• Intentional Living: Weekly Goals

    I made some progress last week on my goals!  Thankful for the opportunity move forward on my goals despite a busy 2012 first quarter.  Since I have a conference for part of the week the list will be shorter.

    Here is the update on last weeks goals:

    Family Goals

    1. Spend 1-on-1 time with each child everyday
    2. Read a book to the girls everyday
    3. Have each girl read 1 book to myself or Jake 5 days this week – the girls were sick this week
    4. Go on my Date Night with Jake (we got free movie tickets so excited to enjoy some time away together) – We gave away our free movie tickets because we had to cancel our Date Night, the kiddos got sick.  🙁 I am hoping to get it rescheduled soon.
    5. Get the girls Birthday Party Details Started

    Personal Goals

    1. Exercise – walk at least 5 days this week – I did it again (victory dance).  It has helped give me more energy throughout my days too!
    2. Go to bed by 10:30 pm or earlier Monday to Thursday – was bad about this one, it was after 1 am one night
    3. Finish reading Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk – still working on it
    4. Read and listen to the next section of  Desiring God: Finding Complete Satisfaction and Joy in God by John Piper (our church Community Group is going through this book together).
    5. Get my Travel Visa Application Sent

    Home Management Goals

    1. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
    2. Weekly Dinner Menu planned and written by Monday
    3. Spend 30 minutes every day picking up / cleaning the house
    4. Dinner ready by 5:30 PM (Monday through Thursday) – it was closer to 6 pm a couple of days
    5. Spend time re-organizing and de-cluttering the office
    6. Update Family & Friends Contact Information – glad to have this information updated 🙂

    Business Goals

    1. Pay all bills that come in the mail this week
    2. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
    3. Spend 10 minutes a day cleaning and organizing my desk
    4. Plan new implementations for blog
    5. Start working on 2011 business taxes – gathered the information and paperwork but nothing more yet

    Ministry Goals

    1. Email our weekly Community Group update including upcoming events on the calendar, praises, and prayer requests
    2. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch

    Financial Goals

    1. Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
    2. Emergency Fund – save 3 months worth of living expenses – moving forward on this goal
    3. Start working on our personal 2011 taxes

    Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

    Family Goals

    1. Spend 1-on-1 time with each child everyday
    2. Read a book to the girls everyday
    3. Spend some time with extended family

    Personal Goals

    1. Exercise – walk at least 5 days this week
    2. Read and listen to the next section of  Desiring God: Finding Complete Satisfaction and Joy in God by John Piper (our church Community Group is going through this book together).

    Home Management Goals

    1. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
    2. Weekly Dinner Menu planned and written by Monday

    Business Goals

    1. Attend the Pro Ag Conference
    2. Pay all bills that come in the mail this week

    Ministry Goals

    1. Email our weekly Community Group update including upcoming events on the calendar, praises, and prayer requests
    2. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch

    Financial Goals

    1. Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
    2. Emergency Fund – save 3 months worth of living expenses

    I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.  I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true.  When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals.  Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick).  Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.

    Why Share My Goals?

    • To keep me accountable
    • To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
    • To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
    • Create healthy habits in my life
    • To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn

    How did you do this week on your goals?  Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.

    The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results

  • Life Simplified: Laundry Day

    For those who don’t know me…….I am NOT a big fan of doing laundry.  Don’t get me wrong , it gets done in our house because I don’t like wearing dirty clothes but doing laundry everyday is almost like torture to me.   Before discovering a system that worked for our household I would delay doing laundry until the last possible moment (ie…someone was out of underwear) then do a huge batch.  The laundry would then sit on the guest bed waiting to be folded and put away.  Many times if you wanted to wear a certain shirt or were looking for clean underwear you had to dig through a massive pile in search for an item.

    Thankfully, we had a season in our life that forced me to get organized in the laundry department as well as other areas.  Several years ago my husband took a contract position in a town an hour and half away from our home.  Since the girls were young and not yet in school the entire family commuted with him on the contract.  The company gave him an allowance for an apartment and we were able to find one less then the amount we were given so we could save a little bit extra.  A couple of the downsides to the apartment being less expensive is that it was tiny and it didn’t have a washer and dryer hookup.  Since we came “home” on the weekends it wasn’t that big of a deal, however, that meant we had to keep track of groceries in two houses plus carting laundry back and forth every week.  During this season in our marriage I learned a lot about organizing and planning especially with living in two places at one time, an apartment during the week and at home on the weekends.  There were several benefits to our family doing laundry only once a week:

    • Less Stress for Mom because once laundry was completed on Saturday it was done for an entire week.
    • More Cost Efficient as far energy, water, and laundry soap.
    • Only 4 Loads of Laundry per week (on a typical week we do 4 full loads of laundry for an entire week:  1 – Sheets & Towels, 2 – Light Clothes, 3 – Dark Clothes, 4 – Whites)
    • Saves Time when I do everything all from start to finish in one day.  The laundry gets washed throughout the day and for about an hour in the evening I take the time to fold, hang up and put away the items.
    • Happy Family – no more digging through piles of clean laundry on the bed looking for underwear or a shirt, etc…. everything is cleaned, put away and ready to be worn.
    • Cleaner Home when the piles of laundry are no longer stacked on our guest room bed or in front of the washing machine our home is neater.
    • Items are Pre-Treated prior to being put in the laundry basket instead of trying to remember which ones to spray when I am putting them into the wash machine.
    • Organized System – having a specific day and task to accomplish enables me to get it done for the week and move onto the other tasks that demand my time and attention

    On the weekend we had to get the laundry done in order to have clothes to wear for the next week so it was a great motivator.   Even though that was several years I still do all our laundry in one day.  I no longer have to get it done on the weekends so currently laundry days are Monday’s at our house.   Everything is washed, folded and put away all in one day.  Since starting this organizational task it has allowed additional freedom in my week plus it has been a blessing to my family.  I no longer dread doing laundry because I know it will be done completely on “laundry day” and I will not have to think about it again until next week.  My family no longer has to dig through piles of clothes looking for something to wear.  It was a win-win situation for everyone.

    Even though that season in our life was difficult balancing the two households looking back on it I realize how many rich blessings and memories were created during that time as well.  It is during the times of stretching and change in our family when we discover new ways to make life more enjoyable for ourselves as well as those around us.  Having the opportunity to look at our organizational system from a different perspective may be all it takes to make it more efficient.

    Do you like doing laundry?  What works for one family may not work for another.  What are ways you use to help make your time doing laundry more efficient?

    Photo by Jon Yu

  • Finding a Warm Spot!

    Our little feather friend found a warm spot between our storm door and back door! She was surprised to see us heading out to play in the snow!

    Recently we had a good 6 plus inches of snow in South Carolina which is pretty rare.  The whole family was out for a little bits throughout the day.  Brina and I lasted the longest the first round of snow playing.  I ended up carrying her up the hill to the house after sledding.  We got inside had hot chocolate, read books, ate lunch, had Snow Ball Ice Cream, did some laundry and relaxed before heading back out.

    The next time when the girls were all bundled up ready to head outside Jake opened the back door to let them out and we were startled to find a “friend” that must have tried to follow Brina and I inside to find some warmth!  We weren’t too excited about having a small bird flying around our house so we sent the girls out the garage then Brina came around to the back of the house to free the bird who was caught between the storm door and the back door of our house.  I think the bird was happy to find such a warm spot until she encountered us.  I am sure she was very glad find another warm spot away from the house!  Even the birds are looking for warmth on the snowy days.  I am thankful for a warm home especially during these cold days.