Top 10 Reasons to keep a Journal

I have struggled my whole life to regularly keep a journal. I know I should, and I start journals, write every day or so for a few weeks, then promptly forget about them. Blogging has been a little bit like a journal, but I keep one that is more in depth with the day-to-day happenings.

My dad was always great at keeping a journal. (I'm not sure if he still keeps one. Do you, Dad?) I remember him sitting down and writing in his big hardbound journal after dinner. I also remember times when we would be talking about something that happened, then not recall just when it was, and Dad would say,"Hold on, I'll look it up in my journal." Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do that?

I ran across this "Top 10" list. Just picture me on with David Letterman reading this to you.


10. Journaling helps exercise writing skills and explore talents.

9. Journaling is a simple and easy task that provides an invaluable source of history to look back on.

8. Recording life experiences helps to know oneself better.

7. Recording personal trials and emotions can reduce stress and help in the healing process.

6. Keeping a record of daily events, facts, and feelings can enhance intuition and creativity.

5. Recording daily occurrences and personal feelings helps foster personal growth.

4. Looking back at personal experiences can help when analyzing situations and solving problems.

3. Daily journaling sets an example for children and other family members to follow.

2. A journal captures a life story for oneself and for posterity.

And the number one reason to keep a journal:

1. Keeping a journal helps you see how God has touched your life.

All right, now I'm going to go write in my journal.

Whole Wheat Bread

We're carb-oholics around here, especially when it comes to bread consumption. That being said, I try to keep the carbs to the whole grain variety. I also love to make bread; it is so satisfying to get my hands in a big, warm lump of dough and squish and mush and beat it around. Come to think of it, they should do bread baking in anger management classes. But I digress...

Sometimes I use the bread machine to make bread, but it does something the the whole wheat bread that makes it tough, and sometimes downright hard as a rock. Almost doorstop-like.

I've looked around and tried many-a-recipe, and I've finally stumbled upon a keeper. It's not quite my Great-Aunt Flo's whole wheat bread, but it's durn close!

100% Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/3 cups warm water

2 T. applesauce or canola oil

3 T. sucanat or brown sugar (I used unprocessed cane sugar)

1 t. salt

3 2/3 cups whole wheat flour

3 T. vital wheat gluten flour*

1 T. active dry yeast

* Don't be scared by this, it's available in the grocery store, even at super Wal-Mart.

Using a mixer (I used my trusty Kitchenaid that Andy was shamed into buying me by TamTam Tomatohead) combine all ingredients and knead for 6 minutes.

Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Knead 4 more minutes. Turn dough onto lightly oiled board and shape into 2 loaves. Place in pans to rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees 40-50 minutes until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Simple and Tasty. Yum!

Recipe from Natural Meals in Minutes by Rita Bingham

The kids and I ground the wheat in a Magic Mill wheat grinder. It smells so good!

Oh, Habits, where are you?

The one thing I've been great at this week? A big zip-i-dee-do-da-zippo! Well, maybe I wasn't that bad, but so much room for improvement! The weather is getting a little cooler, so my exercising might get a little better.

Scriptures and lessons - habit

Chores for kids - needs work

Scriptures and prayer with family - needs work

Paperwork - needs overhaul

Thanks, Lazy Organizer for keeping this in my head, though!

Habits? What habits?

Scriptures with the kids not going well, we need a better schedule with school going.

Relief Society lesson and Ensign Habit.

Chores for the kids another hit and miss.

Paperwork I would rather do anything, even clean the bathroom with a toothbrush, than work on anything that I really SHOULD be doing.

Another SMART Habit Saturday

For my first week I really started out with a fizzle, but I guess working on the habits is half the battle! (At least I can keep telling myself that!)

Scriptures with the kids a little hit and miss this week; only a couple of days.
Relief Society lesson and Ensign Almost a habit.
Chores for the kids another hit and miss, but our schedule was a little off this week.
Paperwork, oh paperwork. Why do you haunt me so? My brother came over and read the blog while I was doing some scrapbooking, and he commented that if it was that kind of paperwork {The Scrapbooking Kind, which I do not dread at all, by the way}I was talking about then I was doing fine. Then he looked down at the desk and raised his eyebrows. I need a more specific plan of attack for this stuff.
I want to add another habit of decluttering one area a day. The top of my dryer is my shove everything zone, and my kitchen is brimming full since I have been trying to work on my food storage.

Wish me luck!

SMART Habit Saturday

I've always wanted to be one of those super-organized moms {nobody laugh at me! hee hee}. Maybe I need a little bit of accountability, someone to report to, other than Andy, who will ReAllY laugh at me! I'm going to jump in with The Lazy Organizer, because that's really how I feel most of the time. So, here are some of my goals. I'm going to start small, and add as I get a handle on these ones.

One thing I have TOTALLY slacked on is exercise. Then I wonder why I am gaining weight by leaps and bounds! My goal is 4 days a week of at least 45 minutes of exercise. Probably walking, but I'll go for bike riding or a workout video, also. Strenuous swimming will also count!

Reading the scriptures every day: personal and family study. We are either hot or cold on this it seems. I actually seem to do much better with it when I get up early to go for a walk! I think I feel less rushed, and a little more, well, organized. Most mornings the kids like to read together. In the past we had tried reading the scriptures in the evening before bed, which I thought would be a nice wind-down to the day, but they were just too overtired, and sometimes even downright belligerent. Everything went much better after we switched to mornings before school. Along with reading the scriptures is reading the Relief Society lesson each week, which is a challenge that our ward bishop has given to those of us who are not able to attend class because of our other callings. I've actually been doing great with this, and I am reading back on some of the lessons I've missed.

Chores for the kids every morning. We started this after summer academy, and it was really going well, but we've gotten a little off schedule. What we did was: I looked around the house and decided what chores needed to be done that morning, such as vacuum and dust living room, straighten up bookcase, clean bathroom sink, mirror, and floor, mop kitchen, empty dishwasher, clean out fridge...you get the drift. I then list these individual jobs on a paper under the room name. I've found that the more specific I get, the better, like listing what cleaner to use, the pieces of furniture to dust, etc. The kids pick a paper out of a hat and have to do those chores before they can go outside to play. I think we will do this on weekdays only, and take the weekend off from the thorough cleaning, and just do the surface cleaning on the weekend.

One more thing, PAPERWORK! The dreaded paperwork. I will work on IT 30 minutes a day.

OK, there's the list. I may add some more next Saturday, depending on how these are going!