So, I made it. here I am for the second week in a row to let you know about the progress I have made on my goals. Yay! I guess that means that telling you about my goals is now a goal. HA!

On the weight front: minus one pound to 152.6. I was hoping for more than this since I know I burned about 10,000 calories mowing the yards this week. But, I also ate fast food Saturday and had a family reunion on Sunday, and treated myself to this after I finished the yards:

It was a real rough day. And the fun didn’t end there, because on Wednesday morning, dh called his boss and quit his job. That’s a mixed bag, since it was costing so much in gas for him to continue driving all over the place, but… *gulp* he quit his job. You can expect me to be talking about new financial goals next week, I guess.

And on reading, not so great. I did take three items off the pile, but I added about five. I did not meet my goal of one item off the pile per day, but it was indeed a crazy week. I went over to Mama’s on Wednesday afternoon and stayed until 9 beading, and then I went back on Thursday morning and stayed until 9pm again. I got a lot of pieces made, but I didn’t have the mental energy needed to read after that. I may need some accountability help in that regard, ya think? Although, I am not holding the lack of reading against myself considering what I got done. Also, you should totally check out my awesome handmade jewelry. It’s gorgeous, and I need money. HA!

Well, then, it appears that it might be time to bring ya’ll up to date on some of the goals I have set for myself. I have good news and bad news.
Weight first. Last week, you may recall that I said nothing about my weight. That is because I was too embarrassed to say that I had gained a pound. And also, because I remembered telling you all the send someone to paddle me if I didn’t stick to the plan I set up. Well, I knew I had gained because of the Orlando trip, and when I got home, I didn’t quite stick to the plan. Oops. This week, however I am back on track, and I’ve lost 1.2 pounds from last week. My new weight is 153.6. When I started on September 5th, it was 153.8. So yeah, a whole month, and I’m basically the same. Yay me. Or not, but whatever, there it is. This week I lost weight.

Magazine and other reading second. I committed to reading one magazine per practice day not too long ago, and that worked for me for a while. Then, I started walking with a friend during practices, then the sun started setting earlier, and then I got a butt load of knitting and cooking books to review over at Cass Knits! and well….this is what my read it pile looks like now:

Plus the ones in the basket in my room. Yeah, so obviously, the thing about one per practice day is not going to cut it, and I am going to be forced to take drastic measures here. I am going to be forced to commit to reading every day. For an hour. See, here is the problem: I love love love to read. The drive to read is second only to the drive to create for me. And so I see both reading and creating as rewards. I only do them if I have everything else done. And as many times as I have told myself I should be nicer to me, it isn’t happening, at least not in regards to the creating and reading. So right this minute, I am going to my Google calendar, and I am typing in read for an hour, and setting it to “daily”. The crafting, I’ll deal with after football season, when I will once again take Saturdays to feed the muse.

K. So that’s where I am in these two areas and a roadmap for how to get where I want to be. If I don’t keep my goals this time, instead of sending someone, feel free to come yourself.

Sorry, ya’ll, I spent Friday in a spin, remember? I never got my weekly weight posted, though I did get on the scale. I have to tell you, I was pretty scared. I came back weighing a bit more than I did when I left, and truly, I expected it, because….well, when I travel certain things just stop working like they should, and that’s all I will say about that. Once I got back home, things started getting back to normal, and I lost quite steadily all through the week, ending up at 152.8, down a pound since September 5th. Not quite goal, but I was happy with it, since I spent 5 days eating restaurant food, and maybe having a few drinks. *cough*

Now that I am back home, I am continuing to walk during practices, but it is sure getting nippy out there in the evenings. I don’t think I will much be wanting to go outside for walking once practices end, so I am looking at alternatives. I’ve been thinking for awhile that I want to try yoga, but I am not sure that assuming contortionist positions that leave me precariously balanced is the wisest course of action, living here as I do with lots of active little people. I’ve been thinking I would be better off with some sort of dance or aerobics, and if they could join me, well that would be good, too.

With all that in mind, I was intrigued when I saw this XFLOWSION contest. XFLOWSION combines dance, power yoga and martial arts into a program that promises to burn fat and tone muscle. That translates to less jiggle in my wiggle, and that would suit me just fine. It was designed by Eric Paskel, who has trained some fine Hollywood hotties, and if it’s good enough for Hollywood, it’s good enough for me. At least as far as exercise. Some of that other Hollywood stuff, I’m just not real sure about, but we won’t go there just now, either.

