New Habit for January

In my list of goals for this year, I have that I want to choose and develop a new habit or two each month. I think this is a great way for me/us to get into the habit of doing things that we should do but usually don't.

I know which one I want to work on right away :) I want both of us to get into the habit of taking our dirty dishes from the table to the sink or dishwasher when we're finished with the meal or snack. Usually we just let them sit and I clean them up the next day or whenever I get around to it. And it's annoying to have to go hunting down dirty dishes each time I run the dishwasher. Why haven't I done anything about it before? I don't know.

This might be more along the lines of creating and sticking to a new "house rule" but it's certainly something that if we do it often enough, we'll get into the habit of doing it.

Get A Good Habit Going - How Did I Do?

Back at the beginning of November FishMama invited us to join her Get A Good Habit Going challenge. I took her up on the challenge! My "good habit goals" were:

• Go to bed earlier.
• Complete my To-Do List each day.
• Be more consistent with my weekly menu-planning.

Eh, was I successful? Not totally. But I think I did improve in each area. This week I need to remember that these are goals I'm going to have to work on for a while so they become second-nature habits.

In the going to bed earlier department, I did ok. I didn't make it to bed by 10:30 every night by any means, but if 10:30 rolled around and I wasn't in bed, my attempt at the new habit did make me stop and say "Hey, I need to quit ____ and get going to bed!" A good, long night's sleep always makes the next day go better!

Completing my To-Do List.... hmm, I tried. I don't think there were very many days that I really did ev-er-y thing on my lists, but most days I did get the major things done, and I have been keeping up with some things that I tend to push to the back burner and let go - like washing the kitchen floor and cleaning the bathroom! Today has been an especially good day, and I think I very well might get everything done! (If I don't spend too much time on here...)

Menu-Planning. Haha, as I type this, I have NOT planned this week's menu at all! Supper tonight was figured out about 4:30 this afternoon. BUT it is on my list for today, and I really hope to have it figured out by the end of the day. One step I did try taking was planning a week ahead so I could shop for next week this week. I liked it when I did that, and I might do it more often.

I really enjoyed this challenge, and I hope to continue challenging myself through December, and even into next year with new goals and habits that I want to achieve or get into.

(Oh, and my bed-time goal for tonight? 10:00 sharp. I'm bumping it up 30 minutes.)

Swinging Back Into Savings

My monster project this week (which I can now cross off my list!!) revealed to me how lax I have been in the savings department. It's kinda embarrassing. Especially when I think about the many times I've ranted and raved over the importance of always, Always, ALWAYS putting some money into savings regardless of good or bad times. I guess I got a little starry-eyed since things have been going ok for us this summer and fall. Which means... all the time that I could've been socking away even more, I wasn't. And now it's gone one way or the other.

Kindof. I did just now remember that over the summer we created a nest egg for the baby (supplies, extra medical expenses, maybe even the start of a savings account?), and that money would've gone into savings otherwise. It's just not showing up in the savings, that's all.

This week I jumped firmly back onto the "put something in savings every week" wagon. I might've put some Gorilla Glue under my feet this time, too, just as an added precaution. This morning I promptly entered Daniel's paycheck into the budget and immediately moved some of it over into our savings account. Now that I have the budget and checkbook all balanced, I am determined to keep up with it. And the bill paying. *sweat dots the brow* I'm going to "keep it real" and say that more than a few times this summer I've just barely squeaked in under the wire on getting some bills paid on time. Like so close I could smell it. And it stinks, lemme tell ya that! It is NOT frugal one bit when you have to pay an extra fee to pay a certain bill online because you forgot to mail it and it's due TODAY. To my "Get A Good Habit Going" project, I think I should add "writing bill due dates on the calendar so I get them paid in plenty of time." I've done that before, I can do it again. I know several of you probably have your bills automatically withdrawn from your accounts. I just can't. It's not against my religion or anything; we could and the only reason we don't is because I simply don't want to. It's a control thing, probably. I want to say when and who our money goes to, not some robot. I'm weird like that.

I'm really tickled pink to have this week's project (getting the checkbook and budget caught up and balanced) finished. I have quite a bit of other things I have to do today anyway, so it worked out just in time. And I'm happy to have jumped back on to the savings wagon. Especially since we're planning to build an addition, it is more important than ever that we keep a good grip on the money reigns!

Stay tuned for next week's Monster Project!!

Getting A Good Habit Going

Jessica (better known as FishMama) over at LifeAsMom started a new challenge last week. One that I read about, thought "what a great idea!" and went on my merry way. I toyed with the idea of joining in, and after yesterday morning's MOPS speaker spoke on time management, I've decided to officially take the plunge.

I don't have any "keepin it real" pictures to share, but here's the new habits I want to get going (again) during November:

~ Go to bed earlier! My new "in bed by" time is 10:30 (meaning "no later than" so I really could go to bed anytime before that...). Last night was the first night and I was headed to bed by 10:40... it was 11 till I actually crawled between the sheets, but that's still a whole half hour to an hour sooner than I can easily let my self stay up. My hoped for result of going to bed earlier is that I will feel more rested for the next day and not have to take as many or as long of a nap... and therefor be able to accomplish my next item:

~ Complete my "To-Do" list each day. Yesterday the MOPS speaker talked about making sure you don't over-fill your list, making it impossible to get everything done in the time frame you have to work with. I think I'm pretty good in that department. Yesterday, believe it or not, I was able to cross out ev.er.y sing.le i.tem on my list!! It was later in the day since I was gone all morning and had a rather significant nap in the afternoon, but by 9:30 I'd even gotten the floor washed, taken a walk AND done my Bible Study!! (Sadly those 3 have been getting pushed back over and over again.) My hoped for result of this habit will be that A) the house will be cleaner (duh) and B) the transition from SAHW to SAHM will be smoother. And for kicks, C) if I get all these things done, I should have plenty of time to do the extra things that need done to be ready for our little Bambino's arrival :)

~ Menu Planning. I like having a menu plan, but I can be a hard-core procrastinator. My goal with this one is to plan the NEXT week's menu so that I can grocery shop for NEXT week THIS week (to fill in the cracks for the odd things I might not have a supply of). I also want to start working on some freezer meal plans so that come January I can spend some time filling our deep freeze with MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) to use in March. The no-brainer result of this will be not having to scramble at 5:00 or 5:30 to throw together something for supper. I have done this before, I just rolled off the wagon somewhere back there and haven't made an effort to jump back on.

I'd like to invite/encourage any of you to check out FishMama's challenge and join us! Especially if your one of my MOPS-mates... I think this goes hand in hand perfectly with what Anita was teaching yesterday! Leave me a comment if you decide to join, I'd love to hear (or read if you post about it) about what your "Good Habit" goals are :)