13 Full Months of Pilates + Tips for Getting Started

With the end of April came the end of 13 months of following a Pilates calendar.  Robin at The Balanced Life sends out a calendar at the beginning of each month and it has a workout for each day. I did the first two months of the program, February/March 2015, kind of half-heartedly, enjoying the workouts but not followed the prescribed order of things.

In April 2015, my upholder nature took over and I started keeping track. I highlighted workouts I did, drew arrows to move things around, and wrote in other workouts, like walking with a friend or running (once in awhile) or taking a class at the gym.

And then I couldn't bear to get rid of my Calendars of Accomplishment, so I hole-punched them and stuck them in a binder.

If that's not Upholder behavior, I don't know what is.

1. Start with 5-10 minutes a day. Just commit. Set a goal. Give yourself a reward at the end, like a new outfit or a pedicure. Write the goal down. Put it somewhere you can see it.

2. Start with the 28 Days of Pilates. Just bookmark Robin's Youtube channel and go for it. It's 28 days of 5-10 minute workouts. If you can see and feel a difference in your body after that, move onto the other free workouts.

3. Carve out a time. When I started, I did Pilates at night, on the bedroom floor, right before I climbed into bed, usually while watching T.V. That was in the winter of 2014.  Now I've made it such a habit that I do Pilates every day. At least three days a week, I do longer workouts (30-40 minutes) and the rest of the time I follow my handy Balanced Life Sisterhood calendar and do a 10-15 minute workout.

I recommend Pilates to everyone I know because workout-guilt is the worst kind of guilt. We should feel GOOD about what we're doing, we shouldn't dread it, and we should actually see results.

This post isn't so much about why you should do Pilates (but you SHOULD). It was supposed to be  about how crazily upholding and organized I am (when it comes to certain things). But really, you should try Pilates.

(Definitely not being paid to talk about this :)

July Goal: Relax

Let's start with June's failures though, because that's always fun and motivating.

I wanted to do this Instagram challenge and I did start off well and then I just kinda stopped.

Here's the rest of June...I think I stopped on the 21st.

6/22 Morning.  Jett likes to just sit and watch the rabbits in the morning.

6/23 Happy hour.  

Lately my happy hours have involved unsweetened iced tea, Grimm, and prepping for the next school year.

6/24 Sunset.  At sunset, I went out to mow part of the yard the other day. 

Don't want to get sunburnt and all...

The battery on the mower had apparently exploded or something. 

So there will be no more mowing until Scott gets home to fix it.  

6/25 Waves. Waves of grass because I can't mow. 

6/26 Bow. The bows (okay, ties) in my deployment ribbon chain. 

6/27 Pearls.  A pearl of wisdom. I really enjoy this quote and I look at it often.  It reminds me that some days are just more difficult than others. A bad day doesn't equal a bad life. 

6/28 Handbag.  Lately I've been using my small Longchamp (color: gunmetal). 

 I haven't bought a new purse since...October? That might be a record. 

6/29 Pink Polish.  I actually went for a pedicure and got pink polish without even looking at this prompt.  However, lucky me, as the lady was taking off the old polish, my toenail fell off.  It just fell off.  Apparently a new nail had been growing underneath my current nail and the whole thing was very confusing to me because I never even noticed.  And I'd *just* been to this same pedicure place a month ago and it was in tact then (I went with friends this time..I'm not in the habit of a pedicure every 4 weeks, I swear). 

6/30 Relax. 

The dogs like to relax underfoot while I'm cooking bacon.

And then there's July's goal.  I want to relax.  I want to slow down (not that I'm moving that quickly).  It fits in nicely with The Balanced Life's Sisterhood theme of the month, which is to slow down.

Graphic from thebalancedlife.com

Do you have any goals for July?

