Hello again

I have missed posting on my Scarlett blog.I'd like to say that I did complete my last challenge to write thank yous.

It felt good to express hand written gratitude.
What about you?
Write any personal thank yous lately?

Challenge #12: Thank you

Yes I've been neglecting my weekly challenges.
Tara (aka my home/plantation, for those of you illiterate Gone With the Windian's, shame on you) has been quite busy.
But I'm back on track again.
I used to be really good at writing thank yous. My mother raised me to always send a thank you card when kindness was received. Over the years, my thank you letters have fallen to thank you emails, and now to almost nothing.
I am a grateful person, and I want to express it in writing more often.

It is a gesture I don't want to lose.
So this week, after a holiday season of both giving and receiving, I will catch up on thank yous gone unwritten.

Will you do this with me?

Put on your party dress, Katie Scarlett O'Hara

So this week is going pretty good,
compared to the last couple weeks.
Let's see, I finally started my Christmas shopping
(which makes the kids happy and hopeful)
delivered goodies to some friends (and might I add, it was a very pleasant experience to be in the homes of many friends whom I have known, but have never seen where they live?)
went to the annual church party (which was an interesting experience in itself- think American Idol try outs),
went to a friend's home for family home evening,
and our family even went caroling one night
(ok, we only went to one house).
So yes, I'd say being social is helping me de-stress.

Conversation has always been great therapy for me.

It draws me away from myself and allows me to focus on the other person.

Usually in that moment, I am able to forget any woes I have and be the happy me that I want to be.

Even though it might seem strange that while I'm feeling anxious or in a funk, I would challenge myself to get out and socialize... it honestly is what I know I need.
The hard part is getting out there whether you want to or not,

more than likely you'll be glad you did!

Challenge #11: get out and socialize

Well, I've been in a funk the last couple weeks.

I think it's due to the weather, homework/class projects x5, and feeling overwhelmed with all that encompasses the holidays-- my stomach turns even thinking about all that is going on.
It's just too much.
Why oh why is there SO much going on during the SAME time of year that we want to celebrate the Savior's birth? I know it's fun to have recitals and parties and baking and gift buying... but I am so, so overwhelmed with it all this year. I'm going to confess a small secret: I have not even STARTED my Christmas shopping. I can't believe I just told you that. I have five children ... and not one gift purchased. I can barely keep up with the day to day "holiday events", when is there even time to go shopping? Anyway, this slump I've been in lately has also made me a little-hermit like when it comes to socializing. I've decided it's not helping my funk. I need to get out and take my mind off of all the things that are making my head spin. I went to a cookie exchange the other night and it took everything I had to make myself go. In the end I was glad I went. I was smiling and talking and I even wore earrings- now that's saying something.
So to continue on a good path, this will be my goal for the following 2 weeks...
Get out and socialize- even when I don't feel like it.

challenge #9 and #10: incomplete

There, I said it... incomplete.
That challenge was WAY more
than I could handle during

parent/teacher conferences
Thanksgiving out of town
end of season soccer madness/parties
hauling out the Christmas decorations
dog events
a new calling at church
school bake sales
class concerts and parties
visiting teaching
my dog's hysterectomy
and a 2 week bout with insomnia

I'm going to deal with my junk another week,
so how was it for you?

challenge #10 : keep organizing

Is it just me, or did life start to get really busy these last couple weeks?
I think part of it is the onset of the Holiday Season and the end of a school term for the kids.
Whatever the case, I was not been able to do all I wanted to do... so this week I will continue working on last week's challenge.
Tackling my own personal
junk yard

How is your organization coming along?

challenge #9: junk in my trunk

If you ever thought I was organizedthink again.It's really timeto untangle this.This week's challenge is to organize, de junk or clean out at least 3 areas
be they
closets, drawers, shelves or boxes.
You need to do this with me.

challenge #8: completed

Again, I found this challenge to be difficult-
but even more rewarding.

I will admit, I didn't do one of the 3 antidotes every single time-

But for the most part, I was pretty strict about making myself stick to the rule and lo and behold, it actually worked.

By the time I had to think of 3 great things about the person I'd just been critical of, I started to realize how much I admired him or her, and strangely I was led right into the other rule about thinking things through from their perspective and by then, I forgot why I was bothered in the first place. And even stranger, I was left with good feelings toward that person.

For me, this was a brilliant formula that I will hopefully stick to for the rest of my life.

Please share your experience with this challenge,

I want to hear from you.

Last night I was laying in bed thinking about this goal.
(see post below)
I figured out that I need to have a little more structure in order to be accountable and actually accomplish something here. There's a big difference between good intentions and good results...
see, I'm getting to know myself so well :)
This is what I came up with:
When I find myself being critical of someone I will do one or all of the following:
1. try to see the situation from their perspective.
2. name three things this person does well.
3. do something kind for this person this week.

challenge #8: Critical Thinking

I think we're all too critical of one another and ourselves.
Here's what I know about myself...
The worse I feel about myself, the more I tend to criticise others.
If I feel frustrated with ME, I project my frustration on others.
It's not fair.
Poor Capt. Butler and the kids often take a tongue lashing when I'm down and out on myself.
If I can replace critical thinking with positive thoughts AND service towards those I'm being critical of, I will feel better about myself while at the same time preventing a big slip in the negative

ditch.

