Thinking Out Loud

Still thinking I am going to change-up my blog…including a new name.  I have a couple of ideas floating around in my head, but nothing ‘just right’ yet.

I have decided to search the bookstore for a copy of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.  Will have to try to do that sometime this weekend.  I need to find a little bookstore filled with dusty old books and lots of character and charm here locally.  I wonder if I could find one closer to the college.

DIY Dish

I like crafts!  I like being crafty!  I like DIY!  I like tutorials and how-tos!  I like all of it!  And so I am excited about the DIY Dish Show. I can’t wait to see what they share. I can’t wait to see what I can learn.

I am also thrilled that they are having a giveaway as well. I’d tell you all about it, but I don’t want you to go to their site. I don’t want you to see that they are giving away a Janome sewing machine AND a Janome embroidery machine. I don’t want you to know how simple it is to enter. But I do hope I win.

*click on DIY Dish Show to go to their site.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.

At the very first company I worked for out of college, the office manager went to a seminar where he was informed that people are more ‘productive’ in the morning.  In order to implement this new found knowledge in the workplace, he instructed all of us that we were not to take any phone calls (business or personal) or answer emails from the start of the business day (7am for some.  8am for others) until after lunch.  We were to use the morning to tackle our most strenuous projects because our mind was fresh and free from distractions.  This lasted about two weeks…

As I get older I realize that we are just not all wired the same.  (I know, for some this is a total ‘no duh!’ statement.  But what can I say?  Sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake.)  While it was really effective for my office manager to spend his morning doing his most arduous tasks uninterrupted by the outside world; that just didn’t apply to everyone across the board.

I am trying to get up at 5am each morning.  I did good for the first couple of days and then I found myself staying up WAY too late to make getting up that early a plausible request.  So for the last couple of days I have gotten up closer to 7.  It was absolute chaos trying to get out the door on time.

I knew that I needed to put the last couple of days behind me and begin again.  So this morning I rolled out of bed at quarter after 5. (close, right?)  Before I left for work I made myself breakfast, washed the dishes, put a load of laundry in the washer and in the dryer, folded and put away two loads of laundry (and that includes hanging up the clothes AND matching socks), showered, dressed and had time to do more than just brush my hair.  All of that, and I made it to work on time today.  I felt so very productive.

And that’s when it hit me like a ton of feathers.

My brain does not function early in the morning (which is why I am still surprised that I passed Zero Hour Geometry).  But I am a workhorse in the morning.  I can plow through physical tasks with an alarming amount of energy.  I can wake up and ‘get it done’.  (Maybe my genealogical roots are from farmers…)  It is not until after lunch (as long as I don’t eat so much that I want to nap) that I am able to truly do any complex thinking.  My brain is alert and awake by then and I can process an abundance of information and make sense of it in my head.  By early evening I am in a lull…I don’t want to be scrub my baseboards, make my grout shine or figure out the hypotenuse of an isosceles triangle.  I want to unwind, decompress, maybe vent a little depending on the rest of my day.  Sp most nights you will find me chatting on the phone (until the battery dies), surfing the web and catching up on my weekly shows.  Ideally, this is the best time of day for me to hang out with friends/family.  I am in a talkative mood (most days) and look forward to sharing and laughing and sometimes even crying.  It’s how I recharge.  Which explains why no matter how tired I was when I got home….I am wide awake by late evening and the creative part of my brain takes over.  I don’t ever seem to get the itch to sew or scrapbook or do all things crafty until after 9pm or so…  And of course once I get started I don’t usually want to stop so I end up staying up way too late making it difficult to get up way too early.

I am coming to the conclusion that I am either going to have to forgo housework of being crafty OR simply learn to function without sleep.

I’m just sayin’

Just because something was always done that way doesn’t mean that there is no other way it can be done.

We could all use a little change…

The time has come.  To say fair’s fair.  To pay the rent.  To pay our share.

The time has come.  A fact’s a fact.  It belongs to them.  Let’s give it back.

Started to write…The time has come to change the look of my blog…and instead started humming the lyrics to Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil.  That happens to me a lot.

Anyway, over the next couple of days I am going to be changing things up…not sure what all I am going to do, but something different.

I like change.

What am I thinking?

