​Let’s talk more about play today. Play is my favorite topic, so I hope I don’t bore you all with it. With the coronavirus shutting down schools all across the country, I feel like this is a great time to remind parents that children learn best through play. This is the time to look at what your child is interested in and build on that! A child who wants to learn something will work tirelessly to figure it out. Need some examples?

• A mobile infant who is ready to walk? Do you have to do walking worksheets and have walking lessons? NO!! That child will work on it for hours on end until they take that first step.

That’s a baby, you say? It’s different for older children.

• Okay, let’s consider a 4 or 5 year old who is ready to learn to tie their shoes. What do they spend their time doing? Tying and untying their shoes. Tying and untying everything, for that matter.

When our oldest daughter wanted to learn how to braid hair, my husband made her a board with three strands of rope so she could practice. She would work on that for hours until she mastered braiding. Incidentally, she eventually figured out how to French braid too, something her mother never mastered lol.
Now, think about your own learning. When you want to learn about something new, what do you do? You read about it, you study it, you practice doing it. Find out what your child is interested in and let them study and examine that topic! If they are interested in the topic, it won’t be a chore, it will be fun and it will get done. When I was interested in learning more about play, I read and researched and tried all kinds of different things.
Lastly, I know this situation is stressful and hard on all of us, especially children. They feel our stress (the strongest emotion rules the room!) and they feed off of it. Spend the time making some good memories with them so that they look back at this time in their life in a positive way. School may be out, but learning is always available-through play! 

My goal for April is to get at least 8000 steps in a day and for the first day of April yesterday, I had 9498! I set an alarm on my phone for every hour titled "Get up and walk!" and I tracked my steps each hour to make sure I stayed on target. I'd hit 8000 before 5:00 p.m. 

Now on to day 2!

Week 13 and First Quarter wrap-up: Happiness Project Update:


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We are 13 weeks and 25% into 2020! Here’s my update for this past week and the month of March:

1. Walk/moving 25 minutes a day: I’ve done that everyday
2. Working on de-cluttering and getting rid of child care stuff: I took Saturday off this past week, but did it at least 15 minutes every other day (most days I did 30 minutes). I worked on it 22 days in March!
3. Paperwork monster/tax challenge: Again, I took Saturday off this past week, but worked on it at least 15 minutes all the other days. 22 days in March on this project too!
4. Drinking water: I met my water drinking goal every day in March!
5. Blog and book: I did this every day in the last week. I missed two days working on the book and one day writing on the blog in March.
6. Tracking blood sugar and food: I did it every day last week and I only missed a couple of times in the month of March.
7. Fruits and Veggies: I met my fruit and veggie goal every day last week. I met it a total of 17 days in the month of March.
8. Creating/brainstorming for new classes: I also took Saturday off from doing this, but did at least 15 minutes all the other days last week. I did it a total of 25 days in March. I finished and submitted two classes that I had started a while back and they’ve been approved. I also started and submitted a third class (waiting for approval on that one). Then I started working on the keynote proposal that is one of my 20 for 2020 items. I’ve wanted to expand into doing keynote speaking for a while now and so one of my goals for this year was to create and submit a keynote proposal to different child care conference sponsors. I plan to finish the proposal by the end of April.

Let me know in the comments how your year is going! 

Can you believe this year is already 25% complete? Today I’m going to talk about what I want to accomplish in April.
The theme for April is Spiritual. I’ve chosen Colossians 3:23 as my quote: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord and not for men.”
 

1. Continue 25 minutes of movement a day.
2. Adding to that, I want to get in at least 8000 steps a day. To do this, I will set a timer to remind myself to move each hour and set a goal of steps for each hour. My goal is to average 600 steps an hour throughout the day. After the first couple of days, I’ll reevaluate and see if I need to up that some more.
3. Spend 15 minutes a day each on

1. Child care de-cluttering project (I’m pretty much done with what I can do upstairs until my friend can come pick up the stuff so I’ve moved on to other areas of the house where I still had stuff stored). There is other stuff upstairs that needs to be gone through but my first goal is to get through all the child care stuff.
2. Paperwork monster/taxes
3. Creating new classes: my goal in April is to work on and complete the keynote proposal that was part of my 20 for 2020 list.

