Resolution Wednesday: 48 Weeks to Go

Explanation of Resolution Wednesday's categories.

Area 1: 2012 in 2012

Only 14 items this week.  I haven't started on the basement yet.  When I do, I expect the numbers to be MUCH higher...
Decluttered to Date: 158
Amount still to go: 1854

Area 2: Weight

Since January 1st I've lost a total of 6 pounds as of this morning;s weigh-in.  Slow and steady seems to be working. 

Area 3: Long-Term Goals

Nothing new to report here.

Area 4: Outdoor Time

A lot of my time outside this past week has been stacking wood. My husband built an AWESOME wood shed last fall. (Click HERE for that story. I never got the "after" shot. I'll have to do that in the summer.) The wood shed was completely filled with wood as winter started. The process now is that my son loads up a sled with wood, drags it over to the porch and then stacks it neatly around the perimeter. Nice, dry wood that we can grab and take to the wood stove as we need it! (Last year involved chipping ice and having the wet wood sizzle in the stove...)

We were running low so I volunteered to be the "stacker" while my son brought several loads. Trust me, this was beneficial "outside time" in more ways than one!  My shoulders say otherwise, but I'm just ignoring them.

Resolution Wednesday: 49 Weeks to Go

Explanation of Resolution Wednesday's categories.

One more day to vote on Friday's subjects. Come and let me know what interests you most!

Area 1: 2012 in 2012

MUCH better this week: 112 items from jewelry, books, and clothes. I'm going after son's room next week. He says the total will be zero. We'll just see about that!

Decluttered to date: 144
Amount still to go: 1868

Area 2: Weight

Down one pound. Exercising going well.

Area 3: Long-term Goals

This one is 9 1/2 years in the waiting. Before my son was born I played the piano in the worship team at our church. After he was born I tried to continue, but it just wasn't going to work with a little one. Now that he is almost 10, I decided to talk with the pastor to see if there was a place for me again. The only reason there was a vacant piano at all was because the lady who had been playing for the last several years just had a baby and was going to sit out! The pastor said yes and I started last week. Very exciting and a little nerve-wracking, too. It HAS been a long time!

The funniest thing is seeing the sheet music for the songs I used to play and wondering how they shrunk the words to such a small size.

Area 4: Outdoor Time

EVERY day this week except Sunday! When the three degrees stopped and we had a heat wave up into the 20s and 30s, I took advantage and sloshed around in the wet snow. We call this our "January thaw." It doesn't last long. February and March aren't as cold, but the SNOW will be high. That's OK, I have snow shoes!

Resolution Wednesday: 50 Weeks to Go

Explanation of Resolution Wednesday's categories.

NOW I'm back on track and all my ducks are in a row!  My weekly blogging schedule is working out fairly well.  Sadly, I think my readers are bored.  I'm getting almost no comments.  Are you still reading?  Of course, if you're not, then you wouldn't know I asked LOL! 

So, AM I boring everyone?  If so, some constructive suggestions would be useful.  What brought you to my blog in the first place?  Am I no longer writing the types of posts that will keep you reading?  Please let me know and I will see what changes I can make.  If I'm going to keep up with a blog so well (pats self on back--HA!), I'd like to know that others are finding it useful.

Now, on with this week's roundup:

Area 1: 2012 in 2012

Well, not zero! My total for this week is a whopping 32. But that's 32 less things cluttering up the house! After I finish going through my pathetic clothes (see yesterday's post), that number will most definitely swell.

Decluttered to date: 32
Amount still to go: 1980

Area 2: Weight

It's yo-yo time. UP 3 pounds. Probably retention.

Area 3: Long-term Goals

I have been working my new finances systems and I am on TOP of this, baby! ALL receipts are accounted for. ALL invoices are moved through their various stages. It's awesome. I might do a little post on this, but it's pretty much nothing new or earth-shattering. I just made the budgets in the three areas (household, family, business) and I'm actually keeping up with them. Who knew?

Area 4: Outdoor Time

Sure, as soon as I commit to this, winter finally arrives. We have had HIGHS of 2. Degrees. I have made it a point to "air" the house by cracking a window for five minutes each day to give a chance for the stale air to exchange with fresh air. Can I count the new air INSIDE the house as outdoor time?

Resolution Wednesday: 51 Weeks to Go

Explanation of Resolution Wednesday categories.

(I'm behind in my blogging schedule. Not a surprise, but I'm going to make amends now. This post is for Wednesday.)

Area 1: 2012 in 2012

Believe it or not (personally, I can't believe it), I have been too busy to declutter!!! My total items ousted is still at a round ZERO. Have no fear, this is one area I'm really good at LOL!

Area 2: Weight

DOWN 3.6 pounds

Area 3: Long-Term Goals

We've finally decided to look into refinancing our house. Our loan is for 6.35% and the current rate is less than 4%. My husband is doing all the phone calling and comparison shopping (yay!), so I don't know yet what the final decision will be. If it works as we HOPE it will, we'll be able to knock some money off and still pay the remainder of our house of fairly quickly. We shall see.

Area 4: Outdoor Time

This is harder than I thought it would be. I've managed 4 of the last seven days. I've got to remind myself to do it since it's not been a part of my life before.

