This is the year...

I started looking back at the last (almost) 6 months and I got discouraged by the feeling that we have "not done anything" this year. Knowing very well that this is not actually the case I decided to take a closer look and note some of the things we have indeed done, big and small.

This is the year...

1. We looked down at our hands and truly admitted that our thumbs are not even the slightest shade of green. 
As a result we drastically reduced our flower bed in the front yard, replacing the large patch that has been meant for nice and colorful flowers a much smaller patch with some green and white striped grass, oh and our lawn grew a couple of feet too. We no longer try to convince ourselves and others that we are able/willing to keep a nice and colorful flower-filled patch in front of our house staying nice and flower-filled. Just trying to keep the stripey grass and the new patches of lawn from dying was an accomplishment in itself. Also, we hired out lawn guy back so now our lawn gets mowed and our hedge and palm tree get trimmed on a much more regular basis and we are all much happier as a result of it!

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....)

Conversation...is it still an art?

I just got one of those envelopes in the mail that contains a bunch of ads and coupons for restaurants, gutter and roofing companies, carpet cleaners and mechanics etc. I usually flip through the stack quickly because you never know when there might be one in there that is for a company I actually use or intend to contact.

As I was flipping through the stack today there were mostly the same old ads that I have no interest in but then one caught my eye. It had the words “Create a conversation starter” on the front. It was an ad for customized smart phone cases. My immediate thought was “This is the way to start a conversation with someone???!!! Maybe I am really old fashioned but how about putting the phone down and then you would be able to start a conversation with the person the old-fashioned way. Maybe you could start by making eye contact with the person?  Maybe paying them a compliment, or say something about your surroundings or circumstances; or comment on the weather for that matter?