In August, my focus is going to be on finances. For that, I’m going to start by tracking spending this month-the good, the bad, and the ugly-much like I’ve done with my food habits. So here’s this month’s resolution list:
 

1. Start a notebook writing down what I spend each day.
2. Write for 15 minutes a day. It can be a poem, it can be in my book, it can be “I don’t know what to write today” over and over (lol), but write every day.
3. Read a self-help book every week day. I finished my Gretchen Rubin books that I had chosen to read this summer, so I’m going to start on some other books. First up is one called “What to say when you talk to yourself”.
4. Continue tracking food and blood sugar each day and drinking water each day.
5. Continue walking 25 minutes all seven days in the week. Aim to get 9,000-10,000 steps per day and 9 hours active Monday-Friday.
6. Continue posting in blog and Facebook groups each day.
7. Continue my goal of a fruit with breakfast and supper and a vegetable with lunch and supper.
8. Continue devotional/Bible study/prayer journal
9. Continue with de-cluttering & cleaning/paperwork/creating & working on classes for my training business. 

I am feeling a little bit, okay, extremely grouchy this morning. So I decided to think about what I'm thankful for. 

Kenny and Robert coming over Sunday and cutting down the monster bush next to our house. 

Teresa bringing me a bag of Sonic ice.

Christina for always listening to me when I need it.

Hospice and the services they are providing. It's a huge weight off my shoulders knowing that we will have access to pain medicine for Tom without jumping through a million hoops.

Myself for getting up and exercising every day this week even though I really have not wanted to get out of bed at all.

The man who brought over some groceries yesterday. I've seen him around town but I don't know his name. 

Carla for sharing our Go Fund Me in a child care group.

There's a lot more, but these are what popped into my head for this post. Sometimes it's tempting to not post specific things because I"m afraid I'll leave somebody or something out. I know I have and I probably will do so more in the future. It's another thing to be thankful for because it means so many people have helped us in so many ways (both big and small) that it's hard to thank them all. 

This week's Happiness Project update! July is almost over and it's almost time for a new month and resolutions. This year seems to both be crawling and flying by at the same time. 

Recording food and blood sugar and drinking water: I did this all seven days

Walking 25 minutes a day/8,000-10,000 steps per day. I walked at least 25 minutes all seven days. Five of the seven days, I got over 10,000 steps. 

De-clutter/paperwork/house/create classes: I did these projects five of the seven days.

Write in blog/post in Facebook groups: I did this all seven days

Fruits/veggies: I met my fruit and veggie goal all seven days. 

Gretchen Rubin books: I did this six of the seven days and yesterday finished the last book from my "Summer of Gretchen Rubin" that I started back in May. 

Devotional: I did this all seven days

​Bible study/prayer journal: I did this all seven days. 

Some days I have ideas bursting in my head of what I want to write in here. Other days, I'm doing it only because I made a commitment on my resolution list to do it each day this year to help keep me accountable. Today is one of those days. 

For those who aren't aware, Tom went on hospice last week. We had been talking about it for a while and in the last couple of weeks, went ahead and made the decision to do it. I have just been emotionally drained ever since we made the decision. It's affecting my focus and some days it's making it really hard for me to get stuff done. I know it's all normal and a part of the process, but that doesn't make the process any easier. My heart aches and it's breaking. Thank you for reading, sorry I"m a downer today. 

Last week, I set myself a goal to get 10,000 steps every day Monday-Friday. My counter also keeps track of how many steps I get per hour from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. so I challenged myself to get 9 of 9 hours active Monday-Friday. I met the 9 out of 9 hours active goal and met and exceeded the 10,000 steps per day goal:

Monday: 10,008 (as soon as I hit 10,000, I took my FitBit off to charge it that day)

Tuesday: 10,845

Wednesday: 10,854

Thursday: 12,278

Friday: 11,476

Do you know any happiness leeches? These are the people who just suck the joy out of everyone around them. They are exhausting to be around and sometimes you just cannot avoid them. I’m guessing we’re all happiness leeches from time-to-time. But I’ve known some people that are never happy and something is always going wrong in their life. You hesitate to ask them how they are because you know it’s not going to be good. On the other hand, do you know people who are just perpetually cheerful? No matter what life brings them, they’re always happy.

What’s the difference between these two types of people? Does one have a better life than the other? Not usually. The difference is in their attitude towards life. I’ve always wanted to be one of those perpetually happy people, but I don’t think I have ever succeeded at it. I’m hoping that my Happiness Project this year will at least help me to have a positive outlook on life even when I have plenty of reason to feel negative.
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Do you see yourself as a happiness leech or perpetually cheerful, or somewhere in between? 

​Thursday afternoon, I was trying to get some steps in, so I decided to get “Cindy” (our lopper-named after “Cyndi Lauper”) and lop some branches off one of our front trees. I had noticed it had some low hanging branches which I figured were not too fun for the young man who mows our lawn. So I took Cindy out there and lopped some branches and hauled them to the alley. As is typical for this type of job, it made me notice more things that need to be done, so that should get me some steps over the next few days while I work on that. Is that how things work for anyone besides me? You work on one thing and notice ten others that need to be done? I am really big on trying to focus on one thing at a time, but it sure can be hard.
 
On another note, do you name your tools? Or are we the only weird ones? LOL. 

What are some of your favorite blogs and websites?  I’m going to share a couple of mine and hope you’ll share some of yours in the comments.

My friend Christina’s blog: Little Sprouts Learning: https://littlesproutslearning.co/. She posts recipes, ideas for parents and child care providers, information about gardening, and so much more!
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Gretchen Rubin’s website and blog: https://gretchenrubin.com/blog/. There is just a plethora of information on Gretchen’s site for her fans. If you haven’t read one of her books or listened to her podcast: “Happier with Gretchen Rubin”, may I suggest checking them out?

Something I heard many years ago at a child care conference was "the strongest emotion rules the room". The gist of this is that emotions (both negative and positive) are contagious. We've all seen it and we've all done it, we're be-bopping through our day and we run into someone who is having a bad day and they grouch at us, and then we grouch at the next person, and so it goes. 

One way to get around this is to be very aware of your own feelings. If you're feeling positive and someone else isn't, you don't have to let that ruin your day. Be mindful of your feelings and try to redirect them if at all possible. A verse from Proverbs 15 says "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger". Has there every been a truer statement? When we return harshness with harshness, things escalate quickly. When we strive to remain calm and respond kindly, often times it defuses the situation. Even if it doesn't, at least we haven't let ourselves be pulled into their orbit of anger. 

Believe me when I say I have been guilty of letting myself get pulled into other people's emotions more than once. The last few months, I have been working at being more mindful of my own emotions. I am always a work in progress. :) 

This week's Happiness Project update:

Recording food/checking blood sugar: did this every day

Walking 25 minutes a day/8,000-10,000 steps per day: I walked every day and got over 8000 steps five of the seven days. 

De-cluttering/paperwork/creating classes/house: I did this five of the seven days, although if I"m honest, some of those attempts were rather half-hearted lol.

Posting in Blog and Facebook groups: did this every day

Fruits/veggies: I met my fruit and veggie goal for all meals except one. 

Gretchen Rubin book: I'm reading Happier at Home by Gretchen and I did that five of the seven days this week.

Devotional: all seven days

Bible study/prayer journal: all seven days

Overall, I'm very happy with how things are going. Just making myself aware of and working on these things has helped me so much.