1. Fruits and veggies: Continue eating a fruit each day with breakfast and veggies with lunch and supper. I’m also going to add a fruit to supper.
2. Blood sugar and tracking food: Continue tracking my blood sugar at breakfast, lunch, and supper, and writing down my food that I eat each day.
3. Devotional/read my Bible each day: I’m setting a goal to do a devotional and read my Bible each and every day. Thanks to the people who suggested the YouBible app; I’ve been able to find some very timely devotionals that have really touched my heart.
4. Continue drinking at least 80 oz. of water each day
5. Continue posting on my blog and writing in my book each day. 

As of this morning's walk, I have walked/moved 90 days this year! It feels amazing that I have accomplished this and I am thankful that I started. If you intended to start and haven't yet, it's not too late! Every day is the start of a new year, so get up and get moving! You can start with a walk to the end of the block and back. You can start with a walk around your house. Just get out and do it! 

Yesterday, I made the conscious decision to take a day off from some of my projects. I woke up cranky and out or sorts and decided I needed to do something different. I didn't do any de-cluttering, any paperwork, or any creating. I did still exercise, drink my water, write, and eat my veggies/fruit. I also read, watched a little TV, and played games on my phone. It helped because today I woke up feeling less crabby and more like doing something, lol. 

De-cluttering means I have hauled out a lot of trash the last few weeks. Trash day here is Wednesday and by Thursday afternoon this week, I'd already filled up 2 1/2 barrels back up with trash. It didn't help that they randomly left two bags in the bottoms of a couple of barrels when they picked up Wednesday. But still, that's a lot of trash. By yesterday afternoon, I had the third one full as well. 

It is a rather scary time in our country and our world. I’m curious to know how everyone is coping with this crisis. How is the crisis affecting you the most? Financially, physically, emotionally?
So far, I have remained healthy (praise the Lord) and Tom hasn’t become any sicker than he already was. Finances have been our biggest concern since I am not able to get out and teach any classes at this time. It’s also been kind of hard for me not to be seeing or interacting with other people. I’ve been coping with it by throwing myself into projects around the house. I’m getting close to having all the daycare toys upstairs sorted and ready to go out of here. Don’t worry, there’s still more all over the place lol. Once I finish the upstairs, I have the office area down here, along with cabinets and shelves in the living room and Tom’s music room.
I’m praying for all of you out there and praying that this ends soon. I miss teaching and talking to people! 

I have loved to read for as long as I can remember. My mom and grandma love to tell a story of me at about two years old in the backseat of a car with my grandparents, and my uncle driving in a thunderstorm. Every time it would lightning so that I could see my book, I would say "read, read, read" until my uncle finally yelled "Can someone shut that kid up?". LOL. 

That's been me and books all my life. We used to go to the library in a nearby town during the summer and I'd check out books and bring them home and read them all the same day (chapter books). It just drove my mom crazy. 

So I just want to say in the midst of all this craziness, READ, READ, READ! And I don't mean Facebook and the news. I mean, read some good books, read to your kids, and make sure your children see you enjoying books and reading. It really is one of the best things you can do for your children. 

Yesterday marked the end of 12 weeks in 2020. Here is my resolution update:

Walking/moving everyday: Continuing to do this everyday. Haven't missed a day yet!

Drinking water: drinking at least 80 oz. of water a day!

Blog/book: I missed one day writing in my book last week, but have written in the blog everyday.

Upstairs de-cluttering project: Going great! I've made so much progress (especially since I doubled up this week on my 15 minute sessions). Since I haven't been traveling, I didn't miss a day working on it last week.

Paperwork monster/tax challenge: I can see the top of my table for the first time in months. I haven't missed a day working on that either.

Creating classes: I worked on that six days in the last week and the last few days I've doubled up and worked on it twice a day. 

Logging blood sugar/food: I have continued to do really well at this. I did miss checking my blood sugar a couple of days at lunch time, but overall I'm doing great.

Fruit/veggies: I am so excited to report that last week, I had six days of meeting my fruit/veggie goal each day! 

​How are your goals for 2020 coming along?