Now listen: there is no getting around the fact that this post is compensated, but you know I would not lie to you. The reason I am writing this post is not for the money. No. I want the videos. They are offering 20 bloggers the exercise DVDs, and I want them, because I think they will genuinely meet the need I have for fun exercise that I can do with the kids around. And maybe they will join me and not laugh at me, and then that’s just an all around win, don’t you think?

Sorry I didn’t get over here last night. I came home from practice and went right to work on my jewelry making, and that was all I did until bed time. I didn’t even get my rss feeds read! I did make some very pretty things, which I will be listing for sale on my craft blog later today.

Today, I am rushing trying to take care of last minute things, because I am going out of town tomorrow. I’ll be gone until Monday evening, so I won’t be posting again until at least Tuesday. I can’t take the laptop since it is still deskbound (sigh. cry. whine. pout.), so I guess I will be forced to spend time interacting with actual humanoids. Oh the horrors!

There will be no SPS this week, but please don’t fret, because I will take pictures in Orlando, and I will prepublish a plce holder so you can all hook up with one another in my absence.

Of course, that means I will also miss my Friday weigh-in, so I weighed today. I am pleased to report that I have lost another 1.2 pounds, and am just .3 pounds away from the goal I had set for this coming Friday. I am planning to watch what I eat on my trip pretty carefully, because I do NOT want to be going backwards in the weight department.

Also, I now fit in my neice’s cast off size 16.5 girls stretch blue jeans. And, that, my friends, is hawt. Very, very hawt. Probably scandalously hawt. Perhaps even Harper Valley PTA hawt. Hawt.

Because Fat Friday is just too dang discouraging. Last week, I got very frustrated because my dial scale would not go back to zero after I stepped off. I realized it was no longer giving accurate weights, and I need it to be accurate. I also realized this was a result of sharing a scale with little people. So, when I found a digital scale at Wal-Mart for 20 bucks, I bought it. I know, as I am sure you do as well, that each scale weighs differently, but I was still decidedly displeased to see that this scale determined that I weighed 155.4 pounds, even though I had NOT gained weight. Sigh. I refuse to wallow in that, because it is totally too late to change my starting weight, but I committed to a 10% loss in body weight over the next 10 weeks. That means that I should weigh my desired 140 on or before November 7.

I’ve put myself back on the 1200 calorie a day diet, and I am walking each time I take the kids to practice. In fact, one night this week I power-walked without meaning too, and ended up with sore hip flexors. I went around all Wednesday complaining that my butt hurt! It worked though! Today when I weighed, 6 days after the shocking and painful 155.4, I was down 1.6 pounds!!

New weight: 153.8
New goal: 152.3

Again, it sounds so officious, but it is what it is, and what it is is the February Report. I suppose the easiest way to do this is just go in the same order I did it last month. If I don’t have anything to say about an area, I’ll do a novel thing and not say anything. Crazy, in’n't?

Crafting
Yep, made some stuff, didn’t spend any money, see the craft blog for details.

Financial
Kept the current current, and added Mama as planned. In March I want to keep all the current stuff paid up, plus Mama, and work on getting light bill current. We’ve had some big setbacks this month and some good things as well, so it’s mostly evened out.

School
Going ok, still not doing group stuff as much as I like, BUT I did finish the first purge of the house and I was sick for this entire last week. I’m looking to do much better with this in March, and I’ll talk a bit more about that in the next category.

Family More, Internet Less
Here’s an area where I am coming under more and more conviction. I just cannot get away from the fact that I am too involved in cyber-life to the detriment of my real life. Umm, I think I put it aptly this morning when I said “I am so busy writing that I’m not living.” My kids are suffering, as are my husband, my house, my skill sets and oh yeah, me.

Time with Dh
Does watching tv count, if we are at least in the same room together? If so, then this is going better. If not, well………..I suck.

Weight Loss
154 as I reported earlier this week.

Bible Reading
And now I have ditched the chart. I’m back to reading an actual Bible before I even get out of bed. At least that way it’s getting done.

Reading
I finished the wifing book today. It’s by Debi Pearl and it’s called Created to be his Help Meet. Don’t think that I don’t know the Pearls are considered to be controversial in some circles, but I am telling you that this book will change the way you look at your role of wife. It could in fact change your life. I highly recommend it, and the friend who sent it to me quite possibly saved my marriage. It took a long time to read it, because I was trying to put what I was learning into practice. It was well worth the time involved.

