August-Pray for someone every day. Erin Barbee

So, I missed posting for July. But, I did try to do fun things with my kids. This year, I went to Seven Peaks more than my husband. Usually, it's the other way around.

For August, my goal was to pray for someone every day. I made a list and added somebody every day. By the end, it was difficult to pray without my list and so I would try to remember. But, it was still a good project for me. If somebody bugged me that day I added them to the list. If I heard about something happening for someone I added them to the list. Praying for people really changed my heart. I was so blessed by thinking about others. I had a variety of people on my list and it was great to think about them throughout the day. No pictures and I can't even explain what it did but just know I am very glad I chose this as one of my goals.

September Goal - Make a quilt all the way. Learn how to use my mom's quilting machine. I started a used levi's quilt instead. It needs to be done by the 24th of October for my husband's birthday. So, there's really no time to do the other project. I hope it still happens in November.

October Goal - Be present when my husband is home. That means less phone and computer constantly in my lap. He doesn't really have a smart phone so he can't stand it when I spend too much time on mine.

Erin Barbee - June - Make Do and Go to the Store Less

Right at the first of June, I wimped out and decided I was only going to not go to the store for one week. So, I spent half of the month trying to stock up and get ready for not going to the store. I did try to be conscious of it all month, though. I really tried not to go to Target and I did only go three times and twice was the first week. I'm usually at Target a couple of times a week. And, I found as I went less, that even when I did go it was usually only for a couple of items instead of a big list to spend my money on.

So, then it's the 15th and I've committed to not going to the store for a week. My friend, Heidi, does this every year for one month. It's great for her food storage recycling and knowing what she needs for her food storage. But, I'm not her and I really am not prepared if there's a real emergency.

So, it's Monday morning and my daughter wakes up with this hair and no product in the house. She was still in school, too. So, I really couldn't have her going without hair product (gel, shampoo and conditioner) for a week. So, day one, I went to Sally's. I also went to Auto Zone because we really needed a new gas can for the lawnmower. There's a big yellow patch of lawn that will back me up on this one.

This is an after shot with hair product. It looks so much better. I found this on my phone from one of her many make-up tutorial videos that she has saved. She is hilarious! Maybe some day I'll let her have a make-up blog but I'm a little unsure on that for a seven year old. :)

Day two, I stayed home all day. It was nice to get some extra deep cleaning done since I didn't have anywhere to go. And, I played games with my little one. She's off to kindergarten soon and those days are numbered.

Day three, I went to Kneader's because I needed teacher appreciation gifts for the last day of preschool.

Day four, I stayed home. Day five, I went to Joann's. I'm sure it seemed really important at the time but who knows what I bought or if I've used it yet.

I had pretty high hopes for this goal. But, I really am not cut out for it, either. So, when you see me at Target, just wave and don't look judgmentally into the cart at all of the great things I think I need that day. I hope this doesn't just sound like justification or a travel log. But, I really do go to the store a lot.

The goal did work out well because it made me aware and thinking about what I go to the store for and how often. Even this month, I've found a few days to just spend at home hanging out, cleaning and letting my kids' friends come over.  I found I don't mind if I don't get out of the house every day. I always thought I had to get out of the house every day. Maybe I should try walking, no?

My July goal was to make a bucket list with my kids. Instead, we made a calendar and listed the things going on. I did try to include them and let them do a few fun things. But, school starts tomorrow and July has gone way too fast.

My August goal is to pray for someone every day and add on to the list. I don't know if this is going to be my goal. I just have some other priorities that I need to focus on, too. So, I will definitely do this but I might need another goal as well to get myself going.

Organize Kitchen, Recipes and Spices - Erin Barbee

My original goal was to help and serve my parents. They changed their travel plans and then they ripped up a bunch of carpet to put down tile in their high usage areas. So, I really couldn't do a lot to help them. Plus, I had to call them so many times to help me since my husband will still out of town. I know, broken record. You're all so sick of hearing about him being gone. Last post, I promise. He'll be home on Thursday.

And, back to my post. I spent most of May wondering what I should do for my goal. Then, right at the end of the month I thought I should finish my organizing goal and work on my kitchen. On the 29th, I started working through my cabinets. Then, I got to the recipe cabinet which looked like this:

Not pretty and something definitely needed to be done. 

So, I decided to reorganize my recipes like so many of you have done. I finished on the 15th of this month but at least it's done. Yahoo! Here's the recipe binder cover I printed.

 And, here's my main dishes cover. I think they're pretty cute. I printed them for free from http://melaniegetsmarried.blogspot.com/2013/11/recipe-binder-printables.html










I started by throwing out all the recipes I don't use. Then, I started retyping in a nice bold print because let's face it I'm not getting any younger. Then, I remembered that my husband really likes pictures in cookbooks. That's why Our Best Bites Cookbook is his favorite. And, I'm really lucky and he cooks a lot for me. So, I decided to make the new recipe binder very user-friendly for my husband. He has never, ever looked up a recipe on the internet. Also, I do still use a lot of recipes from our mothers but they were handwritten on recipe cards. (Don't worry none in their handwriting, all in mine.) And, I wanted more recipes to be in one place. Once again, helpful husband has to call me all the time and ask which book recipes are in. I put three recipes to a page. I just stole these pictures from other websites. I really wasn't up for making all this food and taking pictures. I also kept all of my internet recipes just in the sleeves that they were already in. I don't think I need to redo those. I might add pictures to a few if it bugs me when I make it.

Did I mention I've also tried to cut back on processed and baked foods? The sweets section was pretty hard to put together late at night. I was always hungry but stuck to it and finished it up.
The recipe cabinet looks better for sure. And, husband hasn't even looked in the book for the real test. But, I was using it today and kept thinking this might be my favorite goal. I have a tangible, pretty result. Until next month, anyway. Here's the cabinet now:

I lost my before picture of the spice cabinet but here's all the expired or duplicate ones in the garbage. I think I should organize this cabinet more often, too.

 And, here's my organized spice cabinet after. I keep forgetting to replace all my bullion cubes that were expired in 2011. 

June Project: Make do. This meant going to the store less. It also meant being more deliberate in my shopping lists and trips.

July Project: Make a bucket list with the kids. We got A Track next year which means they're out for three weeks. And, two of those my boys will be gone camping. Eeek! We will be getting through the days and just doing whatever we can whenever we can. I will be more spontaneous. I will spend time with my kids. We will work on the girls' family books and talk about family history all month long while they're excited about it. So, I guess it's now focus on family!

Erin Barbee, April, Pamper Myself

My April goal was to pamper myself. My husband was supposed to be out of town all month. My oldest is 13 and a boy so it's not all that easy to leave my kids alone so that I can pamper myself. 

My husband was able to take time off so that I could go on a girls' trip with my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law. I had a fun trip to St. George. We went to Vegas one day and the weather was windy but great. When I left, my son said, "What will you do? Just sit around and talk? You'll be so bored without us." :) That's right, it was the best boring weekend I've ever had. This is me getting a Veyo Pie while drinking my Dirty Dr. Pepper from Straws.  Happy 40th to me.

Back to my real goal. I digress way too often. I decided to pamper myself by having a morning devotional with myself. I get up to go to the gym really early and I started studying the scriptures and listening to hymns while I ate breakfast instead of spending time studying social media.

I really enjoyed those minutes to myself in the morning. I studied conference talks on my phone and made sure to look up the references. I also played a hymn every morning. I really enjoyed starting at the front of the hymn book and listening to the hymns while reading the words. I've already found hymns that I am not familiar with.

This morning devotional really helped me with my days. My family benefited from my study of the conference talks. But, I've been happier, healthier and I do feel the spirit more often when I take the time in the morning to study. It also helped me to remember to study at night. I studied my primary lesson  and the Book of Mormon at night, too. It's pretty hard to express the difference but I'm still glad that I did it. And, I've still done it all of May. I think it's a habit that I need to keep while the momentum is good.

A quote from my favorite talk so far, "It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings we can count. True, it is important to frequently 'count our blessings' ...but I don't believe the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial than in times of abundance and ease." --President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I think about this quote all of the time. How do I develop a spirit of gratitude? It's hard to be thankful in all things. I will keep working on it.  I think Pres. Uchtdorf gives amazing talks and so I always want to hear what he says.

Just kidding.

I also love Elder Bednar's talk, and the "Four Minute" Talk and the "Christ-Focused Home" talk.

May goal = Help and serve my parents. This didn't happen for various reasons that I'll tell you about next month. I have been spring cleaning my kitchen. It's not going to be done. But, I cleaned my recipe cabinet today. I'm  motivated by others on here to organize my recipes. I still have two days and I might just make it.

June goal = Make do. I go to the store almost every day. I need to cut back. It will be difficult with my husband out of town. My other goal is going to be less social media and more hobbies/sewing. I still need to decide how to make these concrete, measurable goals. Once again, I have a lot to do before the 1st. :)

March Project: Organize - Erin Barbee

My goal for March was organization. I got lots done but there is still lots to do. I procastinated the kitchen thinking I would granite this month and then do it but that didn't happen yet. Here's a few before and after pictures of what I did do. I'm happy with the things I did accomplish. My master closet hasn't been this organized since we've lived here.

I lost all of my pictures, so I took some quick after pictures tonight. That means these two closets still look good enough that I can share pictures. YEA! I cleaned the toy room and my girls' room but those aren't picture-worthy today. I'll spare you the fabulousness.

Master Closet

Pantry

Lastly, here's a room I'm pretty proud of. This picture is the before of my front sitting room. It was unused, unloved and boring.

This is the after, although I don't have a picture of the new desk. I love it, it gets used and I think it's beautiful. I had a professional come over and help me move things around. But, I am so happy with the way it looks and she used stuff I had around the house. 

 My music is organized again.

I love organization. But, now I know I also love pretty rooms. If only I could do this by myself in the rest of my house.

My April goal changed a little. My original goal was to pamper myself all month and go on a fun girls' trip, too. It sounded so selfish when I said it that I decided to change it. Plus, the first monday of the month my husband went out of town and I went to get my hair done. Multiple phone calls from my kids convinced me that I couldn't focus on me while my husband was out of town. So, I still went on my trip. And, you will have to wait until next month to hear but I still found a way to help myself without interfering in precious family time.

And for May, my goal is to serve my parents. I don't know what I'm going to do yet but I'm excited to help them. They're not at the age where they need it but it still could be fun if I can do it in a sneaky way.

Erin-Compliment my family daily

I was so confident with my January goal. It only took a few days to realize that my February goal was going to be tougher. So, here's why I made adjustments and descriptions of the adjustments that I made.

1. If you're grouchy with your kids all day long and then at bedtime remember to give them a compliment, it's pretty outdone by the day of grouchiness.
2. I needed to find a way to be a more purposeful, positive mother throughout the day.

So, I thought I could do daily heart attacks (one heart a day). My oldest loved this and would check every day. But, trying to do it for each of them every day made it hard to not just compare and write similar compliments. Plus, my other son started ripping them down when he got mad (that happens a lot at my house). I got tired of recutting, rewriting and retaping. I didn't even get pictures before he had ripped all of his own and most of his brother's hearts. My girls aren't reading and so they didn't love them, either. So, I decided to try the rule of 3-1.

We have had lots of therapy and parenting classes in our nine years of being parents. We adopted our boys when they were four and two. We got our older daughter when she was only a month old. Our boys especially have had a lot of challenges. And our cute older daughter has a very big personality.  I don't say this so that you will feel bad for me but just know that everything we do is hard because our kids have challenging backgrounds. Our kids are really great and give a lot of effort to everything they do. WE are blessed to have them not the other way around. And, my youngest who happens to be biological has challenges with her speech and potty-training (she's 5). So, I know that my challenges with my kids aren't any harder than the challenges each of you has.

Back to the 3-1. Lots of experts say that you should give three positives to every negative. Every command, yell or negative comment takes at least three positives to balance out. So, I tried throughout the month to notice when things were getting negative and turn it around with positives right when it happened.

It all helped a little but it needs to be a long-term goal. Also, I don't know if I can measure results or if my kids were even any happier. However, it did really help me to focus on the positives. We fought long and hard for these kids that we have and I need to fight long and hard to show them how much I love and appreciate them. I think this goal of improving my relationship with my children will make it in throughout the year. Everything I do helps blesses each of us in our family.

During March, I tried to send my oldest texts that complimented him on something when I thought of it. Then, he gets surprised with the compliments. I don't even know if he notices but it gives me the chance to give him some positive feedback when his life is filled with lots of negatives. I have tried to keep up the positives but I have not been as consistent as February.

And on to March & April. March was all about organizing. But, my goal for April is to pamper myself and go on a girls trip. But, I'm also planning to work on my relationships with my kids even more. That's like pampering myself and blessing my life by blessing theirs.