This week I will work to swap the critical for the positive-
both in thought and deed.

Will you do this with me?

challenge #7 completed

So, did you become greener this week?
This will be an ongoing goal for me.
One other thing I did this week was I bought another garbage can for my kitchen that I use for a make shift recycling bin. I find that I am more apt to recycle if there is a container right in front of my face. Even though my bins have always been in the garage, sometimes I would get lazy and throw recyclable items in the trash. So, it has helped a lot to have a bin in the kitchen next to my trash can.
I would really love any ideas you have on this subject,
so feel free to leave your tips.

baby stepping

So here is my slew of bags,
do I keep them in the car?
What do you do?

No more brown paper bags, everyone has their own re-usable lunch bag.
I know, I am so far behind... but at least I've started the process.I would LOVE to hear from you-
what are some ways you've become a little greener in your home?

challenge #7: greening me

This week I am GOING GREEN
Yes, I'll admit it.
I am an eh, so-so kind of environmentalist.
Like many things in my life, I have always WANTED to be better at doing my part to help the environment, but I continue to give a mediocre effort.
For example, I have wanted to switch over from using mountains of plastic bags at the grocery store to bringing my own reusable bags.
I wasted months just watching other people toting their re-usable bags in and out of stores, always thinking, "I should do that".
Now I will!
The last 2 weeks I have been collecting re-usable bags from various stores and finally, I'm on my way.
So, this week, I will find ways to go from goopy to green.

day five, six and seven of challenge #6

Ok, Halloween threw me for a loop,

but I'm back on track now.

My last 3 gifts were:

made a dinner for my neighbor who just had a baby.
cleaned up a neighbor's smashed pumpkin.
took one of my kids for a special one on one date.

What a great week of giving.
Some gifts were better than others,
but all in all, it was great just to be serving.
I hope you had fun with this one too.
Please share your favorite gift.

day four of challenge #6

Were you at school parades and parties all day yesterday?
With five kids, Halloween time can be very exhausting.
After costuming the children, baking pumpkin cookies, attending class parties, parades, and a trunk or treat (not to mention all the other daily duties that you all do as well) all I wanted to do last night was go straight to bed.
Capt. Butler suggested we go to the late show instead.
I wanted to say no.
We went and we had a really great time being together...
we saw Amelia Earhart
(not sure I would reccomend it, very slow moving BUT very inspirational).

OK, maybe that's not really a "gift" but lets face it, I was giving all day yesterday.

day three of challenge #6

Yesterday I hugged and kissed one of my girls and told her every little reason I love and adore her.

This gift giving is great. I've noticed how aware I am each day to give- whether it's big or small. And each day I'm excited to see what I can do.

How are you doing with your gifts?

day two of challenge #6

Capt. Butler and I delivered these to friends last night.
Don't forget to give today.

day one, challenge 6

In order to keep myself on task, for the 7 day gifts challenge, everyday this week I will journal what I did for someone... because at the end of this goal, I will NOT say, "eh, so so" like I did on the last challenge.

Yesterday my gift was a listening ear.

A friend who is typically kind of chatty (bless her heart) called while I was wildly hurrying to make dinner and help with homework. She wanted to talk about rescheduling something, but I knew what she really wanted to talk about was her new grandbaby. So instead of quickly congratulating her and bringing the phone conversation to a close, I asked every single question I could think of about the new baby. I let her tell it all- the birth story, the baby's stats, and the other grandchildren's reactions to the new baby. It felt good. Sometimes I get too rushed and I only allow time for conversations I think I want to have.

Don't forget to give a gift to someone today!

challenge #6: gift giving

Yesterday I saw a brief clip on the Today Show where a woman with MS was talking about how she was doing this program called "29 days of Gift Giving". She talked about how once she started doing small acts of kindness for others, her symptoms with MS started to fade and her health improved. She actually stopped using her cane to help her walk. You can read more about this here
http://givingchallenge.ning.com/
I too believe that if we can move the focus off of ourselves and onto others, in the process we can actually improve, nourish and enlighten our own soul.
I have seen this happen in my own life- and I want to see it again.
So, this week I will give SEVEN gifts.
The definition of "gift" is completely up to the giver.
It can be something made, baked, bought, spoken, written, gestured, and so forth. Nothing big, fancy or expensive starting today and ending next Tuesday.
Will you do this with me?

challenge #5: eh, so so. But I'll say completed.

I wasn't a saint by any means, and my kids will tell you that.

But I did find some humorous alternatives like:

jammit

wordy

numb skull

I was glad that I at least made an effort to use different words.

And I was conscious of my language the whole week,

whether it was good or bad.

How did you do?