Day 344 - Nightly Roundup.

1. Happy and passionate marriage to Greg. Check.

2. Enjoy and nurture the kids. Lots of time snuggled up reading nursery rhymes that I had gotten as posters.

3. Publish my book, The Frugal Millionairess, in 2010. I'm really enjoying The New Writer's Handbook, though I'm only to page 22. I had thought it was a list of editors and agents, but it's a compilation of inspiring essays from published authors. Here's a passage that spoke to me and hopefully you too if you're also using this year to write a book.

For the next week, sit down with a kitchen timer for five minutes without lifting your keys from the keyboard.....no matter how busy you are, devote five minutes. Most people can write about 250 words in five minutes. That's about one page of a double spaced manuscript. Do that every day for a year and you'll have a book.

4. Found and build a successful company of dual use educational products.

Found another business plan template at www.score.org. This is terrific and in HTML, not PDF so I was able to start right in. There are 150 questions and I got through page 10 of 32 in about half an hour. Some of these questions will need to be flushed out with further data, but this was MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more effective than just trying to write it from scratch. If you too are building a business this year, I can't recommend it highly enough. From the SCORE website.

The real value of creating a business plan is not in having the finished product in hand; rather, the value lies in the process of researching and thinking about your business in a systematic way. The act of planning helps you to think things through thoroughly, study and research if you are not sure of the facts, and look at your ideas critically. It takes time now, but avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.

It typically takes several weeks to complete a good plan. Most of that time is spent in research and re-thinking your ideas and assumptions. But then, that’s the value of the process. So make time to do the job properly. Those who do never regret the effort. And finally, be sure to keep detailed notes on your sources of information and on the assumptions underlying your financial data.

5. Complete the four sides and middle of the back yard to become a groomed, beautiful, bird sanctuary. Brought in another geranium to winter in the comparative tropics of our kitchen...

6. FI in 2010 in part due to new revenues from book and business and in part due to reducing living expenses. Big, cheap, crock pot casserole that should get us through several meals.

7. Spirit/catchall. Be in the moment. Experience and give joy each day. Laugh a lot. Nice chat on the phone with a friend today.

8. Be and feel beautiful and healthy - 30 minutes cardio.

9. Lovely organized home that rises up to meet me and adds enjoyment to each day.- Spent about 10 minutes on the front foyer and front stoop to make them a bit more festive. The kitchen, on the other hand, is a disaster full of dirty dishes and food that needs to be put away, but it looks nice in the entry hall;-).


10. Continuous advancement of my business knowledge through a strong and growing business vocabulary. Supply elasticity, chief information officer, cost efficiency, cost per inquiry.

Day 345 - Nightly Roundup

1. Happy and passionate marriage to Greg. Check

2. Enjoy and nurture kids. We did a few extra stories to make up for the fact the kids took backseat to the yard today;-).

3. Publish a book. Did a fun, ten minute exercise from The New Writer's Handbook, which I picked up from the library Friday. It required taking 10 random words from the dictionary, then writing a two paragraph story in five to ten minutes to work on creativity.

4. Found and build a successful company of dual use, educational products- Completed the SBA computer tutorial. Was delighted to see they also have a business plan template, but it is in PDF format and I always have problems with those on this computer.

5. Complete the four sides and the center of the big back garden into a lovely, groomed, bird sanctuary - Got everything in the ground that I'd gotten at the auction. Did lots of fall clean up. Spent LOTS of time out there today and I can see oodles of progress.

6. Be and feel healthy and beautiful - Ten minutes kick boxing - definitely makes you feel tough!

7. Work on my spiritual life, friendships, extended family, the environment, etc. A sort of catchall to be and have an even happier, more fulfilling life. Spent some time chatting with the neighbors. Started reading the book "Never Eat Alone".


8. Financial Independence as early as next year, 2010 - rather a stretch, but you know what they say about aiming high.;-). Put a garden arch on Craigslist. Hoping between this and the snowsuit to clear my daily $2.74 for the week for the Vanguard Star account.


9. Lovely, organized home that "rises up to meet me" in Oprah's words. Worked five minutes on my second closet. It never ceases to amaze me lately how much five minutes can do. So often I've left projects undone because I didn't have the time to finish them. I can see more and more that even a tiny bit of progress quickly adds up. It's not unlike the saving pennies idea.

10. A strong, solid knowledge of business by increasing my business vocabulary -
Comparative advertising, competition-oriented pricing, cooperative advertising, copyright.

Dry Skin Brushing - Cheap, easy, healthy.

I've done dry skin brushing for years and while I can't claim to be cellulite free, it has helped the general texture of my skin and I like to think it's made me feel better. I fully acknowledge this could be some sort of placebo effect, but if it works, does that matter? Sometimes just doing little things for yourself make you feel better about yourself. And if you take 30 seconds to take care of your skin daily, I think that inner glow of self-care shows up in other areas. Here are the other benefits of dry-skin brushing. This is from the website www.naturalhealthtechniques.com. I originally read about dry skin brushing in a health magazine and got my current brush from Walgreens for maybe $6.00 about three years ago.

