Setting (and meeting) goals

So, the last few weeks I have been sharing with you my "to do" list as a tool to motivate me to not procrastinate. So far, I think it's working.

that's me....

So here is last week's list:

1. Work on cross stitch.
2. Get back to my journaling. 
3. Prepare Christmas cards and gifts for work Christmas Party on Friday.
4. Spend more time in prayer
5. accept my Liebster.

Well,  I can cross #3 and #5 off my list. Cards and gifts are done and handed out, and I spent all last week talking about the Liebster. I did work a little on my cross stitch and my journaling, though not as much as I wanted to. I even spent more time in prayer, though again, not as much as I need to. So those will stay on my list. 

This week's list looks like this:

1. Spend more time in prayer.
2. Work on cross stitch.
3. spend time on journaling. 
4. plan a dinner with old friends.

It's a short list, I know. But I think it's manageable, and that is the most important thing. 

On another note, As we head off into what promises to be a busy week, Please keep the community of Newtown, Ct in  your thoughts and prayers. You can find a list of the victim's names here. My hope is that we can flood the world with their names so that their names are the ones remembered, not the shooter's.

Have a beautiful and blessed Monday!

Sunday thoughts and some pictures...

It's Sunday, the day I usually reserve for sharing with you the inspiration I have picked up in cyberspace. Problem is I am behind on my blog reading and Twitter hasn't offered much in the way of inspiration this week. But have no fear! I did find some inspiration out there, and I am almost never at a loss of thoughts to share (inspiring or otherwise).

First, let's talk about goals. Last Wednesday I wrote about what a great procrastinator I am and how I am trying to change that. (You can read more here) To help motivate myself I have linked up with Rennata over at Growing Unique and posted a short list of goals for the week. Here they are:

1. Finish scrapbook by Friday. This must be done in order to get it on time.
2. Work on cross stitch. I have been working on this for a coworker for roughly 5 years. It was supposed to be a wedding present. She has 2 kids now. I am not kidding.
3. Get back to my journaling. 

I am happy to say that I can cross #1 off my list! The book is done and ordered, and I think my friend will like it. I hope so, anyway. 
Unfortunately, #2 & #3 on my list have not been successful. And by that I mean I have not even touched either the cross stitch or the journal. So, those stay on the list, and I am going to add some new things. But I have not been completely lazy! I spent some time working on Christmas cards for my church this week, getting addresses on envelopes and such so that all my Pastor has to do is sign the cards and put on a stamp. I am in charge of the Birthday card ministry at church and took this Christmas card project as a way of helping him out. And it was worth it, I wish you could have seen his face when I handed him the first stack of cards. It was a wonderful feeling, being able to take some of the burden off him in some small way! My other accomplishment this week was helping my hubby install a new pool liner in our above ground pool. Yes, in December. We had no choice as the other one died a couple of weeks back and it was either take the pool down or install a new liner. So we did. And managed to not kill each other. I think that's a pretty huge accomplishment. (Cyber high-five's all around!)

Here's my list for the upcoming week:

1. Work on cross stitch.
2. Get back to my journaling. 
3. Prepare Christmas cards and gifts for work Christmas Party on Friday.
4. Spend more time in prayer*

*I actually have 1 more to add to the list, but I want to talk a little bit about #4 first. I have a calling as a prayer warrior. I know that as a believer, we are all called to pray, but I have known for a while now that I have a special directive to pray. I have tried to take the easy road on this, I started a Facebook prayer group almost 2 years ago at God's leading and then I sort of stepped back and tried to stay in the background. Sort of a "here you go God" moment. But He was not satisfied with that, and eventually I realized that His head is harder than mine and I needed to just do things his way. And it has been a great blessing. The Facebook prayer page is a wonderful place, where I find so much support and love. And this past spring I helped to revive a prayer group at work. Basically I send out weekly prayer emails and we meet once a month to pray for any needs of our work family. That has also been a huge blessing to me. But, as with most things in life, I allowed myself to get bogged down and distracted and I lost my focus on prayer. Then this week I had a great reminder when a coworker sent me a message through Facebook asking me to pray about some health problems she is dealing with. She was so kind and thankful just to be able to ask me. It reminded me that praying for needs is a blessing. It has always blessed me as much or more than the person I am praying for. And I need to keep it central in my life. So, I am striving to set aside some time for both prayer groups and for time in the word to inspire my prayer life. 