House Cleaning
I officially finished the first purge and clean yesterday. Yeah, I said first. It took six weeks, but it was so much fun that I plan to do it again, immediately. See, I kinda skimped on the cleaning part for the month of February and went righ to the purging part. I’ve got some walls that need cleaning, and corners tha need whisk-broomed, etc.

To-Do list
Nothing much on this beyond being shocked to discover it was 6 pages long. What kind of person ends up with a 6 page to-do list? I’ll begin to shorten it this month. Oh, I guess something did happen: I didn’t add anything to it, and when your list is 6 pages, that oughta count for something.

Organizing
Oh, as noted above, much my stuff is together. Now I can begin work on my thoughts and ideas and get something done with my days aside from just getting through them!

Better Blogger
Umm, I sorta missed the February 2007 figure, huh?
Jan 2008 –1,555 visitors
March 2007 –1,070 visitors
Feb 2008 — 1,257 visitors. This is down from January, but my posting was also down by quite a bit, and I didn’t really write much I considered SU worthy. Something about all that cleaning and all that being sick and all the other stuff that I managed to cram into the shortest month of the year.

Craft Trip
Family Trip
Travel alone
Prayer
Christmas

Oops: forgot to put in the thing this post wasn’t about– land for sale Branson

Oh, that sounds so officious, doesn’t it? I’ve decided to go ahead and update on my goals just once a month. I may have other posts through the month that I did this or that, but as far as a total run-down, once is enough. So, here’s what I did in January:

Crafting
Yes, I finished something. No, I didn’t spend money. Goal met so far. See craft and family blog for more on that.

Craft Trip
I’ve thought on this, and it is something that I want to do, but not until I can do it without stressing over the money. If I am able to pull it off, we’ll likely be going to Charleston.

Financial
In January, I brought the phone bill current, and paid some on the other bills I took responsibility for, with the exception of the loan from my mother. I’ll try to maintain that progress in February and add her in as well. (I also have to buy some books for school in Feb.)

School
This is going as planned, except that I have allowed myself to get distracted and so our group stuff has not happened. Also, I need to add some scouting stuff to our days and PDQ.

Family More, Internet Less
I was going so good on this for about a week, and then?? Hmmph. Seriously need to get back on track with it, though. Part of the problem here is that I let some depression kick my booty, and got out of the early rising habit, so I can’t get my work done before noon, so I am here longer, and then I just sit here.

Family Trip
Nothing on this yet, mostly due to financial issues.

Travel alone
Word on the internet street is that there will be a PostieCon 2008, and that it will be held in Orlando. This will likely be my alone travel, and hopefully, I’ll not fall into the same traps I did last year.

Time with Dh
We went to see Sweeney Todd this month, and had a good time. I’d like to go out again this month. I’ve also been making a concerted effort to send the kids to bed earlier and spend more time with him alone here at home. That’s real cheap alternative, since the only cost is…well, never you mind that.

Weight Loss
Woohoo, I’m down to 156/157.

Prayer
Ang. and I were praying every morning for a while. I guess that really hacked the devil off, because lately we’ve been forgetting to do that, though we find plenty of time to talk about everything else under the sun. We did see some awesome, awesome things come about as a direct result of that prayer time, so I’d like to get back to it.

Bible Reading
I also ditched the Bible in a year book, because I am so out of practice with KJV English that it was distracting me. I am using the NKJV Bible in a Year chart from Crosswalk.com.

Reading
I am still reading the wifing book, but I did not finish it and I don’t want to rush it, so I picked up Charlotte Mason Education and read it instead. It was thin and went quickly, and I’ll talk more about that on my family blog as well.

House Cleaning
To-Do list
Organizing
Slow and steady wins the race here. Kitchen done, bathroom purged but the floor still needs cleaning, and my bedroom is in progress. My current plan involves taking out non-essentials, and whatever I can’t find room to put back in needs to GO. The to-do list is not getting done, in spite of the fact that it’s a lot of computer work, and I sit here too much, but I will get there. I think I need to make an effort to do at least one of those things per day. There are 105 items on the list. Organizing is happening with the cleaning.

Christmas
Not even worried about it, yet.

Better Blogger
January 2007 visits: 1076
December 2007 visits: 1154
January 200 visits: 1541
I can live with that.

No fractional ownership here, I’ll claim it all. And we’ll talk about this more on the 29th of February.