I was blog reading this morning and one of the organizational blogs I read had a snippet from a book, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.
Here is the snippet:
The October 11 entry in Simple Abundance has this story.
Here is the snippet:
The October 11 entry in Simple Abundance has this story.
I
do know a wonderful woman who was very active in her children's school
for many years, largely because after she had volunteered a generous
amount of her personal time, no one else came forward to take her
place. The hours she put into her PTA related work were the equivalent
of a full-time but unpaid second job.
When she made the
terrible discovery that she had breast cancer, she admitted to close
friends that in a strange way, she was relieved. Cancer meant she could
start saying "No," create boundaries, and finally put down the school
committee burden without guilt. Now she could ransom back her life.
After all, no one expects a woman fighting breast cancer to do anything
but take care of herself.
Many of us can say we don't know how to say no in certain situations. I've been dealing with this lately and really being honest on the things I can/cannot handle. I've already reduced some of my responsibilities outside of my secular employment. I'm contemplating reducing other volunteer jobs soon also. Getting clear on what I want to accomplish with my self improvement projects will help me see what will fit within that and what responsibilities wont. Life is much to short to be over extended and do things you don't want to do.
Have you ever faced having to say no or saying yes when you really want to say no?
This morning I spent about 10 minutes cleaning out my hotmail inbox. Wow that was nice I had so much promotional emails and newsletters that I knew most of those 1500 emails could be deleted...I got them down to 29 unread and 571 total!!! go me go me!!
Have you cleaned out your inbox lately???
Have you cleaned out your inbox lately???
Well as you know for the last few months I've been working on improving myself in many categories of my life. I've mad progress in some areas but haven't gotten around to others. One of the things on my list to improve is friendships. Something I've been continually reminding myself of is to invest in people. Invest my time invest my abilities, invest what I can to help and support people which is being a good friend.
This morning I was catching up on the blogs I subscribe to and came across a posting from lifehack.org called: How to Break-Up With a Friend normally I read the titles at lifehack.org and know i want to go back and read them so i mark them as unread and star them to go back. Well the flow chart graphic they used really caught my interest and got me to read the whole article.
It was a pretty good article. I didn't really have any friends to break up with but what really spoke to me today was the answer to this sentence: "If you are someone who has realized that maybe you haven’t been the
best friend you should be, it’s never too late to make amends."
Well I'm not sure that I've alienated anyone yet but I do know that I do want to be come a better friend. The 3 points shared were:
Communication
I think I have definitely improved in this category. I more often initiate communication with my friends. I'm trying to move further away from mass email updates as my only communication and more personal emails, phone calls, and actual snail mail. I still need to improve my follow up with activity the next point
Activity
I am definitely aware that I need to work on this area. I've just now gotten to the point where going out with ds to the store or to play is possible. Before having to have all the milk and bottles, diapers clothes, etc. etc. etc. Was just too much so I'd wait until dh or my mom could come long with me. I'm also seeing more and more the importance of Mommy time. I'm looking forward to scheduling this in and I'll use this time to bond more with my friends.
Support
This point was interesting to think about. I've come to find that I don't have any close friends where I rely on them and they rely on me. I have my husband and family but beyond that there isn't anyone else. I recognize this as something I will have to be aware of once I get more friends.
Which leads me to one of my hearts desires for along time has been to get a close friend. I would say that I used to have close friends most in high school. Once I was engaged and eventually married alot of my single friends kind of drifted away because there was a level of disconnect we still had couple friends but soon after we had our baby we've drifted away from our couple friends too. You know how it goes your lifestyle changes and you look to relate to your friends who are in the same situation. Right now I don't have anyone close who has kids that used to be my friend. So that's where I'm trying to meet new people and find friends who have young children who understand the reasons we can't go out to dinner at 9 o'clock all weekend. People who understand the importance of keeping your kid on a schedule and how you're life now revolves around your kid and not so much your social life.
Anywhoo...like I said I really enjoyed the article and perhaps you will too.
Have a great one!
This morning I was catching up on the blogs I subscribe to and came across a posting from lifehack.org called: How to Break-Up With a Friend normally I read the titles at lifehack.org and know i want to go back and read them so i mark them as unread and star them to go back. Well the flow chart graphic they used really caught my interest and got me to read the whole article.
It was a pretty good article. I didn't really have any friends to break up with but what really spoke to me today was the answer to this sentence: "If you are someone who has realized that maybe you haven’t been the
best friend you should be, it’s never too late to make amends."
Well I'm not sure that I've alienated anyone yet but I do know that I do want to be come a better friend. The 3 points shared were:
Communication
I think I have definitely improved in this category. I more often initiate communication with my friends. I'm trying to move further away from mass email updates as my only communication and more personal emails, phone calls, and actual snail mail. I still need to improve my follow up with activity the next point
Activity
I am definitely aware that I need to work on this area. I've just now gotten to the point where going out with ds to the store or to play is possible. Before having to have all the milk and bottles, diapers clothes, etc. etc. etc. Was just too much so I'd wait until dh or my mom could come long with me. I'm also seeing more and more the importance of Mommy time. I'm looking forward to scheduling this in and I'll use this time to bond more with my friends.
Support
This point was interesting to think about. I've come to find that I don't have any close friends where I rely on them and they rely on me. I have my husband and family but beyond that there isn't anyone else. I recognize this as something I will have to be aware of once I get more friends.
Which leads me to one of my hearts desires for along time has been to get a close friend. I would say that I used to have close friends most in high school. Once I was engaged and eventually married alot of my single friends kind of drifted away because there was a level of disconnect we still had couple friends but soon after we had our baby we've drifted away from our couple friends too. You know how it goes your lifestyle changes and you look to relate to your friends who are in the same situation. Right now I don't have anyone close who has kids that used to be my friend. So that's where I'm trying to meet new people and find friends who have young children who understand the reasons we can't go out to dinner at 9 o'clock all weekend. People who understand the importance of keeping your kid on a schedule and how you're life now revolves around your kid and not so much your social life.
