The Momma Knows » All About Me

28 Days to a New Outlook

Dawn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:43 +0000

So yesterday was day one. Easy peasy. One new habit that isn’t totally new, but I’m not the most consistent. I need to do it. Every. Day. Sometimes twice a day. As I said before, we are often a two load a day dishes family. It’s not something I enjoy, because really, I hate doing the dishes.

This 28 day series I’m doing, using 28 Days to Hope For Your Home, is about recognizing that I have a problem. Okay, I have several problems. I collect clutter, then I don’t want to deal with the clutter, then I don’t know what to do with the clutter. That’s three things but really it boils down to one: I am lazy.

Nony the Slob calls this process “de-slobification”. Some friends (Lynn and Heidi) and I were chatting on Twitter about a month ago, and the term we used was de-crapification. I think I like that term better. (Does this term offend you? I’m sorry, but I call it like I see it. Don’t judge me. I still love Jesus.)

The de-crapification of my life commences now.

Areas that I know I need to work on are all based on my habits:

Housekeeping

routine cleaning/pickup daily
preventing clutter before it starts
folding and putting away laundry as it comes out of the dryer
doing all of the dishes rather than waiting to put the extras in the next load

Health

get back to running 3-5 times a week
put myself on an elimination diet to find out what foods I am sensitive to, and then
put myself on a healthy eating plan that excludes those foods!
keep a daily food and exercise log

Blogging

set a post schedule in advance and stick to it
set aside days/times for writing and for social media
minimize other electronic commitments

Through beginning to work on building good habits in these areas, I should be able to begin to take control of my life! There are just too many areas where I tend to either over-do or ignore, depending on the situation.

And do I think I will actually post every single day for the 28 days? I have no idea. Don’t hold it against me if I’m not able to. My goal is to have a life outside of my computer screen… so maybe, maybe not. We’ll see. And with these lofty goals, I am beginning to think maybe I should start a new blog just for them!

Now through February 28th, 28 Days to Hope For Your Home is 50% off! Get this ebook and give yourself some hope for YOUR home!

28 Days to Hope for Your Home is not a guide to getting your home completely organized in a month. Based on the experience I have gained during my personal deslobification process, this e-book is a guide to developing basic habits that other people seem to know (but people like us don’t).

If you follow the instructions for each day, you will learn new habits and change your thinking about your home. Through personal experience (the best teacher), you will understand the basics of keeping your home out of Disaster Status.

You will have hope.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of this ebook. I will receive a small commission if you click over and make a purchase through one of my links.

Birthdays, Site Launches and Giveaways

Dawn — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:05:00 +0000

Today is the last day of my thirties, as well as the first day of a brand new season in my life.

Looking back over the past 40 years, I can see the seasons of my life with so much clarity. It’s funny how, when you are living your life and you’re “in the moment”, all you know is the immediate present. Even when you know there is a bigger picture, the NOW is so present that it’s hard to look beyond it.

The Childhood years– the first ten years of my life. They were fun and carefree, for the most part. I had my parents, my sister, and friends in various places we were stationed. My folks always tried to take advantage of whatever locale we were, to explore, camp, fish, and have fun.

Between 11-20 were the Tough years. Growing up was interspersed with tragedies that shaped me forever. I struggled to find who I was. I lived a very self-destructive life, and I was lucky I came out alive. I floundered around without an inner joy or any peace. I didn’t know it, but through it all God was there.

The years from 21-30 were where I really started to “get” life. I lost my Mom, but I gave my life to Christ and He changed me from the inside out. He took a broken girl and re-created her. I was still a messed up sinner, but I knew the Savior. These were the Growth years. I started to dig into what God has for me. Those passionate years, with new faith and joy unspeakable, were like fresh air.

And then there were these recent past ten years—the years of Change. From passion for God, deep roots of faith grew, and are still developing. I am comfortable in my own skin now. I have a different outlook on life. I am turning 40, but I feel so far from “over the hill!!”