Did You Know?

The skin is the largest most important eliminative organ in the body and is responsible for one quarter of the body’s detoxification each day?

The skin eliminates over one pound of waste acids each day in the average adult, most of it through the sweat glands?

That the skin is known also as our third kidney?

That the skin receives one third of all the blood circulated in the body?

That the skin is the last to receive nutrients in the body, yet the first to show signs of imbalance or deficiency?

Detoxification is performed by a number of organs, glands, and transportation systems, including the skin, gut, kidneys, liver, lungs, lymphatic system, and mucous membranes. The dry brushing technique deals with detoxification of the skin.

Dry brushing is a way to stimulate all the above organs of detoxification because it provides a gentle internal massage.

Dry Brushing was recommended by the Finnish Dr., Paavo Airola for his patients 30 years ago and is still popular in European spas and many cancer treatment centers today. The Russians, Turks and Scandinavians have used this treatment for centuries. Dry brushing is promoted as a preventative for dry skin and a way to exfoliate the skin, thus stimulating skin renewal that is super soft to the touch, but there are many other benefits as well:

Benefits of Dry Skin Brushing Explained:

1. Removes cellulite

2. Cleanses the lymphatic system

3. Removes dead skin layers

4. Strengthens the immune system

5. Stimulates the hormone and oil-producing glands

6. Tightens the skin preventing premature aging

7. Tones the muscles

8. Stimulates circulation

9. Improves the function of the nervous system

10. Helps digestion

11. AND it’s easy, inexpensive and invigorating!

You, me and Nelson Mandela!

I have this quote up on the refrigerator. It is from Nelson Mandela's 1994 Inaugural Speech. In it he quotes Marianne Williamson. A nice thought to start each day.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightening about shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just for some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we consciously
give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence
automatically liberates others.


So when you brush your teeth tonight, look straight into your own eyes, give yourself a big thumbs up and and declare "You ROCK baby!!" And do all you can to be all you can;-). Best wishes! Eileen

Day 346 -Nightly Roundup

1. Happy and passionate marriage to Greg. Check.;-)

2. Enjoy and nurture kids. Had a lovely long hike in the woods.

3. Publish a book. 30 items brainstormed as chapter ideas.

4. Found and build a successful company of dual use, educational products- Found the Small Business Association website -www.sba.gov and it had a great online program to help with my business plan. My original thought to write a several paragraph executive summary is apparently all wrong. The summary is to be written only after a very thorough business plan has been completed. So it's back to the drawing board on that, but the tutorial looks like it will be very helpful.

5. Complete the four sides and the center of the big back garden into a lovely, groomed, bird sanctuary - Attended a plant auction today, my first. LOTS of fun! Got some Annabelle Hydrangeas for $2 each, some hardy geranium, turtle head, and painted fern. Spent $37 for everything. Can't wait to see it all in bloom next summer.


6. Be and feel healthy and beautiful - Five minutes pilates.

7. Work on my spiritual life, friendships, extended family, the environment, etc. A sort of catchall to be and have an even happier, more fulfilling life. Emailed my aunt to arrange a visit.


8. Financial Independence as early as next year, 2010 - rather a stretch, but you know what they say about aiming high.;-). Started my chart to reduce costs by at least $2.74 each day for my Vanguard Star account challenge. It turns out we spend $165.26 per month on electric, which was not something I'd checked into a long time. As I type we have lights on in four rooms and Greg's big screen t.v. showcasing the Hawkeyes....;-). Definitely room for improvement here.


9. Lovely, organized home that "rises up to meet me" in Oprah's words. Five minutes tackling a second closet. Proud to report one upstairs closet is done!!!

10. A strong, solid knowledge of business by increasing my business vocabulary, Card rate, channel distribution, circulation, classified advertising.

Nightly Roundup - Day 347

1. Happy and passionate marriage to Greg. Check.

2. Enjoy and nurture kids. We had a fun time at a school Halloween party tonight.

3. Publish a book. Will have to count my blog time for today.

4. Found and build a successful company of dual use, educational products- Worked five minutes on my executive summary focusing on three areas:
•Why my business exists
•What its goals are
•How I will achieve those goals

5. Complete the four sides and the center of the big back garden into a lovely, groomed, bird sanctuary - Just emptied out the back of my mini-van as tomorrow is a big plant auction that my neighbor said I'd love. It's a local nursery and they auction off all the left over trees, shrubs, and perennials - thus I know I'll need at least some space back there tomorrow....

6. Be and feel healthy and beautiful - Five minutes of pilates.

7. Work on my spiritual life, friendships, extended family, the environment, etc. A sort of catchall to be and have an even happier, more fulfilling life. Had a nice long chat with my father-in-law when I called today to tell them we'd cancelled our CA trip and would be there for Thanksgiving.

