This week's goals {May 27- June 2}

So, last week, I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked.

Keep Asher well-fed, clean, and happy.

Feed Woody and play with him each evening or morning.

Continue to help Asher develop independent sitting and -maybe soon!- crawling

Make a menu plan and have dinner at home most nights (without grocery shopping - use up what we have instead)

• Monday - Taco Chicken
• Tuesday - Leftover Pizza or White Chicken Enchiladas
• Wednesday - Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
• Thursday - Dinner at a friend's
• Friday - Leftovers

Make a date to spend time catching up with some friends this week or next.

Go to Thursday evening Bible study - decide on and bring a dish.

Finish reading Shepherding a Child's Heart , and begin a new book.

Fold and put away clean laundry, maintain clothes and diaper laundry

3 cloth diapers a day.

Maintain the house.

A few notes about last week: Asher's not as close to crawling as I thought: we need to master sitting first. I was so glad that I got to go to my Thursday night Bible study - it's always refreshing to my soul {and a kick in the pants}. I finished reading Shepherding a Child's Heart and loved it. I'd recommend it to any parent. I think I'll actually read it again, to make sure I remember everything, and maybe even do a review of it at one point. 






I really tried to get more housework done, but I simply could not get motivated enough to do it. Rather, I spent my time spoiling! entertaining my boy, spending time outside in the nice weather, etc.


With the introduction of summer's scorching heat, however, we will probably be spending much more time indoors. I'd still like to walk to the library occasionally, but I'll reserve that for cooler days, and try to get more housework done on the hot days.


Goals for this week:

• Keep Asher well-fed, clean, and happy.
• Fold laundry and put it away.
• Get the house in excellent shape. 
• Create code names. (Brandon's idea. He's so fun.)
• Eat dinner at home every night. 
• Sunday - Dinner at church. 
• Monday - Chicken Pot Pie
• Tuesday - Sloppy Joes
• Wednesday - Tuna Salad Sandwiches
• Thursday - Leftovers
• Friday - Chicken Enchiladas
• Saturday - Leftovers or dinner out 
• Continue reading my current book. Read 5 chapters.
• Use cloth diapers more frequently. Update about it next week.
• Help Brandon with ordering VBS supplies.

What are your goals for this week? Let me know in the comments!

Linking up with Organizing Junkie

A Calm Week at Home

Last week was crazy. It was jam-packed with activity. All of it was lovely, but I am very ready for a small break. This week, while Brandon works overtime managing the feed store for his dad while he's on vacation, Asher and I will be taking it easy at home. We have a few small outings planned, but for the most part we will be at our favorite place in the world - home!

Since we'll be home more, we can also take advantage of the cloth diapers we've been wanting to use. I was so excited about cloth diapering when I was pregnant, but once Asher arrived, disposables seemed so much easier. I tried cloth on him when he was about 3 weeks old, and he was too small for them - they didn't fit right.

Then, I guess I waited too long to try them again, and by 3 months old, he was too big for them! There are some he can wear that are one-size-fits-all (up to 35 lbs), but they seemed too intimidating for me. However, I began using them two days ago, and they're not that bad at all! I still use disposables on him at night and when I know we'll have to change him while we're out, but this week I am setting a goal to use at least 3 cloth diapers per day.

Speaking of goals, I did so well last week (by God's grace)!

  Keep Asher well-fed, clean, and happy.

  Keep up with dog-feeding and playing. Buy a new collar since he chewed through his. Sigh...

  Make a meal plan and have dinner at home most nights

• Monday - chicken and rice casserole;
• Tuesday - Sloppy Joes
• Wednesday - Crock Pot chicken and dumplings
• Thursday - Taco chicken
• Friday - Pizza

  Daily, interruption-free quiet time

  An hour and a half of computer per day

  Read 5 more chapters in  Shepherding a Child's Heart

  Grocery shop - remember tortillas and ranch dressing

  Clean up house, get some deep cleaning done!

  Send out 1 youth's camp forms. 

I didn't follow the meal plan exactly, but we still had dinner at home every night. Like I have said before, "interruption-free" is quite a high ambition for my quiet times - and I'm my own worst interruptor. And some days I spent more time on the computer. I need to work on reducing that time.

This week, I'm making a simple list:

• Keep Asher well-fed, clean, and happy.
• Feed Woody and play with him each evening or morning.
• Continue to help Asher develop independent sitting and -maybe soon!- crawling
• Make a menu plan and have dinner at home most nights (without grocery shopping - use up what we have instead)
• Monday - Taco Chicken
• Tuesday - Leftover Pizza or White Chicken Enchiladas
• Wednesday - Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
• Thursday - Dinner at a friend's
• Friday - Leftovers
• Make a date to spend time catching up with some friends this week or next.
• Go to Thursday evening Bible study - decide on and bring a dish.
• Finish reading Shepherding a Child's Heart , and begin a new book.
• Fold and put away clean laundry, maintain clothes and diaper laundry
• 3 cloth diapers a day.
• Maintain the house.

Asher is getting so good at sitting! He even pulls himself up in the tub - which 

makes it a little hard to bathe him, but I'm so proud!

Check back later to see how I did, and let me know what your goals are for this week!

Goals for the Week - May 13-19

Last week's goals:

  ·  Keep Asher well fed, clean, and happy. 

·  Go to Asher's 4 month check up - on time or early. Try to be strong for him when he gets shots.

·  Feed and water the dog every day. Play with him at least 3 days of the week.

·  Make a meal plan and have dinner at home every night. 

·  Spend only 1 hour (or less) on the computer every day. 

·  Read 5 chapters in Shepherding a Child's Heart. 

·  Have at least a 5 minute, interruption-free quiet time every day, spending time in the Word and in prayer.

·  Keep the house picked up, do some deep cleaning.

·  Finish organizing bathroom closet.

·  Get youth camp forms sent out on time.

Yeah... so... it doesn't look like much, but I feel pretty good about it. I didn't have a specific "Quiet Time" every day, but I read the Bible first thing in the morning every day and got in lots of prayer time - "interruption-free" is harder than you'd think. 

I didn't get any deep cleaning done or finish organizing the closet, but that's okay because one of my treats for Mother's Day is that we're getting a lovely friend (and some family) to come over and have a big ole cleaning party. :) I'm excited. 

And I'm working on spending less time on the computer, and more time reading. I actually read about 10 chapters in Shepherding a Child's Heart last week and I feel good about my progress!

There was another goal which I forgot to include on my list last week... Try out homemade Honey Buns recipe. It was a fail. A terrible, messy, gooey fail. But I made chocolate chip banana muffins, and they were mmm good! 

This week:

• Keep Asher well-fed, clean, and happy.
• Keep up with dog-feeding and playing. Buy a new collar since he chewed through his. Sigh...
• Make a meal plan and have dinner at home most nights
• Monday - chicken and rice casserole;
• Tuesday - Sloppy Joes
• Wednesday - Crock Pot chicken and dumplings
• Thursday - Taco chicken
• Friday - Pizza
• Daily, interruption-free quiet time
• An hour and a half of computer per day
• Read 5 more chapters in  Shepherding a Child's Heart
• Grocery shop - remember tortillas and ranch dressing
• Clean up house, get some deep cleaning done!
• Send out 1 youth's camp forms. 

Linking up with Organizing Junkie's MPM

Menu Plan for May 6-12

I've found that menu planning helps take the dreaded 5 o'clock "Uhhhh... what're we gonna eat?" dilemma away. I'm not one to think ahead, unless I intentionally think ahead. That doesn't make any sense, does it? It's okay. It makes sense to me :) What I mean is, sometimes I'll get to dinner time and realize that I didn't think ahead that day and thus I don't have my chicken thawed, we don't have any "easy meals", and we're eating sandwiches for dinner. However, if I prepare a menu plan at the beginning of the week, it helps me be organized by knowing what we need to pick up from the grocery store, and what I need to prepare for each night's meals. It is so much easier this way, and only takes about five minutes! I don't see why everyone doesn't menu plan their week (or month for that matter!).

So with that said, here's what Brandon and I are eating this week:

Sunday: Leftover Chicken Pot Pie from Saturday

  

Monday: Leftover Cowboy Spaghetti from Friday, salad

Tuesday: Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings, vegetables, homemade biscuits

Wednesday: Sloppy Joes

Thursday: Dinner at a friend's

Friday: Mexican Lasagna

Saturday: Leftovers

What's on your menu?
Linking up with Menu Plan Monday

Goals for the Week - 5/6/12

Here's how I did on my goals last week:

1. Keep Asher well fed, happy, and clean.
• Check! 
2. Feed and water the dog every day.
• Check!
3. Have dinner at home every day of the week.
• Check! We had Tacos, Chicken Spinach Pasta Bake, Taco Corn Fritters, Cowboy Spaghetti, and a Homestyle Bake Chicken meal.  
4. Go grocery shopping so that I can accomplish number 3.
• Mhmm. Good and done. 
5. Make a meal plan for this week before I grocery shop.
• Check!
6. Tummy time for Asher twice per day.
• Mostly. One or two days, only did it once.
7. 10 minute quiet time, first thing in the morning. 
• Not exactly. I began this week to make a habit of making the Bible the first thing I read, even if it's only a paragraph. But it wasn't what I would consider a quiet time.
8. Read to Asher at least once per day.
• Yep!
9. Help Brandon take care of youth ministry tasks.
• We got signed up for camp and paid. Yay! Now just to get all the paperwork turned in on time. 
10. Keep the house picked up. 
• I asked Brandon to grade me on this, and he gave me a B- for the week. I know he was being generous. I'll be working on this one especially this week.
11. Organize 1 closet. 
• I got started on this project, and made some good headway, but I didn't complete it. I'll work on that this week.

So that's that. 

Here are my goals for this week:

1. Keep Asher well fed, clean, and happy. 
2. Go to Asher's 4 month check up - on time or early. Try to be strong for him when he gets shots.
3. Feed and water the dog every day. Play with him at least 3 days of the week.
4. Make a meal plan and have dinner at home every night. 
5. Spend only 1 hour (or less) on the computer every day. 
6. Read 5 chapters in Shepherding a Child's Heart. 
7. Have at least a 5 minute, interruption-free quiet time every day, spending time in the Word and in prayer.
8. Keep the house picked up, do some deep cleaning.
9. Finish organizing bathroom closet. 
10. Get youth camp forms sent out on time.

I like posting my goals on the blog, it gives me some accountability knowing that I'll have to report back next week and let you know how I did. It also helps me to evaluate how well I'm doing in different areas and what I need to work more on. 

Goals Update

You don't need to read this. Really, it's okay. You can just skip merrily along on your way. 

Because it's embarrassing, failure. My accomplished to-do list looks like Patrick's which I posted last week: Nothing? Check. 

It's okay, though. I'm giving myself some grace. I chose a really bad week to suddenly become ambitious about housekeeping. I was only home 2 days this past week: I finished up my internship at Beacon Hill for two days, went to school on Friday, and was otherwise occupied so that I could not accomplish what needed done. 

But I got the important stuff done: I took care of my baby boy and my husband. And kept the dog fed. That should've gone on the list, too. 

Here's what last week's goals looked like:

1. Get and Keep the kitchen clean
• This lasted all of two hours.
2. Do a load of laundry from start to finish each day
• It's hard to do laundry when you're not home, especially when you have a dryer which won't stop on its own.
3. Pick up the living areas
• I did this, it just didn't last.
4. Keep Asher well-fed, clean, and happy.
• That one was easy.
5. Tummy time for Asher 3X per day
• I think I managed this about once per day, sometimes more frequently.
6. Read to him twice per day
• Usually I did at least once per day.
7. Have a 10 minute quiet time every day.
• Didn't accomplish this. 
8. Listen to 7 podcasts.
• Why? When would I have had time to do that?
9. Read Chapter 19 of ST, and my books for school.
• Nope.
10. Sky High Goal: Organize 2 closets.
• Not even.

Eh, it's okay. I'm not going to be too hard on myself. I spent time with my husband, loved on my baby, kept the dishes and laundry up to date, and everything else worked itself out just fine. 

However, I'm going to be more realistic in my goal-setting for this week. 

Goals:

1. Keep Asher well fed, happy, and clean.
2. Feed and water the dog every day.
3. Have dinner at home every day of the week.
4. Go grocery shopping so that I can accomplish number 3.
5. Make a meal plan for this week before I grocery shop.
6. Tummy time for Asher twice per day.
7. 10 minute quiet time, first thing in the morning. 
8. Read to Asher at least once per day.
9. Help Brandon take care of youth ministry tasks.
10. Keep the house picked up. 
11. Organize 1 closet. 

I'll make more detailed lists for every day, but I won't post them, probably. This list looks accomplish-able. I'll be posting Wednesday about memorizing Scripture, so be sure to tune in! :)

God's Grace and Peace to you!