Hello April!

Can't believe we're entering the end of the 1st quarter of this year.
Goes by so fast!

Things have been uber-crazy at our house with Jason getting his job & getting the house ready to sell, so I can't say I've been very consistent on much of anything, HOWEVER, I did:

-Run 8 miles by the end of March! Hooray! My running has been spotty, but I was determined to get this goal. I hope to start the biking & swimming soon.

So... looking at April, I am excited in a way to have Jason go back to work, just because I think I'm more consistent w/ things when I don't have him to fall back on & I have to take full accountability of my day.
So, here's what I'm focusing on for April:

-BED ON TIME. Yes, I know. It never ends. BUT - if I'm going to be able to work out, I can't go in the middle of the day anymore, so I need to get to bed early, so I can wake up, do personal study & work out.

-ROUTINES. Yes, again broken record. Need to get back on the wagon w/ my routines. Especially looking at my goals and schedule before the day starts EVERY day.

-Clean house. This goes hand-in-hand w/ the other 2, but I really need to MAINTAIN my clean house, so that it can be ready to show in a short amount of time. It's SO much easier to maintain than clean up.

-Look for more opportunities for kindness & the golden rule. I've been so wrapped up in myself & our changes that I haven't taken the time to really serve & help others.

-Dressed, apron on, BED made before breakfast. This should be easier to do now that Jason has a job & has to get up!

-"suffer the children to come & forbid them not" I have been so overwhelmed w/ everything that I've had a very short temper w/ the girls & have been trying to just basically avoid them so I can get stuff done. I need to seek them, cuddle with them, LISTEN to them, LOVE them.

Anyway, that's what I'm workin' on! Looking forward to these changes!

A Dream Come True

The last few weeks have been full. I am beginning to see some speaking opportunity dreams come true. Angie, Kerri and I formed a speaking group entitled PEACE IN A NEW DAY (Trisha was the one who came up with the actual title). As the Marketing and networking specialist Angie set up many speaking engagements along with a bloghttp://www.peaceinanewday.blogspot.com/ (Trisha created it)and we are on facebook as well. I have wanted to share my story with others and now with Gods help I will be able to do this much more in our group. Thanks Father- please help us bless others (and stay balanced in the mean time)

With the look of spring outside I wanted to review and revise my hopes for the year. I don't expect you to read them all but it was fun to revise.
Love,
Patricia

Progress not Perfection

I was grateful to be part of the discussion about this year’s theme. It seems so perfect! I hope to make progress in a few areas by weekly (or daily in some cases) reviewing them and simply recording whether I fell short, made some progress or made good progress.



Here are the areas I want to make progress in throughout the year:

Personal
Physical
• Taking a 2 minute aerobic/stretch break every hour or so
• Better eating choices: Fruits & Veggies
• Better eating choices in portions
• Exercise every other day or so
• Aerobics/stretch break every hour or so
• Drink water
Spiritual
• Kneel while praying more often
• Saying Thank you (poems etc.)
• Learn to do family history, gather names and do temple work.
• Music before bed and in morning
Mental
• memorizing names of people
• Speed reading
Emotionally
• Using EFT when needed
Marriage
• Reading and applying the “love dare”
• Offer to do”bugs
• 4 get-aways
• Sunday planning
• Temple every few months
• Get to bed earlier more often
• Create goals together
Family
• Be willing to help the our children (moving, pregnancies, deliveries, school etc.)
• Finish mom and dad’s history dvd’s
• Do something with Christmas tapes
• Temple with girls
• Scrapbook time.
• Visit Joseph and Tiff
• Help Cindy weekly with study time
• House total down to $145,000.00
• Call/contact Althea, Richard
• Mom & Dad interviews
• Tew-reunion, Mapleton, water day, McBurton’s Farm,
• Help Heidi move
• St. Patricks/Halloween party
• Help Trisha with Baby Parker
• Trisha’s shower
• Mini-books for grandkids
• Perpetual calendar for Christmas
Home
• Patch and paining (Cindy’s help)
•
Callings/Serving
• Learn to use power point in primary. Use it and transparancies often
• Learn and embrace primary songs
• Frequently play inspirational music in the background
• Learn names of primary children
• Call/visit less actives every few months
• Help tutor people recovering from depression (paradym shift lessons)
Professional (writing, speaking singing, guitar teaching)
Writing
• Create an ancestorial perpetual calendar
Speaking
• Speaking with Kerri and Angie
- New website
- Business cards
- Power point
- Secure speaking engagements
- Regular meetings
Singing
Guitar Teaching