8. Financial Independence as early as next year, 2010 - rather a stretch, but you know what they say about aiming high.;-). As of 7:45 it was to be no spend day. But they were serving pizza at the Halloween party and it smelled SO GOOD. By the time we got to the front of the line, they were sold out to a sad mom and kids. So I called in an order in town and swung by and picked it up. $16 for the pizza and another $3 for drinks and so long no spend day.... - but so good..... I knew I needed something for this category, so I just ran down the basement and dragged up the big glass insert that needs to go in the front screen door for winter, thus hopefully cutting down on heat bills.

9. Lovely, organized home that "rises up to meet me" in Oprah's words. Topped off the water in the small, indoor fountains, gave my houseplants a drink and set out some additional candles to give us a bit more of a festive feel this weekend.

10. A strong, solid knowledge of business by increasing my business vocabulary. Brand manager, business to business advertising, caption, car card

Birthdays, bread wrappers, the earth and wealth....

My older son was recently invited to a birthday party. It was held outdoors at a neighborhood park and despite a cold wind and damp air, the kids raced down slides, hung on monkey bars, and played tag.

The birthday girl's mom and dad had recently moved from a house to an apartment and were in a bit of a tight financial situation. As a result, the mom baked a simple box cake in a pan, frosted it and put on six candles to serve with a jug of lemonade. They brought assorted plates and glasses from home and had one big Happy Birthday balloon tied to a picnic table. We all belted out happy birthday while Alyssa made her wish.

After the party, the clean up consisted of the wrapping paper from the gifts the guests had brought and nothing else.

The kids had a blast and it occurred to to me this party could not have cost over $15. It was fun and served its purpose - to celebrate with friends. AND it had been quite light on the earth.

I notice this connection between costs to the pocketbook and costs to the earth more and more as I try to not only save money but live a more environmentally friendly life. When I use a bread wrapper rather than using a ziplock gallon freezer bag, I save 10 cents and there is less plastic waste going to a landfill.

Every mile I choose not to drive according to AAA saves me 52 cents and my carbon footprint is a tiny bit smaller. Each time I shop for my kids' toys at a garage sale or thrift store, there is less packaging to toss and more money in our savings accounts.

And it's always so satisfying when one choice can go toward accomplishing two categories of life goals! Have you found this as well?

Off to a great start on the Vanguard Star Account! Maybe you can save a $500 a day!

Through a series of happy coincidences, known as serendipty, my Star account is off to a roaring start. Today in the mail, we received $200 from Greg's uncle as a thank you for some football tickets we'd gotten for them. They were meant as a gift, but his uncle and cousin sent a note insisting they wanted to show how much they appreciated their 50 yard line seats!

Then Greg and I were finalizing our plans for our short November trip that I mentioned earlier. We had planned to go to Los Angeles over the Thanksgiving holiday because there was a client Greg needed to see. Since his air fare and hotel were already going to be paid, we decided I would go too and that would be our winter vacation. Greg's family were thrilled to get the kids for the four day trip.

And we were just finalizing the flights when it occured to me that maybe we should "staycation" instead and Greg could reschedule his client meeting. He was not a hard sell on this. The savings involved are considerable. My flight at the cheapest was going to be $240. Since this was going to be our vacation, we were staying four nights instead of the two planned for client meetings. At a minimum, this is easily another $300, at $150 per night for an L.A. hotel.

Some of the savings will be offset by two round trip 320 mile trips to Iowa. We now plan to go there to celebrate Thanksgiving (which we will enjoy) then drive back that night and let the kids stay until Sunday, when we will pick them up. So 640 miles at the AAA quote of 52 cents is $332.80. We were originally going to meet halfway the day before the flight - 160 miles so $80 and my awesome beyond belief mother-in-law was planning to drive the kids back Sunday so Kirk wouldn't miss school on Monday.

Then there was my email reminder today from Amazon that the sale of DVDs meant $52.19 would be deposited into my seller's account. I paid eight in shipping so that leaves $44.19 in profit (less than the $50 I'd estimated).

So my Star account looks like this:

$200 unexpected payment for tickets.
$240 flight we will not take
$300 two nights of hotel we won't use
$ 44.19 Closet items
___________________
$784.19
LESS -$252.80 extra driving costs
______________________________________
$531.39 toward Vanguard Star Account.

Nightly Roundup - Day 348

This nightly check in on achieving a bit of progress, even five minutes a day on each of these 10 goals this year is going well. Anyone else finding success at this?
1. Marriage - Check!

2. Kids - Used a card table and old sheet to build a fort. Kids found this way cool.;-)

3. Book - Blog

4. Business - Worked another 15 minutes on my resume. I'm not sure why I so loathe that job, but it's getting done a bit at a time. I want everything ready to send off to the mentor program on Friday, after meeting the fellow entreprenuer for coffee on Tuesday.

5. Spirit/catchall - Made a card and gathered some of the decorative gourds my mother-in-law had brought to share with a teacher who is getting her first home.

6. Health/beauty - Walked with the dogs and my friend tonight. Five minutes of pilates.

7. F.I. - Worked to continue updating our accounts. Since our Money program is about to be defunct, we switched to Quicken, but we're having a terrible time transferring accounts. Also posted a WI Badger snowsuit on Craigslist as it's now too small for Kai.

