Postive Steps: Wed & Thurs. 4/18 & 19--calling all challengers!

[Gaelen]

We're more than halfway through the April Challenge, and we've picked up a few people along the way. It's check-in time...how are you doing in your efforts to build a new habit? Which positive steps have been the most successful for you? where do you see your positive habit taking you as you move through the plan?

Have a good Wednesday, everyone!

[Mitra]

I've been meeting my goal of spending time practising music and reading (only books from my list count towards this goal). What I've been thinking about for the last few days is what I can do that helps it to become a habit. It may be that just doing it enough times is what's needed, but I wonder if there is anything that can help accelerate the transition from doing this because I've decided to do it for a certain amount of time each day to doing it automatically because it's just what I do. It's not that I expect that transition to have happened in two weeks, but it is my long term aim.

My husband's been working at home quite a lot recently, and had last week as holiday, so he's been around for most days so far this month. Telling him what I was doing and getting his support has been a help. I find it easier to exercise etc when he's working in the office, so being able to continue to meet my plan while he's at home is a step forward for me.

I'm already starting to think of new things to add to my reading list (although the one I have is probably enough to last most of this year). And the extra music practice is helping me to enjoy my playing more. I hope that not only will I learn things that interest me from my extra reading, but that the reading and the music will both be enjoyable enough that I'll want to keep on doing them. I feel better when I do them than if I just fritter away the time.

[Billie]

One thing I could say is consciousness, or awareness. I have worked hard at not worrying but exercise has been too spotty for me. I have been making concerted efforts so I think it is falling into place, just not quite as consistently as needed.

[Bonnie]

My goal has been to spend more time playing with my fiber. The first week was easy. I was focused. The second week gave me more trouble because of family obligations, but I managed a wonderful day of fiber on Good Friday. I had my 5 year old granddaughter for the day since there was no daycare, and my daughter had to work. I sat on the front porch and prepped wool for carding and my granddaughter painted beautiful pictures. It was a wonderful day.

Bonnie

[cmcole]

Because I just found this board, I didn't sign up for the challenge at the beginning of the month.

However, I did make a promise to myself just prior to that, and have been more accountable, returning to fitday for recording meals.

Although I may not be absolutely exact, it gives me an idea of how I am doing.

Also, my family (hubby, son and myself) just joined a local gym (we had a ten-visit pass and got in the habit), so we have been going there regularly (thus far, we are too frugal to let the membership dues lie idle and waste the money - thankfully).

Although technically I am not trying to lose any more weight, I would like to firm up a few places, and continue with this LC lifestyle for the health benefits (which is my my doctor suggested it initially, anyway), rather than the weight loss, specifically.

[gitfiddle]

My plan was to declutter my home by daily choosing items that we are not using and taking them down to the local charity drop when I have a container full. I have missed a few days ('cause I ferget!) but I make it up on other days.

I'd like to say that my rooms are shaping up, but this week they seem to be rather messy. Time to enlist help from the other members of the household! ;)

[Ottawa]

I had chosen to remove clutter from my office and included home as well.

My office is noticeably less cluttered. Almost all paperwork is gone and the things that I need are in plain site. I still have some cleaning to do but it has changed my attitude at work and home.

[Gaelen]

Ah, I love progress.
My resolve was to increase my water intake and make 64 oz. a day more consistent, something I really need to return to but let slide a bit during the winter and my recent surgery and recovery. I am not hitting 64 oz. a day of water every day, but I AM hitting it on treatment days, and that's a very good thing. I'm steadily at 48 oz. and I'm working on getting up to a consistent 64 oz. by the end of the month.

For people working on personal/enrichment/exercise time goals, I find that I'm most consistent in that area when I actually schedule those things for a certain time/area of the day. I wake up, and do stretches before I get out of bed. Then I exercise dogs. Then while the hot water heater is gearing up (it's on a timer) I make a breakfast shake and do email...and I limit that to a half hour, even though I'm still at home recovering, because that's the limit on the hot water heater timer. When I was working, I had to stop then to go take a shower and get on the road. Now, it's just my reminder. I write for an hour in the morning and an hour at night...on my projects, not work stuff. But I have to schedule that time. If I don't, it would too easily get lost in the shuffle. Could setting aside a specific time, rather than just a time amount, help turn things from a one-month resolve into a developing habit?