Hey, at least I try to finish things

I learned from Better Than Before that I'm a finisher.  I get a sense of glee from completing a task, whether it's finishing a book or ending a unit that I'm teaching. I run a highlighter through tasks in my lesson plan binder, in my planner, and on my to-do lists.  I like the act of shutting something down and saying DONE.  I do this with leftover food too.  If I can come up with a purpose for the leftovers in the fridge, I feel a real sense of achievement.  Housewives have been doing this for centuries out of necessity but, in this day and age, it seems to be a rarity.

So where am I on all that stuff I've tried to do this year?  Oh, right.  

Well, in January, I did my Yoga Challenge and was pretty successful at it.  I did yoga *almost* every day for the entire month.  Yay for checkmarks.  

In February, I said I was going to read the Bible every day and finish it in a year.  I wrote a whole separate piece about this in a non-blogging word document that I have going, so I'll just give you the highlights.  I want to be the type who reads her Bible every day.  I really do.  I want to have finished it (see, finish) and I want to see if there's something in there I've missed.  Maybe in all my Bible studies and all my years in church, there's a whole book I've somehow skimmed over and it holds the most pertinent information for me.  Maybe I'm not dedicated enough, because I didn't make it very far.  I think to 2 Samuel.  However, this just goes to show that wanting to be the person who Instagrams some Bible reading at 5am isn't enough to be that person.  The best strategy for me is to read for 20 minutes before bed, but I'm much more likely to do that when Scott's around.  Left to my own devices, I'm reading blogs or something while watching reruns on Netflix before bed. 

In March, I set out on the mission of formulating a cleaning schedule.  I followed it for exactly one month.  And then I stopped.  But I tried.  That's what mattered to me.  Effort is better than nothing.  

In April, I readied the garden.  Or, if you're from Pennsylvania, I read up the garden.  And then it was snowing.  And then it was raining.  And then it was hailing.  And then there were constant frost advisories and, as I write this the first week in June, we just had another hail storm.  I'm glad I never got around to planting things.  Nothing bothers a finisher more than wasted effort.

Edited to add...my brother helped me planted some of the necessities: tomatoes, herbs, and a watermelon.  We'll see.  

In May, I attempted #OutfitaDayinMay again.  Last year, though I considered it to be an utter failure at the time, looked successful in comparison to what happened this year.  The first problem I encountered was that it was so cold and rainy all month.  I couldn't wear the fun warm weather clothes I'd planned on adding into the rotation.  Disappointing.  

Secondly, I was doing well and then, on May 19th, I couldn't go to work because my road was flooded and washed out.  So I turned around, went inside, put my pajamas back on, and I wore the exact same outfit the next day because no one saw it on May 19th.  This screwed everything up and, after that, I didn't see the point any longer.  I threw in the towel because my chances at finishing this challenge successfully had been foiled.  Yes, I gave up.

For June, I'm attempting the #bloggersgetsocial #JunePhotoADay on Instagram.  So far, so good.

In the realm of fitness and what I'm doing these days, I'm still sticking to my Pilates calendar. Very solidly, I may add.  And I'm seeing results too so this is proof that you don't need intense cardio or expensive yoga classes to be toned and limber.  I am prouder of sticking to this calendar (though some days have been shifted here and there!) than I am of completing any other self-appointed challenge this year.

So, what do you do?  Are you a finisher?  Are you a starter?  Do you feel guilty if you take something on and give up?

#bloggersgetsocial June Photo Challenge

I have a whole forthcoming post about why I've either succeeded or failed at the things I've attempted this year.  However, this #bloggersgetsocial challenge came at the perfect time because, when I was mapping out things I wanted to do this summer, a month of "photo a day" was on the list.

#15 is Sparkles

1. My goal was to not let Monday end until I had Colorado license plates. That meant two DMV trips.

2. I've been buying these at the commissary and they last for up to two weeks in the fridge.  Impressive.

3.  Bought at a craft fair in Missouri.

4. My wallet that I got in The Grand Cayman while on vacation.  I don't even remember what wallet I used before this one because that's how much I love it. 

