Summer Goals - FINAL WEEK!!

It is officially the last week of summer break. Technically, it is the last few days since teachers officially report back on Thursday. As always the break has gone by fast. Even though we were fortunate to have 10.5 weeks of summer break in my district this year, time moves fast since I try to cram as much in to that time as I can.

Time to reflect...

Week One: I was super successful with setting and achieving goals the first week. It also helped that I was the only one home!! My husband and children still had one more week of school.

Week Two: Successful at setting goals, but not completely successful at achieving them. The house was full (everyone home), so distractions were constant!!

Week Three: Successful at setting goals, horrible at achieving them...

Week Four: Successful at setting goals...

Week Five: Oops!

Week Six: Doh!

Week Seven: Sort-of successful at setting goals, did not completely achieve them.

Week Eight: Completely successful at setting and achieving goals! Of course, this is simply because I was on vacation and the goals were beach and family oriented :)

Week Nine: Completely successful at enjoying every minute visiting my BFF/sister in California.

Week Ten: No goals set, however I did start a new fitness/meal plan with my husband which should help us both feel more fit and energetic. The challenge will be to keep up with it once our "normal" schedules begin again.

Week Ten and a Half: That would be this coming Sunday through Wednesday, the final days of my summer break.

• I need to paint the front railing. It is mostly prepped; I guess I should paint it :) 
• I need to convince my brain to focus on work tasks since there will not be enough time in the day to complete everything if I wait until the 4 days before students walk in the door! 
• I need to get my oldest son ready for First Grade, which he will start in 2 weeks (this just involves reviewing what he learned in Kindergarten and checking supplies).

I will start that list tomorrow. For now, I will enjoy the view out my front window:

Summer Goals - Week 3

Now that I have had a dose of what summer "break" will really be like on a weekly basis, I hope to get back on track this week (see my update about the chaos last week).


WEEK 3 GOALS

Personal - Keep up the daily physical activity and include at least 2 spinning (cycling) classes.
I need to do this... for me.

Home - Research how to paint the front railing (which is rusting) and then paint it. I also need to get dirt to fill my planting boxes (which I built myself... woman power!). I'll have to take some pictures...

Work - create the daily lesson plans for the music camp and begin creating the student packets; post to my music blog.


Does anyone else suffer from "not-enough-time-itis?" You mean, EVERYONE has this?!? No way!! It's an epidemic!

Summer Goals - Week 2 Recap

Where does the time go?!? Last week was more like what summer "break" is around this house: chaotic. Week 1 was relatively blissful since I was the only one home. Last Monday was similar since I was still the only one home. Then it was Tuesday... EVERYONE was home... all day. I sneaked out for a cycling class, but otherwise it was time for bed before I new it!! And this continued the rest of the week.

Update to Week 2 Goals:

Personal - I did not keep up with this goal. I did spend 2.5 hours cleaning out the garage on Monday (that definitely counts as physical activity) and I did go to the cycling class on Tuesday. And that was it. Wednesday was spent at "work," Thursday prepping for the garage sale, and Friday & Saturday holding the garage sale.

Home - Completely achieved... yay! I did clean and reorganize the garage and I did hold the garage sale. Although I did not sell as much as I hoped to, I did make $300... which I am using to upgrade the boys to a bunk-bed. See below for how I organized my garage sale.

Work - I did create the overall plan for the music camp and create the "basic" daily lesson plan, however that's as far as I got.  I did not post to my music blog. Oh, well.


GARAGE SALE

I did some research online to pick up some tips to success. Some of the best tips that I employed was to make everything clean, to label prices and sizes clearly, and to make it very organized like shopping in a store. I put the large items in the driveway (with the hopes of attracting customers) and the smaller things on shelves, bins, and laid out on blankets in the garage.

I re-purposed some election yard signs (from a friend of my husband) to "Garage Sale" signs and placed those at the main roads leading to my housing development. Then I had smaller signs on the street sign and my mailbox. I only "advertised" on Craig's List and the local yard sale Facebook page. I probably could have gotten more foot traffic if I had remembered to contact the local newspaper.

As the garage sale was happening (Friday and Saturday mornings), I took pictures and listed some of the items on the yard sale Facebook page. I got a few sales from that page.

I still have lots of stuff left, so I took a bunch of pictures and listed them on the Facebook page. Later today, I will also put the items on Craig's List.

I will conquer the clutter. I will.

Summer Goals - Week 2

One week of summer break has gone by and it was wonderful!! It was nice to have some time to myself. My husband (also a teacher) and my oldest were both still in school the full week, so I sent the youngest to daycare and enjoyed some peace and quiet. I did achieve my goals for the week (check the update post), as well as did other projects and tasks.

During this summer break, I am teaching music 4 different ways: private flute lessons (one student, 5 sessions, 30-minutes each), a babies & toddlers music class (7 sessions, 30-minutes each), a music camp for ages 6-9 (5 sessions, 3 hours each), and assisting with the New Horizons band (a band for retirees who want to learn to play a band instrument, 8 sessions, 1.5 hours each). Thankfully, most of these sessions occur on different days of the week so I still have a very flexible schedule.

