Progress Report

I am finally sitting down to write another blog post, despite my month-long dry spell, I am determined to get back to it. Since almost a quarter of the year has passed I decided that a recap of my progress in relation to my New Years Challenges would be suitable. I am simply walking through the challenges and how I am doing with each one:

Challenge 1 - Organization, organization, organization!

I am extremely proud to say that I FINALLY feel like I have made real progress when it comes to organization. This is mostly due to the fact that I spent the better part of spring break on a solo organization mission while my husband and two oldest kids were away at my in-laws. I will touch more on the specifics of this later, but all that is important to note is that my house is mostly organized and it is "20 minutes from company-ready" which I will also explain later. It is a huge relief and though there are some smaller projects here and there to tackle still, the HUGE ones are done!! So stop on by :) (As long as you give me 20 minutes heads up....)

 

Challenge 2 – Continuing to take pride in what we have

This will most likely always be a challenge to us since we are human after all. But, because this is closely related to challenge one I would say we are on the right track with this too.

Challenge 3 – Loving my job and all it entails

I am not loving every day and every moment of my job, but I am enjoying more aspects of it. I enjoy sitting down to eat dinner in a clean kitchen. I enjoy having clean clothes in our closets. I enjoy taking the time to go to the library and the park because I do not feel like I have 7 billion things hanging over me before I have time to go.

Challenge 4 – Do my best at everything I do, from mundane tasks to items of greater importance

Ok, so my best at everything is exhausting! But I think I am doing much closer to doing my best at a lot of things if that makes sense? Oh and I procrastinate less!

Challenge 5 – Stay calm with my kids, or just in general

Well, I still have a temper and I am still not proud to admit that, but I definitely do try to stay calm more often. The organized house and trying to learn to love my job by seeing the joys in my everyday tasks are most certainly helping. Still not doing yoga or meditating....but I am reading for pleasure every night before going to bed and it is a nice end to the day.

Challenge 6 – Keep my mood up

I think my mood is still strapped onto a rollercoaster from time to time, but overall it is much more up than down lately. All the previous challenges feed into this one, so the more I attempt to master those the more I think my mood will even out as well.

Also, my friend Donna held a class about using essential oils in natural cleaning products and we all went home with sample cleaners. I have been using these products and I was telling her that I LOVE my scrubbing cleaner and that I don't mind scrubbing sinks, or tubs or floors or even toilets, which definitely did not use to be the case. Well, turns out that Lemon essential oil, which is what is used in that cleaner, is great for lifting your mood. I have to say, it sure did! If you want to learn about oils or other natural products, check out my friend Donna's FB page.

Challenge 7 – Find exercising fun

In order for me to be able to say that exercising is now something I think is fun I would have to exercise......enough said.....

Challenge 8 – My health and my body

This one is a constant battle especially since I am on a mission to figure out what exactly it is that my kids have a sensitivity/intolerance to and there is a lot of trial and error (mostly error) going on right now. I might touch on this in a separate blog post since there is a lot I can say about what we are testing etc.  Despite feeling like there is little progress I am still not giving up!

Challenge 9 – Keep my expectations in check

This is a bit more hard to measure or gage the progress of. But just being aware of it is most certainly important. Whether I am good at it yet or not that is another story...

Challenge 10 – Go with the flow

I think my youngest is teaching me the art of going with the flow. He is laid back and easy going and not much will throw him for a loop. As a result I at least have moments where I feel like I excel at this as well and I will give you an example. I was at a children's resale store dropping off some clothes and I was browsing while they were generating my offer. I am walking through the aisles with my youngest on my hip when suddenly he projectile vomits! He kindly turned towards me before doing so and therefore soaked my shirt and jacket and nicely splattered my neck and chin too. I will say that it would have been worse if he had turned the other way and sprayed the merchandise or the entire contents of my purse! Despite this less-than-ideal situation, I simply cleaned him and myself up (and yes I ended up buying myself a kids' size 16 shirt just so I could make it home without making my car smelling like baby vomit too) but not at any point did I freak out or feel out of control. It was a weird feeling to calmly walk past other customers, drenched in vomit, on my way to the bathroom and not for one second want to run and hide.

Challenge 11 – Get out of my own way

I might always be in my own way from time to time, but I am trying to gain confidence in myself and my abilities and in certain aspects of my life I do feel like I am indeed succeeding. (See challenge 10).

Challenge 12 – Building and Maintaining Relationships

This one has moved up towards the top of my list and date nights, hanging out with friends, calling someone up are becoming more frequent.

Challenge 13 – Making up my mind

I still cannot make up my mind most of the time....or at least it is still taking time. I will keep working on it!

There is still 3/4 of the year left so lots of time to work on these challenges! I am optimistic that I can do it and I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year has to offer.