I am working on simplifying our lives as God has been simplifying my faith. American Christianity is so churchified (Yes, it’s a word—I made it up) when really “only one thing is needed” (Luke 10:42). He’s my One Thing.

40 isn’t death. It isn’t old, or ugly, or scary, or fat, or sick. 40 is what I make it to be. To me, 40 is promise of future life, future growth, future faith and even more change. I’m ready! Bring it on.

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Tomorrow, as I celebrate my 40th birthday, I invite you to join me! And I have gifts for you! I LOVE to share, so I have 7 DAYS of GIVEAWAYS! You have to enter each one individually, so come back and join me daily for my 40th Birthday Celebration!

Here’s the line up:

Saturday Oct. 8th: Win a winter themed Disney throw blanket from my Relevant Conference Sponsor, Naomi with The Magic For Less!

Sunday Oct. 9th: Win a free online class from Founder’s Academy

Monday Oct. 10th: Win a copy of the Homeschool Day Book relaxed record keeping software

Tuesday Oct. 11th: Win a Gift Certificate to Daily Chocolate

Wednesday Oct. 12th: Win a one-year premium Pixosphere membership

Thursday Oct. 13th: Win a Gift Certificate to Farmsteadlady Designs

Friday, Oct. 14th: The big prize!! Win a full history curriculum package from Heritage History

So that you don’t miss any of the fun, please consider subscribing to posts by Email or through an RSS reader. You may also follow me on Twitter and Like my Page on Facebook.

5 Kids and More On Seasons

Dawn — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

The Lord has really been talking to me about seasons in life. I keep thinking about the different phases of my life, and I am clearly seeing the seasons behind as well as the ones that are passing. It must have something to do with turning 40. That number doesn’t bother me. 40 Is just a number. It’s a marker.

As I’m hitting this marker, I’m also seeing the current things in my life from a slightly different perspective. I see my blog, which, for my intents and purposes has been wildly successful! Lack of income notwithstanding, my blog is everything I designed it to be: A support for parents from all walks of life as well as a place for me to express what’s on my heart. Yet, it is also just a season that is passing.

Before you become concerned, I’m not going to stop blogging! But think about this: How many kids do I write about these days? J, D1 and D2. Three kids. M and P are moved out. G still lives at home but he’s a busy 20 year old with a full time job, a band, and a busy life. Three kids. And two dogs, a rabbit and her cohort the guinea pig. But mostly I write about the two boys.

So I looked at this blog and asked myself, how much longer does 5 Kids and a Dog go on before it needs to morph into something else? Then I answered. The time is now. I hope that you will come along with me, as I take my blog into the next season of my life! Friday, October 7. 2011 at 4pm Pacific is the kick-off time for The Momma Knows!!

Join me for a whole week of daily giveaways from some fantastic sponsors! The Magic For Less Travel, Heritage History, Founder’s Academy, The Homeschool Daybook, Our Daily Chocolate, and more! The fun begins on Friday, and giveaways start Saturday! I AM IN NEED OF TWO MORE prizes, so If you would like to sponsor a giveaway prize for my site launch, please email me!

Turning 40 and Seasons

Dawn — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Many of you know that my 40th birthday is coming up. I’ve been tweeting a little here and there about it…

I’ve been working on the computer a lot. I mean, constantly. NOT exactly what I like to be doing, but this is big! And I’m excited to share it with you!

Yes, my birthday is coming up, in three weeks to be exact, and I am sharing my birthday present with you! I wrote about the changing seasons of life recently. I have been feeling an urgency to move ahead into my next phase of life. What that will look like, I have no idea. The only thing that I do know is that “5 Kids and a Dog” has moved into a season of 3—almost 2—kids (and two really obnoxious dogs), and although I haven’t talked about them very much, our THIRD GRANDBABY will be two weeks old tomorrow. Yes I’m turning 40 and have grandbabies. It happens.

