Smart Habit Saturday

The Lazy Organizer hosts a weekly discussion about Smart Habits. Click on the picture to read more about it and join in on this worthwhile quest.

I was just thinking about habits this past week. I remember reading that it takes 21 days to make a habit but only one day to break it. Honestly though, I have been trying to convince myself that learning some new and healthier habits would be beneficial for me. So here it goes:

1. Drink primarily water and lots of it.


2. Exercise daily, even if it is short.


3. Do something to relax, even if it is also short.


4. Eat more vegetables.


5. Clean one area of the house each day.

That's my top five for this week.

While I'm on this topic, I think I'll re-cap what some of my habits actually are:

1. Snooze - daily - this is not such a good habit. (hubby taught me that)


2. Feed the kitties - daily in the morning. (they love me for it)


3. Check e-mail and blogs - daily in the morning. (sometimes in the evening too)


4. Prayer/Praise walks - 5/7 days of the week in the morning.


5. Devotions - daily - good habit.


6. Drinking coffee - daily (what can I say, I live with a Coffee Master) - probably not the greatest habit to have


7. Eat ice-cream only on Sundays (I would eat it every day if I would allow myself, but it sabatoges dieting efforts fast)


8. Brush my teeth - daily 2-3x. Very good habit.


9. Shower - daily. Also a good habit.


10. Love on my husband - daily. Hugs, kisses, encouragement... etc.

Dining Room Project Revealed

Well folks, it has been a long, grusome, inconvenient week. Last weekend we started this latest project. It was something that REALLY needed to be done and had been put off for far too long. We don't have air-conditioning, so this project was a hot one, and put off for the same a couple of evenings. He finished the trim in the 'computer corner' last night. He will probably finish the rest of the trim tonight. He's looking forward to getting some crown moulding too, but that can wait a while. This will be a very elegant room one day. Hopefully we'll be able to move the computer upstairs soon. Keith's Dad is giving us a formal dining room table/chairs, so we wanted this space to accomodating for that.

Take a look... see what we've done. What do you think?

Dining Room Before Pictures

For over a year, we covered the large hole in the carpet with a throw-rug. Hey, it was functional... just not pretty!

We didn't have to cut the old carpet. It ripped easily to reveal the carpet padding and accumulated dust left behind.

My handy-husband disposed of the old carpet and its padding and dirt to expose the old tack-strips. Here he is removing those nasty little buggers.

This is our new floor in progress!

Handy-hubby cuts pieces to fit.

New register cover - lovely.

Fresh white trim completes the project!

Dining Room Progress

The dining room work is almost finished. I'm HOPING that we will be able to finish it tonight. Once it's done I should be able to get my computer hooked up again, so then you will get to see pictures. I can't wait. :)

Update: Marriage Monday - Honoring My Husband

Last night's conversation:

Me: So how can I honor and respect you more?

Him: You do a fine job already.

Me: But there is always room for improvement.

Him: I don't know what to say. You do a good job. I'm sure there is always room for improvement, but I don't know where.

Me: Wow, that's so good to hear. (pause) Do I nag you?

Him: No you really don't nag.

Me: (hand gesture) YES!!!!! I mean, I'm so glad to hear that.


So there we have it... an update on NOTHING. This is hard when HE won't give me any pointers. So that turns my focus back onto me. What are things that I see that need work? I realize that I should not have complained about his not leaving the air conditioning on the other night. I was annoyed with him and I let him know it. Maybe I should have just let that one pass. I told him I was sorry for complaining.

I can report that I listened to him talk about work yesterday and sincerly took interest. He's talking about yet another potential store-change... to one even closer to home, which would be fantastic. He won't know until next week. It's delightful to hear of his accomplishments. His manager and district manager really believe in him and have identified him as a "strong" individual. This is a good thing. I'm so proud of him. I'm so thankful that he loves his job!

Calico Comments

There is just something about crawling into a bed made with fresh clean linens and comfy pillows. An odd thing about me (well some might think it's odd - I don't) is that I don't like to crawl into an un-made bed. If he is the last to awaken in the morning and I come home to an un-made bed, I will make it before I get in it. (even if it's the moment before I go to bed) I don't know why I'm like this. I don't think I learned it in my youth. It may have been something I acquired as an adult. I don't really recall.

Our house is in utter disarray. Wait until you see the result though! I can't give it all away now. You will have to wait to see the pictures. Let's just say that there is currently NO FURNITURE in the dining room. For this same reason, our living room literally has a path through it and the kitchen is only semi-functional. Oh but it will be so worth it in the end!

I've been a little out of my routine for a couple of weeks but am committed to claiming it back THIS WEEK. I did get some rest this past weekend, which I am so thankful for. Last night I got back on the treadmill. I waited for the late evening when things cooled off, although it was still rather hot and humid. This morning I was back on it again early. Now if I could only get back on-line at home. Hmmm....

Soon I must make more progress on cleaning the upstairs spare room. I have to move out of my work-office by July 9th. Where will I go? I have some small space at another local in the hospital, but I need to be able to spread out and do some of my work at home. Time is what I need and I havn't had a lot of it for such projects. I need to just buckle down and DO IT.