8. Garden - Brought in my hibiscus from the garage to winter over in our room.

9. Business Vocabulary - Banner ad, brand, brand identity, brand image

10. Organized, beautiful home - Tossed more than 10 pieces of paper/mail when I attacked a giant pile on the counter.

Challenge is out - Can you save 34 cents an hour for the next 365 days???

I just got off the phone with Vanguard. I explained to the representative that I wanted an account that could depict the small increments of savings, reducing our grocery expenses or selling books on Amazon. I didn't want it rolled into our other funds, but I needed one that would have a small minimum. And it turns out they have a fund that fits just right!

Let me stress here that I have NO connections to Vanguard and any other fund or even a savings account would work. I am only using them as the example because they tend to have low expense ratios.

The representative told me about the Star fund, which has been around since 1985, and up through September, has had a 9.6 percent annualized return (though she hastened to add that is not a guarantee of future returns.)

The great part about this fund is that it only takes $1000 to open, unlike their various $3000 limit money market and tax managed accounts. The breakdown is 60 percent stocks, 40 percent bonds and you get a very diversified portfolio with exposure to eleven different funds. She said part of the reason they started this fund was that they realized many people would have a hard time coming up with an initial $3000.

The Star fund is not designed for liquidity so if you would need the cash sometime soon, this wouldn't be a good fund. There are no redemption fees, but if you were to sell, it would be a taxable event and of course, we've all seen the wild fluctuations in the markets. And there is a .32 percent management fee that is slightly higher than some of their money market funds at .28 percent or tax managed accounts at .17 percent, but industry wide, this is very reasonable.

The account to me is a nice way to make my goals of reducing our expenses very concrete. To get to $1000 in 365 days (a bit over our original cut-off date), you will need to save or earn an extra $2.74 per day. That breaks down to 34 cents per hour over an eight hour day and that's such a lovely, specific, doable goal for me! I think I'm more apt to note the lights burning upstairs while I type downstairs and the food that could be eaten rather than tossed if I am looking to save at least 34 cents per hour.

My thought is to take our average costs in electric, gas, food, clothing, gifts, personal care, haircuts, furniture, cleaning supplies, etc. and find a monthly average. Every dollar under the average will be set aside for the account. In addition, anything sold on Craigslist or Amazon will go right into the kitty. And my garage sale and plant sale in the spring will go there too.

It would be great if you want to join me in this. I'm going to start as of today. If you can do it before 365 days, that's even better. So start looking around, that quarter you find on the sidewalk this morning means you just need to get another nine cents for that hour.;-).

Best wishes and see you at the finish line. Watch those pennies! Best wishes. Eileen

P.S. A disclaimer - I am SO not a professional financial advisor. Remember I'm the one looking up economic terms each day to build my knowledge. So this may not be the best investment for you. Clearly a savings account could work too. I just liked the fact that the Vanguard Star account was NOT liquid because it will be fun to watch it grow.

Watch your pennies and your dollars will watch themselves!

I was skimming through some finance books at a local thrift store awhile back and came across a similar message in each: Skip the whole penny pinching stuff like reusing tin foil, that's NEVER going to make you rich. Focus instead on the big stuff- getting a good deal on your mortgage, your cars, and concentrating on your investments.

I fundamentally disagree with this idea. I think you MUST focus not only on the big picture but also the nickles and dimes for several reasons.

People often brag how much below sticker price they got their car. And that is great - let's say you saved $1000. But if you're telling that to friends over dinner at your once a week trip to Olive Garden, where you drop $45 with tip a week for pasta and salad, that $45 sounds like peanuts after all the money you've saved. But at the end of the year, you will have dropped $2340. If you'd decided to cut back eating out to every other week, you'd have saved $1170, more than the car savings.

I use the car example for two reasons. First, saving so much at one swoop does make you feel rich and in so doing, you can lose track of how much the little expenditures are adding up. It's hard, other than buying a car, to "save" $1000 in a day. The flip side of this is when you buy a car and they offer you floor mats for $200, you may think, "well I've already spent $16,000, what's another $200?" But if you walked into Walmart and saw floor mats for $24 and floor mats for $200, you'd likely think the $24 ones were fine and $200 for floor mats was kind of crazy. Getting caught up in the "big numbers" can be misleading.

Also, to accomplish a major goal, you need to start somewhere. Coming up with $3000 to open a Vanguard money market account may seem daunting, but saving $57.70 a week seems more doable. And if you can cut $30 off your weekly grocery or takeout or fast food expenses, you realize you only need to come up with another $27.70 per week or $3.95 a day, and all of a sudden, that latte effect concept seems to make a whole lot of sense.

Another point to keep in mind is that sometimes the more tangible our savings, the more "real" they seem. And that can keep you motivated. You can see the tin foil that you've reused five times, you can see the potatoes you did not toss out, but instead used and just cut off the bad parts. You can touch the coins you picked up off the sidewalk and the tea mug you brought to work so you would by-pass Starbucks. Unless you're hauling your mortgage papers out each day, that initial $20,000 you got off the asking price is pretty abstract, though also valuable.

