Hey 16!

I have 16 things totally done on my list. My temple sessions are well on the way, and most of my kid-dates are doing pretty good. I'm not reading enough (for list purposes anyway) and I need to get my crocheting done!! I have big doubts I'll ever get that sampler done for Tanner...

Day 469

I don't have too many posts because I just keep going back to update the original list. But oh, my, do I get to update a lot of things tonight! I have been getting so much done, one little baby step at a time. And too, I'm seeing a lot of things getting done kind of amazingly, without me really planning on getting it done... Like tonight, I cleaned out the birthday box, finally. It was birthday night and we are stone broke (because we only have TWO more payments to make to WIPE OUT our credit card debt!!) and I needed four presents for my wonderful nieces and nephews. To the birthday box, Batman!

Day 415

I've yet to decide if I should just re-post my list or enter a dated post.... I seem to be doing both. So some of the progress I've made doesn't ever get its own post, I just update the progress right on my original list.

Ahh.... summer means I did too get to have a few dates with my children. Never as many as I would have liked, but at least I DID spend some time with them. Maggie and I got more time than I counted as dates... doing stuff at home that wasn't necessarily for very long or just the two of us. For example, I bought little cash register money at the dollar store the other night and she and Tanner set up stores in the house (Tanner stole food from EVERYWHERE) and then I came "shopping" as various different characters in their stores. That was so much fun, and Maggie loved the attention and time we spent... but... NOT a date.

This particular goal has really made me aware of spending more time with my children. So many things don't classify as "dates" but if this has made me DO more with them, what a great goal that has been!!

Day 406

Wow. When we get to day 500 it will be the half-way point! I seriously need to get busier! Although, I must say, I was pretty darned impressed today with how many things I AM making progress on.

I'm laying in bed sick today and it was so nice to see things moving along anyway! Cool!

Day 387

I got to cross off something else today. I "cloud-watched" with Maggie and Tanner, but it's monsoon season so it was this amazing lightning show. We are broke, broke, broke this summer, so we scrounged through the house for coins and came up with enough for dollar sundaes for each of us (Taylor too!) from McDonalds. The air was beautiful, the sky was amazing, and the sundaes were oh-so good!

I have been using Mark Forster's AutoFocus System (it's free; I have to share) and it has been truly wonderful for me. (Well, and I got on the RIGHT depression medication and that has made a TREMENDOUS difference in my life!) So I feel like things are moving along just swimmingly, now!

I thought I would be really shocked when I checked in tonight to see how many days I had left, because I knew I had passed the one year mark. I thought I would go into panic-mode because there is so much left to do! But again, the way I set up my list to begin with, many things won't get checked off in the beginning, but a WHOLE BUNCH will get checked off near the end because they are items like "watch 10 movies" or "read 20 books" and I AM making progress on those goals. Go ME!!

Now, if only I had put "read or listen to Twilight series 87 times" on my list -- I could get that accomplished so easily!

ONE YEAR DOWN

I can't quite believe it's already a year. So much seems to get in the way of grand intentions. What a lovely life lesson to see that you don't just chuck it all because something got in the way... you step back, take a look and where you've been and where you want to go, and you re-commit and dig into life again.

Cool.

So I'm digging in...

I've battled with depression for years now, and saw myself falling down a hole since finally deciding to go the medication route. I tried two different medicines since last December, both with nasty side effects that left me just reeling. This latest, only a week into it, has left me so grateful for modern medicine! I feel like a brand new person! Like the curtains have been opened up to a beautiful spring day -- and they were some seriously heavy, drab curtains, let me tell you!

So... re-assessing, re-committing. It is GOOD to be alive! I LOVE waking up happy.

JOY!

SUCCESS!

I have no idea how many days I have left, and I'm not even checking in because I've completed something.

But I have finally hit $5.00 earnings on Helium! How silly that I'm so excited about that, but there it is - I am. I wrote fourteen articles in rapid sequence last year and have done NOTHING with my writing since then. And it hit the $5.00 mark. I set a goal to earn $100 from Helium before my 1001 days are up... so I definitely need to get writing again. And I can see the best "sellers" are my articles on homeschooling. Oh how I loved homeschooling. If the world keeps going the way it is, we'll probably be back to it!!