At the same time... another project that is calling my name is cleaning my truck and Dad's car. I have a friend interested in looking at Dad's car. I need to either get my truck on the road or just plain SELL IT. (I'd prefer the latter) So when might I be able to accomplish such things? Not exactly sure, but it needs to be SOON!

Ok. Enough for today. I must accomplish bigger and better things.

Marriage Monday - Honoring My Husband

Fruit In Season's Marriage Monday Husband Honoring Challenge continues. This week we are to focus on honoring our husband's work.

For those of you who do not know, my husband is a soldier turned teacher turned youth pastor turned Barista turned Coffee Master and Shift Manager... and on a career track with his employer. He is educated - Bachelor's Degree and about a year shy of a Master's Degree in Youth Ministry. While he is not a practicing teacher and/or youth minister, he is full blown coffee-a-holic who absolutely LOVES his job. Have I mentioned how much he loves his job?! (It's Starbucks in case you didn't know)

I think that what I can do to further encourage him in his work is to simply lend an ear as he recaps his work-day. He loves to talk about his co-workers, his customers, and the interesting things that happen where he works. You'd be surprised what all goes on there. I must confess, I often get tired of hearing about his work. I mean... I'm enthusiastic about it most of the time, but some days he can think of nothing else to talk about and it gets old. THIS is where I have to work on my honoring. I MUST refrain from tuning him out in these circumstances. I will aspire to listen intently and show interest in his work. I will make a conscious effort to tell him each day... "I love that you love your job." And this couldn't be more true!!!!

I shall continue to pray for him daily and learn new ways to honor him as the Lord lays them on my heart.

Snippets of Summer 2007

We aren't even that far into the summer and we've already had plenty of fun-filled adventures. One thing about not having children is that we can just up and go at any time so long as our schedules are free. I always say we should enjoy these times as SOMEDAY we might not be so flexible.



Anyway, going back a couple of weeks... we scored tickets to the Pocono 500. It's crazy how we ended up with them. From what I gather... the garbage company gave them to someone who gave them to their tenents who gave them to a relative who gave them to me... who shared them with my darling hubby who has been just DYING to go to a Nascar race for years! As it goes, we packed up in a jiffy and headed that way. My sister's inlaws were kind enough to allow us to layover at their cabin the night before.

The race was good. We got there early and spent hours doing what race fans do... buying race attire and visiting vendor displays. He got a t-shirt. I got a hat. We picked up a hat for a friend. We loaded up with tons of freebie stuff too. It was hot, but rainy. They rain delayed the race for about 4 hours. When they finally raced, they called a caution after about a hundred laps for more rain. That's when we decided to scoot home. As it goes, they called the race shortly thereafter. The ride home was SO LONG. We were sunburned and TIRED!!!!

Thanks Rene'e and Co. for thinking of us! We appreciated all you did to make it a memorable experience!

Another week was deemed a fun-filled-farmlife-frenzie! We put in hay... lots of it! Gloves are wonderful you know, especially lightweight leather gloves. They save you from many many many blisters! It's a good feeling to have a barn-full of fresh baled hay. It smells good, but the workers do not! We cough, spit, sweat, and sputter! That hard-core dust fills our lungs and sticks to the inside of our noses. EWWWWW!!!!! The chore is done for the season after only a few days. Other farmers will continue the frenzie, but for us... well... we have all that we need to last us until this time next year.

The chicks hatched ONE WEEK AGO. I saw them yesterday and they have grown 4x the size of the egg. I'm not going to tell you what kind of chicks because that would just give it away... see pictures below.

We walked for Epilepsy last weekend. I aspire to do more organized walks of this sort in times to come. Really it didn't seem very far or very difficult. Of course, if I had been running it would have kicked my butt! Our team raised over $900 for the cause and the overall event raised over $50,000. THANK YOU to all of you who contributed to this effort. So many friends and family are directly affected by Epilepsy. We all appreciate your kind support!

Following the walk we hit the Pittsburgh Zoo for an afternoon of gawking. Isn't that what people do there? One of K's co-workers gave us free tickets. We are all about finding a bargain you know! It was a nice afternoon out with my hubby. I think some of our pictures would make nice home-made greeting cards. My niece and nephew are "into" writing these days. Hmmm... that would make a nice little gift for them. Shhhh...

Last night I was afforded the opportunity to help Rene'e at the farm. Now this would just make my Grampy proud... (both of them actually) I brush-hogged the back pasture with the Farmall H. Oh you know I was just out there in my glory thinking to myself... "If Grampy could see me now!" (I wish I had thought to have her take some pictures.)

So that's about it. I'm posting some pictures from some of our excursions below. There are a few "Guess what this is" type posts. Give it a whirl... see if you can guess what they are.

Happy Summer everyone!

What are these?

Hint... they grow in a tree.

Barn Full = Load off (pun intended)

A barn full of hay...
Tired feet...

Summer Pretties

HINT HINT

Lucy and Percy

My Pal... Duke. (Riley in the background)

Guess what these are!

6 days old...

Nothing to be messed with!

Spitters

Guess what this is...

Hint... It's not me!!! That would not even be nice!

Polar Bear

Gorillas

Elephant Butts