I am tired.  Getting up at 5am when you are not used to it, will do that to a person.  So tell me why I am not in bed?  Why am I still up knowing that my alarm is going to go off in a mere 4 hours.  There is no way I will make it through the day if I get up at 5…no way.  And there’s no nap to be had after work since tomorrow is my day to clean the doctor’s office and walk the track after I get off.  So what am I thinking?  Why am I still up?

Mornings…phhhht…they are for the birds

I am on day three (the first day was a flop so started Sunday instead) of waking up at 5am (before the sun is even up mind you).  And can I just say (why…yes you can.) that mornings are over rated!  Okay, I suppose three days isn’t a fair shot, but c’mon people, why would you want to get up before the sun even?  It’s just wrong.

So you early birds…you can have the worm.  I am definitely not awake enough to fight you for it.

…and then I closed my eyes to get rid of this silly allergy headache…woke up 45 minutes later…late.  AUGH!

Definitely Down Five…well maybe

My Weight Watcher weigh-in is on Sundays…so yesterday was the moment of truth for the week.  I tell you, I have been horrible this past week.  Didn’t walk at all…ate out WAY TOO MUCH…you get the picture.

My starting weight was 208.  I had weighed myself at the doctor’s office the Wednesday before I joined, so it wasn’t exactly up to the minute…and given that it was a slide bar scale, it also wasn’t 100% accurate, but still it was close enough.  Then yesterday I bought a scale (and returned it) and bought another one.

According to the new scale…I am down 5 lbs.  (YEA!)   But since my original weigh-in didn’t come from this same scale (and I know how horrible my week was)  I am taking this number with a grain of salt.  Celebrating the possible achievement, but accepting that it might not be accurate.  The proof will come this next Sunday when I weigh-in.

STARTING (1/24/10): 208 lbs/CURRENT (1/31/10): 203 lbs/DIFFERENCE: -5 lbs/GOAL WEIGHT: 135 lbs/TO LOSE: 68 lbs

This year I will…

I decided NOT to make New Year’s resolutions this year. Does anyone actually keep a New Year’s resolution all year?

Instead, I decided to make 13 goals…one for each month and one for the year. (Yes. I am aware that I technically made New Year’s resolutions, but sometimes it’s all in a name)

1. The first goal was fairly simple.  Write down all 13 goals and share them with the people I know will encourage me, support me and hold me accountable. (And adding it here is an extra bonus).
2. Become a morning person. Starting tomorrow (1/30), I will wake up at 5am EVERY day. While I am most definitely a night person,and have been for as long as I can remember, I need to make a change to make my mornings less chaotic, to give myself time to eat breakfast, exercise, spend time in the Word.
3. Start quilts for boys. Create two quilts for the boys beds.
4. Walk daily. Even if it is only for ten minutes…get moving…every day.
5. Clean off one junk collecting flat surface every day. I am notorious for piling junk on the flat surfaces in my house…no table or counter is safe.  It’s cluttered…very cluttered.
6. Evaluate AVON business. After 6 months of selling…is it still working?  Do I have the time and resources to make it more profitable?  What time/energy is required?  Do I have it?
7. Cook dinner at home 4-5 nights per week. Try new recipes.  Try using the crock pot more often.  Try  cooking once a week.
8. Clean out craft room. Is there crafts I have not done?  Supplies I no longer need?  Do I know someone who does?  Can I make a few dollars?
9. Start Christmas shopping/gift making. Don’t get caught up in procrastinating.  Start making the Christmas gifts now.
10. Take a class. Learn to knit or decorate a cake or make hair bows or the newest scrapbook technique.  Just learn something new.
11. Volunteer. Spend time helping others.  Be grateful for what I have.
12. Create a new tradition. Christmas caroling?  Delivering baked goods to the neighbors?  Being a secret Santa?
13. Lose 10% of my body weight (21 pounds). This is my yearly goal.  I have joined Weight Watchers so hopefully I surpass this goal this year.

Sabotaged

I am discovering that I have certain trigger points for eating junk…the biggest culprit is staying up too late. So here it is…a little after one in the morning and I am just now getting sleepy…however this comes after eating two large brownies. AUGH! In my head I knew better…but I was bored (and not the I can’t find anything to do type of bored, but the it’s been so long since I’ve eaten that I must eat again type of bored. Ever felt that way?)
Anyway, I am guessing that if I am going to be successful on this weight loss journey, I am going to have to go to bed earlier. Which is okay, since my goal for February is to get up at 5am EVERY morning…more about that later.

Good night.