Come Walk with me

I am part of a Biggest Loser contest online. Just two more weeks in this round to get those pounds off. You can join me on a walk. It stopped raining long enough for this walk.

Here we are leaving the village. You can see the trash cans on the right. Often, I will pause to throw the trash as I leave the village. We are going to turn right and head up the road. Grass and trees and no cars. I live in the middle of nowhere.
We keep walking. Here is the little drink stand/restaurant. I have never eaten there but I recently saw some foreigners there. That is where I met my friend when we walk together. She is not yet back from her summer vacation so I am walking alone.
I have to pause for the little "green go man. Actually I have to push the button so it will change. As I wait, I walk in place or do the side step.
Now we are on the other side of the road. You can see the nursery. I don't know what they grow but at New Year they have lots of orange trees.
There are the mountains. It is still a bit cloudy.There goes a double decker bus. We ride that bus often from the train station to our village.
We keep walking. We are walking fast so we can get this walk done before it starts to rain.There is some new houses that they are building. Most of the village house are 3 levels with an apartment on each level and about 700 sq feet.
We are getting close to where we are going to turn around. The road starts to go uphill and it is about time to get home. The walk back is much of the same. There is a mini bus or light bus. Those seat 16 people and everyone has to be seated so if you want to be sure to get a seat ride the mini bus.
We are going to go down a side road to another village. I want to take a picture of the banana trees that I found.
There is the banana tree.
Here is heading down to the village. This village is about a 10 minute walk from the road. Which means a walk to the bus. Heading back up the road towards our village.

Now we are entering our village.We are going to wind our way back to our house. I think I once stood in our apartment and counted about 10 houses that I could see.
Here is our door. We live on the 1st floor. Let me open the door and you can come on up. Yes, I said up. Here the 1st floor is what we might think of as the 2nd floor because you have Ground then 1st and 2nd.
That was a good walk. It was about a 30 minute walk. Now you probably need a towel and big glass of water.

Child Training

One of my biggest responsibilities as a momma is train my child. Training involves so many areas of life. Training to sit during a church service, training not to touch things, training to come when I call, training not to pull all the clothing out of the boxes, training to say "please" and "thank you" as well as training to help and work.

Some days I feel like I have not done a good job training especially when I see all the clothing pulled out of the boxes (we don't have a dresser rather two boxes that hold her clothing on the changing table) which happened this morning. I should have known she was quiet and in her room which usually means she found the clothing.

One of my big goals is to focus on lifeskills because those are things that she needs for life. My goal for her is that she will be independent and be able to live on her own if she desires. I like the Montessori aspect in teaching lifeskills to children.

This week we have been working on washing, drying, and putting dishes away. She knew how to put her dishes in the sink and would put any dish that she found dirty or clean in the sink. We have a bookshelf in the kitchen as our pantry so clean Tupperware containers are in easy reach. Washing is fun because it involves water. She has watched daddy wash with his brush and so she needed a brush too and don't forget soap. She would scrub the bowl and then we would give her a towel and she would dry it.

Then I would open the dish cabinet and let her put it away.
We also started to work on setting the table. I opened the dish cabinet and let her get her bowl out. She then put it in the sink to have it washed. I guess we need to work on that a bit more.

We still have lots of training to do but it is exciting as we take little steps in this direction.

March's Results

It is hard to believe that it is April already. Time to reflect on how I did on my goals for the year.

Read one book - I did it. The exciting this is I found a place where I can give my books away and know they are being used. I have a bag here to give to my friend.

Reduce - I used some more fabric making bags. I didn't buy any more fabric. I did buy some ribbon but that is so small. Paper - I scrapbooked 27 pages so that used some paper. I also gave some paper away to a friend who is beginning to scrapbook. I will confess I bought some new paper but it was just what I need for my Asian pages.

Exercise - I am walking with my walking partner when it is not raining. I will admit that I am not where I should be in that.

Quiet time - I am continuing in my Romans study and currently am in the middle of Psalms.

That was March. Now we move into April.

The results

It wasn't the best of weeks in a number of ways. Emotional up and downs and my steady husband was halfway around the world. His plane is supposed to land in about an hour and we here are excited.