My English roommate in graduate school had a phrase I loved. Hers involved pounds, but using American vernacular, "Watch your pennies and your dollars will watch themselves."

So start with the little things and gain confidence. Start with the little things and realize how much they add up each day. Start with the little things and get a true grasp of your cost of living. Start with the little things, and you'll be opening your Vanguard account and have enough for the down payment of your house and the cost of your car. And all those days of watching your pennies will put you in a good place to realize it's worth your time to negotiate and read the fine print when you do. All that practice will serve you well!

Best Wishes! Eileen

Day 349 - Nightly Roundup

Another milestone to be in the 340s!

1. Marriage - Check.

2. Kids - We had a great time picking apples at an apple orchard with friends and Kirk will bring in 23 of these for his class treat tomorrow. Kai spent most of his time trying to break into an antique car parked on the property....

3. Book - Will have to be the blog for today.

4. Business - Brainstormed for 30 additional ideas for about five minutes (today was a hectic day).

5. Garden - Got more carpet strips from the neighbors.

6. Beauty/health - Managed 45 minutes of exercise.

7. FI - Sold some of the things I'd cleaned out of the closet and shipped it today. After shipping we will clear $50, so not a bad clean out!

8. Spirit/catchall - Will do some more light reading at bedtime. Reading a funny book by David Sedaris, which is not something I usually would have picked, but it came highly recommended.

9. Organized, beautiful home - Tackled an upstairs linen closet for about 20 minutes and easily threw out more than 10 items, especially outdated medicines like cough syrup and Pepto Bismol. Sadly, I likely trashed $40 worth of old stuff, making a big dent in the $50 made from the closet sales.

10. Vocabulary - Continuing with the marketing terms. Today's were affiliate marketing, affiliate directory, affiliate network, and agency commission.

Could that penny you pick up on the street today be worth $5,368,709.12?

My husband once had a client that ran a metal recycling company. My son was eager to see the car crushing part of the operation and I came along as I'm always interested in seeing how businesses run and had visions of wrought iron antique garden gates just waiting for my eagle eye to spot them in the piles of rubble.

As it turns out, for insurance purposes, I wasn't allowed to scavenge - how sad as there was a LOT of interesting looking stuff out there. When we got to the crusher, the CEO demonstrated how they also use a magnet to clear out loose change that had fallen under seats or into the trunks. He also showed us the metal detector the workers had to walk through when they punched out for the day. I questioned whether there was enough change to be worth installing a metal detector and he told us they recover over $30,000 in loose coins each year. Wow! Talk about some spare change.

In Kath Kelly's "How I Lived a Year On Just a Pound a Day," she quotes an English article about the great lost tribe of penny pieces nobody bothers to pick up.

They estimate that sofas across the nation contain 5.9 million pounds worth of pennies, drains 650,000 pounds and streets, mind-bogglingly, may hold 26 million of dropped pennies.

Let's look at what a penny doubled each day would be within 30 days.

Day 1 - $.01
Day 2 - $.02
Day 3 - $.04
Day 4 - $.08
Day 5 - $.16
Day 6 - $.32
Day 7 - $.64
Day 8 - $1.28
Day 9 - $2.56
Day 10 - $5.12
Day 11 - $10.24
Day 12 - $20.48
Day 13 - $40.96
Day 14 - $81.92
Day 15 - $163.84
Day 16 - $327.68
Day 17 - $655.36
Day 18 - $1,310.72
Day 19 - $2,621.44
Day 20 - $5,242.88
Day 21 - $10,485.76
Day 22 - $20,971.52
Day 23 - $41, 943.04
Day 24 - $83,886.08
Day 25 - $167,772.16
Day 26 - $335,544.32
Day 27 - $671,088.64
Day 28 - $1,342,177.28
Day 29 - $2,684,354.56
Day 30 - $5,368,709.12

Obviously, it is pretty tough to double your money in a day at 2.6 million. But the enormous power of getting the ball rolling in savings is right before our eyes in this example. Some refer to the power of compounding interest as the eighth wonder of the world. Money, well invested, often doubles in seven years. So be patient and don't think it's not worth your time to stop and pick up that penny on the street. Even Oprah says she does this. Who knows, that lucky penny you just found may be worth $5,368,708.12 in days to come;-).

Best wishes. Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 350

Should you wonder about how the kids feel about all these photos, to date they love it. And should they grow up to become rock stars or actors and find themselves questioned on Letterman about stalking paparazzi, I'm sure they'll respond, "Paparazzi - no prob! Mom, however, was bringing cameras into my dentist appointments!"

1. Marriage Check.


2. Kids Kirk and I spent some one on one time at Panera Bread as a treat after his dentist appointment and Kai and I had extra snuggle time during stories.

