2012 Goal Review

God is Faithful and January went well with my goals =) Here is an update on my goals so far!

1) Read through the bible in one year

My bible reading plan that I picked up from church had me read through the book of Genesis, Matthew all of proverbs and the first 20 something psalms. I have been so blessed and God has answered questions directly many days with this reading plan.

2)Read 6 books

I have read 3 books so far! The Necessity of Prayer by EM Bounds, Jumper Cables For Your Mind and Power Phrases and Affirmations both by Don Howe( The owner of Chris' new company he is working with)

3)Pass out a gospel tract to every store clerk

I don't get out much but God blessed me to pass out a gospel tract at Walgreens, Dillons, the Gas station and a sale on craigslist.

4)Eat out only once a week

This goal was more than exceeded! I only went out to eat once at Hyvee, our grocery store cafe way back on January 2!

5) Run 7.5 miles a week

I am really excited to report I have been keeping up with this one as well and am even going past the 7.5 miles a week. Last week I ran 10.5 miles! On Saturday I surprised myself and ran 3 miles non stop!

6) In home dvd work out once a week

I also had 4 workout sessions on the TV this month

7)Take vitamins and juice daily

Most days I took my vitamins, I fell off the juicer everyday goal because my juicer is on it's last leg. I have been researching juicers and think I found just the right one online =)

8)Reduce weight to 130 lbs.

I guess I should have told you that I started at around 141-144 a day depending on what I ate. This last 2 weeks I have been staying down under 140lbs! Today I weighed in at 136.6 lbs!

9)Keep up with hair cuts quarterly

I really have got to get this done I even contemplated cutting my own hair a couple of times. I have not had my hair cut in over a year!

10) Improve home organization

This month I labeled all the storage totes in the garage and also organized all of our family photos from 1983-present!

Tomorrow is February 1st and I am hopeful that God will continue to give me strength to get a little closer to my 2012 Goals!

Decently and in Order Pt. 6 The Laundry Room

Our Laundry Room has a nice shelf and cabinets for lots of storage...when there is storage space, I get excited that means there is organizing space!

There are two doors in our laundry room one to the hallway and one to the garage so it was hard to get everything in one photo. This is the best "whole look" of everything pic I could get.

Inside the cabinets I have stain remover, soap, bleach, an iron, and a plastic drawer. The plastic draw holds on top: thread, middle: needles, safety pins, tape measure and on the bottom: buttons. ( Yes this is my complete sewing kit) It is all I need for now all I know how to sew is a button on and maybe a hole...lol. Oh and of course Duck Tape at the top! Just in case needle and thread does not work out for me....j/k =)

In basket #1 I have child safety mabobs.

In Basket #2 I have batteries

In Basket #3 I have light bulbs....I need to buy some more as you can see =)

The shelf has 2 candles and a basket. The basket on the shelf stores dryer sheets ( I got this idea from our pastor's wife)

This is where we put our dirty clothes.

I made this sign with my cricket and some vinyl=)

I have an over the door hook thing, so when I get something out of the dryer and don't want wrinkles to set in I hang it immediately on a coat hanger and hang it behind the door. Our old faithful ironing board we have had since we first got married stands beside the washer =)

We also have our drying rack and steam dryer attachment standing beside the dryer.

That is all for the Laundry room =)

Decently and in Order Pt. 5 The Living Room Cont'd

Here is the Living room ! The kids are on the couch watching Pink Panther, but you can only see one kid...

Our coat closet has of course coats, my diaper bag/purse, our steam mop, kirby vacuum and accessories, and a stick vacuum that the previous home owners left here...I need to sell it on craigslist because I do not use it!

I love this little cubby shelf! I keep my running shoes by the door at all times to remind me that I NEED to go on a run(more like a slow job but hey it is better than not doing anything)! There is a race car over there in the corner....no matter how organized I think I am there is always a race car out of place somewhere in our house with 3 boys!

We store our hats and gloves and scarves here in the cubby shelf baskets in the winter time =)

Like I said last time our living room serves as an office for my husband. He has alot of paper work with his new job and will get more and more as he serves more clients. We will have to stay on top of everything so things do not get cluttered!

We had to get nicer printer and fax machine for Chris' job too. He really does read all these book on top of the desk too! I think he is reading like 15 different books right now including My Upmost for his Highest, and lots of Bible dictionary and concordance things in addition to daily Bible reading and his Business books. Chris reads alot!

Underneath the desk he keeps two storage totes and the paper shredder.

This is what was in one of the totes....I was being nosey ....lol. There are more boxes: one with wires, one with note cards, the other with envelopes containing receipts keeping track of his business expenses, a business CD and Microsoft Office. The other tote had printer paper, folders, and more business books.

