HITTING RESET - Moving Content!

 

Good morning, everyone!

This post will be my last for this blog. Before you turn me off, let me explain.

I've done some serious soul searching the past six months while I've been unable to focus on writing. Why haven't I been writing consistently is the first thing I must address.

The reason finally came to me last weekend. I haven't been using my blog/ editorial boards or my planners since the end of February... when I started the reorganization of the studio/ office. 

I am a VERY visual person. Even during my days of selling Christmas Around the World, House of Lloyd and Undercover Wear whenever there was a promotion, I would buy a sheet of poster board and create a chart to track my progress towards a goal.

Saturday, I pulled out mynotepad and decided there were changes to be made.

1- Work only with blogs that bring me joy -  or an income.

I had six blogs. I made the definitive decision to close this one. the decision wasn't easy but I only have so many hours in the day and I have to treat my blogging - for the most part - as if it were a job. I can't continue to work six jobs!

I find being motivated hard on the blog when there are no responses to posts... and only a hand full of readers. I thought that through my journey I could inspire others. I've gotten to the point where my time is too valuable for something that is not having any affect on me or others. As of today, that blog will be closing by end of the month - with the last post being today, similar to this one.

With that said, I do recognize I have SOME  readers. I don't want to lose you. If you would like to keep up with what I'm doing, for the time being I am going to continue Fly Lady, food mostly pertaining to what I'm doing in the kitchen/ garden to my An Ozarks Journal blog. For now, that is a test to see if I keep it. I'm pretty sure I will but not be posting every day. Which brings me to the next point...

Still In Debate

I started the Ozarks Journal blog back when I first met the Polish Sinfonia and needed a place to post pictures from the grade school students so that the orchestra members could all go look at them. I still like the blog idea but I'm making a couple of changes.

I want to keep talking about prepping, my garden and household. I was talking 'household' on the weight loss blog, after all a clean house does make for a better self-journey but something in me decided I could keep the household with the Ozarks Journal. I mean, I LIVE in the Ozarks. LOL So OJ will be more about my corner of the Ozarks and our home here.

 3- Staying on Task

This required evaluating what I really want to do.

I want to write

I want the Etsy shop or some other sales form to destash my stuff and let it bring joy to others.

I want to continue to craft and make pretty things.

For that reason, I am putting a more solid YouTube stream in place, getting my shop open and writing books. My YouTube channel is under KellysCreativeDreams

4 - More time to craft and to write.

I still have book series I want/ need to write. I'm starting back to a regular writing schedule next week. Hopefully, by the time Bob comes home I will have a routine where even if I only take thirty minutes, the words will flow.

Overall Goals

To create beautiful things while destashing our home

To stay more on Task

To write more books

To have a financial plan in place that has the house paid off in two years.

I'm not saying these goals will be easy, but with visuals in place  I have a much better shot

I'm spending the rest of this week getting posts written/ scheduled, batch-recording videos and putting the office back together from company last week.

I hope you will join me at An Ozarks Journal.

I will keep this blog open until September 15th in case you want to go back and pull recipes.

until then...

Do what makes you happy!

Blessings

~Kelly

WEIGH IN 7-20-20

165/173/135

Good morning!

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm already over summer... well, the heat anyway. We've had a few days of a dry, hot wind which wasn't bad. I really don't care for the humidity. With the dry heat, I can work outside in spurts as long as there is that breeze. Even a hot breeze is better than none. But the humidity just knocks me out. I get maybe an hour in the early  morning (if I'm llucky) then a couple hours near almost dark in the evening. 

On the upside, staying in is letting me accomplish stuff in the house. 

I've been building up my creative YouTube channel and following. I'm celebrating over 200 subscribers this week. My goal is to  be at 500 by my birthday and 1000 by the end of the year. If you are a creative person or know someone who is, I hope you'll join me. You will find me at KellysCreativeDreams I have a giveaway this week. You have until Friday to enter.

I've started a deep clean on the pantry downstairs. I've been buying a few extra items every week to get us stocked up. We were looking pretty good down there but things were beginning to get jumbled and I wasn't sure of what we had or if we were using oldest stuff first. 

My main goal this week is to get all of my Stampin' Up! sets broken down and inventoried. I'm changing the way I store things a bit. Bob would really like to get to the dining room table when he gets home.  I get it. Just hope he'll still want to have coffee on the deck in the morning even though the table would be available. 

While I'm up a pound this week, I'm not concerned. I treated myself to seafood twice over the weekend. Friday I went to Poplar Bluff. CHIN's Chinese Buffet has been open a couple of weeks. I gave that to myself as a treat for accomplishing a major task here in the house.  Then Saturday while I was in West Plains, I saw a sign that had my attention - Crab Legs after 4 p.m.  Umm Yes please!

The portion was huge! 5 complete leg sections plus 2 sides for $30. That's almost #2 of crab legs!  I didn't have my scissors but I did okay. Joe's Fish Shack offeers crab legs the 1st and 3rd Saturday each month. They also offer catfish filets, walleye, clam strips, shrimp and a wide variety of sides. I recommend stopping in at the THE FISH SHACK

I'm not out and about so much this week. Lots to accomplish here. I'm cleaning out the freezer this morning, pitching old stuff and getting an idea of what leftovers I have that I could be eating. We will see what next Monday brings.

Be sure to pop back by tomorrow for FlyLady. While the main room on the schedule should be the office, I'm going to pair that up with the dining room table to finish the Stampin' Up! project. 

How do you feel about summer? Are you over it? Do you love the hot temps? How do you stay cool?

Let me hear from you!

Enjoy the Journey!