In light of this current transitional season, I am proud to announce that three weeks from today I am launching a brand spanky new blog! My new home has a new look, new feel, but still much the same things you’ve come to expect here. The ABC’s of Homeschooling will continue, starting fresh on October 11th with “A Week”!

I have been working really hard on the back side of the new site, designing all my own graphics and doing all the theme tweaks. Don’t worry, I have help for the big stuff, like the post importing. (THAT’s not being very friendly to me at all.) Here’s a little sneak preview!

And the most exciting part? I have a week of giveaways arranged for you and the prizes are going to be GOOD! I’m so thankful to have met some amazing people here in my little corner of the blogosphere who have offered to share of themselves to help me launch my new home!!

God is good, friends are wonderful, and change is exciting! So who’s with me?

If you don’t already follow me on Twitter, please do now so you will get all the giveaway announcements as they happen. The Momma Knows has a Facebook page too!

Long Overdue Fitness Update

Dawn — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

It has been a long time since I have posted a fitness update. In fact, I can’t remember when it was… I think my What I Wanna-Be post maybe? So I’ll just give you the skinny, er, the lowdown, on what I’ve been up to lately. This is going to be a long post. I have some exciting news!

I finished the Couch-to-5K program!

I can run 30-40 minutes without stopping! This is a huge accomplishment for me. When I first started, I felt like I was going to DIE after only five minutes. Now, I’m just getting warmed up and into a good stride around a half mile, which is about 5 minutes into the run. I went from being in very poor shape physically and having almost zero endurance, to beginning to get into good shape and my endurance is improving all the time.

My weight?

That’s another story. I started out on this running journey sometime after the first of the year. I was really inconsistent about it, but at least I was getting out there and moving. From January to now I have lost a total of only 5#. Yes that’s right, 5 pounds. I have also lost lots of inches though! My 40th birthday is coming up the first week of October, and I really want to start off my next decade with a healthier outlook on life. This is just the beginning!

My legs have muscle definition starting to appear and fat is disappearing. I love that. My middle, while smaller than it was, is still not where it needs to be. I’m going to be just totally honest here and tell you that I weigh 168 lbs. and I’m 5’3-1/2”. My BMI is definitely out of the healthy range, and although I feel a lot better than I did a year ago, I have a long way to go. I wanted to be all skinny when it came time to go to the Relevant Conference, but I don’t know how close I’ll get to that goal this late in the game. I am 12# lighter than I was at Relevant last year though!

I have taken my belt in two notches since January. My size Medium ladies t-shirts have wiggle room in them now. My 17 year old gave me a pair of jeans, size 11 in juniors, and I fit them. Granted, they are stretchy, but they fit! Slowly I am getting in shape. I was complaining to a friend last week about it taking me so long to lose the weight and she reminded me that the slower it comes off, the more likely I am to keep it off. She’s SO right! I would like to see a couple pounds loss per week though, rather than 1# a month! Other things I’ve been doing:

Logging my food intake, although that is the area where I struggle the most. I’m not very good about keeping track of it.
A Plank-a-Day. I found this through someone on Twitter. There is a #plankAday stream which I follow now. Basically you do a plank (like a pushup but you don’t move, and you lean on your elbows) and hold it for a set period of time. I started out with 30 seconds and I’m up to 1:10 now. I also do side planks, which are harder, and I’m doing only 30 seconds on each side so far. The planks were super hard when I first started them a couple weeks ago, but are getting easier. Another thing? My abs HURT!! After the first few times I did this I was definitely feeling it! No crunches necessary.
Zumba! My daughter and I go to a Zumba class at a local church twice a week. I am uncoordinated and more than a little inhibited, but I.LOVE.ZUMBA! It’s so fun and SUCH a great workout! If you’ve never tried Zumba but you like to dance, it doesn’t matter who bad you are, you’ll have fun. If I could do Zumba every day, I would. I even bought a jingle scarf! (Don’t judge me.)

So there you have it. Me, totally transparent. I hope to be even more healthy and fit in 53 days when I see my Relevant sisters again!

What are you doing to start living a healthier lifestyle?