5.  My coffee cup today. It was a wedding gift way back when. 

You can find my posts on Instagram if you want to follow along or join in. It's not too late to catch up!

Also, I'm aware that I owe two recipes for next week since I skipped this week and I should also be back to a regular blogging schedule next week.  Fingers crossed.

April Books

#21 The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult A
I did not want to like this book as much as I did.  But by the end, I loved it.  I kind of hated that I loved it for some reason.  It was certainly a story within a story within a story...within a story, I think.  I won't post much because just about anything would be a spoiler.  I admit though that, by the end of the story, my biggest concern was Eva the dog.  (I'm completely serious.)
I do admit that there seemed to be a lot of minor characters that never really developed and I wasn't sure of their purpose.
We can discuss if you have an opinion on it!

#22 The Janitor's Boy by Andrew Clements B-
Consider this your children's book for the quarter.  I read it with one of my small groups at school and they enjoyed it and I enjoyed it.  It actually deals with some adult themes and would be FANTASTIC if you are a military family with school-age children.  It goes into PTSD.  My favorite of Clements' will always be Frindle, but I liked this one.


#23 Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin A+
There are few words that explain how much I love this book.  I love trying to figure what kind of person I am and why I do the things I do.  According to this book, I am an upholding, questioning lark. A marathoning underbuyer who prefers simplicity and a finisher who likes novelty.  Scott is an obliging, questioning owl. A sprinting overbuyer who prefers abundance and an opener who likes novelty. (In other words, Scott and I are almost complete opposites in our habits...which might be why this marriage seems to work.)

On of my favorite things about Gretchen's books on happiness is that she includes lots of real examples and anecdotes.  Very reader-friendly.
I would consider this a must-read for just about anyone.

#24 The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman A
This story was fascinating.  I grabbed the audiobook at the library and it's narrated by Neil Gaiman himself in a light English accent, and that made the biggest difference.
This is actually a really dark story told from the point of view of a seven year-old boy.  I had assumed it was a murder mystery of sorts, but it's actually more science fiction.  It reminded me of A Wrinkle in Time.
It was a short "read" (5.5 hours to listen to) and I think it's one of those completely original stories everyone should try.  No matter your interests, you'll get something out of this book.
Gaiman won the Newbery medal in 2009 with The Graveyard Book, so I might try that next in audio form if I can find it. I attempted to read it a few years ago and couldn't get into it.
By the end of The Ocean, you'll realize that none of the characters (except 4, I believe) are given names.  That's part of what makes it so fascinating.

#25 Paddle Your Own Canoe by Nick Offerman C+
I do admit that I haven't, until recently, watched Parks and Rec.  It was always that-show-that's-on-after-The-Office and sometimes I would catch a bit here or there.  However, I adore Ron Swanson.   This autobiography of Nick Offerman was interesting to me because, while Ron Swanson is just a character, Ron's kind of an extreme version of Nick himself. This is an autobiography and at times it's really funny and poignant.  At other times, it kind of drags on.  I really think Scott would like it because Nick talks about building things and wearing work clothes and all that.  Plus, Nick is from a small-town in the middle of nowhere Illinois and I can identify with that.
The theater talk wasn't my favorite, but I am fascinated by his relationship with Megan Mullally.  I love that they are so low-profile.
I do agree with the many reviewers on Goodreads who said it was overwritten.  And his constant jumping from one time period to the next kind of bugged me.  He barely followed a sequence of events and that kind of bothered me.

#26 The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant B-
It's really weird because I listened to this back in March but forgot to add it to the list.
I liked this book.  I kind of couldn't decide how I felt about it.  One minute I liked it, the next I was bored, the next I was interested, the next I was wondering why she kept talking about all these random people I didn't know. Like, she went on and on about this person and that person because the point of the "memoir" is that she's telling the story to her granddaughter. But I, for example, wouldn't have known the first names of my grandmother's friends from when she was 17.  Sometimes it confused me.  She jumped topics/scenes a lot.
It's a fictional memoir (which may have been the odd part) but I felt like it was a real memoir.  It could've been. I wanted it to be.
The second half was better than the first half.
It reminded me of Dreams in the Golden Country, a Dear America book.  Also, I felt like I connected a lot of it to The Storyteller, which I read a few weeks later.