I hate pictures of myself but I think it's great when you put pictures on here. Then, I can picture you as I'm reading your posts. So, here's my family picture from last summer. I tried to take a little selfie but it's late and it just really wasn't good. I must practice my selfie skills and show you just how fabulous I am.

Erin Barbee, January 2014, Plyometrics Tabata

I think I have the shortest Nora history. We met just over 4 years ago, when we moved into her neighborhood in West Jordan. She still treats me like we're best friends whenever she sees me. And, she left me a great jogging partner when she decided to move away. I might know some of her friends from a LONG time ago at Valley Junior High. Maybe my path would have crossed Nora's long ago if I would have lived a little further north and gone to Granger instead of Taylorsville. When she e-mailed me about this project, I had been thinking about how to reach some goals this year and had been considering monthly goals. This project gave me the accountability I needed.

I've been married to Todd for 16 years. My kids are Jonah (13), Luke (11), Kira (6) and Morgan (5). Next month, I might share a little bit more about my kids. I've lived in Utah my entire life and we'll be in our lovely West Jordan Home for a long time. I stay at home for the most part but this is the first year that I haven't prepared taxes part-time. I'm sure I'll tell you more about my family as the months go on. 

On to my project for January. It's called Plyometrics Tabata by Jill Coleman. I found it on Xfinity On Demand last summer. It's a 12 minute exercise program that doesn't seem that hard. Then, later in the day, I can't walk up and down the stairs. So, I made the goal to do it three times a week. Two weeks in and I had no trouble with stiff backside. So, I decided to step it up and looked on her website to see what else she had.

Here's her Hurricane Sandy workout.

And, here's a link to her 4 minute workout.
http://jillfit.com/2012/01/25/tabata-home-workout/

I started doing the Hurricane Sandy Workout and it was the extra challenge that I needed. I have kept it up a little in February and now I don't have the trouble with stiff muscles. I call it goal accomplished. But without having to admit on here that I failed, I'm not as motivated as I was before.

So, you do the exercises for 20 seconds and then you take a 10 second break before you repeat. So, squat jumps you do six times but then when you get to planks and bicycles you only do two rounds. Confused anyone? It's pretty easy to tell yourself you can do anything for 20 seconds and you all can. So, try it if you're ready to switch up your exercise routine.

Posting at the end of the month presents challenges because I am currently worried about three projects instead of two. My February Project to compliment my kids every day didn't go quite as planned but with adjustments it's been okay. And, I already started my March Project because I love organization.

Erin Barbee's Goals & Projects for 2014

January- Do plyometrics 3 days a week.  Strengthen legs and backside with this intense 12 minute exercise program that leaves me barely able to walk. See how I feel after 1 month of completing it regularly.

February-Compliment each of my children every day.  I need to be a 1-3 mom that reprimands or tells them to do something and then follows up with 3 items of praise.  The ultimate goal would be higher but it will be fun to see what different things I can come up with each day. 

March-Clean & Organize. Organize something every day and don’t stress out if the house isn’t perfect by the end.  Set the timer and spend 15 minutes on an organizing task six days a week. Let it go if the other spots of the house aren’t perfect.

April-Pamper myself. If I’m tired, take a 15 minute nap. If I’m grouchy, go get a Dirty Dr. Pepper or Milky Way. Take a girls trip or at least spend a whole day with myself or friends. Spend time with my friends and be a good friend. 

May- Serve my parents. Clean their car, help in their yard, clean their basement when they’re gone.

June-Make do. Use what I have. Don’t go to the store all the time. Once a week for grocery trips and once every other week for Target, Clothes Shopping, etc.

July-Make a Summer Bucket list with the kids and complete each item.

August-Pray for someone new every day. Build on the list so I have 31 people by the end of the month.

September-Quilt a quilt. I have wanted to learn how to quilt a quilt on my mom’s longarm machine. This is the year, I will get her to show me and complete a quilt start-to-finish. This might be my most time-consuming goal.  Good thing all of my kids will be in school at least part-time.

October-Celebrate my husband’s birthday by strengthening my relationship with him. Compliment, date & be present with him all month long.

November- Do a family service project to help others. Find a worthy cause before the craziness of the holidays begin.

December- Read the four gospels and study the life of the Savior every day. Share a scripture with my family every day at dinner.