3. Book I am reading a very helpful blog called Guide to Literary Agents -

This new series is called "Successful Queries" and I'm posting actual query letters that succeeded in getting writers signed with agents. In addition to posting the actual query letter, we will also get to hear thoughts from the agent as to why the letter worked.

www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/

Then I spent about 10 minutes writing up a draft of a query letter.

4. Business Five more minutes plugging away at my resume to attach to the mentor program application.

5. Spirit/catchall Had two lovely chats on the phone with good friends.

6. Garden Brought in a big, lovely begonia that I'm hoping to overwinter.

7. Health/beauty 30 minutes cardio.

8. FI Found quite a few items when cleaning out the closet that are winter wear which I forgot I owned. This will hopefully dampen my desire to go get new (consignment shop) cold season clothing.

9. Business Vocabulary - Continuing with marketing terms. Advertising research, advertising specialty, advertorial, affiliate.

10. Beautiful, Organized Home Managed another ten items to toss/put in garage sale pile from the closet.

To Live Like You Were Dying....

I was sitting on the hard plastic bench in just a thin blue-green cotton gown, feeling rather exposed, when the technician knocked on my changing room door at the mammography unit and told me they would like to do some more views. My saliva got a sour taste and my breathing got more shallow.

My mom has gone through two bouts of breast cancer and now if she has a mammogram looming within the next four months or so, she'll put off dentist appointments or getting new eyeglasses until, as she says, "I get through that." When she gets a thumbs up from the radiologist, she feels like she was given a new lease and is once again able to look forward.

A year ago October, I was told to come back for addition views. As I walked back to the x-ray machine with my dressing gown flapping open behind me and my heavy breasts with no bra flapping along in front of me, the technician attempted to encourage me, saying at least one out of ten women need to do this and it's usually nothing.

It turned out there were some calcifications that they wanted to monitor. Some are benign, and some can be precancerous and they asked me to start coming in every six months to keep an eye on everything.

Today was the third of those six month checkups. I asked to see my original October x-rays, my April x-rays, and today's, but I'm not a doctor. Now I wait. They told me no phone call in the next few days and instead, a letter quietly arriving in my mailbox is the ideal.

Tim McGraw has a song entitled, "Live Like You Were Dying." And in some ways, it echoes why I'm in this year of goals and challenges to not only be a better mom and wife, but to reach out a bit more, to challenge myself a bit more, to experience a bit more.

I fully hope and plan to live to 100 plus, but we really don't ever know that and I'm trying hard to live more directed, not to waste time or pass time or spend too much time in my head. I'm trying to figure out how to get the most joy and give the most joy in each day rather than simply getting through the day. And I'm seeing some little successes at this.

It goes back to the idea of working toward goals and enjoying the journey, not waiting to accomplish them to then be happy. Any one of us could be hit by a car tomorrow or more likely, we will live to a happy old age, but surely it's a good idea to plan for the latter but live as if the former were possible. I think in the end, it's not what we accomplish, but what we become in our attempt to accomplish. And that deep thought was brought to you as I finish up my Dr. Pepper and nacho lunch - planning a more nutritious dinner. Best Wishes. Eileen

Anatomy of a meal.....

Growing up, past second grade or so, I could count on one hand the number of meals we sat down to during weekdays in any given year. My dad often worked past 8 p.m. and somewhere along the line, even the fish stick and french fry or a can of tomato soup over spaghetti meals got lost along the way. We became "grazers" of the first sort. And that is really how I've been ever since and until recently, how I was raising the kids.

At some point when everyone seemed hungry, I would open the fridge and start asking the kids what sounded good (Greg is often not home in time for dinner). It might be peanut butter or cheese or apples. We'd sit at the counter and chow.

Then one day last year my husband dropped something off at my friend and neighbor Cathy's house and came back with stars in his eyes as he'd actually seen her kids setting the table for dinner with plates, glasses, napkins and cutlery! Greg, who grew up in a more traditional farm family, had this desire that we might actually use our kitchen table for family style meals.

As you can't pick up a parenting magazine without stats jumping out at you that families that sit down and have meals together do all sorts of good things, I thought I'd give this a try. And so, for about the past six months or so, the kids and I and Greg when he can make it sit down.

Now I'm expanding that to try and get some sort of balanced diet. My friend Cathy not only has kids that set the table, they must eat at least one vegetable with each meal. We're not there yet.

But I did read you sometimes have to offer kids a new thing (spinach) twenty or thirty times before they finally learn they love it! Thus far they've shown little interest in the healthy stuff, but just letting me put it on the plate is progress. So I've been ladling on at least one or two veggies and a fruit with threats that if they fuss about just having it on their plates no Curious George show after dinner and this not surprisingly has made them quite acquiescent to at least the sight if not the taste of vegetables.

In time, it will be Curious George for at least a taste of everything on the plate. Hope their obsession with that monkey remains strong.....

My mom, after seeing Jessica Seinfeld (married to Jerry), on Oprah touting her book Deceptively Delicious - Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, went out and bought it new, full price at $24.95 (unheard of). She is hoping her daughter is going to become the sort of mom who will bake brownies with pureed zucchini snuck in or cook spaghetti pie with 1/2 cup of broccoli puree invisible to protests. A noble effort all around.

