Four Day Win, part 1

I decided to focus on each of my goals for one week. Since there are roughly four weeks in a month, it should work out well!

My first goal was to improve my relationship with God. I like to think that I have a very personal relationship with my Father in Heaven. I have had many prayers answered, and I try to listen to the promptings I get from Him. But I know I can do much, much better. I am too quick to forget my dependance on Him when things are going well, and only remember to really pray when I need something.  For this week, my four day win will be to read my scriptures each morning for 15 minutes.  I know it sounds simple, but that's the point!

To make this happen, I will need to do a little bit of preparation at night (I could get up earlier, but I don't want to!). I need to get out my clothes, make our lunches and pack my gym bag so I have the extra time to add one more step to my routine in the mornings.

Next week I will be focusing on my health and fitness!

Cool-Whip, Continued

I posted last week that I wanted to start looking at how I was spending my time. I have been thinking a lot about how I spend my time, and I have decided that I need to be much more intentional. The conference talk A Time to Prepare really drove this idea home for me.  The whole talk is amazing, but I especially liked the end:

Time marches swiftly forward to the tick of the clock. Today would be a good day, while the clock of mortality ticks, to review what we are doing to prepare to meet God.

After thinking about how I spend my time, and think about what I actually want to accomplish, I found three main areas in my life that I feel need more focused, intentional attention:

1. My relationship with God.
2. My health and physical fitness.
3. My relationship with others.
4. My home.

My inclination is to rush into all of these things, set lofty goals, work furiously toward them for about a week, burn out, and then watch TV for three straight days. So I decided this time to set small, achievable goals, modeled after Martha Beck's Four Day Win.

I'm going to write a separate post for each goal, so stay tuned!

If you're interested in learning more about designing a life with intention, try reading the very inspirational blog Make Under My Life (there's a link over on the right).

You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.

-Steve Jobs, 1995-2011

I Tried it Tuesday- Dry Shampoo

I've mentioned before that I'm trying to grow my hair out. One of the ways I'm trying to keep my hair healthier is to not wash it as often. My hair is pretty fine, but thick, which means that when it gets dirty, it is not easy to hide! I've used baby powder before to absorb some of the grease, and it worked, but it took a lot of work to make my hair not look white, and it also got baby powder all over the bathroom! I've been meaning to try dry shampoo for a while, but I couldn't justify the cost when the problem could be solved by just taking a shower! So when I saw that Suave had a dry shampoo for $3, I had to try it!

My review:

Awesome! It comes out of the bottle COLD (refreshing on summer day, not sure how I'll feel in the winter! Oh, what am I saying, I live in Texas...) and a little powdery, then you rub it in with your hands. It has a nice, kinda peachy smell and made my hair look much fresher. It also makes my hair a lot thicker and coarser. I wouldn't wear it down like this, but it was great for putting my hair in a style that it wouldn't usually hold. It doesn't make my hair as good as if it were freshly washed, but it does get me through one more day of dirty hair with no problem!