October 23, 2012

Book review: 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life

I have now been a stay at home mom for almost 6 months. It started out with a few weeks of tending to Jameson after his surgery, then the morning sickness started. The morning all the time sickness didn't finally go away until around late August, which means that I have only been able to just start getting the hang of this whole stay at home mom thing. I am discovering that there is a learning curve to this, which is something I HATE. I don't like to not be good at things, especially something that is so important to me. It didn't take me long to realize that what I was most needing was discipline and routine.

So, when I found out that my favorite blogger Crystal Paine from www.moneysavingmom.com was putting out the 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life, I knew I was sold! I was following her blog when she did this as a blog series but it wasn't something that I chose to follow at the time- the timing just wasn't right. But this eBook release was perfect timing!

Now, I will tell you that this is a bit of a hard book to review. It isn't really a book that is intended to be read cover to cover, but rather day by day following the indicated steps. Seeing as how I didn't get my copy until late last week, I was definitely not able to complete the full 21 days process yet! However, I can tell you that the book is well written and easy to follow. I love that she gave multiple real life examples and that she writes in such an encouraging way. After reading the book, I was so excited to finally get started. I have only  completed day one so far, but am so excited to see some results in my daily routines!

If you are interested in downloading a copy, here is a link! And best yet- it is only $.99 through Thursday, available in PDF and Kindle versions.

(PS- No, I am not getting paid for my review. The link is my affiliate link that earns me a portion on books purchased through this link). :)

October 1, 2012

Goals for the week: How I did in the week of a vacation!

I had such a good week! It could possibly have to do with the fact that half of the week's goals were met by having fun with my family, but I'll take a win where I can get it!


  • Continue to work on getting to bed by 10 am and be up by 7 am. I did such a great job at this! I even continued it through vacation, which wasn't as difficult since I was so exhausted at the end of each day and was excited to get ready for the day each morning!
  • Have house cleaned up prior to leaving for vacation Until I made it a point last summer to come home to a clean house, I totally didn't understand why someone would put time in to cleaning when they are trying to get ready for a vacation. But I tried it and discovered that it is AMAZING to come home to a house that can be relaxed in when you are worn out from vacation!
  • Get family packed up prior to leaving I have a little confession to make- I have actually started LIKING packing for the family. Weird, I know. But I have gotten it down to such a system that it isn't so stressful and it feels so good to get somewhere and know that I have planned for everything without toting along our entire house!
  • Stay within budget while on vacation I don't mean to brag, but we rocked this one! We actually came home with money LEFTOVER. We have never returned from a vacation with money to spare, and once upon a time, returned with a stack of credit card debt (I plan to post a blog about how we did this soon!)
  • Enjoy some family time during vacation!!!! We had a WONDERFUL time. It was such a low stress, relaxing, enjoyable time!

Goals for this week:

  • Keep up with daily chore list
  • Blog about vacation budgeting
  • Plan Sunday School class
  • Get list of words for language book to Lona (Delaney's speech helper)
  • Work on sight words with Jameson
  • Work on obtaining a location for playgroup 
  • Work on getting house prepared for new pictures