I am thankful for a husband who loves to organize even more than me sometimes =)

Decently and in Order Pt. 4 The Living Room

Our living room is very multi-functional especially since Chris now has his office at home =) I will focus on the office side next time I post. The three things that are out on this side of the living room are the excersaucer, the bookshelf and Entertainment stand.
All we keep on the entertainment shelf is the wii, wii remotes, wii balance board, and dvd player. It makes it much easier to keep up with dusting only having these items out.
Here is a look into one of our black organizing boxes on the book shelf...you probably guessed there were books in here!!!

I keep a photo album for each child from birth to 2 years old =) I will admit Joshua's is not finished and Rachel's is empty.

The bottom two storage boxes hold the wii accessories, and 3 cd/dvd holding zipper cases that are black and you most likely cannot see in this picture.

On the middle shelf we keep 2 photo albums with the sticky back and pull away clear film to hold larger photos and wallet photo, 2 photo boxes, and a picture frame. I just yesterday organized all the photos in the boxes from 1982-2011!! I also came up with quite a large burn pile (on the right of the photo) mainly from the days before I knew Christ and would never want anyone to see them ever!!

Decently and in Order Pt. 3 The Dining room

Well as you can see from the pictures there is not much to organize in my dining room. I love having a clear space! I think of Deuteronomy 11:19
" And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house ...". I believe we should have a clear table to clear our thoughts and focus on what God has given us on our plate. I know some people can think clearly with a ton of things and projects all around the table. They just simply pile them up and make a place for their plate to eat, but that is not me! I have a seriously hard time getting on to the next task with clutter; even if that next task is sitting down to eat. Maybe I should see a psychologist...Anyway all we have in our dining room beside the table and chairs, is a mirror on the wall, blinds, and valences. I am thinking of putting a storage ottoman over there underneath the mirror, and getting some kind of candles and rocks centerpiece on the table =) Also since my last post of keeping all things in the cabinets, I have decided to leave the juicer on the counter just because it is constantly used, washed and drying. I have a hard time getting every little crevice dry all the way so I don't want it in a closed environment. If there is a certain thing or things that is always on your counter please don't beat yourself up about it ;)

Decently and in Order Pt. 2 The Kitchen Continued

Welcome to part two of my series on home organization read pt. 1 first here
http://logansinmo.blogspot.com/2011/12/decency-and-good-order-pt-1-kitchen.html

The Refrigerator

Our refrigerator is very nice in that it has ample storage space with 3 sliding drawers at the bottom, 3 slide out shelves and a wine rack that I use for eggs =)

The Drawers

I keep like items together, so baking things in one drawer, utensils in another, cloth items in another....you get the picture.

Can Food

This is pretty easy to organize since most cans are a similar size and shape, I put all the like food together too =)

More Drawers

to the right our "junk drawer" with flashlight, rods, tape, scissors, screwdrivers, pens, pencils, stapler, pencil sharpener and other random things that don't seem to have a category of their own. Then my "cloth drawer" where I store bibs and pot holders =)

Small appliances

I even keep most small appliance off of the counter because it looks cluttered with too many things out. Our kitchen fits everything just right, so I don't have to stare at things I only use once a month =)

Cups

I love these cups with the children's names on them so there is never the "this is not my cup, I need to dirty a new one" problem. They only drink water in these cups. The cups are one thing that is constantly on the counter because I want to encourage them to drink as much water as they want =)

Seating

All of our children eat right at the bar in the kitchen so most days I never even have to wipe my dining table =)

2012 Goals

Wow, 2011 just disappeared into thin air! The birth of our fourth child and first girl, My two sisters got saved, Chris' last half of the Afghanistan deployment, moving from Springfield Virginia back to Whiteman AFB, voluntarily separating from the Air Force, Paying for a home with 100% cash in Springfield, MO, joining a new church, Chris finding a new job as an insurance broker. We had alot of big life changes to say the least, many were unexpected but God directs our steps not me =). I have some personal goals I wanted to write down to hold myself accountable and track progress through out the year. So here they are =)

1) Read through the bible in one year

2)Read 6 books

3)Pass out a gospel tract to every store clerk

4)Eat out only once a week

5) Run 7.5 miles a week

6) In home dvd work out once a week

7)Take vitamins and juice daily

8)Reduce weight to 130 lbs.

9)Keep up with hair cuts quarterly

10) Improve home organization

Well I hope that is an encouragement to someone somewhere, this is the first year I have set goals so I am excited and know that I can do all things through Christ which strenghtheneth me =)