It's 8am...

and I've already done my personal study, ran 5 miles & I'm dressed!
HOORAY for waking up at 6:30am!
I realize that this will not happen EVERY day, but I gotta celebrate when it does!

progress...

Hello! How is everyone out there doing?
This past week was good for me! Kezi has now gone an entire week sans-binki & it's generally getting better every day. My 2 goals I was really intently focusing on last week went well - drinking water (I still would like to find a container I LIKE to use & I think I'll do even better) and getting my house clean. Currently, my whole house is straightened. I would not be ashamed if one of you were to walk right in & check things out. I even got my pantry & storage room organized!

So... here's what I'd like to focus on this week:
-Get up by 7am!! This is my #1 goal this week. I would LOVE to be up by even 6:30. That would make such a difference in my day, but if I'm up by 7am, it would still be great!
-Get the kids going on their morning things. I made a new chart for them & hope that it's going to give them (and ME!) some accountability to get things done. I'd really like to have it all done by 10:30am so I am go running/work out.
-House Cleaned! I have a spring cleaning list that I'm working on & I'd like to have all the cleaning things checked off by the end of the week.
-Better about Jason & I's one-on-one time at night. We commit to have at LEAST 20 minutes of non-electronic time. I always look forward to it, but lately it hasn't been happening consistently.
-My running has been sub-par the last couple weeks & it will be a stretch to be to 8 miles by the end of the month, but I'm working on it. I'd like to get 5, 6.5 & 7.5 miles in this week!

Also - please pray for us. Jason had 4 interviews last week. We are praying one will pull through. Thanks!!!

MARCHing orders

Hola! Again, please forgive my lack of posts. My goal is to get on here every week & post an update. I think I'm letting the guilt take over a bit. I nowhere near where I had hoped now that we're already into the 3rd month of the year, but I do feel I've made progress from last year. In the past couple weeks, I feel good about my progress with:

-Running - I ran 7 miles last week. Hope to get to 7.5 this week & 8 by the end of the month. Then I'll feel good about starting to cross-train and work on swimming & biking so I can be ready for the tri in July. I still wish the scale would move a bit faster, but I'm trying not to get hung-up on that & just focus on my overall health.
- Date nights - Thanks to my neighbor Robyn & mom, we've been able to have some fun dates in the past month.
-Stop eating 2 hrs before bed. Not perfection, but definitely progress.

This week is our "weaning Kezi from the binki" week, so I'm going to be realistic here & not try to overdo it, knowing I'm not going to have enough sleep, so for the first few days, I'm just going to try and hang in there & just focus on the day-to-day tasks.

I still would like to work harder on a couple important things:
-Personal Study in the morning - especially the Book of Mormon. Remember the object lesson in Relief Society, where they have all the golf balls & things that are supposed to fit in the jar. When they put the little ones in first, everything doesn't fit, but when they put the bigger balls in first, the smaller ones fit. I NEED to put the personal study first, THEN I will get more done during the day - priorities.
-Drinking water (I've regressed on this & need to work harder at making this something I do naturally)
-I've gotten way behind on my housework. By the end of the week, I'm going to work on having a clean home - even the downstairs.

Thanks everyone for being on top of it & giving ideas & support. Here's to a great March!

Loosing momentum

I was doing well with my calorie count and my physical therapy and taking breaks every half our or so. I've hit a slump. My M&M (momentum and motivation) went out the door when m&m's decided to visit (you'd think they despise each other). Anyway, I am leaving for a 2 week road trip today and I hope I can keep more of the good choices with me...