Anywhoo...like I said I really enjoyed the article and perhaps you will too.
Have a great one!
Okay I've got a couple for this week.
First while shopping at Target yesterday I made my usual rounds to the clearance sections and went over to electronics to just check and see if some shutterfly products i have been watching finally got marked down more. THey did!! They're at 50% off. So I got 3 8x8 books and 2 pewter key chains, and a sesame 40 pg adventure book.
Our next deal was found at Kroger (a grocery store) They're having a game day essentials sale when you buy 9 items of kraft food pepsi etc. you get 6.00 off. That included kraft cheese. Kroger had those on sale for 2 for $4 which is a good sale but we also had a manufacturers coupon off the cheese. So our final price was .98 for a bag of shredded cheese or a block of cheese which is an awesome awesome price!! We also did the same with Triscuits and Wheat Thins and the final price on those was .68 per box!! what a deal!!!
Have a great week!
First while shopping at Target yesterday I made my usual rounds to the clearance sections and went over to electronics to just check and see if some shutterfly products i have been watching finally got marked down more. THey did!! They're at 50% off. So I got 3 8x8 books and 2 pewter key chains, and a sesame 40 pg adventure book.
Our next deal was found at Kroger (a grocery store) They're having a game day essentials sale when you buy 9 items of kraft food pepsi etc. you get 6.00 off. That included kraft cheese. Kroger had those on sale for 2 for $4 which is a good sale but we also had a manufacturers coupon off the cheese. So our final price was .98 for a bag of shredded cheese or a block of cheese which is an awesome awesome price!! We also did the same with Triscuits and Wheat Thins and the final price on those was .68 per box!! what a deal!!!
Have a great week!
I saw this on my cuz Tina's blog thought I'd try it too.
E-deeply in love with my husband
L-best smile
I-loves to laugh (so true)
Z-lives life for fun
A-gorgeous
B-loves people
E-deeply in love with my husband
T-great kisser
H-freakin' beautiful eyes
Name Meaning Here:
A: Gorgeous
B: Loves people
C: Really easy to fall in love with
D: Is great in bed
E: deeply in love with his/her gf/bf
F: People wild and crazy adore you
G: Never let people tell you what to do
H:Freakin’ beautiful eyes
I: Loves to laugh
J: Makes people laugh
K: Really silly
L: BEST SMILE
M: Makes dating fun
N: Sexy
O: Has one of the best personalities ever
P: Popular with all types of people
Q: A hypocrite
R: Good bf/gf
S: Lives life for fun
T: Great kisser
U: Gets blamed for everything
V: Not judgmental
W: Very broad minded
X: Never let people tell you what to do
Y: Loved by everyone
Z: Lives life for fun
What does YOUR name mean? Consider yourself tagged!
E-deeply in love with my husband
L-best smile
I-loves to laugh (so true)
Z-lives life for fun
A-gorgeous
B-loves people
E-deeply in love with my husband
T-great kisser
H-freakin' beautiful eyes
Name Meaning Here:
A: Gorgeous
B: Loves people
C: Really easy to fall in love with
D: Is great in bed
E: deeply in love with his/her gf/bf
F: People wild and crazy adore you
G: Never let people tell you what to do
H:Freakin’ beautiful eyes
I: Loves to laugh
J: Makes people laugh
K: Really silly
L: BEST SMILE
M: Makes dating fun
N: Sexy
O: Has one of the best personalities ever
P: Popular with all types of people
Q: A hypocrite
R: Good bf/gf
S: Lives life for fun
T: Great kisser
U: Gets blamed for everything
V: Not judgmental
W: Very broad minded
X: Never let people tell you what to do
Y: Loved by everyone
Z: Lives life for fun
What does YOUR name mean? Consider yourself tagged!
Speaking of housewifey..i did the most housewifey thing I've ever done last Tuesday. I was at home and had put Jack down for a nap I was working on the dishes and wearing my house clothes (nice word for pjs) and my apron I wanted to change the channel from cartoons to something a mommy could watch while she's doing housework. So I was flipping through and landed on the Home Shopping Network. They were advertising home organizational products so I thought I'd just see what's out there. They had this thing called the flipfold that folds your t-shirts in a second. Well I started thinking to myself how much I NEEDED that and I was like where's my purse..and then I'm like what are you doing this is sooooo the epitome of housewifeyness..you don't need that..OH YES I DO!!! So I ran up stairs and quickly googled it to see if it really was a good deal and then ordered it. YEP I ordered it..it came with an adult one and a jr one for children's clothes. Well it arrived Tuesday at my job and I got it yesterday when I went in. And what do you know it totally works!!! We tried it out at my mom's house with Jessie dresser drawers to help organize and straighten them out...we LOVED IT!!!! Anywhoo I'd recommend it! Basically if it doesn't save you a lot of time it atleast makes it more fun to fold shirts, etc.
I didn't get a before picture but I did get the after shot of my and dh's shirt drawers:
I didn't get a before picture but I did get the after shot of my and dh's shirt drawers:
Well I had been looking for a way to store my son's large wooden puzzles with handles etc. They have a few on the market but they don't have ones big enough for some of his jumbo puzzles. My mom suggested using boxes and I remembered having extra FedEx boxes at the office that we don't use b/c we switched shipping companies. I used my new cold heat cordless glue gun (dh gave me for my birthday) to glue the boxes together. I folded the flaps inside the box to give it more structure. Here is how his puzzle shelf turned out I'm soo please and it fits all the puzzles just right:
