I. Have. So. Much. Stuff.
Wait.
We. Have. So. Much. Stuff.
I inventoried the kitchen. Got it cleared out for demolition this week. Let me just say, we should make a killing at a spring time yard sale. It's amazing how people accumulate things over the years.
Our kitchen make over will be nice, but will not have much space. I am going to have to pare down even more.
Next blog I will post pictures. I have not figured out how to do that from my iPad yet.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
New nagging task(s)
1. Change my last name. I've been married since June. Torn between keeping my name or taking his (which is much prettier than mine). Is it the anxiety of losing the name that's been mine for 30 years, or the total pain it will be to change everything in my current name to my new name. Not sure.
2. Amend tax return to get more refund. Note to self: THIS MEANS CASH. Do it.
3. Clean bathroom. Ugh.
2. Amend tax return to get more refund. Note to self: THIS MEANS CASH. Do it.
3. Clean bathroom. Ugh.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
40 days of love...
I started the 40 days of love initiative, a church wide program at my church, created by Rick Warren, creator of The Purpose Driven Life. My action plan for the week is to reach out to someone I have not shown love to in awhile. I have the whole week to do it, but had 3 opportunities today to accomplish this task. The first was that my favorite professor from law school reached out to me to help her unpack from moving, because her husband was in the ER for stroke symptoms, and she had no help. First, thankfully he returned home this evening in good condition, with much lower blood pressure. But in the meantime, I spent a wonderful afternoon with one of my favorite people, helping her in a time of need.
Second, an email friend, whose blog has changed so many people's lives, had to rush home to her parents' because her dad had a massive stroke. Before she sent me that email, I sent her a really nice email letting her know how much I appreciate her, and that I was sending her a special gift from a company her great great grandfather used to run in Cincinnati. Her kind response told me my message put a smile on her face during a really tough time.
Finally, a young woman I mentored when she was a senior in high school faced a difficult challenge when a close family member of hers stole her laptop and sold it for drug money. She, coming from a low income family, was devastated because she had no way of getting another laptop before returning to school next week. She provided me proof of her circumstances, and I was able, in a few hours, to raise some money for a new laptop for her. I get to give it to her on Friday; I am so excited!
What a great day! And in case anyone was wondering, somehow I also managed to go through and declutter a lot of kitchen stuff. This week I am taking inventory, and then demo on Saturday!
Hope everyone has a nice week!
Second, an email friend, whose blog has changed so many people's lives, had to rush home to her parents' because her dad had a massive stroke. Before she sent me that email, I sent her a really nice email letting her know how much I appreciate her, and that I was sending her a special gift from a company her great great grandfather used to run in Cincinnati. Her kind response told me my message put a smile on her face during a really tough time.
Finally, a young woman I mentored when she was a senior in high school faced a difficult challenge when a close family member of hers stole her laptop and sold it for drug money. She, coming from a low income family, was devastated because she had no way of getting another laptop before returning to school next week. She provided me proof of her circumstances, and I was able, in a few hours, to raise some money for a new laptop for her. I get to give it to her on Friday; I am so excited!
What a great day! And in case anyone was wondering, somehow I also managed to go through and declutter a lot of kitchen stuff. This week I am taking inventory, and then demo on Saturday!
Hope everyone has a nice week!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Completing nagging tasks
With regard to my 6th January goal: I am proud to say that tonight I sat my butt down and hand wrote the last 30 or so thank you cards from my JUNE wedding, that have been lingering over my head for months. It. Felt. So. Good. I highly recommend zapping tasks you know you need to get done - it almost feels as good as paying down a debt.
Next nagging task: (Coincides with Goal 5- toss, restore and organize) go through all kitchen items tomorrow. Declutter. Box what we can sell, and inventory what we are keeping. Why inventory? Because we start demo on our kitchen next weekend! Alleluia I am getting a new kitchen after 2.5 years of a very crappy old, crumbling kitchen that came with our foreclosure! So since I want to simplify, I am inventorying what we are keeping so my husband (an architect/designer) can calculate the cabinet space we will need. I am so excited I can hardly sit still. I will post pics as we go. It will be a challenge going without a kitchen for a bit, but I am up for the task, because I known what the reward of my patience will be! Something way better, and more useful than what I have now.
With regard to my amended goal #2, I am happy to report I paid a large chunk on an old credit card debt, and am on scheduled to have it paid off next month! So much to be grateful for. Life is good, and getting better!
Everyone enjoy their Sunday!
Next nagging task: (Coincides with Goal 5- toss, restore and organize) go through all kitchen items tomorrow. Declutter. Box what we can sell, and inventory what we are keeping. Why inventory? Because we start demo on our kitchen next weekend! Alleluia I am getting a new kitchen after 2.5 years of a very crappy old, crumbling kitchen that came with our foreclosure! So since I want to simplify, I am inventorying what we are keeping so my husband (an architect/designer) can calculate the cabinet space we will need. I am so excited I can hardly sit still. I will post pics as we go. It will be a challenge going without a kitchen for a bit, but I am up for the task, because I known what the reward of my patience will be! Something way better, and more useful than what I have now.
With regard to my amended goal #2, I am happy to report I paid a large chunk on an old credit card debt, and am on scheduled to have it paid off next month! So much to be grateful for. Life is good, and getting better!
Everyone enjoy their Sunday!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Goal #2: My Savings Goal
So I am caught between a rock and a hard spot here. I need to pay down debt as quickly as I can. I have A LOT of debt. Albeit, mostly student debt, I still fill like I am a human with an ox yoke around my neck. So, do I freeze my savings goal (which is a very focused plan that I KNOW I can achieve) in order to pay down my non-student loan debt (mostly my car and one consolidated loan from school), which is about 20% more than my savings goal? I am erring on the side of GET OUT OF DEBT. I think that will give me more financial freedom and allow me time to be my own boss later, with some wiggle room to really get it right, and not rush in order to pay the bills.
Just a goal revisited.
So let's amend:
Goal #2: Pay off "dumb" debt, THEN work toward my savings goal, with an emergency savings fund in place to protect me.
On a side note: I did have my "AHA" Moment the other day. I am giving it a week though before I write about it. I need some more thinking time. The more I live in the now, and work on myself and my happiness, the more clarity I get!
Cheers to that!
Just a goal revisited.
So let's amend:
Goal #2: Pay off "dumb" debt, THEN work toward my savings goal, with an emergency savings fund in place to protect me.
On a side note: I did have my "AHA" Moment the other day. I am giving it a week though before I write about it. I need some more thinking time. The more I live in the now, and work on myself and my happiness, the more clarity I get!
Cheers to that!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year
Hello Friends.
Oooh how cliche am I to start blogging on New Years Day? Well...let's start by my January goals. You might also call them Resolutions, but Resolutions never seem to pan out, and goals, if they remain reasonable, and in sight, often get met. My goals will be set at the beginning of the month, but my overall theme of the year is change. Good change. Change that helps me focus on living each day for today. That reminds me to be a good person, and treat others the way I want to be treated. Change in the form of positivity, to the hilt. I am also currently reading some books that are assisting me in keeping my goals in perspective. I'd highly recommend both: The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin, and Smalltopia, by Tammy Stroble. The former gives a month by month account of what one woman does to enhance her happiness. The latter is a guide, written by a minimalist, to working for yourself. Both of these ideas and goals are appealing to me. Overall, I am a very happy person, but there is always room for improvement. I currently am very blessed with a job, but I've always had the dream of being my own boss. It's time to stop dreaming and start living...with a certain amount of planning.
Anyways, my January goals:
1. Quit Facebook
2. Start my Savings Goal ($$ to support me when I eventually branch out to be my own boss)
3. Go to sleep earlier*
4. Exercise more/better*
5. Toss, restore and organize*
6. Tackle a nagging task* (Finish the last 30 wedding thank you cards from my wedding in June!)
7. Act more energetic*
Items with the "*" are suggested goals I borrowed from The Happiness Project.
With regard to my first goal... I completed this task on 12/26/11, and sent my close friends and family the following email, which I think most concisely explains my reasoning:
Hello Friends and Family,
Just a minor announcement to my nearest and dearest (all of you are Facebook users as well).
Effective yesterday (12/27/11) I will no longer be on Facebook. Let’s call this a backwards “social experiment.” I want to experience what life was like before I was living vicariously through my computer. Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE Facebook, what with all the people I can get in touch with from the many different places I’ve lived. It’s fun to see what they are up to, how they look, let them see what I’ve been up to, etc. And I certainly have nothing but respect for people that use it – bottom line: it’s fun. I will never dispute that fact.
[Let me preface all further explanation with a quick apology: sorry if this seems a bit self-indulgent. There are certainly WAY more important and interesting things going on in your lives. I don't mean it to be...I just don't want you to write me off because you don't see me on Facebook anymore. Half of you are on it much less than me, so this probably doesn't matter, but I just want to make sure to stay in touch with you because you are important to me.]
BUT my new year’s resolution is to live in the now. Something, I’m afraid, I’ve forgotten how to do. Getting off of Facebook is my first (and oddly very difficult) step (ironically is it living in the past to go back to a life of no Facebook?). One might say, I like Facebook too much. I don’t want it to take its own life form in my own life – at least any further than it already has. I see all of these people from my past, that realistically I will never really stay in touch with other than facebook. Some people enjoy this feeling, but for me, I feel a bit displaced. Somewhere in this cyber world there are these people out there that are my Facebook friends, but not my current real world friends or family? It's very strange, and lately it's been getting to me. It's a little depressing, and a bit deceiving for my sensitivity levels. It probably sounds silly, but I started to wonder if maybe I'd be a happier person without Facebook?
It was never more apparent to me that Facebook allowed me to live in the past than yesterday, when I converted my account to the timeline version. Alarmingly, all of the old pictures I had untagged myself from (at least I think I’d untagged myself?) showed up when I hit “2006” or “2007” or any of the other years past. Old posts from yesteryear – some idiotic stance I was taking, or someone else was taking, some out of control silly argument with a good friend for all the world to see and judge, or a cause to be pushing, or even just some stupid inside joke I don’t even remember now…you get the picture. While this was enjoyably nostalgic (but oftentimes cringe-worthy), I‘ve made the decision to try to discipline myself to live for today. From using Facebook, I’ve learned through the years that not only can yesterday’s cyber-actions become a permanent fixture in your life, but today’s written statuses and comments can become tomorrow’s biggest regret. I am removing that element of worry from my brain. While over the past few years, I’ve mellowed out my Facebook bulletins, to little more than jovial comments about essentially nothing important; I am not sure why or how that is necessary in my life anymore.
To the people I am writing (and don’t even worry about who is on this list because you are all BCC’d) YOU are the important ones, and the ones involved in my NOW. You are who, if I were to say, pick up letter-writing, or post card sending (endangered species in today’s world), I would send such things. You would be the people I would invite to read my blog (if I decide to create one, I will let you know). When life events happen, you are the ones I would call and email to spread good news, hard news, sad news, and the like. So, as I embark on this little backwards social experiment, I pledge to do my best to stay in touch with each and every one of you, and include you in my life’s happenings, even though that will no longer include Facebook.
So far so good, although I do run into occasions where I want to get on and see what is going on with other people, but I am standing firm in my decision.
With regard to my savings goal, I am trying hard to save just 20% of my take-home income in 2012. So far, I'm off to a good start, as I've already set aside 3.125%. Only a little over 16% to go! I am not sure why I am doing this yet, other than something inside me is telling me to do this. It's time to prepare for emergencies, and alternatively work toward my ultimate goal of working for myself, so I need a nest egg available to fall back on.
My third goal of going to sleep earlier is more about maintaining my sleep schedule than making an earlier schedule, as I am usually asleep around 10pm. However, this, along with my fourth goal of exercising better somewhat coincide. I am quitting my gym membership (counterintuitive much?). I do not like gyms having my bank routing information, and it does not seem that I can escape this unless I create a gym at home and work out there. As such, with some of my Christmas money, I purchased a spinner, after doing a bit of research, for a very reasonable price. Since spinning is my favorite gym activity, as you can burn roughly 600 calories in 50 minutes, and I have attended numerous classes, I am confident in my ability to be my own instructor. And the cost of the bike was less than the cost of a year's worth of gym membership. So I will go next week to cancel, and my bike will be delivered shortly thereafter. I like having my evenings free, which is where the sleep comes in - I will need to go to bed early, as I will be arranging my schedule to wake up at 6am for 50 minutes of spinning. 6am may seem fairly reasonable to the average human being, but it will be a bit difficult for me, as my warm, cuddly husband, and my warm extra cuddly Boston Terrier, and the dark, dark, cold mornings do not make it easy to get out of bed. But if I can do this three days a week, then "sleeping in" to 6:50am the other two mornings should be a real treat!
For my fifth goal of toss, restore and organize, I have the wonderful influence of author Tammy Stroble (wrote Smalltopia, as mentioned above), a woman who lives in a tiny house with her husband in Portland. She writes a blog about her lifestyle, called Rowdy Kittens and offers guidance on how eliminating "stuff" can improve the quality life. You can check out her blog here: www.rowdykittens.com. Anyways, my husband and I have a lot of stuff. Toooooo much stuff. He is not particularly interested in helping me on this endeavor, but no matter. I just have to do a little bit at a time, otherwise it would be too unmanageable to attempt. Today I cleaned out one kitchen cabinet, a book shelf, rearranged my dining room, and set a lot of stuff aside to sell in a basement sale we will have this spring to raise money to re-do our tiny kitchen. I also cleaned out my closet and donated all of my extra clothes and shoes and comforters to the Free Store Food Bank in downtown Cincinnati, on Christmas Eve. A wonderful charity that collects both food and clothes, the Free Store is my go-to to help.
With regard to tackling a nagging task, I have seriously got to finish my thank you cards from my wedding. I came up short about 30 cards, and I have yet to go buy more and finish the task. It's been over 6 months, and I know we have a year to do so, but it seems a bit rude that I have not already completed this. Must. finish. in. January.
Finally....act more energetic. In The Happiness Project, Gretchin Rubin discusses how if act like we have more energy, oftentimes, we actually trick ourselves into believing we have more energy, and as such, actually become more energetic. Perception becomes reality...But I think this is usually the case. So more energy in 2012. Hopefully the sleep/exercise regiment will provide me an assist in this endeavor.
I will use this blog to discuss how my goals are going. I do not expect to achieve all of these goals in January, but I do expect to achieve some, and document my progress. In addition, I also intend to use this for discussing life events, and sharing in discoveries I might make about myself or others along the way. Until my next post, everyone have a happy new year, and celebrate the many blessings God has given you! This is definitely one of mine:
-The Blonde and the Boston
Oooh how cliche am I to start blogging on New Years Day? Well...let's start by my January goals. You might also call them Resolutions, but Resolutions never seem to pan out, and goals, if they remain reasonable, and in sight, often get met. My goals will be set at the beginning of the month, but my overall theme of the year is change. Good change. Change that helps me focus on living each day for today. That reminds me to be a good person, and treat others the way I want to be treated. Change in the form of positivity, to the hilt. I am also currently reading some books that are assisting me in keeping my goals in perspective. I'd highly recommend both: The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin, and Smalltopia, by Tammy Stroble. The former gives a month by month account of what one woman does to enhance her happiness. The latter is a guide, written by a minimalist, to working for yourself. Both of these ideas and goals are appealing to me. Overall, I am a very happy person, but there is always room for improvement. I currently am very blessed with a job, but I've always had the dream of being my own boss. It's time to stop dreaming and start living...with a certain amount of planning.
