Goals for 2016

I realized I haven't written this post yet, though I have set goals.

I try to share my goals on here because then I have some accountability. It's good to have someone to be responsible too, even if they are faceless readers...though actually many of you aren't so faceless.

I love setting goals. I like accomplishing them, and I like having something to work toward. So, without further ado,  here are my goals for 2016:

• Only 2 hours or less of tv or movies during the hours of 8-5.
• Go outside daily
• Write 1000 words M-F
• plan for Sunday lesson by Wednesday
• Have a baby
• Exercise 30 min M-F
• Schedule daily
• Set monthly goals
• Set daily goals
• Read scriptures 30 min a day
• Publish 1st novel
• Blog M-F
• Put out 1 video a month

We have some other couple goals as well, but these are my personal goals. 

I set these at the beginning of last month, and I'd already forgotten about a couple of them. It's good to be reminded. 

The limiting tv thing has been wonderful. Kevin actually gets grumpy if technology is on too long. I also am less productive. To turn everything off for most of the day has really helped me to accomplish my other goals and helped me to be a better mom. Some days I do better than other days, but I'm improving.

It wasn't that we were actually watching television that much, but it was on as nearly constant background noise. It's been nice to have my focus solely on my son. 

I like how goals make me a better person and help me to improve myself. I'm doing really well on the second draft of my book right now. I have high hopes for submitting it to publishers this year. I'm still trying to decide if I should self-publish through Amazon, or try and publish through a publishing company. 

Any thoughts? I'd really welcome them. 

The Blessings of the Budget

I was going to talk about something else today, but after this morning, this is pretty much the only thing on my mind, so I have to share this. 

We are in an interesting economical situation right now. 

Currently, we have been blessed with more money than we've had in a long time. We're still not very wealthy, but we at least have a sizable buffer in our savings, and that's been really comforting. 

Even so, we are trying REALLY hard to stick to our budget. We're also trying to save up for a few things and so last paycheck, we didn't put very much into the grocery portion of our budget. 

Then, we ended up feeding some extra people, which was great, and we were grateful to be able to help out. It simply left us with no extra grocery money. 

So, we were in a strange situation where we didn't have any money, but we actually did. We weren't sure what to do. We ran out of eggs on Friday, and we didn't have any fresh fruit. We contemplated going to the store and getting those two things, because they are kind of necessary and we actually DID have money...just not in our grocery fund.

However, after we went to the temple on Saturday, we stopped at my grandma's house to pick up Kevin. After we ate with them and piled in the car, Grandma came over and handed us a carton of eggs and a bag of fruit. She also gave us a bag of potatoes. 

I know it wasn't a coincidence that she just happened to give us the specific items that we were really in need of. I know that we were blessed for our service and for going to the temple. I have some pretty wonderful family members too. 

That wasn't the only blessing we've seen though. We get paid today, and we've been low on quite a few other things, but somehow (like the woman in the bible who provided food for Elijah and whose oil and flour never ran out) our supplies have lingered until today. For example: we were sure we were going to be out of milk by Sunday, but we still have some left. 

What have I learned from this? I have learned that when we try to stick to our budget, that the Lord helps us out. I have learned the blessings of going to the temple and paying our tithing. 

I'm excited to go grocery shopping today, but we're also going to try and be really careful not to spend all of our money right away. 

Hopefully it will last until the next paycheck this time. 

A Cartridge Miracle

Since we've moved into this house, the water's been a little funky.

At first, the water would be really warm and then get cold and never get warm. We called our home warranty people about it, and they came and had a look.

It turned our that the tube that was supposed to go all the way down to the bottom of the waterheater was only about 2 feet long. They replaced it with a tube that went all the way to the ground and ever since, our water has worked pretty well.

We were so grateful to have warm water, that we didn't really mind when it came out scalding and took forever to cool down. Keven and other children who come here frequently learned to let me turn the water on for them so that I could make it cold enough for them to put their hands into.

However, it was livable, and we weren't too worried about it. We figured it was just a quirky house thing, and didn't know what could be done about it anyway.

Then, the other day, Allopex, Grig's younger brother (who is between him and Havelock in age), mentioned that the water in the downstairs shower was freezing. Our home warranty might expire soon, and so we decided to give them a call and have them come and look at it.

They came a day later. I thanked them for coming so soon, and the man told me that they don't have much to do in January because no one has any money left after Christmas. I thought that was kind of funny.

Anyway, he took a look at the shower and turned off the water (which was somewhat inconvenient because I was peeling potatoes when it happened and I hadn't considered that the water was going to be shut off. It was okay though). Only about ten minutes later he came back upstairs (Grig stayed with him) and told the rest of us he had finished. I asked him what the problem had been.

He told me that the faucet had a cartridge inside that was broken and wasn't allowing the water to mix. So, you either got straight hot or straight cold. He had simply replaced the faucet and cartridge.

This is a similar type of cartridge. Link to this picture here. 

We were grateful and paid him the service fee. Ever since then, the shower downstairs has worked great!

The unforeseen consequence of that, however, is that everything else has changed to. The water in every other sink is now normal.

I can't see any reasonable explanation for that, and we're calling it a miracle. It makes us wish we'd gotten that cartridge replaced a lot sooner. I'm so grateful that we called the plumber. It's been wonderful for Kevin to be able to turn on and off the sink by himself and for the water to actually be warm in the middle setting, and not boiling.