#27 If I Stay by Gayle Forman C
*eye roll*
A kid was reading this book one day and she asked if I'd ever read it.  I said no but "isn't it a movie?"  She didn't know.  I thought it was.  So I borrowed the book from her, read it in a day, suffered much second-hand embarrassment because it's about a 17 year old, watched the movie online, suffered even more second-hand embarrassment because it was suspiciously like Twilight. If you are a teenager, the movie is probably okay.  If you have anyone under the age of 16 in your house who wants to read the book, I wouldn't recommend it.  It's pretty graphic with an accident scene and some language.  The movie leaves that stuff out though.  Maybe we can call this one 2014's The Fault in Our Stars?  Only not as bad.

I attempted:
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.  I didn't really like it.  I probably could've finished reading it but it was due back at the library and I didn't really care, so I stopped about a quarter of the way through.

Recommend a book!  Summer vacation is so close I can taste it and many books will be read.

Linking up with Jana and Steph!

Another challenge: A New Job

Lately, I've had this fear of growing stagnant.  This is a new fear because I spent 23 years doing the same things.  I was happy.  Picking up and moving to Alaska was terrifying to me.  Moving to Missouri presented its own challenges and then so did this transition to Colorado. But now that we've been doing this army thing for almost 6 years, I've gotten used to upheaval.  Used to change and transition.  I honestly think the "fear" has a lot to do with the fact that I'm now 29 years old and I want to keep accomplishing things.  I have this theory that if we are not pushing ourselves into sometimes uncomfortable territory, we are not living.  I never assumed I would travel to Alaska at all, let alone live there for almost 4 years and have a life there.  I never thought I'd find a job in Missouri when we were there for exactly 12 months, but the timing worked out seamlessly and that job was the biggest challenge I'd ever undertaken.  The current challenge is remodeling a house on the prairie, and I don't even want to get into that.

Lately, I've been complaining about how I'm desperately trying to manage this place and the projects it entails while Scott is deployed.  I'm a big believer in not wasting deployment time.  I did that back in 2010.  It was only 4 months, but it was 4 months that I spent not growing on my own because I was so focused on the waiting.  During the 2012 deployment, I blogged, I found friends and fitness at the gym, and I taught 4th grade.  I grew.  I kept going even while he was gone.  This is why I'm focused on reading, writing, cooking, baking, decorating, organizing, and just all-around accomplishing while Scott is away this time.  It's not easy.  I have to make an active and deliberate choice to come home from work and do a Pilates workout or do the dishes or tackle some gardening.  Instead of curling up in front of the t.v. with a bag of candy.  When no one's watching, it's easy to stay stagnant.

With this in mind, I applied for a new job a few weeks ago.  Same district, same grade level, different school.  The people I work with now are actually quite wonderful and that made it much harder to believe that I could move on. However, I knew that my greater happiness would most likely be found somewhere else when I considered the big picture.  Honestly, I could've stayed where I was for a few years.  No harm would've come to me.   But I knew that I probably wouldn't stay at that school long-term.
My thoughts started circling around the idea of Maybe I should try and move now because if it's going to happen anyway...Why would I prolong it? What am I afraid of? Failing? Disappointing someone?
Sure, I could've stayed where I was for at least another year, gratefully, because when a principal hires you and wants YOU, it feels good and you do feel that you owe them that.  But I knew that my principals would be supportive because they supported my reasons.
It was kind of a Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? train of thought.  Big picture, greater happiness, and me staying in this field meant I should probably just transition now.