~Kelly

FLY LADY - The Laundry Room

If you follow  my blog, you know this is NOT the week I'm to be doing the laundry room. Sadly, I've gotten off track the past couple of months and am jumping back in where needed. While this should be the week for deep cleaning the bedroom, the laundry room had to take priority.

A couple of weeks ago during our monthly shopping trip to Menards (where we buy all of our pet supplies on the 11% rebate) I thought I'd try a new Arm & Hammer. The information on the box looked promising, was Arm & Hammer, after all, and was four dollars less expensive. Seemed like a win.  NOT!

The box says HARD CLUMPS for easy scooping. They are so wrong!

As soon as I went to scoop the clumps from the litter box, they immediately fell apart, dissolving through the slats in the scooper to fall back into the box!!  Seriously?

That was the first issue.  

The next problem I had was Eliminates Both Urine Odors and Feces Odors..

Okay, this part may be true - because all you can smell is AMONIA!

Silly us, bought two boxes because we're trying to stock up when we can.  Once we get them home, Bob divides the boxes up into jugs from previous litter purchases - only about 2/3rds full - so that I can handle them easier.  (yes, we've tried the lightweight but it's more expensive)

Our laundry room is open to the kitchen. The litter had to GO! 

We've dumped the remainder of the two boxes into a 5 gal bucket and will drop off at the Howell Co. Animal Shelter next trip Bob can go with me. I couldn't begin to lift the bucket.

So today has been about stripping out the laundry room, detailing the floor, wiping everything down with Pine-Sol water. I've scrubbed out the litter box (which is an under the bed storage box to accomodate three cats). Once everything is dry, I'll put down fresh rugs then fill the litter box with our preferred litter.  

Since we pour into mutliple jugs, we often mix the 24/7 with this one:

We are a Purina household from Cat food/ litter to Dog food.

If you have cats, I'd love to hear what you use. Have you tried either of these litters? One person also recommended Scoop Away but after the Arm & Hammer fiasco I think I'll stick with Tidy Cat. 

Are you cleaning your house or decluttering during this Stay At Home?  

Whatever your project...

Enjoy the Journey!

WEIGH IN 7-13-20

165/172/135

Well, I managed to gain while Bob was home. Went back up to 175. I've lost three pounds since he left on Friday. 

I've gone back to lean meats (I've only eaten beef once) and lots of veggies.

As a result my sugar (which had gotten dangerously high) was also down. I knew getting the weight in check would make that number better as well - mostly because of what I eat when I'm not cooking for Bob.

I'm pretty sure I've said before, Bob does not like vegetables. He will eat canned peas (ewww!), green beens and french style green beans with cheese sauce. 

Me, I eat just about any vegetable except parsnips/ rutebega. There are a couple of others. I only eat brussel sprouts the way my daughter fixes them. I've tried fixing them her way and they just don't turn out the same.

I'm happy with peppers/ onions/ broccoli/ rice cauliflower and the other veggies Bob will eat, though I prefer my green peas fresh or frozen. 

With him gone, I'm back in the office full-time. My wrist is telling me about it this  morning as I've written 9 blog posts. Tomorrow I'll see if I can knock out the rest for the week.

For now, a recliner and my kindle call my name. I have a book review due on Wednesday. 

Post will become more regular as I've mapped out the entire quarter. Cross your fingers nothing jumps in front of my productive train!

Whatever you're up to, remember to...

Enjoy the Journey!

WEIGH IN 6-1-20

165/171/135

Bob has been gone two weeks (this Wednesday). When we did our weigh in, I was at 175. So technically, I am down four pounds! yowsers

I know a lot has to do with eating more vegetables. I get away from my stir-fry meals when he is home. He does not eat vegies unless it's green beans, canned peas or french style green beans with cheese sauce.  However, he does like chinese mixed vegetables. With that in mind, I'm going to include stir-fry as a dinner at least once a week when he is home.

Bob's challenge is portion control. He just has no concept, regardless as many times as I try to show him. 

My plan for this week is to get a handle on what we have in the two freezers and plan meals for when Bob comes home. I've decided instead of fixing meals and we filling our plates, I'm going to prepare meals according to  our plates. Maybe that will help Bob. We'll see.

Quick recap on last week. I've discovered I was one of thousands in MO that got that 'denied unemployment letter' Apparently, there was an issue in Unemployment database. That said, I still don't now all the details. I spent three hours on hold each of the four work-days last week without getting through. In fact, I would be kicked off exactly at the 3-hour mark.

I'm getting work out of the way then I'll focus on security while still trying to get through to them. 

Do you use LIfelock or something similar? If so, I'd love to hear your opinion/ recommendation.

How are you doing through this whole mess?

Whatever crosses your path, find something positive and as always...

Enjoy the Journey

~Kelly

GUARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Good morning!

This is a quick post written (Monday) as today is all about phone calls to Social Security. I'm not sure what has happened, nor am I going to speculate. I just know something isn't right. The only thing I can do is figure out the issue then move forward.

With that in mind, I'm not sure there will be any other posts this week. I'd planned to be back to work full force, though that  may not happen this week.

What I do want to point out is that I've done everything in my power to guardd my personal information. I don't do business on my phone, I don't bank on-line and I have one credit card to my name for business and hotel confirmations.

Sadly, the same precautions do not appear to have been take with the U. S. Government.

I have blog posts ready to roll... with a few changes in format for the remainder of the year. With the first half of the year winding down, this seemed like a good time to make those changes.

Hang with me - we'll get this straightened out!

Enjoy the Journey!

MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

TO THOSE WHO SERVE IN THE OUR ARMED FORCES

AND

THE FAMILIES WHO SACRIFICE SO MUCH

FOR OUR 

FREEDOM