sure I get that in! That's what this last week and this week is about - making those little scheduling tweaks that make the schedule "golden". So how did last week go? Did I get everything accomplished that I wanted to? Um, of course not. :) Even with the shortened list and the schedule. What did I get done? * 1 1/2 papers written for school * 1/2 book read for school * Some filing done * Two letters written * My Valentine's decorations up * Seminar attended * My daily household chores and the kids chores done * To bed and up on time * 1/2 of the library book read What didn't I get done? * 1/2 the 2nd paper for school written * The rest of that first book and half of another read for school * One interview transcribed *The rest of the filing *That baby quilt! (UGH) *A date with John (our sitter got sick and then he got called in) * All the pictures develope...

We start out the week with Valentine's Day - what a day to start with! We're continuing the 'eating from the pantry' so I made up this menu at the end of January from mostly pantry items. We do have one new recipe to try this week and we'll see what we think of it. We've had a couple of new recipes this last week. One was a hit (Easy Tomato Basil Soup) and one that we decided would be better as a chip dip than as dinner (Southwest Veggie Couscous). Both are keepers! Hopefully this week's new recipe will be too. Sunday, February 14 (Valentine's Day): Brunch: Baked Eggs, Hashed Brown Potatoes, Oatmeal Muffins, Strawberries and Melon Dinner: Steaks, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Melon-Pineapple-Orange Salad Desert: Homemade Red Velvet Cake with white frosting Monday, February 15: Breakfast: Oatmeal Dinner: Swedish Meatballs, Noodles, Steamed Corn, Orange Wedges Tuesday, February 16: Breakfast: Oatmeal Dinner: Baked Salmon, Rice, Steamed Carrots, Melon-Pineap...

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! The kids had their Valentine's Day party at Pre-school Friday and they enthusiastically wrote their names on all their Valentine's to take to school! Here they are writing - I'm adding the pencils that came with the Valentine's! I have such good memories of Valentine's Day from when I was a kid - I'm glad they have those kinds of memories too. John was on call - and of course, got called in right when we were supposed to have our at-home Valentine's date - so we will postpone our "Valentine's Date" until next weekend, when we have an actual babysitter and no call scheduled! I hope you have a wonderful day and are able to do something nice for your sweetie, your kids or someone who just needs an extra boost. God Bless You All!

John and I used to go out quite regularly - we had symphony tickets, and we went out a few other times a month as well. Then, I went back to school and we had to re-evaluate. The symphony tickets lapsed, paying for a babysitter meant paying for someone to watch the kids the one day a week John had to work late and I had class, and our one family we swapped babysitting with didn't need to do that anymore. So, what do we do? At home date night! Sometimes it hasn't been that simple to 'turn off' all the 'stuff' that needs to get done at home. Sometimes we've both been so tired that opting for an early bedtime was far more appealing than a date - even one at home. Sometimes we just had too much other stuff going on to take the time - though we really tried to take at least an hour for each other in spite of that. We decided this year that we'd really like to have symphony tickets again, so that's on the savings list for this year. And our church has begu...