Back on Track

I have got to find some motivation and get back on track.
Having a baby and the chaos that surrounds my life, my job, etc...has derailed me.
But those are just excuses. And we all have a million of them. Enough of those...

I was looking back to my first post and the reason I started this blog.
It was to change the things about myself that I hated the most and to have something to hold myself accountable to.
My first post was almost exactly 2 years ago today and I feel like I haven't accomplished much on that list.
So let's start over.

A brand new day.

Here is my list of things I want to change about myself from 2 years ago:

1. Quit smoking.

2. Lose weight.

3. Sleep more.

4. Cut out caffeine and drink more water.

5. Eat healthier.

6. Exercise more.

7. Want to do more with my kids.

8. Quit cursing.

9. Get more organized.

10. Be a better Christian/servant. 

And here's a recap of the last 2 years:

1. I've quit smoking probably about 10 times now. I never smoked around my children or my parents, didn't even think they knew. I was wrong. And it's a stupid habit...and disgusting, I know this. So why do I have such a hard time??? Somebody just shoot me! 
2. I lost a good bit of weight, then got pregnant. So not exactly beating myself up there. But I do want to get back on track and knock some pounds off. We are doing a weight loss challenge at work. We all put $20 in a pot, person with most percentage of weight loss gets the pot. The pot is up to $220. That is definitely some motivation. I've lost 3 lbs. in the last 2 weeks. Feels small, but it is progress.
3. Sleeping, I've decided, might come when my children graduate high school. Which now, is in 17 years since we've had Genevieve. Even when I plan ahead and come home from work and push to get all my chores done, kids fed & bathed...something always happens and I still only get on average 5 hours of sleep.
4. I still have my morning cup of coffee at work and am now down to 1 diet drink a day. For me, that is amazing!!!! 
5. We are all trying to eat healthier. Even my teenage daughter is eating better. So I think we are definitely doing way better there. There are those occasional fast meals cause we have like a million things to do, but definitely eating better now than we were 2 years ago. We've also cut out fast food all together. We are trying to do the Dave Ramsey plan, and we've decided that it is just so much of a waste of money to eat out.
 6. Exercise more - Can we just skip this one??? HAHA. I haven't been exercising. At all. I am probably in the worst shape I have been. I feel like an embarrassment to myself. But on the bright side, things can only look up from here! I actually would like to start running again, but I think I need to lose about 20 lbs before I put that kind of pressure on my knees. So I'm going to start walking again and see if I can't build up to running. I miss having that running fever and training for 5Ks.
7. I've been working on this though I feel like we could do a better job. With our son only being with us every other week, things get tough. And with it being summer time and both Joe and I working, it's been hard. Our daughter actually spent the last 5 weeks traveling around and visiting with various family members. But now that she's back, I want to try and plan some things to do every day to bring us closer together. I have been pretty insistent that we try and at least sit down at the dinner table together every night. My family never did that. And I love it. And we say prayers together every night as a family. That is also pretty awesome.
8. Quit cursing...I've done pretty good there. Every now and then the bartender slips out, but I've come up with some pretty creative words to replace the bad ones. If you've never seen the video by Tim Hawkins about Christian cuss words, I highly recommend it. You'll at least get a good laugh.
9. On the getting more organized...hmmmmm....let's see....It hasn't happened. So desperately needs to happen though. My whole house, my office, my schedule...my whole life needs some organizing.
10.  I have joined a Women's small group at our church. I love those women. They are amazing. They try to keep me on track. I go definitely grow more though. I will admit, my Bible needs to be opened a lot more and we've gotten sidetracked this summer with going to church, but I do agonizingly want to change that.

I would add one more to the list, now that some time has passed and that would be to eliminate our debt using the Dave Ramsey method. I do want to work on budgeting and financing and saving for the future.

But Life is still good.

Challenges and all...

You guys....feel free to hold me accountable.

I need it.