Delirity

It seems to me that this year has flown by. I think it’s because I keep waiting for the next thing to happen. With Jesse gone, I’m living in 2 week increments between when I see him. It’s sort of surreal, especially since somehow we’re almost 1/4 of the way through our time apart. It’s interesting to think about the different ways we measure time in our lives. Weekends. Holidays. Birthdays. Major milestones. Workouts. Project deadlines. Yearly goals.

Remember those goals I had at the beginning of the year? Yea, I sort of lost them along the way too. But, I wanted to give an update on them and my predictions for the end of the year. And – I’m starting early on planning some serious goals for myself for next year. Next year, I really want to focus on growth… and not the movie watching variety. But, more on that later.

1. Recommit to Flylady – I sort of clean every other weekend now. It’s not really the Flylady way. Honestly, I’m just not around a lot, so it throws me off schedule. But, I try to keep my sink shined, my counters cleaned off, and my living room picked up. It gets away from me sometime, but I think it’s not too bad.

2. Continual Reassessment of Finances – This is one thing I’ve really been focusing on. I’m rocking the budgeting. I’ve managed to save about $3000 over the past 3 months (yea, I’m not sure how either). It’s lead Jesse and I to the conclusion that we can probably save up quite a bit before he starts his practice and that if we can get even close to opening his business without a loan, that would be awesome. So here we go

3. Run 250 miles – Um. Let’s say that I’ve rekindled my love for the gym, particularly cycling and kickboxing classes recently. I haven’t run in a very long time. But I’m getting pretty consistent about going to the gym in the mornings before work – which is really awesome! That little voice that wakes me up at 4:45 to get up for cycling classes 3 times a week is only getting louder. I love it!

4. Watch AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies Top 10 - I’ve seen 6! And I will definitely have watched all 10 by the time New Year’s rolls around.

5. Find 5 Ways that I Want to Give Every Year – My epiphany is that 5 ways is too many. I give blood. I donate to goodwill. At this point, that’s pretty much what I’m capable of. And I’m OK with that. And with the financial progress we’re making, someday we’ll be rocking the charitable giving. But I figure I’ve got about 5 years before that really happens, so we have time to determine which local cause should have our money.

First, let me say that things have been going much better. I’m sleeping (finally!) and my bedroom is starting to be a happier place, though it isn’t finished yet, so you’ll have to keep waiting for pictures.

On Friday I went with Dawn to Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership 1-Day class. I picked up all sorts of helpful information and had a great time. Dave is an awesome speaker and going to a class where there were only 300 people (and I was like 2 feet away from him several times) was fabulous. The best part was the epiphany I had – I realized that the reason I haven’t felt comfortable going full speed into the main Dave Ramsey baby steps is because I’m not sure where saving for starting Jesse’s practice fits in.

Saturday was the Total Money Makeover Live Event at the Coliseum. It was almost the complete opposite of the Friday event – it was all stuff I had heard before (many times). But there were 8000 people. Imagine 8000 people who all are working toward being out of debt. 8000 people screaming “Show me the money” in regards to budgeting. It was great (though really cold), mostly because it was motivating. My epiphany of the day was that I’m not sacrificing enough to win at paying off our debt. So, I’m looking for places where I can trim the budget a little more. Someday, we will be debt free – and boy will that be a wonderful thing!