Bonnie...I had to smile at the goal of "playing with my fiber" -- I'd forgotten about the wool!

Cmcole...it's never too late to start a challenge like this! welcome in!

Carol, Randy...I'm taking your break-it-down approach to my kitchen cabinets and counters, which were flylady'd by well-meaning but non-cooking friends a year ago, and which I've never successfully been able to reclaim all at once. So I'm doing it one cupboard and drawer at a time, which should take two weeks of doing something every day. I can see progress, which keeps me going. It's not a habit building thing, so much as a getting back in control of my kitchen thing. Now if my physical strength will just hold out for the big cupboard between the fridge and the stove which has a stove-width of black hole space that sucks up everything--I swear, it's like the endless mysterious bunker in Lost. It might need a whole weekend all by itself. I will be doing that big cupboard last, after I've reorganized all the other spaces to create room to function...and I think one part of the solution is going to be blocking off the 'black hole' part of the cupboard. I may lose space cutting it in half, but the payoff will be that I'll stop losing kitchen items. ;)

[SherryJ]

Randy, as of early last evening, my desk and office are CLEAN and DECLUTTERED... and, I thought of YOU every step of the way, remembering the pic you posted a year or so ago of your desk! Way to go to you, and Carol, on the improvements in that area... whoo-hooooo!!!

Pat, what are you writing??? Cooking stuff? Tech stuff??? Just curious...

Sherry

[Mitra]

I'm starting to struggle a bit, because we've got builders in at the moment. Dust, dirt, pneumatic drills and a succession of strangers through the house aren't conducive to quiet concentration ;). (They're repairing our leaky cellar, and installing a sump pump.) Oh well I'll get through these disruptive days with what I can manage, and make sure I get back onto it whenever it's feasible. I've not let it go entirely, but I just don't get much decent concentration with all this activity going on around the house!

[Gaelen]

Sherry, I'm writing in my journal/blog (trying to process the new developments in my treatment/prognosis), writing/editing recipes and chapters in the cookbook when I can stand to think about food (hard on this treatment...drat!), and writing some dog training briefs for various groups and an online magazine, and proofing the stuff for my obedience club's upcoming trials' catalog. I'm trying not to do work stuff, because, well...technically, since I'm on disability, it doesn't meet the work-for-hire guidelines, so there are copyright issues...and besides, I'm not supposed to HAVE to work right now.

And I write here, once in awhile. ;)

[gitfiddle]

Oh, Janet! Good luck staying good-natured until the dust subsides. :p

Pat, I do some of my best organizing after I've sat and pondered the situation for a while. If I don't think it through, I end up with everything out on the counter or floor and no plan. All you can do with a big black hole is containerize it, like Hawk does. I have a narrow, deep cabinet in my bathroom that holds a lot but you can't see past the first row. I put turntables in the back. You lose a little space, but it makes what's left more useable.

[Bonnie]

Gaelen said "Bonnie...I had to smile at the goal of "playing with my fiber" -- I'd forgotten about the wool!"



Actually, I should have described as my granddaughter did. "I was painting and Mommom was wooling." ;)

Bonnie

[SherryJ]

And I write here, once in awhile. ;)

ROTFWL!!!

Bonnie, I too, have had to THINK about WHY you are playing with your fiber, LOL!

Sherry

[hawk]

I have been ridding my house of Things and organizing also. My goal is to make everything easy to clean,with places for everything. Spring is a good time for this. I PMS'd my house . Purged Merged and Sorted all month. Even sick, you can take a drawer and sort through it. My art/computer room is so wonderful now.:D My sewing/craft room is next and the file cabinet in the basement.
The bathroom off my bedroom only needs the molding around the window and the curtains put up and it will be done. It looks so beautiful.
Next month the main bathroom floor will be ripped out and ceramic tile put in . The tile wet saw is a very cool tool. I'm not looking forward to doing the kitchen /dining room. I think we need to take vacation time to do that or it will take a month with how busy we are.:cool:

I painted with my grandaughter too. She's only 11 months old, but I put a water color brush in her hand and we painted flowers. Then she smeared them with her fingers and looked at her hands and laughed.:)

With everything organized, I feel like I have time to paint,time to cook, time to garden. My home is always a welcoming place where anyone can drop over at any time. There is less stress. I can find things, I can tell my husband right where things are.