Therefore, in August, I will begin at a new school.  So yes, after an interview, I got the job. Which will make it 6 years, 5 classrooms, 3 states.  But who's counting, right?  I will say that I am honored and flattered to have been chosen for my new position.  To know that principals want you and are willing to recommend you without hesitating, and to know that they believe you are good at what you do, is the best feeling.

A tiny fraction of the stuff I have to pack up and move for the third time in three years:

So whether your particular challenge is finding a job, losing weight, starting a business venture, or transitioning to a new place, it's okay to feel uncomfortable because that uncomfortable-ness is what you feel when you're growing.  You totally don't realize it as it's happening, but you see the difference afterward.

(Scott, our friends, and our families have remarked that I've been incredibly lucky to have gotten all these jobs I've gone after in the last few years.  I whole-heartedly agree with them.  I'm also quick to remind myself of that stack of rejection letters I have from almost every school in Pennsylvania, though.  It's a stack with a label that says "Rejection Letters". Someone told me once to save rejection letters as a reminder of how far you've come.  I'm pretty sure there were like 6 or 7 trees killed in 2008 just to send those letters to me.  And, for the record, I interviewed for a junior-high job last year that I definitely didn't get.  So it still happens sometimes :)

April Challenge: Begin a Garden

I do not have a green thumb.  I don't even have a green thumbnail because I bite my nails and I've recently accepted this and won't be painting them in the immediate future anyway...mostly because I'll be digging in this garden and messing up my cuticles.

Scott is the gardener.  This is last summer's garden.

That is before it really started producing vegetables, but his careful planning and plotting was evident.  In the middle of gutting the living room last June, he suddenly came home from Lowe's with 40 bags of top soil and those railroad tie things.  He dug up the yard and put in a foundation of soil and sectioned off these raised beds.  He installed a sprinkler system.  He meticulously planted seeds he had germinated in little trays in the unicorn room, back when it was still the unicorn room.  He tended to that garden every single evening, the second he got home from work.

He left instructions with me, on how to harvest stuff, water stuff, etc, when he had to leave for days or weeks for trainings.  And, before he'd even come in the house when he got home from those trips...he'd check the garden.

Here's the potato barrel that didn't really produce a lot of potatoes, but he had fun with it anyway.

This year, if I want a garden, I have to make the garden myself.  I've never done this.  This is brand new territory. My dad loves his garden.  My grandparents always had huge gardens too.  I...well, I planted some flowers one year in Alaska and they were pretty fabulous.  That was the only year flowers ever worked out for me though.

This is what our garden looked like a few weeks ago.

I know. It's going to be a long summer.

Last week, I started cleaning it out.  Now it looks like this.

The next step is to add a few bags of Miracle-Gro top soil and then put the fencing back into place. Then I'll probably put in some tomatoes, peas, zucchini, and peppers.  Any suggestions on vegetables?  We tried corn last year and it didn't work.

Oh, and the sprinkler system is disconnected, so I have to figure out how engineer that or actually water it with just the hose.  Effort and all.

Hopefully things will be planted by the end of the month.  If not, I'll have to follow up in May, but my intention is to begin consciously planning this out in April.

Also, I have some pots for flowers.  Try, try again.

Do you (attempt to) garden?  Any tips?

Does a cleaning schedule work?

I think so.

I can't lie.  The day I got this post ready to go, I went to print my cleaning schedule and the printer was out of toner and so I did what any non-technologically advanced person would do:  I copied it onto a piece of paper.

You can see that I took notes and made some changes as I went...the "haha" next to "Sheets" is because I washed them and then never put them back on.  Don't worry..since then, they were put on, washed again, and put back on. 

1.  I added "mop wood" to "as needed".  If it needs done, I'm going to do it more than once a week.  This one is really dependent on the weather also because, if it's wet outside, paws will track that stuff in.

2.  I added "vacuum furniture" in its place.  I had forgotten about that.  I try to get to the couches about twice a month, so why not once a week?  Of course, if I were going to add it to the list (I did), then I need to actually do it (I didn't).

