Gratitude Week 4

Oops! This was really supposed to be posted last week. I guess I clicked on "save" and not on "post" - Oh well! So I have it dated the day it was supposed to happen. (not that anyone really cares - this is more of a note to myself!)

1. Bought a new alarm clock. Mine died and I hate waking in the middle of the night not knowing what time it is!

2. Finished work early and had time to read lots of blogs.

3. Got lots of stuff done.

4. Got to sleep in!

5. Had a great evening playing games and reading with Logan.

6. Volunteered in Logan's class and talked about soil. I brought in samples of different things in soil. It was a lot of fun.

7. A peaceful day!

Gratitude Week 3

1. I got my seed order today!

2. It's my do nothing day (after work of course!)

3. I got some paint to start a new project.

4. I finally got my trees!

5. I finished 6 patients in one day! That only happens when I can find people that will let me see them by 9am.

6. We have a new President! I could go on and on, but I won't here. I want this to be a peacefull blog and so I am leaving politics out of it. I have several friends and family who have very strong opinions on both sides of the issue and do not want to taint my personal (but public) journal with what could be a potentially volitle discussion. Thanks!

7. I got home from work early enough to catch up on my blog reading and writing.

Tree Sale

Well lets just say that the tree sale sucked! Now it is pretty much my fault. We should have been there earlier. The sale was from 9-2pm and we got there at about 10am. There was a line and we finally got in at 10:45 and there was almost nothing left. I asked a volunteer person what happened to all the trees? And he said "You have to get here by 11 to get what you want." I told him that I still had 5 minutes if that was the case! There were a few things, but not what I wanted to get. It was quite disappointing. Then we went to Whole Foods to get lunch. The chicken roll wraps that I normally get are no longer gluten free. So there went lunch and I just got a salad. Then we went to the paint store and got some paint since we were going to be in that area. I wanted to try a new Benjamin Moore no VOC paint in our back room. I got the primer and some paint samples/chips. We got home and I started to look up stuff on another class I was going to go to today. It is on fruit trees (but not sure I was going to be in the mood since I did not get my fruit trees). It turns out they will have a fruit tree sale next week. Yippie! This place is an hour away, but I thought it would be worth it to go twice if I could just get my trees! So I went. And guess what? They were selling some of the fruit trees that would be at next weeks sale. They had 3 of the 4 trees I wanted to get. The other one was one Charles wanted (a pear tree). They didn't have many trees so I bought mine before the class. But that meant I did not get a seat in the class before they filled up. So I waited. They said they would do a second class since there were so many people that didn't get in. After all that I am now a happy camper. I sure wasn't for a while though. Now next week I can get ready to start some seeds for this springs veggie garden!

Gratitude Week 2

1. Blue sky. The first after several days of doom and gloom.

2. I got my first two radishes out of the garden and yup, I already ate them! Yum!

3. I learned a lot at a class about fruit trees.

4. The fridge is now full! No more "there's nothing to eat in here!"

5. I found a new, very tasty side dish (or could be a good vegetarian entree).

6. I had a full day of work and stayed busy.

7. I got to read for an hour in bed, uninterrupted!

Quinoa and Roasted Vegetables

I made a new dish today that just sounded good. I had no recipe but this is very easy, especially if you have a rice cooker. Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa) is an ancient grain from the Incas but it is really a seed. It has a very mild taste and you can use it for many things. This one is my new favorite, but my favorite before today was to mix in a little milk and berries for breakfast. Yum! Quinoa is very high in fiber (5 g in a one cup serving) and is considered a "complete" food as it has the right proportions of carbs/fats/protein and has all eight of the essential amino acids. I used red quinoa but it can come in several different colors with a light beige color as the most common.

You cook it just like rice. One part quinoa to 2 parts water (or broth). I used a rice cooker but I have also cooked on the stove just like rice. I roasted some veggies that I had on hand - one red bell pepper, two carrots, a small onion, and about a small handful of asparagus spears. If I had remembered, I think garlic would have made it even better. I did a rough chop in the food processor, but you could use your knife to chop. I was being lazy and Charles is cleaning up tonight! I added it to the cooked quinoa and topped with parmasean cheese. Charles loved it. Logan made gagging sounds but he does that to almost everything new so I didn't take it personally!

Best Life Week: Your Money Plan 2009

Oprah had Suze Orman on today to talk about money. I didn't get to finish all of the show but there are some people out there that just don't have a clue! She has a new book, Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan, out there that you can download for free for the next week. Luckily we are right on track with her plan. We still need to reanalyse things from time to time but we are right were we want to be (except winning the lottery of course!). We got our information several years ago from Dave Ramsey. It is very similar but there are some subtle differences. I think his plan is a bit more "dummy proof" and has better backups for oopses. They did a survey of the audience before the show and found that 225 people in the audience had credit card debt of almost 2.3 million dollars! That is crazy! Just glad I don't! Have a great day!

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.