Simple Living Challenge

Today is the first day of my Simple Living Challenge hosted by Jenn at ADailyRhythm.com.  My plan is different that hers slightly but reading over hers I think she has some good ideas, mostly in the form of housekeeping.

So, my goals are:

1.  Putting spiritual things first -- the first little while of my day will be spent with tea and The Word.  I have done this this morning already and I feel good about it.  Since I have never read the Bible all the way through I decided to start at the logical start place -- Genesis.  I am reading a few chapters at a time in an easy to read format -- Women's Devotional Bible by Zondervan.  I am not striving for a goal of a certain amount per day -- just reading until it feels right.

2.  Exercise.  I am aiming for 30 minutes of dedicated exercise a day.  I have already ridden my exercise bike for 30 minutes this morning and hopefully I will feel more energized over the course of the day.

3.  Less noise pollution.  The tv has yet to come on.

4.  Food -- eating intuitively.  I am going to purchase the books suggested by Jenn (for some reason I think I have one of them but can't find it -- maybe I need to KonMarie my books!)  Anyway, I am going to start studying them.  However, yesterday I said I was going to eat three meals a day with no snacks.  I am going to change that and allow a mid morning something to go with tea.  I can do fine from lunch to supper but I get up so early that I almost always need a little break -- hopefully something healthy.  I started thinking about kindergarten and we always got a snack in kindergarten -- even just half day kinder so I am thinking something small with my mid-morning cuppa will be ok if I am mindful.

5.  Domestic issues -- I have been looking at Jenn's organization of her chores and I am thinking about mine.  I will continue to do laundry on a daily basis -- I absolutely have to do that in order to keep up with it.  My husband seems to change his clothes A LOT! And the kitchen is an ever ongoing project but that is ok -- I would rather be on top of it.   The rest of it -- well, I think I am over thinking the whole thing.  I am going to pick a day to do each chore -- bathrooms, dust, and vacuum.  Vacuuming is my least favorite thing to do so I think I will do it on Friday to be ready for anybody who might drop by on the weekend. Bathrooms on Friday as well.  I live in Texas and we could dust every hour on the hour but I think I will choose to do it another day -- maybe Wednesday.

6.  Grocery shopping -- I believe I will grocery shop for the week on Monday.  I remember my mother liking to go on Monday because they were stocking fresh for the week or on Friday but I think I will try Monday on to see if it works ok for me.

Ok, so that is my new plan.  Now I have to figure out a way to be accountable without boring everybody with a post about whether I clean the bathroom or not.  Maybe a side bar.  I have purchased a new planner that will be here soon and I will probably just keep track of things there and report in here each Saturday.

Anyway, I have begun and actually, the two most important things to me have been accomplished already today so I would say I have done ok and off to a good start.  Hopefully I can keep it up!

By the way -- I had a lovely simple dinner last night and my husband actually liked it.  I grilled two little New York strip steaks on my new cast iron grill plan, made a salad and roasted some new potatoes.  It was good and didn't take long at all to do so that was a win as well.  Tonight I am off to the Girl Scout sleep over and he is on his own.  Hahah! He will be eating out I am sure.