3.  I gave the guest bathroom a good cleaning and then decided to let it go for now.  It's only me so I don't need to clean a bathroom I don't use.

4.  Clothes:  Is it kind of depressing that this is my biggest challenge? Ever since I was a kid, keeping the floor of my closet clean or putting clothes away as soon as I take them out of the dryer has been an issue.  I end up doing 2 hours worth of work once a month instead of just cleaning up as I go.  I'm working on it...there may have been a Wednesday night where I worked on the closet for awhile.

5.  Cleaning up the kitchen: I'm actually getting better at this.  I set the timer for 22 minutes and work, work, work until it goes off.  If I finish dishes/kitchen-related cleaning, I move onto something else until it beeps.  Why 22 minutes?  20 seemed too short, but 30 is way too long.

6. Dogs:  I try to keep up with their needs as necessary.  Making a schedule for this wasn't going to work.  Ears, teeth, brushing, etc are things I get around to a couple of times a week.  If they're not out hunting in the mud, baths don't need to happen as often either.  Don't worry, they're well-cared for (clearly).

7.  Does anyone have tips for cleaning a laminate floor? Our basement is now laminate and I know you're supposed to mop rarely, but what kind of mop or cleaner works best?  Google is inconclusive.

8. Most of my cleaning is still happening on the weekends.  Honestly, I just dated the weeks on my schedule, but I found it was really difficult to work up the motivation to clean on weeknights.  I would cross off a task here and there, but I did accomplish more on the first weekend of March than during the week.  Then Jett got hurt and I lost the desire to clean the second weekend in March and then spring break came around and I got a lot done but I was sick so I didn't keep track, necessarily, of what I was doing.

9.Those of you who DO use cleaning schedules: What do you do when things are particularly busy?  For instance, if I have houseguests, how do I stick to the schedule?  My strategy is usually "clean for 2 days straight" before they arrive, "clean for 2 days straight" after they leave, and then don't clean again until more guests arrive.  It's not a good way to go about things.

Did the cleaning schedule work?  I'm sure it would have.  And I'm sure it will. I'm just experimenting with things and figuring out what will definitely not work and then I'll have a better idea about what I can do in the future.  I think the trick is to tailor it to your needs and wants, your schedule, and your expectations.  Some things are more important to some people.  Clean floors, clean/put away dishes, and cleared countertops are my priorities.  Dusting and folding clothes are at the bottom of my list.

March Challenge: Implement Cleaning Schedule

First, how did February go?  Well enough.  I've been following this plan but, in my usual planning ahead manner, I'm well into Numbers so I'm working a bit ahead.  Go me.  

Notice that the title isn't "use cleaning schedule" or "master cleaning schedule".  Simply implement.  I'm trying.  You can see now why, with that deployment thing happening, that it wasn't going to work for February.  There's too much frenzied packing, sorting, letting-it-go-ness, etc that goes along with that kind of prep.  It wasn't worth trying then.  My heart wasn't in it.  Granted, my heart still might not be in it, but I'm committed.  And I'm determined to make the most of this deployment by getting things in order...and maybe exercising my inner control freak.  I wouldn't call myself strictly type A or OCD-ish, but I do like control.

Without further ado...

The version I'm using is black and white because I don't own a color printer and I'm just going to be highlighting things anyway.  

The idea behind this schedule is that I'm not held to any particular task on any particular day.  That kind of schedule would cause me to absolutely fall and fail.  I wouldn't be able to commit to it.  This schedule allows me to accomplish what I want, when I can, as long as it's all done by the end of the month.  The green tasks are weekly, so I'm looking to check off 4 boxes by the end of the month.  

The blue tasks just have to happen once a month, so I can check off those individual boxes as I go.  The extras there are mainly for spring and summer but they're minor outdoor tasks that I should be able to handle.  

