Day 1001

On December 30, 2008, I created a list of 101 goals that I wanted to accomplish in 1001 days.  Somehow, I completed 88 of the 101 goals (with a few more to be accomplished next month) which absolutely shocks me.  I was hoping to do at least half...I had no idea I'd fulfill so many of them!

When I created this list, Mike was laid off from his job, so some of the big-dollar items seemed like pipe dreams.  Ironically, as the 1001st day arrives , we find ourselves in the same situation.  Mike's last day of work is Friday. 

But I still feel a huge sense of accomplishment. Thanks for humoring me through this little project of mine.  It was fun!  But I think I need a break before creating new long term goals. Here's the list, with the unfulfilled items in bold. (and my defensive reasons that they are incomplete in bold italics)  

1. Wake up at 6am every day for 30 days in a row (5/7/10)
2. Create a realistic housekeeping plan and follow it for 1 month (6/12/10)
3. Complete the never-ending project I’m doing over our bed (1/13/09)
4. Do a 3 day media fast (8/2/09)
5. Have another baby (10/23/09)
6. Take 2 weekend getaways with my girlfriends (5/17/09 and 3/12/10)
7. Take a short vacation with another couple, no kids allowed (3/25/11)
8. Go to a marriage conference with Mike (1/10/09)
9. See the Grand Canyon (7/24/11)
10. Take a trip back to Kansas City (10/6/11) I'm leaving next week!!!
11. Read a fiction book, start to finish (I know, that’s pathetic, but I'm not a fiction reader) (4/6/09)
12. Start an All About Me scrapbook (1/15/09)
13. Organize the sports equipment in our garage (1/11/09)
14. Open savings accounts for the kids (6/25/11)
15. Teach the kids to tithe weekly (9/25/11)
16. Go on a cruise (1/11/10)
17. Put wood floors in my scrapbook room - I decided I don't need to do this anymore
18. Hike to the top of Camelback Mountain - I scheduled this several different times, but it never worked out.  I plan to tackle it within the month.
19. Share my faith with a stranger (9/15/11)
20. Teach Ryan to read (1/16/10)
21. Teach Kaylin to write her name (1/16/10)
22. Develop a workable system for paperwork in the office (3/15/11) 
23. Keep the desk clutter-free for 1 month (6/4/09)
24. Sell my old bedroom furniture that I had as a kid (9/24/10)
25. Recycle our unused electronics - I can't even remember what I was thinking of when I added this goal!  The only unused electronics that we have are recently upgraded items.  I wonder if I sold or donated the old ones...?
26. Do 25 random acts of kindness (9/22/11)
27. Attept to make homemade cinnamon rolls (1/27/09)
28. Go to San Francisco with Mike (3/25/11)
29. Label the baskets on my bookshelves and in the linen closet (5/28/09)
30. Fast from sugar for 30 days in a row (3/25/10)
31. Put cabinets and countertops in my craft room - Again, I'm not sure I want this anymore...I rarely have time to scrapbook, so I'm going to make due with the room the way it is now.
32. Figure out digital picture frames (9/24/10)
33. Learn how to use my MP3 player (9/9/11)
34. Post MHR every Friday for a month (1/23/09)
35. Clean outside windows and screens (6/2/09)
36. Have the kids choose a Christmas "angel" that’s their age and have them choose gifts for their child that they would want for themselves (12/15/09)
37. Volunteer at a homeless shelter - The fact that I couldn't fit this in is pathetic.  I hope to check it off by the end of the year.
38. Sit down and pre-plan meals for 1 month out and stick with the plan (2/5/09)
39. Visit a friend in the hospital (1/27/11)
40. Figure out how to make bread starting the dough in the bread machine and finishing it in the oven (4/27/09)
41. Buy more memory for the computer (2/19/09 - we bought a new computer instead of new memory, but this totally counts!)
42. Add ads to my blog to help bring in a little income (1/31/09 and 4/1/10)
43. Figure out how to record home movies to DVD using my computer - Our video camera died after writing this list, so I have no method of playing the old tapes. We just use my dSLR for video now.
44. Call a locksmith to unlock our empty file cabinet (7/26/11)
45. Try sushi (California rolls don’t count) (1/11/10)
46. Build a snowman with the kids (9/19/11)
47. Go jogging on the beach (9/6/10)
48. Buy groceries with a weekly cash allowance for a month (2/1/09)
49. Learn to use Photoshop (5/19/09)
50. Get 25 comments on a single blog post (1/11/09)
51. Create a family mission statement and frame it (7/8/09)
52. Pray for Mike every day for a month (2/18/09)
53. Go to a concert/comedy show (11/4/09 and 8/19/10)
54. Allow the kids to have dessert before dinner (11/15/09) and (6/26/11)
55. Color my hair back to blonde again (4/15/09)
56. Purchase overstuffed chairs and a large ottoman for our living room (4/25/10 - thanks for the great deal, Mom!)
57. Get the broken dining room chair fixed (1/18/09 - thanks, honey!)
58. Hang curtains on the office window - Still have the fabric, still need to figure out what I want on the window, still need to (likely) beg Mike's mom to help me sew something.
59. Install crown molding in the bedroom - Not enough spare funds for this luxury!
60. Take a photography class (12/6/09 and 11/20/10)
61. Get an amazing $1000 camera (6/10/09)
62. Do a cleanse (7/13/10)
63. Research buying contacts online to save money (8/24/10)
64. Start using 100% homemade household cleaners (6/27/10)
65. Make vegetarian meals 3x a week for a month (4/2/10)
66. Play in the rain with my kids (7/22/10)
67. Visit Desert Botanical Gardens - We have an annual pass and I've put this on the calendar a dozen times, but it just hasn't worked out yet!  There's currently a butterfly exhibit I plan to take the kids to on an upcoming family day.
68. Go to Organ Stop Pizza with the family (7/31/09)
69. Sign Kaylin up for a dance class (3/10/10) 
70. Camp by the Christmas tree (12/10/10)
71. Figure out Twitter(4/19/09)
72. Take a bubble bath once a week for a month (3/31/10)
73. Bring Mike breakfast in bed (5/31/09 and 6/21/09)
74. Find the perfect picture for above the dining room table (6/29/09)
75. Take a hot air balloon ride - Apparently, Mike has no interest in doing this with me.  He almost bought me a Groupon for my birthday, but didn't have time to find someone to go with me, since he has no intention of flying through the air in an unenclosed contraption.
76. Plan a girls day with just my mom and Kaylin (5/29/10)
77. Clean out my bedroom closet (4/14/10)
78. Purge old paperwork from our file cabinets (11/27/10)
79. Give myself a pedicure 3 months in a row (9/10/11)
80. Buy a van with a DVD player for long car trips (3/31/09)
81. Wash my car by hand (5/2/10)
82. Take a spin class (without leaving in the middle) (9/22/11)
83. Invite 5 “new” neighbors over for lunch (4/18/10)
84. Go a whole week without raising my voice to the kids, not once (7/16/09)
85. Teach Ryan to make a full dinner all by himself (5/13/11)
86. Teach Kaylin to go potty by herself (1/28/09)
87. Attend Kick Boxing every Saturday for 3 months - (*sigh*) My favorite instructor changed gyms while I was pregnant with Jason.  Kick Boxing just isn't the same with anyone else...
88. Attend a Yoga class once a week for 3 months - 12 weeks of dedicated Yoga in a row proved to be more challenging than I originally thought!
89. Lift weights 2 times a week for a month (3/12/10)
90. Jog for 30 minutes straight (6/2/10)
91. Talk Mike into getting a professional massage (8/21/10)
    
92. Let the kids make most of the decisions for an entire day (8/1/10)
93. Plan an international trip with Mike (7/25/11)
94. Watch Gone With the Wind (10/6/10)
95. Do a devotional with the kids every day for 2 weeks (7/17/09)
96. Go to bed at 9:00 every day for a week straight (1/22/11)
97. Research an inexpensive, good quality skin care regimen and stick to it (9/14/11)
98. Get Lasik surgery on my eyes - Still want it, still scared to do it, still don't have the funds for it.
99. Floss daily for one month (2/18/09)
100. Find the perfect-fitting bra (8/19/10)
101. Get 100,000 hits on my blog (1/12/10) - Current total of hits on my blog today: 236,675.

#19 - Share my faith with a stranger

This proved to be a much more challenging goal than I would have ever imagined.  I purposefully looked for ways to share my faith with strangers over the last 3 years, but it's hard when I live in a little {mostly} Christian, stay-at-home-mom bubble!  I don't get out much, unless I attempt to talk to a stranger at the car wash or the gym.  And what am I going to say, "Can I tell you why I love Jesus?"

Talk about scaring someone off!

I almost shared my faith with my cashier at Trader Joe's last year.  The quick conversation set it up perfectly, but I chickened out.  Once I was back in my car, I realized that if I hadn't chickened out, what would have made that cashier receptive to hearing about my faith after only meeting me 5 minutes earlier?

That was when I decided that I would redefine "stranger."  I don't think many people are open to hearing anything from a perfect stranger.  And if they are open, they usually just nod and smile and think, "How nice for them that they feel that way." 

My new definition of "stranger" transformed into someone that I would meet from that point forward.  Before sharing something so personal, like my faith journey, I decided it was best to have a foundation of trust in a relationship first.

But the fact remained: I didn't meet many new people.  Pre-school was about the only place I could think of where I would meet other moms, but that wasn't on my mind as I chatted with the moms at drop off and pick up each week.  Soon, weeks turned into months and I quickly forgot about looking for opportunities to share my faith and hope in Jesus Christ. 

Then Tastefully Simple came into my life.  Do you have any idea how many HUNDREDS of people I've met because of this business?  My sphere of influence has definitely broadened, that's for sure!

One day this summer, after praying for God to open a door for a conversation, it happened.  One of my hostesses had to cancel her party because she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  When I went to her house to collect the party food kit, we started talking.  She remembered when I asked how I could pray for her and she began sharing how she started reading her Bible since the diagnosis.  She stopped going to church years ago and suddenly found a need for God in her life again.

Let me set up the scene for you: we were standing at her front door while chatting and my van was parked and running on the curb by her driveway.  Her street was being re-paved and only one lane was usable.  Can you picture it?

AS I OPENED MY MOUTH to share my story, we heard a loud honk.  A truck, pulling a huge trailer, was trying to get around my van and couldn't proceed unless I moved my vehicle.  Within a split second the conversation was over.

Looking back, I think God was testing me.  Testing to see if I was really ready to do it.  Knowing how often I've chickened out in the past, not wanting to seem pushy, not wanting to intrude my beliefs on someone else, not wanting to appear judgmental, not knowing if I would have the answers to their potentially skeptical questions.  But I wasn't afraid anymore!  And for some reason, that was not the time or the place that God wanted me to share my faith.

My time did finally come, quite recently actually.  But I'm not going to be specific about the situation because so many circles of friends, Tastefully Simple clients and now my Tastefully Simple team read my blog. And many of the people in those groups seem to be inter-woven. 

But I was proud of the conversation.  I hope the girl I spoke with was receptive, although she seems very, very far from being at a place in her life where she would accept my faith as her own.  Thankfully, that's not my goal.  My purpose was not to convert a stranger to fall in love with Jesus, my purpose was simply sharing my story to plant a seed, then let God take it from there, using me only as He saw fit.  The cool thing is that I will continue to have plenty of opportunities to meet with this person, so this might not be the end of this story!

In addition to this incredible conversation, I was able to invite someone to church recently and they agreed to come!  It seems that the people I ask always decline my invitation, but I have an actual church-date this weekend and I'm very excited.

So that's that.  #19 is crossed off my 101 in 1001 list and I'm no longer scared of situations where people ask me about my faith.  Yay!

#82 - Take a spin class (without leaving in the middle)

Whew!  That was exhausting.  I knew my lungs and muscles had the endurance to make it through an entire spin class, but I was not so confident about my butt.  The reason I hate spin/cycle classes is simple: my butt goes numb. 

I walked into the spin room at the gym this morning and was discouraged to see this die-hard instructor that's been there forever.  I laughed at myself as I tried to adjust the seat and handlebars, looking at the girl next to me admitting, "Yeah, this is my first time."  I was so relieved to hear her respond, "It's my second!  I couldn't believe I made it through the whole class on Monday, so I came back again."  At least I'm not the only loser who is intimidated!

The class started and I heard Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" begin.  Oh yes, the music this girl played was just that awesome.  Long live big-hair bands! (I think everyone should sit back and enjoy watching a young Jon Bon Jovi for a moment...totally worth 4 minutes of your day!)

So I made it through. My water bottle was empty, my sweat towel was soaked and I looked at the clock every 5 minutes, but me and my butt made it through the whole 60 minute class.  It was an amazing workout and I was really proud of myself!

#82 is finally crossed off my 101 in 1001 list (with a mere 4 days to spare) and, I hate to admit, but I might end up going back to take another class.

But no promises that I'll stick it out the whole hour...!