Resolution Wednesday: 52 Weeks to Go

Explanation of Resolution Wednesday categories

A whole year stretched out before me. What a blessing! I fully intend to embrace my responsibilities and not shirk in any way on any of them. I will kick this off right with my first accountability post:

Area 1: 2012 in 2012

As of today, I have removed NOTHING. I've also brought in nothing, so we're still at zero. Just wait until you see next week's number, though!

Area 2: Weight

I started my day with Hot Lemon Water and 2 eggs. Exercise is next on my list, right after I finish this post.

Area 3: Long-Term Goals

I have totally redone everything there is to do with our finances. The results are so streamlined compared to what they were. I've determined that we have paid off 40% of our original debt which we began working on in May of 2010. That's amazing! We've increased the debt, however, by 8% thanks to the local "Deluge of the Century" back in the spring which wreaked havoc with our basement, roof, and ceilings. The fact that I know the exact figures is actually encouraging to me as we work our way through this. There will be some posts in the near future regarding my efforts to bring this down.

Area 4: Outdoor Time

Well, I picked a doozy of a day, yesterday, to spend a minimum of 15 minutes outside! The current temperature was . . . SIX. Degrees. I decided to walk around the yard and see what there was to see. I walked really fast. I was happy to see my nice little wood stove when I got back inside! Today is supposed to be warmer--a high of 20. I haven't decided what to do, yet.

Back just before Thanksgiving, I made a comment regarding my blogging schedule. I said,

I've decided that my "hit and miss" style of blogging is annoying me. I seem to write in a "feast or famine" style, churning out 5 posts in a row and then disappearing for 2 weeks. I don't like that. I've set up a tentative schedule that might work for me. I intend to blog five days a week, taking the weekends off. For my initial routine I'm going to try to write Monday's posts about something vintage, Tuesday's posts will be my Resolution Tuesday updates until the end of the year, Wednesday's posts I'm hoping to develop something along the lines of a series--short or long, Thursdays will be something about daily life that I just HAVE to share with you, and Fridays I'm hoping to do a sort of food report as I'm working through my food stock to reduce the amount of money spent for food. That's where I'm going to start (this week!), but I will adjust as I go.

Soon after I wrote that post, my sister and her family moved in. The fact that I blogged at all during that time was amazing because we were busy with multiple kids (did I mention one was an adorable baby?), homeschooling, cooking, the holiday activities, etc. In the back of my mind I remembered my blogging plans. Now I've revisited and tweaked them a bit.  Here's my intended routine:

Monday: Vintage
Tuesday: Series-type posts
Wednesday: Resolutions update
Thursday: Musings, Daily Life Stuff, or just General Stuff
Friday: Food report
Saturday and Sunday: No posts

With this "Resolution Wednesday" post I'm right on schedule!

A New Year With New Resolutions

Happy New Year, Y'all!

Quick update: My sister and her family closed on their house on December 30th. Friday and Saturday they were moving in. (I got to take care of the baby! BIG fun!) Sunday was church and then errands. Yesterday and today I'm catching up on things (laundry mountain being just one of them).

Yesterday I also spent many hours revamping the personal and business finances, prepping for taxes, and thinking about this year's resolutions.

I've come up with four for weekly reporting. Last year I called it "Resolution Tuesday." Most weeks it was AFTER Tuesday that I finally got my report done. So, this year I will be posting a "Resolution Wednesday." Why, you ask? Even if you didn't ask, here are the reasons why: My paperwork day is on Wednesday, Monday is usually a recover-from-the-weekend day, and Tuesday is the momentum day after Monday's big push!

This year's resolutions will be:

Area 1: 2012 in 2012
Because my sister's family moving in provided the big kick-in-the-pants I needed to get the basement in order (so my dh and I could sleep there), we actually have usable space down there again! Along with cleaning it up I discovered we had been packratting away down there.

Another pathetic area of clutter is our garage. Though it's mostly my dh's fault (really, it is!), I'm tired of checking my deed to see if the rumor that we have an attached 2-card garage is true.

With those two areas in mind, I am going to keep a running total of items that will be leaving my house. My goal is 2012 items OUT. If I bring things in, then the total will go back up. By the end of 2012, 2012 items will NOT BE ON MY PROPERTY!

Area 2: Weight
I really, really didn't want to put this one on. I'm so tired of my half-hearted efforts not rewarding me with spectacular weight loss. I'm tired of the embarrassment of reporting that I'm so not being faithful in this area. I decided that I still want this to happen and that I at least felt motivated enough to keep 7 pounds off last year.

I just need a new plan for reporting.

It will be a no excuse, no frills reporting. I will have a daily point system that will give a quick picture of how things are going. I'll post about that separately. Hopefully this will work better for me.

Area 3: Long-term goals (that are beyond a year's attainment)
I have two: The Yard Plan, and Reducing the Debt. I will report on those as there is something to report, perhaps a monthly instead of a weekly accounting.

Area 4: Outdoor Time
Don't laugh! I really mean this one. If it were totally my choice, I would never touch foot outside of a building. Too hot, too cold, too buggy, too humid, too many excuses! I absolutely know that it is good to be outside, both mentally and physically. My son is getting older and I don't want to miss the active stuff with him. (It might also help with Resolution Area #2!)

My plan is to spend AT LEAST 15-30 minutes outside EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I can spend more than that, just not less. Walking from the house to the car to the store does not count. It has to be purposely spending time in nature.

There. My resolutions for 2012. Are you making any? Will you be reporting on them regularly? If so, let me know.

With a new year, I needed a new logo for my weekly updates. Of course it had to be retro.