WEEK 2 GOALS:

Personal - Keep up the daily physical activity and include at least 2 spinning (cycling) classes. I went to one class last week: the instructor was awesome, I loved the music choices, and the time of day works perfectly for me! The same instructor offers 3 different classes during the week, so I am going to make time for myself to go to at least 2 of them.

Home - clean and organize the garage, hold a yard/garage sale. I really hope to make a decent profit and clear out our house a bit.

Work - create the overall plan for the music camp, create the daily lesson plans, and begin creating the student packets; post to my music blog. So far, the music blog has been successful, so I need to keep putting my ideas out there and sharing them with other music teachers.

Now these are just the BIG goals for the week. I am not very good at doing "nothing" so there are lots of little things that I do throughout the week.

Summer Goals - Week 1 Recap

REVIEW of WEEK 1 GOALS:

Personal - Do some type of physical activity every day, such as walking, biking, playing with the boys, going to the gym, or playing Wii Fit.

Sunday = played frisbee with CT
Monday = used Wii Fit
Tuesday = walked with my Beagle, Xerbi
Wednesday = got out the bike, discovered it needs some adjustment, so I walked with my other beagle, Doyle, instead.
Thursday = did some Pilates while watching the Today Show
Friday = went to my first spinning (cycling) class in YEARS!!
Saturday = the only day I did not complete my goal; I spent 4 hours in my car and 6 hours at a meeting, then had movie night with the family. Perhaps I will do 2 activities tomorrow to make up for it...

Home - re-organize & move downstairs shelves, collect & clean items for yard sale

I finished the shelving project Wednesday. Of course that project spawned a few other smaller projects that also were completed on Wednesday... with some carryover into Thursday. The collection of yard sale items gets bigger every day.  I plan to hold the yard sale next weekend, so I'm sure you can guess what my next set of Home goals will be :)

Work - create task list (items that need to be completed prior to August 16th), post to my music blog

The task list is begun and ever growing. I guess next week is when I start actually working on the tasks, huh? I posted on my music blog and had a fantastic response to the post!! I'm feeling good about it since I just started it this spring.

See you tomorrow for Week 2 goals :)

The UnDiet

It is the time of year where almost everyone is posting resolutions, and just about every set of resolutions has something about losing weight or getting fit. Not mine. (Of course, I don't set "resolutions"... see my last post).

Yeah, I used to be part of that crowd: trying different diets, shelling out the cash for fitness programs, and just hoping to figure out the mystery of the "skinny people."

There is no mystery.

The summer after I graduated college, I bought a health book that actually seemed to work. I did not own a scale, however I could feel the difference. Looking back now, I realize it was not the book itself but what the book was guiding me to do: eat unlimited fruits & vegetables and eat certain types of foods at the correct time of day for that food. Also, I was pushing myself to run or jog almost every day that summer... that was not in the book, although exercise was mentioned.

Fast forward to the year before my first pregnancy. I vowed to get back in shape prior to getting pregnant. I met with a trainer and a nutritionist at the gym where I had a membership. I LOVED the trainer!! He really listened to my fitness goals & what I like to do at the gym and tailored a plan that I wanted to do. I still see him occasionally around town; I'm sure he doesn't remember my name but he always recognizes me and stops to chat. The nutritionist mostly listened to me and created a meal plan that was pretty good (I don't like rice, sheesh), however she did not include chocolate.

Now there are many things I have cut out of my life in the spirit of "good health," but some things are REQUIRED to stay. Chocolate. Coffee. Wine. Seriously.

I followed the meal plan anyway, although I did have 2 pieces of chocolate every afternoon :) Between the training and the meals, I reached my goals.

Then I got pregnant. Then I gained 60 pounds, including the baby. And when 2 weeks after the baby was born I still had 40 pounds to lose (you mean to tell me they aren't born at the weight of a 3-year-old?), I pulled out the good ol' meal plan. I tried it for a couple of weeks and decided that I do not like to be told what not to eat.

I remembered the fruits & veggies book, but couldn't find it on my shelves or remember what it was called. So I got an app for my phone (Old School: Palm Treo... yeah, baby!) and decided to just log my food, count the calories, do physical activity, and WANT it to work. Oh, and my work was doing a "Biggest Loser"-type contest so I joined in that fun bit of motivation. I won the contest and 14 months after the baby was born, I was back to being me.

Whenever I feel that I am physically not at my best, I go back to eating more fruits & veggies, and try to squeeze in more activities. The second pregnancy was better: I only gained 40 pounds total and lost them all in 7 months. No, my body is definitely not what it used to be (Is THAT my belly? MY boobs look like that?!?), but I am healthy and happy and definitely not food deprived.

I do not claim that what works for me will work for anyone else. I listen to my body and figure out what I need, and that usually works. Although your needs may be different, I bet if you listen you can figure it out.