Anyways, my January goals:
1. Quit Facebook
2. Start my Savings Goal ($$ to support me when I eventually branch out to be my own boss)
3. Go to sleep earlier*
4. Exercise more/better*
5. Toss, restore and organize*
6. Tackle a nagging task* (Finish the last 30 wedding thank you cards from my wedding in June!)
7. Act more energetic*
Items with the "*" are suggested goals I borrowed from The Happiness Project.
With regard to my first goal... I completed this task on 12/26/11, and sent my close friends and family the following email, which I think most concisely explains my reasoning:
Hello Friends and Family,
Just a minor announcement to my nearest and dearest (all of you are Facebook users as well).
Effective yesterday (12/27/11) I will no longer be on Facebook. Let’s call this a backwards “social experiment.” I want to experience what life was like before I was living vicariously through my computer. Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE Facebook, what with all the people I can get in touch with from the many different places I’ve lived. It’s fun to see what they are up to, how they look, let them see what I’ve been up to, etc. And I certainly have nothing but respect for people that use it – bottom line: it’s fun. I will never dispute that fact.
[Let me preface all further explanation with a quick apology: sorry if this seems a bit self-indulgent. There are certainly WAY more important and interesting things going on in your lives. I don't mean it to be...I just don't want you to write me off because you don't see me on Facebook anymore. Half of you are on it much less than me, so this probably doesn't matter, but I just want to make sure to stay in touch with you because you are important to me.]
BUT my new year’s resolution is to live in the now. Something, I’m afraid, I’ve forgotten how to do. Getting off of Facebook is my first (and oddly very difficult) step (ironically is it living in the past to go back to a life of no Facebook?). One might say, I like Facebook too much. I don’t want it to take its own life form in my own life – at least any further than it already has. I see all of these people from my past, that realistically I will never really stay in touch with other than facebook. Some people enjoy this feeling, but for me, I feel a bit displaced. Somewhere in this cyber world there are these people out there that are my Facebook friends, but not my current real world friends or family? It's very strange, and lately it's been getting to me. It's a little depressing, and a bit deceiving for my sensitivity levels. It probably sounds silly, but I started to wonder if maybe I'd be a happier person without Facebook?
It was never more apparent to me that Facebook allowed me to live in the past than yesterday, when I converted my account to the timeline version. Alarmingly, all of the old pictures I had untagged myself from (at least I think I’d untagged myself?) showed up when I hit “2006” or “2007” or any of the other years past. Old posts from yesteryear – some idiotic stance I was taking, or someone else was taking, some out of control silly argument with a good friend for all the world to see and judge, or a cause to be pushing, or even just some stupid inside joke I don’t even remember now…you get the picture. While this was enjoyably nostalgic (but oftentimes cringe-worthy), I‘ve made the decision to try to discipline myself to live for today. From using Facebook, I’ve learned through the years that not only can yesterday’s cyber-actions become a permanent fixture in your life, but today’s written statuses and comments can become tomorrow’s biggest regret. I am removing that element of worry from my brain. While over the past few years, I’ve mellowed out my Facebook bulletins, to little more than jovial comments about essentially nothing important; I am not sure why or how that is necessary in my life anymore.
To the people I am writing (and don’t even worry about who is on this list because you are all BCC’d) YOU are the important ones, and the ones involved in my NOW. You are who, if I were to say, pick up letter-writing, or post card sending (endangered species in today’s world), I would send such things. You would be the people I would invite to read my blog (if I decide to create one, I will let you know). When life events happen, you are the ones I would call and email to spread good news, hard news, sad news, and the like. So, as I embark on this little backwards social experiment, I pledge to do my best to stay in touch with each and every one of you, and include you in my life’s happenings, even though that will no longer include Facebook.
