Messy Messy Messy

Do you ever just look around at your life and think, "How did I get here?"  I've been having these thoughts for so long now.

I don't know if I am having a mental breakdown, or just finally not trying to keep everything bottled up all nice and tidy, but dang, it sucks.  I cry at the drop of a hat, literally, drop a hat, I will start crying.  I can't say ANYTHING anymore to anyone without feeling all worked up. 

Maybe I just need to find a therapist...maybe I just need to be medicated beyond recognition...maybe I just don't know....

I'll just leave it at that for now. 

Thanksgiving

So another holiday is upon us and well, I for one choose to look at life as a series of happy moments.  So I am going to sit down with my family, eat me some copious amounts of scrummy foods and then I will most assuredly be eating some PIE...I really love PIE, but try not to eat it very often.

So without further ado:

Thinking about Exercise

Anyone who knows me absolutely knows that I hate exercising.  I have disliked it since I was a child.  I think I was traumatized by my gym teacher in elementary school and it sparked an intense dislike for the rest of my life.  And well, since I am now officially a slug, literally only get up to walk to the car, walk into the office, or walk to the bathroom...I know sad right?  But that got me thinking....

I am one of those people who unfortunately want to jump in with both feet, but then when I burn out, as inevitably one would do, I just quit...but if I have a plan...yes, a plan, and one I can easily do each day, then maybe just maybe I can stick with it!

So here is what I came up with:

Day 1 - walk 50 steps, turn around and walk back to couch/chair/car...then each day add 25 more steps each way!  Yep it is THAT EASY (at least on paper) - just start small and add small increments. OMG, this totally made me think about the movie, "What About Bob."

But of course, that naturally got me thinking - how long would it take to get to the recommended 10000 steps in a day...and you know what....199 days that's all - not years, heck not even one year...just 199 days of adding 50 steps each day is all it takes.  And do you know that on day 365 (1 year from starting) I will be walking 18300 steps - that is around 8 miles or so.  Not bad to go from slug to walking 8 miles right?

I'm thinking I might start this now, and to hold myself accountable sign up to do the 5k Turkey Trot run/walk next Thanksgiving.

Dallas Turkey Trot

So who wants to join me - all it takes is a pair of walking shoes, and a small bit of time each day - starting out small of course! BABY STEPS out the door, baby steps around the office, BABY STEPS!  

Planning for Planning

So I have been working very hard at setting up my planner for next year (yep, I'm planning for planning!)

I've tried buying commercial products and while they "work", it was just never as much fun as actually making my own planning pages.  So I put together my calendar already; and yes I started with Monday on my calendar, because for me Saturday and Sunday get lumped together most weekends, so I only included one box for the "Weekend".  I also am doing a gray scale theme this year.  Mostly because friggin colored ink is too darned expensive and I am trying to budget this year.  Well, at least a little bit.

But then I started thinking, what else do I want to put in my planner.  I've got the typical stuff, but then I let my creative juices flow and I came up with a couple of food related pages.  Restaurants I want to try and recipes I want to try.  This is what I came up with for the Recipes page:

Why Do We Fall For It?

So, I was watching some TV this weekend, and saw an ad for Michael's. 

I instantly perked up because I am a sucker for artsy/craftsy things.  I noticed that they were having this MEGA sale...up to 70% off regular price.  And this got me thinking.  I have been in Michael's and other stores, the biggest one that comes to mind is Kohl's, and seen the huge % off signs and thought wow what a sale...but now I always start to think, but wait...who EVER pays the regular price for these items.  I know you are saying this is the regular price, but shouldn't the "regular" price be the price where you can actually sell it? 



After sitting there and thinking about this for a while, I started to feel duped.  I mean, obviously I don't trust stores and their "sales" regularly, but dang, I really started to feel like this is some big conspiracy.  I am sure there is some "psychological" reason for why they do this, I mean they totally sucked me in at first too.  It just seems so manipulative.  Maybe it is just because I have a different mindset now, after finally sitting down and taking a hard look around my home, as well as my bank account and the past 5 years of credit card statements and saying, ENOUGH, but I wonder how many other people actually feel this way?  Am I alone is feeling like they are trying to pull a fast one?

Average

So I was just wondering why all of the blogs and youtube videos are always featuring beautiful amazing looking super models?  I mean, I don't think I'm the doggiest of dogs, but I know I am definitely not a super model.  So where are my peeps?  I mean watching Barbie tell me that eating healthy is easy, or seeing Cindy Crawford explain that you too can be organized, see my beautiful mansion with tons of space and rooms I don't even use?  I just want to watch videos of normal people, with normal lives, and normal incomes.  Is this really too much to ask?

Some insight into all that is ME!

I'm one of those people who constantly has the next big idea...I just have a problem with actually doing them?  Does anyone else have this issue?  Lord knows I have good intentions...I really do...but by the time I actually sit down to plan things out, well, most of those ideas have "POOF" just disappeared, like Christmas lights on Valentines Day, they are few and far between, and the ones you can still see, you really don't want to see!

I've been trying to get better about it..I even started writing things down - only to 6 months later clean out my purse to find a buttload of little scribbled notes that don't make any sense at all.

SOOOO...I decided to give using a planner a try...Currently I am working on various pages I want to include in my planner, and lord have mercy it is too much...if I put all of the pages I want in there, I won't have room for any notes, or I'll be carrying around a 5 foot tall binder.  So I figured the first step is to just pull it out all - get all of my ideas of what I want in the planner, and then I can cull it down and hopefully make something that doesn't resemble an armored truck, or that needs a forklift to carry!

I'll try to post pictures of my progress, and maybe even links to the "templates" I'm using.  I'm pretty much just going the 3 ring binder route, since I don't want to invest a ton of money into a "Planner" when if I know me, I will lose it, misplace it, or just forget I even have it.

So wish me luck as I delve into all that is the Planner Universe...if I'm not back soon, someone please send help, I'm  probably buried under tons of stickers/stickies/cover pages/calendar pages/dashboards!

Let's Get Real about Dollar Tree Organization!

Ok guys, let's be real for a minute.  First of all - yes Dollar Tree has some amazing stuff.  I absolutely love to shop there....BUT, and yes, I like big buts and I cannot lie....most of the bins and things are CHEAPLY made.  Could they hold items - YES, but would they break quickly - DOUBLE YES.  I think that sometimes buying the cheapest isn't always the best.  Sometimes I think it is a better choice to head over to Walmart or Target and look at their crates and things.  They are a better grade of plastic, they hold up better under everyday use.  I mean, if I was looking for a bin to put cotton balls in that weigh nothing and wouldn't have hard angles hitting the sides, then I would go to Dollar Tree, but if I'm looking for sturdy organizational materials, I'm going for the slightly more expensive, but definitely going to last longer options.

Can we also get real about the amount of money you see in these videos?  I don't know about you, but I don't have $100+ to spend on organizational products that are seriously not sturdy.

Do I love the look of all of the bins and containers being the same color and put up on the shelves.  YES, but am I practical enough to realize that putting cheap plastic bins on a top shelf of a pantry is a recipe for having stuff dumped on your head regularly!

When the dollar store sells better quality plastic items that aren't going to bend and break, I would consider it.  But until then, this girl is totally going to other stores and paying a bit more for better quality.

Special Education

American Sign Language

Elmo Reading

Multiplication

Sequence of events

Idioms, Adages, and Proverbs

Idioms

IDIOMS:

Inferences

Making Inferences:

4th Grade Reading Comprehension

United State of America and Capitals

The states and capitals:

How it works - Solar Energy

SOLAR ENERGY: