The interconnectedness of all things

I've been taking my prescriptions, a multivitamin, Vitamin D and an iron supplement. (Number 75 Take vitamins for a whole month) I was never more happy to finish the month. I haven't had a good poop in AGES . Now I take the iron only 3 times a week LOL I know TMI!

The vitamins have helped my finger nails to grow! I haven't bitten my nails since Christmas! Soon I'll be able to do another item on my list : 73. Get a Professional Manicure. I was also taking the iron because I had been turned down from selling plasma for low iron. Donating plasma 10 times is on my list ( Number 33) as well as earning 1001 dollars (Number 16) Funny how all my goals are interconnected!

Score! I think?

Number 43 - Keep a houseplant alive for 12 months. I figured I'd better start this one early in case I need a do over! I went with the peace lily. I liked the sound of that and it's pretty too. The tag says it does well with low light. If I can teach the kids to turn the lights off when they leave a room it might have a chance!

Number 67 COMPLETE I bought a new pair of exercise shoes! New Balance 505's just like my old ones. I've heard that shoes GAIN WEIGHT over time from all the grime and sweat YUCK! But for fun I'm going to weight them now that they are new and see if that's true. Using my kitchen scale each shoe weight just about 11 oz. Lets see what happens!

Buying the shoes, that's the easy part. Number 68, "wearing them out", not so easy! SO they very next day I decided to go for a walk. I put the big kids on the school bus and took Strider in the stroller. As always when walking I look for bottles and cans to add to my #16 goal "earn $1001." Over the course of the mile I walked, I found 6 empty bottles and cans and 6 FULL beers!

Last night I finish reading _The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy. My second book out of my goal of twenty. I really, REALLY, had a hard time getting into the grammar-less writing style. I had to reread frequently to make sense of some passages. I'm not sure if I would recommend this to anyone unless you really enjoy the postapocalyptic genre. But I did learn the value of having a weapon, good shoes, and canned vegetables if the world, as we know it, was coming to an end.

I will NOT be a CHEETAH

Last night I was so tired I fell asleep watching TV and missed TWO of my goals. I didn't have my Green Smoothie for the day and I didn't wash the dishes. #5 and #65 are CONSECUTIVE day events. So I blew it. First I was disappointed that I missed a day and whined to myself about having to start over.

Then I started bargaining with myself that I could give myself just one slip up and just keep counting. Everyone deserves a little lee way right?

That led to feelings of being a cheetah. I started to think about what my list of 101 things really is. Some of it is a to do list but some of it is a list of challenges, things to strive for. Are these two goals items to just check off and never revisit ( like painting the shed) or are these ongoing items?

These are goals and ideals that I WANT to make a HABIT, a daily occurrence. After day 30 I don't intend to just cross it off and be done with it. These habits should stick with me the whole 1001 days and beyond.

With a happy heart I decided to restart the counter at one I have 983 days to go. Surely somewhere in there I'll hit 30 consecutive days. If I get to the last 30 days and haven't completed the goal I'll set an alarm clock to wake me up at 11:30 each night so I can be sure to finish my daily goals before midnight.

PIMP MY RIDE!!

Isn't she pretty? I'm the envy of all my friends. AHHH Who wouldn't want a minivan like this? It's clearly a fan favorite because there are hundreds just like this in the Wal Mart parking lot which makes it difficult to find my car or remember where I parked! At least now mine is the clean one. My poor old van had been neglected and needed some TLC. This was a job that spanned several days. One day I just spent hours picking up the trash my kids leave in the rear row and I vacuumed out a full canister of sand and debris. Another day I spent some time washing the windows from the inside, cleaning the dashboard, and chiseling out the toxic waste from inside the kids cup holders. I also hung tote bags from the seat backs for the kids to throw their trash into instead of leaving it on the ground. While I was on the inside, my husband was outside giving it a detailed car wash. And as a bonus it got an oil change and new windshield washer fluid! My van is now a happy van. May she carry us safely where we need to go for many more years.

Did I save? Or didn't I?

Number 17 is document $500 in coupon savings. So far I have documented $74.87 ($54.87 on one day and 20 on the other) but did I really save? I was following the grocery store advertised specials. There were a lot of BOGO deals and 10 for $10 deals so I stocked up. But the question is "did I save over all?" If I had bought a store brand item would it have been cheaper anyway? HMMMM. After the first shopping trip I started to question this so immediately I went to iTunes and downloaded an app for my iTouch to set up a price book. My goal is to sift through some old receipts and add items to my price book. Then each week as I look for special coupon deals I'll know if it REALLY is a deal. I also belong to www.couponmom.com and www.thegrocerygame.com but they don't usually compare the prices to store brand daily prices. The Grocery Game is a paid site I'll have to deduct my payment from the amount saved or unsubscribe from the service. But either way with my price book I'll always know if the savings are truly earned. PS I brought my cloth bags today total - 3 times

Turtle Hatchings!!!

No I didn't fail #1 NO NEW PETS. The incubating eggs were a "pre-existing condition". Mama turtle layed her eggs in an unprotected location in the middle of our yard on July 2nd. We carefully removed them from the hole right side up and incubated them at around 84 degrees. 56 days later they are hatching. There were 9 in total and so far 3 have begun to emerge. We will keep them for a few days and when the weather is nice and sunny we will release them back toward the lake.

2. Declutter - a few days ago I spent a good part of my day removing everything from and reorganizing my bedroom closet. I was in and out all day but I counted it as a solid 3 hours of decluttering time to bring my total to 5 hours.

In the process I set aside 12 nice items to donate to Good Will ( #42)

39. Have a Home Energy Audit - This was completed on August 26. It will be another 2-3 weeks before the full report comes in. I do know that my windows are still good but I need PILES of extra insulation in the attic. The woman who did the audit was shocked by my home heating bills. When she writes up the report she will estimate the cost of the improvements vs the cost saving it will generate to help point out areas where I will get the most bang for my buck. I learned that my refrigerator uses $20 of electricity each month and that is very high ( average is $8 / month for refrigerators newer than 1997) Turns out I am supposed to get UNDER it and vacuum out the coils once a month! Who knew? I cleaned it out (#40). Maybe my electric bill will go down now.