Getting Healthy!

Yesterday was day one! Today is day two! It's simple, but since I was successful on day one, I can be successful on day two, right?

Let me start at the beginning. On Saturday I came across something a friend of mine had liked on Facebook, so I liked it too. It looked interesting. It was a 8 week Get Healthy challenge from Six Sisters' Stuff blog. My sister, Sue, saw that I had liked it and she like it too and asked if I wanted to do it with her and her husband. I did! Mark and Carolyn also wanted to do it. When my friend, Laurie, saw what we had like, she wanted in as well. So did our mom, and our cousin, Lorena. Now we have a great group who are encouraging each other and getting healthy!

So, yesterday was day one! I ate healthy, exercised and drank lots of water! Easy! I did think about food more than usual, but in a good way.

This morning I saw something else that a friend had liked and I had a look. It is some more inspiration for me for this day. It is called Drops of Awesome. I love the concept that even if you make mistakes, which we all do, and aren't the best mom or wife or mother or Christian or whatever, I can do it right sometimes. I can make a good food choice and collect that drop of awesome. The more conscious I am of each drop of awesome, or each positive thing I do, the more drops I will collect. It's all about changing my attitude from negative to positive. Look at all the good I do and get rid of the negative.

I am going to make a couple of signs to put up around the house reminding me to look for the drops of awesome!

I stayed up until 1:30 am on Sunday night talking with Ethan. That's a huge drop of awesome. I don't get to spend much time with him because he is living in Victoria, but he was here to do some mission prep errands yesterday and we had a lovely visit. All the things he needed to do yesterday were done so quickly and easily. We both felt very blessed by the end of the day!

Now I need to go and look for more drops of awesome in my day! Have a good one!

Fabulous 50!

I got a phone call from my lovely daughter, Heather, this morning from her work. She pretended she was actually calling for work and confirming my birth date. I confirmed the day, month and..... year!!!! I don't know why she really wanted that information, our call was very short as she really was at work, but it got me thinking. I am turning FIFTY this year!! I need to make this a fabulous year! 

Now the question is, how can I make it fabulous? I could focus on myself - getting into shape, eating better, nicer clothes, etc. Or I could focus on others - more service, working harder at my callings, being a better visiting teacher, looking out for my neighbours. Or I could focus on my spirituality - better prayers, scripture reading, gospel studying. Or I could focus on finishing the many projects I have left half finished or barely begun. Or what about booking a fabulous vacation? Those all seem like great ways to make the year fabulous! 

I think balance is what I need to make the year fabulous. If I work on each of those things in moderation and finish this year a healthier, more organized and spiritual me, than I will have had a fabulous year! I am going to turn 50 no matter what, so I might as well make it fabulous or fantastic!!!

Yesterday was not a good start to the year. I took Craig to the ferry in Nanaimo so he could go back to Vancouver and school. After dropping him off, I stopped at Walmart to look for a few things and ended up buying some junk to eat on the way home since I hadn't had breakfast yet. Big mistake! By the time I got home, I had eaten all the junk and was feeling lousy. I felt lousy all day, got very little accomplished, went to be early and still felt lousy. That is the last time I am going to make that mistake. As I was buying the junk food I even thought, I am going to feel gross if I eat this. And then I thought, Oh, well. I don't care. Well, now I care!!

The FF (Fabulous Fifty) me is going to eat healthier, be more active, serve more, be more organized and spend more time on spiritual things! Today is the first day of the rest of my life!!! I've got to get going!

New Year, New Blog, New Me?

I have found many interesting thoughts going through my head as I begin this blog and this new year. I have never been really big at new year's resolutions, or even at setting goals. As I have been working on getting my thoughts in order to begin this blog, and because of the great talks on Sunday at church, I have been thinking about who I really am and what is really important to me. What do I want to spend my time and energy on this year? What will be of greatest worth? 

I went looking for different backgrounds to decorate my blog. There were lots to choose from and it was interesting to consider who I really am and how I want others to see me. I'm not sure I made the correct choice, but since I have been doing a lot of sewing and quilting lately, I thought bolts of fabric were representative of me right now. 

Now for some larger questions.... What do I hope to accomplish this coming year? How am I going to create balance in my life and make sure I am not spending a lot of time doing things that don't matter? I am very good at getting caught in time wasting traps and getting to the end of a day wondering where all the time went! I am going to make a plan for my days and work at sticking to it so that I have productive things to show at the end of each day. 

These are the areas I am going to work on, and some specifics to start with -

Spiritual - Personal scripture study and prayer to begin and end my days. It will mean getting up a few minutes earlier and taking time before I go to bed, but I know the time is there. I will read the New Testament in the morning and the Book of Mormon at bedtime.

Physical - Exercise and eat healthy. As soon as Mark and Carolyn leave for school/work in the mornings, I will spend 20 minutes exercising and planning healthy meals for the day. I will also drink a glass of water before eating anything. I have a bad habit of walking into the kitchen, opening the fridge and finding something to eat, not because I'm hungry, just because it's a habit. Hopefully getting a drink of water will replace that habit.

Educational - I am going to call writing this blog my educational goal for now. I am going to learn how to add things to it and make it better all the time. I can do a lot of research online, and I also have some great friends who can help me make it better too. I am also going to learn how to back up and update my iphone. There is no reason that I can't do that by myself.

Other - There are many projects around the house, and sewing, crafting ones that I have started, or that need to get done. I will spend some time each day working on at least on of these projects until they are all finished. Along with projects, each day I need to spend some time doing some cleaning/organizing in my house. I have the time, now I just need to use it wisely.

There! I think that is a great beginning, and hopefully not too overwhelming. I feel like if I can get myself more organized I can be a more productive and happy person!  Above all, I want to live my life with joy! I want to feel good about myself and look for the good every day!

Cheers!

Carol

Let's Start at the Beginning!

Here we go, a day early!! One of my goals for 2013 is to become a regular blogger. I love reading other blogs, and now it's my turn to see what I can contribute to the blogging world!

It it New Years Eve. Mr. R and I will be home by ourselves as soon as he gets home from work. Heather is hosting a party for her YSA (Young Single Adult) friends which Ethan and Craig are going to. Carolyn is going to party at some friends in Shawnigan Lake. We have come to another milestone in our lives. We will be home (with no vehicle, I might add since the kids will have taken it with them) while our grown and mostly grown children are out at parties. This makes me feel a little melancholy.

We had family pictures taken earlier this year, which I just love!! Here is a sample of who we are.

I love my family and love spending time with them!