It is now after dinner and the kids are watching their television show, Greg just came in toting a take out box with his restaurant lunch leftovers and mom is facing a pile of dirty pots and pans and plates full of uneaten produce, and thinking "grazing" really isn't so bad.......

Nightly Roundup Day 351

1.Marriage Check.

2. Kids Had a nice half hour at a new park.

3. Business - I spent ten minutes doing something called "image streaming" which was suggested in the audio book The Einstein Factor. The idea is that your subconscious can more easily "talk" to you in images (think a picture is worth a thousand words). This was used a lot by Einstein himself. The author suggested you get in the habit of sitting quietly for a few minutes and verbalizing what you see. He insists you must do this aloud to another person or a tape recorder. As I have no friends or family that are just waiting around for me to chat about random pictures in my head, I've opted for the tape recorder. And I continue to hope the meter reader won't be coming by as I sit with my tape player rambling about the scenes being invented in my head....

4. Book- Looked into agents and publishers. See today's blog.;-)

5. Garden - GREAT day at the town compost pile. In addition to dirt for next year's flower pots, and two HUGE hostas, I discovered over 60 iris. Can't wait to see them bloom next year!

6. Spirit/Catchall Looking forward to reading something lighthearted at bedtime.

7. Health/beauty Went on-line at Coach and used my refund. I ordered Patent Brooke 358 in ivory/silver. This may not be the BEST color for running about with a toddler and kindergartner, but I liked the lines and wanted to get the job done. In the end I owed $10.05 over the credit costs and it will be shipped this week. I gave myself 10minutes to go to the site and make my decision as I keep reading over and over in various self-help books that most successful people make decisions quickly and change them slowly, if at all. And people who are slow to make a decision and then change it often, have a much harder time accomplishing their goals. So this is the year of the no-dither woman! ;-).

8. FI Posted some unused items on Amazon.

9. Business Vocabulary Decided to look into marketing terms. There's a site on About.com with marketing terms and definitions. Learned to distinguish advertising allowance, advertising budget, advertising plan, advertising elasticity.

10. Organized, beautiful house - Tossed another 10 things from the closet. Six books and magazines into the garage sale pile and even more than the balance of four magazines that I'd cut out ideas from into the trash.

Balancing this act of life.

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. - Crowfoot, last words.

Today, when I told my husband Greg that I had added a house organized category to my list of daily goals, he reminded me that most businesses learn early on to focus on a few things and do them well rather than being too scattered.

And the guy has a point. And a good track record of advice. He was the one who suggested this blog, which I long refused to consider telling him if I did that, I would run out of things to say pretty quickly and then not have any material for a book. Who knew just how chatty I could be.... He was also the one who suggested that I should try to think beyond the night light because it can be hard to build a business with just one product. And in time, with my 30 ideas a day of brainstorming, I've now expanded that idea considerably.

But I'm not so sure on the desirability of being too focused. Naturally you can think of the person who spends so much time building a business, that he neglects his health and dies a very rich man at age 40. Or the person who is a health fanatic that ends up living to 120, but never took care of his finances and is the oldest person in the homeless shelter. Or the woman who took great care of her health and finances, but didn't nurture relationships with friends or family and now has only her cat to talk to. You get the idea.

I think it is possible to focus on each of the various aspects of life in a way that is very effective. If I only spend 20 minutes a day as I do now developing my business idea or 15 minutes in the garden, but during that time am truly in the moment, focused on just exactly what I want to accomplish in that quarter or third of an hour, I find I can get a lot done. If I spend twice or three times that amount but am scattered, not sure what my priorities are or if being in the garden is even the best use of my time, then I find I'm much less productive.

I also have discovered that days in which I made some progress in all the main areas of my life, even if some areas got five minutes or less, I feel more centered. It's like building a block tower with the kids. My younger son still hasn't figured out that if he uses the biggest blocks on the bottom, to build a strong and wide base, he can go a lot higher. That pithy little metaphor just came to me as I was eating my reheated pizza and sipping a Diet Coke on ice and it occurs to me belatedly that this isn't the most "balanced" of meals....but I digress;-).

So for now, I will continue focusing on my marriage, my kids, my book, my business, my garden, my goal of financial independence, my spiritual health, my personal health/beauty, my growing business vocabulary and now my uncluttered, to be beautiful home. And on days where I may only be able to spend five minute on each for a total of 50 minutes a day, I'll still be seeing those tiny steps toward the ideal in each area. And hopefully, growing more balanced by the day.

Eileen
P.S. The second picture from earlier this summer when the kids were at the grandparents and Greg and I were out looking at the stars....Greg content to do so for all of about 90 seconds. I insisted we try to be in the moment for ten full minutes. As his lawyer's mind must bill in six minute increments, this was not easy for him, but he succeeded;-). Kudos Greg!