So I did manage to get rid of probably 60 things. I took a bag of craft things to a friends house which probably had about 20 things in it. I gave lots of paper to two friends who were wanting to start scrapbooking. That was about 20 things. I did get rid of a few other things as well. I have a few things that are sitting here to go to clothing recyle and also to be mailed.

I was going to say that next week was back to normal but we have a staff conference the first few days and then we have Keswick that we want to attend. Oh, and I have been asked to bake for Keswick. I do enjoy baking. I made 9 loaves of banana bread already. They were just little loaves and my freezer is full.

February Results

It is hard to believe that it is the beginning of March already. It is time to reflect on how I am doing on my goals for the year.

Exercise - I found a walking partner. We go out 2 mornings a week. That is good but I still need to find 2 more times a week for some exercise. I really should get back to do Slim in 6.

At the beginning of February I picked a book to read and evaluate if it is worth keeping. I didn't start reading the book until the 26th or maybe even the 27th. I think I ready enough to know that I don't want to keep it. I did read a few good quotes but not enough to keep it on my shelves. I need to find some place where I can donate books.

Using & Reducing fabric and paper - I scrapbooked a total of 20 papers in February which used up some paper. I will confess that I orderd some Asian paper some of which I already have and some which I won't receive for another week so I guess paper is a wash as I used some but I also bought some. I used some fabric and didn't buy anymore even though I was tempted.

I am continuing to have my quiet time in the morning. I am in Romans and Psalms.

February was a good month. We had a big holiday in there and had company for a week. I am looking forward to March.

100 in 10

We are moving again this year. It is not a simple move across town either but another move overseas. Don't ask where we are moving because we don't know. Knowing that we are moving has moved me to begin the sorting, decluttering, tossing, and basically getting rid of things.

So here it is Bo is traveling for 10 days and during that time I am going to get rid of 100 things. Hey, that is just 10 a day.

The things have to be out of my house. So if I am going to give it to someone, I need to give it to them. If I am mailing it, I need to mail it, etc. I want my house to have 100 less things when he gets home.

This begins on the 1st and ends on the 10th.

February's Update

It is hard to believe that the first month of 2007 is gone already. I still wrote 2006 on a check the other day.

I did read one book in February -- Tim LaHaye's book, I love you but we are so different. I can't say that there was anything in there that made the book a keeper. It was all about the four personalities and how you marry a different personality. That book is going in my give away pile. I have already picked February's book and am beginning to flip through it.

Getting rid of things -

Bo took a bag of clothing to the clothing recycle yesterday. A friend was in town and I gave her some of my clothing.

I didn't buy anymore scrapbook paper thanks to the website freezing when I was trying to place an order. I want to order some Asian paper for my scrapbooking of local events. I did buy some ribbon for scrapbooking so I added a bit of that to my collection. Paper is the worst. I am not a strict has to be acid free person. I love adding too many other little things along the way. I had a pretty 2006 calendar that had Chinese verses on it with Chinese art so I decided to cut the borders and now I have all kids of scraps for borders and Asian scrapbook pages. I will try to post some pictures of that.

I have been sewing some bags which uses the small pieces of fabric that I have around. I have fun making them and so I made a list of all the people that I am going to make one for this year. I made a shoe bag for a friend's birthday with fabric and ribbon that I had around here. I didn't buy anymore fabric!

Exercise - The good news is I found a walking partner. Knowing that someone will be standing at the corner at 6:00 am waiting for you it motivation to make sure that you are up and walking. We are going to go twice a week. Now that means that I need to do something on my own two other times a week. In grading this goal I would give myself a "needs improvement".

I am continuing to get up early and have the quiet time. We are studying Romans in BSF and I am continuing to read through the Bible. I am in Psalms. No, I didn't start January 1st and read that far.

Now let's see what I get done in February.

New Year's Goals

I know it is the time of year when everyone makes those resolutions. I decided to make a few goals.

Household
Read 12 books and determine if they should be kept.
Reduce craft supplies through use or donating. Currently 3 boxes of fabric and approximately 1200 sheets of 12 x 12 paper.

Spiritual
Continue early morning quiet time

Physical
Exercise 4 times a week

There are more things but I am trying to limit this.