It's also been wonderful for the two brothers downstairs to have a working shower (though now they may take longer showers, which isn't so wonderful.) ;)

We are so grateful for our cartridge miracle. We're also grateful that we had a way to call a plumber for not too much money.

After all, it's January. Everybody's poor, right?

Let It Snow

Saturday morning, we woke up to go to the temple to find that it had snowed a TON.

It wasn't 36 inches, but it was about over a foot, and it was still coming down.

We had extra kids at our house, and had planned on dropping them off before going to the temple, so I ended up shoving the driveway while Grig and the kids got ready. The snow was heavy and wet, and it was a lot of work.

We got out of our house at the right time (at about 8:15), but the roads were so bad that it took us nearly 45 minutes to get somewhere that usually would have taken 20. By the time we got to my grandma's house to drop Kevin off, we were over an hour late.

Regardless, we trekked on. It really was beautiful, and though occasionally icy, for the most part, it was a pretty enjoyable ride. We played a game called "Who Has a Garage?" and were able to easily point out which cars had been parked in the garage and which ones hadn't.

There were quite a few cars buried up to their lights in the snow, and we were very grateful that we had a garage ourselves.

We stopped and picked up my Great Aunt on the way, and by the time we got to the temple, it was about 9:50 a.m.. We had been planning on getting there at 9:10. We made it to the 10:30 a.m. session.

We had a great time, and enjoyed participating with my great aunt. It was fun to spend time with her. I also really love the Spirit at the temple. You walk inside, and it's like everything outside is muted. It's quiet and calming. It is wonderful because it's a good chance to feel peace away from the cares of the world and receive needed answers from our Heavenly Father.

By the time we got out around 1:00 p.m., it had stopped snowing. We were a little disappointed, but the roads were a lot better.

We had been planning on going on a badly-needed date afterward, but since it was so much later than we had originally planned, we accepted Grandma's invitation to eat with her and enjoyed talking to my grandparents and aunt instead.

Then, we went home.

After we got home, it started snowing REALLY hard for a while, but cut off a lot sooner than we wanted. For some reason, both Grig and I enjoy heavy snow storms. I don't really like old, dirty snow that stays around for months, but I do enjoy large amounts of fresh stuff.

Kevin and Arkhon really enjoyed it too. Kevin helped his Great-grandma shovel their sidewalks and driveways with a little kid shovel they had, and when we came home, they let us take it with us.

As soon as we got home, Kevin began to shovel our driveway (which was once again full of snow). We're going to go out and shovel today after he wakes up, I think.

Our yard still needs it.

This picture was taken during the snowstorm. All of the stuff on the railing is new.

Exercising

As is normal, one of my New Year's goals was to exercise more. Specifically at least 5 times a week.

In all honesty, I've been doing pretty good at it.

Last week was rough. We were watching kids all week, and so I didn't get it in. This week has been a little less crazy, and I've done 2 out of 4 days so far. It's not quite to my goal, but I'm getting there.

A long time ago, a friend gave me some Turbo Jam dvds. I've found that exercising with videos might be my thing.

I'm not a self-motivated runner. I think it's boring, and I don't really enjoy running to just run. I like to play sports, and I will push myself when playing against other people, but it's hard for me to just run (plus, it kind of hurts my knees.)

I enjoy biking, and I started doing that last year before all the snow came...but then all the snow came and I wasn't sure what to do. We've gotten some really good snow storms this year, which I am grateful for, but it makes it really hard to even take the stroller out, especially when its less than 20 degrees F.

So, I wasn't sure what to do.

However, when I started exercising with this video, I really enjoyed it. It was like exercising with a group, but without any of them being able to see you. I hate it when people can see me when I exercise. It's really hard for me not to be self-conscious.

However, I get some encouragement, and doing it with other people (even if they're not really there), really motivates me to keep going.

I had been doing lower-body and abdominal strengthening exercises, but yesterday I decided to do a 40 minute cardio workout.

At about 20 minutes, I was done. I so badly wanted to turn it off and call it good for the day. I had even moved to get the remote to turn off the tv. However, for some reason, I didn't. Instead, I kept going, and to my surprise, it got easier. I wasn't as tired suddenly, and by the end of the video I had more energy than I'd had at the beginning.

Evidently it has been a while since I pushed through my limits. I forgot that you can get a second wind and that after muscles warm up, they are easier to move. I'd forgotten a lot of things.

After I finished, I was feeling really good about myself, and now I'm not sure what kind of exercise I want to do today. Part of me wants to do lower body again (which is where I need the most toning), but the other part wants to give the cardio another go.

Tough choices, but I'm happy that I'm accomplishing my goals.

Another one of my goals was to go outside at least once a day. Kevin needs to play outside, and even though its cold, he loves it. He looks pretty cute all bundled up too.

Kevin helps teach me to get back up after I fall

It's not always easy to go outside either. Some days, I'm tired and don't want to get us both all bundled up. Other days, it's too cold, and I enjoy being warm. However, every time I do it, I find that we really have a good time. 

Goals can be hard, and sometimes it's easy to give up on them, but if we push through the adversity, it will get easier. I'm learning that.