Gratitude

As many of you know by now, I really like Oprah and her show. I tape, I mean record (Logan always asks me what it means to "tape" something?) her show everyday and watch it when I get the chance. She has always talked about keeping a gratitude journal and how it has changed many different aspects of her life. I have always wanted to do something like that but have resisted because I am not much for righting stuff down unless it is something I need to remember. But I think here is the perfect place to record my gratitude. This may be more for my benefit than for sharing our family news but you will just have to suffer with my new optimism. So I will try to post once a week a few things I was grateful for that week. I will try to write them for once each day, but I will probably not be perfect. Just a warning! So here it goes.

1. I had a day off work!

2. I got off work early! (uh, I am starting to see a pattern here)

3. It was a nice 80 degree day in January and I got to get some outdoor stuff done before the cold front came.

4. Charles helped me A LOT with the housework today. A slightly rare event!

5. Logan returned back to school. Okay that was my gratitude for the day but I am sure it was not his!

6. Leftovers 2 days in a row. I dont' have to cook!

7. Done with work stuff by bedtime. (Humm... that could be seen as a complaint, I will just call it a touch of sarcasm).

Your Real Age

With Tuesday's Oprah show Dr Oz explains about your "Real Age" as apposed to your biological age. It calculates how close your life expectency is compared to the average. According to the test my calendar age is 39.8 but my Real Age is 41.3. Humm... thats a year and a half less. I would prefer to be five years extra. Well, that will probably be calculated into my goals somehow. Take the test and post your results in the comments!

"Live Your Best Life"

Oprah started a new series this week about "Living your best life." She realized that 3 years ago she had made her goal weight and thought she had finally conquered her weight issue. Then this past year she found herself 40 pounds heavier again. She said she was so mad at herself because she thought she had put this all behind her. So she realized she was not alone, and that a lot of people are not paying attention to their bodies. So she started a new series today that addresses many aspects of life. Monday was about fitness. Tuesday is about your health and food. Wednesday is about spirit (not necessarily religion but it can be). Thursday is about money/finances/planning. And Friday is about relationships/sex. She is also going to do a 90 minute webcast next week every weekday about the same subjects in the evening. I read a many blogs and everyone is posting their "how I did on my goals on 2008" posts and other posts that say how they didn't do their goals and how they are going to change for 2009. Many are on the EXACT same subjects as this weeks Oprah shows (okay, I haven't read anyone posting goals about their sex life!). I haven't really put my goals together yet but they each touch on a similar subject that could use improvement.

**Some Oprah show links are now broken. Not sure why but hopefully they will have it fixed soon.

Recap

There are many things that I am planning to do this year to improve my life, my family's life and my surroundings. My new goals are "evolving" as I said before and I don't have them quit defined yet. My previous goals


1. Improve our finances.
2. Spend more time having fun! (Got to have #1 to do #2)
3. Get in better physical shape. (I know - practice what you preach. I am a physical therapist after all!)
4. Be more organized.

Well there is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

The Good:
Our finances have greatly improved. Amazing in this economy. Our retirement funds and Logan's college fund did dive but there is more time for them to pop back up. Lots of time! We are completely debt free except the house. We still owe just over $100,000 on it. Charles' new job he got a year ago turned out to be a great thing. He has now become a permanent employee and has had two raises so far. He is also a foreman of the whole metal shop and the company is planning to expand in this year. It is a very stable company with booked contracts through 2010 and it also has no debt. The owner runs everything on profits. I have changed my working situation too. Since things were looking up I now work mainly as a contract physical therapist for many different home health agencies. That allowed me to close in my coverage area. I can get more visits done in an 8 hour day if I want to. But instead I have chosen to limit my hours so that I can put Logan on the school bus in the morning and be home when he gets off. I am also taking a day off every other week to volunteer in his class and take some time for myself. Now down to the numbers. With Charles working we have managed to save $25,000 this past year. We have it in a high interest savings account that earned 3.5% last year (just got my statement). That is our emergency fund and we don't plan on touching it unless one of us is unable to work. I think we did so well because we stuck to our budget and our best tool was to use cash for food, household stuff, and our remodeling. I also had a cash budget for Logan's clothes and haircuts. I did have to increase the food budget during the third quarter so we weren't eating pasta and rice all the time with the increase in food prices. We had enough left over at the end of the year that we bought a new TV (and of course I found a great deal). So our number one goal last year was to improve our finances. We have definitely done that. This year we will continue to save so that we are putting money in our retirement and college funds and the extra will go to some desperately needed remodeling (If you have seen my kitchen you know what I mean!).

And the fun part - we have mostly stayed at home for fun stuff. We watch DVDs that I get at the library. I just watched the Great Debators last night. Really good! We are reading more. We are spending more time in the garden working on the yard. We are trying to get more projects done. We did take some day trips this year to local happenings and parties. Nothing big, but we were never bored. This year we are planning to travel a bit which we have not done in a while.

The Bad

Getting organized. Well, in my defense we have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I had made a few trips to drop of stuff at the thrift store and we finally cleaned out the "junk room" We plan on turning it into a loungeing room with a new futon for guests. Still working out the details on that. Overall it has improved since I have had a little more time to work on it, but here is still lots of room for improvement!

The REALLY Ugly

Getting in better shape. That hasn't gone as well. I go in spurts and do well for a few weeks then I fall off the wagon! I believe that this one is now going to the top of the list this year. I plan on making this my number one priority and will be working out a plan to do it over the coming weeks. You have to have a plan!

So now you know what I did last year. Soon I will post my new goals and will recap them as the year goes on.

Good luck to everyone in the new year!!

Change is Coming!

There are not only changes around the world, but there are some changes in MY world! It's a new year so it is that time again to recap and look to the future. I am starting off slow and so far the blog is the first step. I was getting a little bored with the layout and wanted something a little wider. Hopefully you will like the changes. In the coming days I will update everyone on the new stuff. Don't get too excited though. It's not huge but it is an evolution. It has to do with blog, house, life, blah, blah, blah...

But first things first...

1. New blog layout.

More later.