      5. Accept my award....what award you say?? The Liebster!!

Source

Cool, right?? Larissa over at Papa is a Preacher awarded me last week, but I have been too busy to give it the thought it deserves. For those of you not familiar with the Liebster, here is the description that Larissa provided in her blog post:

" The Liebster Blog Award is an award given from bloggers to bloggers that are small to medium in size or up and coming in the blog-sphere.  Liebster is German for favorite.  The award is a way to give beginning bloggers some worthy attention, make connections and let readers learn a little more about you. "

The award comes with a list of 11 questions I have to answer, then I have to list 11 facts about myself, and finally chose 11 other blogs to award the Liebster to (although Larissa changed that number to 5 in her's, so I might be fiddling with that number, we'll see.) Normally, this is all done in one blog post, but I think I might play around with it some and spread it out over the week. It's a bit less overwhelming that way and allows time for focusing on my other goals.

Now, how about a few pictures?

This week is all me, pictures taken with my cellphone camera. I hope you enjoy them.

A cross on the Christmas Tree at Church

Ornaments on the Church Tree

A cool picture I took last weekend

Maggie, sleeping cuteness

Last, I'll leave you with some "Textgram" inspiration. I am loving this app on my phone, even though it's really a time suck and I need to be focusing on other things! :-)

I am going to link this blog with Larissa over here for her Tidbit Thursday (even though it's Sunday) & with Renneta here for her Setting goals Sunday. I encourage you to check them both out and consider linking up if you blog! Happy Sunday everyone and have a blessed week!

1 more, just for grins!

I suck at setting goals.....

I really do. If they handed out PhD's in procrastination, I wouldn't have one, because I would have put it off too long. That's just what I do. I jokingly say that I only work well under pressure. But really, that's a complete lie. Under pressure, I have panic attacks. The work gets done, but I end up a basket case afterwards, swearing I will NEVER do that again.

Until the next time. Which, by strange coincidence, is now. Right now in fact. I am at home today, in front of the computer, propped up on a pillow and a really hot heating pad. My back has been hurting mildly for a couple of weeks, but in the last 48 hours it has been really bad. I attribute this to some work related problems (bad chairs and awkward keyboard placement) and to the self induced stress of a project deadline.

See, I have this friend at work who is leaving to write full time (You can find his name at the top of my favorite books list) I have known he is leaving for almost a year. I knew I had to make this book, I make all the scrapbooks when people leave. And this one is special. You would think that would motivate me. Nope. It makes my procrastination turn into a superpower. I am pathetic.

So, the other day I was browsing through some blogs when I found this post  over at Growing Unique. Here is the link to the full post, which is titled "Wishing and Wanting".

In this post Rennata gives a review of her goals (long and short term) and where she stands in meeting each one. She also provides a place for you to link your own post and share your goals. It's a way of making yourself more accountable and keeping the motivation up. I really need this!

So, here I am. Writing my list of short term goals for this week, when I should in fact be 1 tab over working on my project. So, this week's list will be short.

1. Finish scrapbook by Friday. This must be done in order to get it on time.
2. Work on cross stitch. I have been working on this for a coworker for roughly 5 years. It was supposed to be a wedding present. She has 2 kids now. I am not kidding.
3. Get back to my journaling. 

Okay, that's it. I will report back in a week or so on my progress. And maybe then we can think about some long term goals. Maybe.....

OH! I wanted to give you one more link! It is to the my weekly review of the TV show Castle on the Fanbolt website. I am having so much fun writing these weekly updates. I hope that next summer I might get the chance to write the Falling Skies review too. Hey, a girl can dream!

Castle 5.09 Episode recap and review: Secret Santa

I made this using a new app on my phone, Textgram. Instead of working on the scrapbook. I am hopeless