March Goals Review

*Read through the Bible in a year.  I'm into some good parts, loving the stories.  I'm also a couple days behind, which I thought I'd make up yesterday so I wouldn't have to admit I was behind, but it didn't happen.

*Memorize 24 scriptures this year.  I memorized Isaiah 41:13 & Colossians 3:12

*Declutter one room each month.  This month was the pool room.  There wasn't much to do, mostly I cleared out the piano bench.

*Answer my family with a smile.  I felt like I did pretty good with this.  When the four of them are asking rapid-fire questions, all at the same time, it gets a little tricky. :)

*Read two books each month.  Six books this month.  Even with the movement, you can get quite a bit of reading done when you're on a treadmill for three hours at a time.  :)

Oddly, and quite by coincidence, three of the books I read had an abused wife in them.  Strange.

First Marathons by Gail Waesche Kislevitz

A very interesting, fun read, whether you care about marathons or not.  It highlights many people, both professional runners and others who barely completed only one marathon in their lives.

For instance: A 200-lb nun smoking 2.5 packs of cigarettes a day...first marathon age 50.  Qualified for Olymic Trials with a time of 2:51 at age 54.

And shocking facts such as: As late as 1971, Nina Kuscsik was fighting to have women be allowed to run a distance of 26.2.  1972 was the first year women were allowed to run the Boston Marathon...eight women did.

The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders

Forever Blessed by Darlene Shortridge

The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano (very good!)

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks (classic Sparks)

A Day in the Life of a Minimalist by Joshua Fields Milburn

Even though the book wasn't quite what I'd hoped, I still found some good nuggets.

You don't get stressed, you do stressed

Step 4.  Stop Making Excues.  I should do this.  I should do that. I should, I should, I should.  Too often, we should all over ourselves.  You must instead make change a must.  I must create a masterpeice!  I must make time every day!  I must kill my distractions!  Those musts sound far more empoowering than your shoulds, don't they?

When I was a kid, my mother used to say, If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  Unfortunately, as adults, we tend to do the opposite.  We get discouraged or embarrassed or ashamed when our recipe doesn't work, and although we make it 90% of the way to our outcome, we give up.  We quit.  We fall short of the finish line.  What's strange is that these feelings of discouaragement and embassassment are compltely mental.  If we fail, we look around and hope no one noticed, and we vow to never do it again.. Big Mistake.

We must fail.  We must figure out what doesn't work so we can figure out what does.  Children already know this part of the formula.  Every child fails hundreds of times before she is able to walk.  But what does the child do?  Does she try a handful of times and then cower in embarrassment after failing?  No, she continually changes her strategy, she keeps trying until she gets it right.  That's what all kids do.  And now newarly every person in the world can walk.  Joshua Milburn

*Run a half and a full marathon.  I had a great time running a half marathon earlier in March with two of my SILs.  My official time was 1:59:32.

I am registered for the Full Marathon in May and have officially "put my money where my mouth is".

This morning I did 20 miles for the first time, ever.  It went well and what once seemed impossible is now within sight.

I run 5 days a week, and do cross training one day.  I also do a brief strength training routine most days in the afternoon after I put Aiden down.  Nearly every morning I am home from the gym before anyone in the house is even up.

My achilles injury continues to plague me so I just wear flip flops.  I'd show you a picture, but running has done no favors to my feet.  So many people have made comments about my choice of shoes, I feel like I'm as much a spectacle as a pregnant woman.  But, the weather is warming and soon no one will notice.

Total miles run in March: 139.1

*Write 52 notes of encouragement, thinking of you.  Three notes this month.

*Clear off my desk each evening.  A whopping five.  I'm gonna go ahead and pass the buck and blame it all on Shaun.  :)  My desk was the hub for getting the mortgage people everything they needed.  We pulled out all manner of paperwork and had to fax it and hold it in case we needed to fax it again.

*Spend 15 minutes a day working on a project.  25 times.  At the beginning of the month, I was highly motivated to begin packing and clearing out the third floor.  I came to a dead halt when things went south with the house.  But slowly, progress is being made!

*At least two dates/month.  I would say we did one and a half.  I don't remember what the one was, but I remember noting that we'd done it.  The "half" was a Friday evening spent carrying out third floor stuff to Shaun's pickup to be hauled away to the dump.