As for the orange...that's the stuff I'm supposed to do every day.  The pick up clothes one is big for me.  Once-upon-a-deployment-in-2012, the 18 foot x 12 foot master bedroom was a carpeted sea of my clothing.  My closet usually hung empty and I just picked up what I wanted off the floor.  Awful, right?  Well, now we share a semi-walk-in closet and, because the master bedroom is not a million feet from the living quarters (as it was in Alaska), I try to keep things a bit more cleaned up.  And keeping up with dishes is sometimes a struggle during the week.  Vacuuming of the living room/dining room/kitchen usually happens every other day because of the dogs tracking in dust.

Red is just if there are any special tasks ahead...like maybe putting away decorations, getting out the Christmas tree, preparing the guest room, or organizing a certain closet.  

So, cheers to this, right?  (I give it one month.)

Change of plans

Due to…circumstances…I don't think the cleaning schedule thing will work for February.  I still am putting some scheduling techniques into practice, and I have created a schedule, but this isn't the month to focus on maintaining it.  I blame the army.  I can usually blame the army when I'm annoyed.

So, new plan.

A few weeks ago, I got it in my head (after listening to the Rick Warren podcast) that I needed to read the Bible this year.  Like this is the year. I will be 30 next year and I've never read the entire Bible.  I've read good chunks.  I've gone to Bible study groups.  I've attended church regularly.  I even carried my devotional around with me for first 3 months of 2012 because it was the beginning of a deployment and I needed that reassurance day in and day out.  

It was "put on my heart", so to speak, to get myself in gear and start reading.  I started two weeks ago.  

No matter how you go about it, you will finish the Bible in a year if you read 3 chapters a day.  I chose to take the historical route; reading it in the order it was written. Some days I might be able to read more and jump ahead.  It'd actually be be wonderful to finish it in less than a year, so we'll see. 

While this will be an overarching, year-long task, I'm going to make a special effort to make sure I concentrate on it this month.  It's desperately needed right now, as some days I feel like I'm barely holding it together (more to come at a later date) and I need this to ground me and give me routine, faith, and hope.  

March might see publication of the cleaning schedule. Or maybe I'm just so terrified of implementing a cleaning schedule that I've decided that reading the entire Bible is a less daunting task.  Suppose we'll see.  

January's Yoga Challenge and February's Cleaning Schedule

Back at the beginning of January, Sarah Beth of Sarah Beth Yoga had a 7-day yoga challenge.  I joined in and enjoyed it very much.  Then I pulled something in my side (from coughing, not from yoga) and movement of any kind became painful.  So I took a few days off, but I picked up with my good intentions soon after.

I'm happy to say that if I stay on track, I will have completed anywhere from 10-60 minutes of yoga on 27 out of 31 days in the month of January.  

This got me thinking about The Happiness Project.  I read it a few years ago (as most of us probably did) and I really admired Gretchen's goal-setting mentality.  Giving yourself something to work toward is important.  So I'm going to come up with a new goal each month and do my best to follow through.  This is in addition to my overriding goal of "new recipe each Monday" (that thing I still think I'm going to do, remember?).

Also, some of the goals can carry over from month to month.  There's no reason why I can't practice yoga every day in February too.  Honestly, it makes me feel so good that I'd be doing myself a disservice if I quit now.

So.  February's challenge will be to come up with a cleaning schedule, put it into practice and stick to it.  This may take some doing.  I'm generally an all or nothing type of person, and I'm having trouble with the logistics.  When you're remodeling, you're continuously cleaning and it can lead to Saturdays being absolutely exhausting.  By Sunday afternoon, I'm spent and don't even want to cook dinner, lest I dirty more dishes. 

Also, I have some concerns: So wash linens is Saturday, but what if I'm out of town?  Or if I write grocery shop for Saturday, what if I can't make it to the store until Sunday?  Dust on a Wednesday?  What if the only thing I want to do on Wednesday is drink moscato and watch reruns?  Actually, I'm more likely to have my act together by Wednesday, so I think Monday and Tuesday will have to be the "light" days on this schedule.

Any advice on where to start?  Do you use a cleaning schedule?