#46 - Build a snowman with the kids

Is this cheating?  Yes, technically it is.  Well, not technically, because it's not even made of snow...let's just call a spade a spade, shall we?

But WHERE am I supposed to find snow in September in Arizona?!?!  Somehow, in the last 3 winters since creating my 101 in 1001 list, I haven't managed to make it to a decent, snowman-building area with the kids.  Sure, we went sledding, but no snowman was built. 

So I had to improvise.  I thought of various ways to build a snowman with the kids, and finally settled on a little sandman at the beach this morning.

Go ahead...call me a cheater if you must, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to beat a deadline. 

#97 - Research an inexpensive, good quality skin care regimen and stick to it

Plowing through the rest of my 101 Goals in 1001 Days hasn't been easy!  I'm normally an excellent procrastinator (I work best under pressure) but I've just been too busy.

Thank goodness for my sweet friend, Alison.  She is determined to help me cross off as many of the remaining things as possible AND she's a Mary Kay consultant, so she hooked me up with a new skin care regimen for my birthday!!!

One morning this week, she came over and did me up all pretty, teaching me how to use her company's amazing skin care products.  And I am officially hooked!!!

This is my before and after pic...different lighting and a smart phone made for hard-to-tell-the-difference pictures, but I promise you, my pores were screaming THANK YOU at the top of their little lungs.  Well, they would have been if they had lungs...

Jessica's Pantry Makeover

This summer, while I was on my pantry organizing binge, I had a quick morning at my sweet, then-pregnant friend, Jessica's house.  Her pantry was filled with bulk purchases from her recent trip to Costco.  As I looked at eight bags of spaghetti and giant boxes of cereal, I suggested that she might not need the mass quantity of food that Costco offers, no matter how good of a deal it is.  Her family is too small for bulk buying: just her husband, her and their 20 month old daughter.  Her pantry had plenty of space, but she just had too much food.

As I emptied off shelf after shelf, I overheard her nesting: "I think this is stale (toss) ... and I don't even like these (toss) ... I'm sure we can get rid of these (toss) ..."  She filled her kitchen table with items that would be thrown out. 

Then we pulled items from their boxes (like granola bars and other snacks) and put them in canvas bins from IKEA.  We grouped things by category (breakfast, dinner, snacks, cans, seasonings, baby, etc) and started putting everything back.

Before

2 hours later...not completely done yet...

After a trip to IKEA, she finished up on her own.  She even used her red label maker to label containers!

I love me some pantry makeovers!!!

#79 - Give myself a pedicure 3 months in a row

Do you love my finger toes?  I was relentlessly teased by my friends in college.  So go ahead and laugh. Sticks and stones...

Thanks to an amazing new discovery (Miracle of Aloe Cracked Heel Stick) I have been able to keep my feet soft and crack-free.  Miracle is the right word for it!  And it lasts forever.  I'm still only a fraction through the stick and I've been using it for months!

So that made it much easier to attempt to keep my feet and toes pretty all summer.  I avoided this for more than two years, but #79 is officially crossed off my 101 in 1001 list!

#33 - Learn how to use my MP3 player

It's about time!  Since adding #33 to my list of 101 Goals in 1001 Days, I received and iPod Shuffle for my birthday (um, *ahem* last year) and I finally know how to download songs and use it for my workouts!  I'm seriously so excited.  I plan to load up my old, unused MP3 player with music for Ryan and give it to him.  But apparently, I need some converter software, blah blah blah...I'll deal with that later.  Maybe I'll wrap it up and give it to him for Christmas...?

Wanna see my playlist?  I don't listen to much mainstream music, but these songs make me want to dance my pants off.  I'm going to look like a fool bee-boppin' around on the treadmill at the gym. (Sidenote...I had NO idea I liked the Black Eyed Peas so much!  They are just too catchy.)

Crazy in Love & Single Ladies - Beyonce
Boom Boom Pow & I Gotta Feeling & Imma Be - Black Eyed Peas
Yeah & OMG - Usher
Lose Yourself - Eminem
Low & Right Round - Flo Rida
Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
On the Floor - Jennifer Lopez

I have some slower Christian songs for my cool down, but I exclusively listen to KLove except when I'm at the gym, so I kind of feel like I need something different to pump me up for my workouts, you know?

Do you have any must-have songs for my playlist?  I'm taking suggestions. I have some money leftover from my free iTunes gift cards from Swagbucks. 

So...out with it.  Leave a comment with your top 5 songs on your playlist!