So far so good, although I do run into occasions where I want to get on and see what is going on with other people, but I am standing firm in my decision.
With regard to my savings goal, I am trying hard to save just 20% of my take-home income in 2012. So far, I'm off to a good start, as I've already set aside 3.125%. Only a little over 16% to go! I am not sure why I am doing this yet, other than something inside me is telling me to do this. It's time to prepare for emergencies, and alternatively work toward my ultimate goal of working for myself, so I need a nest egg available to fall back on.
My third goal of going to sleep earlier is more about maintaining my sleep schedule than making an earlier schedule, as I am usually asleep around 10pm. However, this, along with my fourth goal of exercising better somewhat coincide. I am quitting my gym membership (counterintuitive much?). I do not like gyms having my bank routing information, and it does not seem that I can escape this unless I create a gym at home and work out there. As such, with some of my Christmas money, I purchased a spinner, after doing a bit of research, for a very reasonable price. Since spinning is my favorite gym activity, as you can burn roughly 600 calories in 50 minutes, and I have attended numerous classes, I am confident in my ability to be my own instructor. And the cost of the bike was less than the cost of a year's worth of gym membership. So I will go next week to cancel, and my bike will be delivered shortly thereafter. I like having my evenings free, which is where the sleep comes in - I will need to go to bed early, as I will be arranging my schedule to wake up at 6am for 50 minutes of spinning. 6am may seem fairly reasonable to the average human being, but it will be a bit difficult for me, as my warm, cuddly husband, and my warm extra cuddly Boston Terrier, and the dark, dark, cold mornings do not make it easy to get out of bed. But if I can do this three days a week, then "sleeping in" to 6:50am the other two mornings should be a real treat!
For my fifth goal of toss, restore and organize, I have the wonderful influence of author Tammy Stroble (wrote Smalltopia, as mentioned above), a woman who lives in a tiny house with her husband in Portland. She writes a blog about her lifestyle, called Rowdy Kittens and offers guidance on how eliminating "stuff" can improve the quality life. You can check out her blog here: www.rowdykittens.com. Anyways, my husband and I have a lot of stuff. Toooooo much stuff. He is not particularly interested in helping me on this endeavor, but no matter. I just have to do a little bit at a time, otherwise it would be too unmanageable to attempt. Today I cleaned out one kitchen cabinet, a book shelf, rearranged my dining room, and set a lot of stuff aside to sell in a basement sale we will have this spring to raise money to re-do our tiny kitchen. I also cleaned out my closet and donated all of my extra clothes and shoes and comforters to the Free Store Food Bank in downtown Cincinnati, on Christmas Eve. A wonderful charity that collects both food and clothes, the Free Store is my go-to to help.
With regard to tackling a nagging task, I have seriously got to finish my thank you cards from my wedding. I came up short about 30 cards, and I have yet to go buy more and finish the task. It's been over 6 months, and I know we have a year to do so, but it seems a bit rude that I have not already completed this. Must. finish. in. January.
Finally....act more energetic. In The Happiness Project, Gretchin Rubin discusses how if act like we have more energy, oftentimes, we actually trick ourselves into believing we have more energy, and as such, actually become more energetic. Perception becomes reality...But I think this is usually the case. So more energy in 2012. Hopefully the sleep/exercise regiment will provide me an assist in this endeavor.
I will use this blog to discuss how my goals are going. I do not expect to achieve all of these goals in January, but I do expect to achieve some, and document my progress. In addition, I also intend to use this for discussing life events, and sharing in discoveries I might make about myself or others along the way. Until my next post, everyone have a happy new year, and celebrate the many blessings God has given you! This is definitely one of mine:
-The Blonde and the Boston
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