Nightly Roundup - Day 352

Luck is not chance-
It's toil-
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned. - Emily Dickinson, poem no. 1350

Marriage - Check


Kids - Thirty minutes of balloon volleyball with the left-over birthday balloons. Mom in the moment for at least 83% of the time;-).


Business - I continue to expand and develop this idea of dual use items. I think it could also be expanded to adults like me that hope to inundate themselves with positive thoughts each day. I've written about my kitchen counter covered with tape players feeding my subconscious happy thoughts each day;-). And of the posters and magnets and books. I think the same concept could also apply to the dishtowels, plates, tea mugs and toothbrush I use.

I read in a 2007 New York Times article that we see 5000 ads a day!

Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today.

And if advertising is essentially a way to get a person to feel they need to buy a ABC product to make them happy or that without XYZ product they are somehow lacking, unfulfilled or not quite up to par, that's a lot of heavy duty subconscious programming. By using the same concept, but turning it on its head, so that in your own home, you are SURROUNDED by positive messages whether from Emerson, Lincoln, Plato, Aristotle or Descartes, particular messages that you chose for yourself, rather than a group of marketers, it seems this would help balance things out a bit.

And I also thought how cool it would be to expand the concept to the great works of art. If a child or adult went to sleep with a quilt showing 20 of the greatest works of Monet or Picasso or Renoir, would this also provide a bit of visual education and sense of well being?

The action step for today was to email a woman who is starting an internet company that involves doing a environmental footprint for items purchased. I met her for coffee to discuss her idea as she was looking for feedback from potential customers and she told me about the mentor program that I'm applying to. I am hoping we might meet again for tea to get her feedback on my business idea. Updated to add we are on for next Tuesday.

Book - Blog.


Garden - Got in a bit of time weeding the big south border. That is one of two big borders/gardens that I plan to have done before winter sets it. (I originally typed in "hoped to have done" but my Dennis Waitley tapes have been admonishing me to avoid hope and may and I wish for more affirmative words;-).


Spirit/catchall- My 30 brainstormed ideas for increased creativity.

FI - Was successful in not spending a dime today.

Health/beauty- Dry skin brushing. Will do a blog on this later.

Organized, beautiful house - A new category. Daryl, from Vermont Cottage has this wonderful web site of dream ideas for a perfect home and it made me think of Oprah's idea that your house should rise up to meet you - that your surroundings impact you on several levels and you might as well make that impact as positive as possible. Also, with cold weather coming on, my nesting instincts kick into high gear so I had Greg help with hanging a wonderful shell light that I'd gotten for $30 early in the summer at an antique store and had stuffed in a closet. I also tackled one of our closets with the goal to get rid of 10 items. I was successful. I put five things in my growing garage sale pile and five things in the donate box.

Business Vocabulary - Check - Looked up Hedge funds, net asset value, portfolio managers and commodities.

Nightly Roundup - Day 353

It's a busy weekend with lots of house guests so I'll keep this short. Thanks again Daryl for the tip on the SAT shower curtain. I tracked it down to a company called Intuitive Learning Company and for just a minute, had my stomach drop at the thought another company had already scooped me on my idea;-). But they are as of now just doing shower curtains - super creative idea and it could fit into my new portal idea quite well.

Marriage - Check!
Kids - Lots of great time with uncles, grandma, great uncle, etc.
Business - More brainstorming and thinking to move beyond just my own dual use educational products and create a portal of sorts for other products that do this. For example, the Company Store may create one quilt a year with numbers or Pottery Barn might create a series of kids plates with the alphabet or the Intuitive Learning Company might be making shower curtains with SAT words or Math concepts. For people looking for lots of dual use items like these, I could create a one stop portal that would list these items as well as the ones I will create myself. Again need to look to revise the executive summary to include this concept.
Book - Did spend five minutes writing about what the book hoped to create. I'm finding that even five minutes does add up and I'm trying to do at least a tiny bit each day for the sake of momentum.
Garden - My neighbor's son-in-law is an electrician who hasn't been able to find much work lately and my neighbor asked if we had any projects that needed done. We did. A long underground cable to the street snapped when I was digging my first garden about nine years ago and we never fixed it. So he ran a new line, complete with an outlet, and now I'll be able to have Christmas lights in the front yard - which should look pretty from the house and the kids should enjoy.
FI - One of our overnight guests saw a mouse in the kitchen early this morning - how nice! Greg is slightly phobic of mice and instantly wanted to call Orkin. But we'd done that maybe seven years ago and had to sign a one year contract that I think added up to $800. And all they really did was set little mouse bate stations. So I went to Home Depot and got a few along with an electronic thing that plugs in the wall and is supposed to deter them through sound waves (what my PETA leanings would prefer). All this was about $45, so far less than Orkin should it work.
Spirit- Just enjoyed the visiting.
Health/Beauty - 30 minutes cardio.
Goodnight - Off to work on my business vocabulary. Decided to do this on a separate blog just for that so this doesn't get so cluttered. But I hope if you're doing the business vocabulary or other, you're finding it mind expanding. I am!
P.S. Pictures of Greg's mom and brother getting ready for a pj party. Can you believe how young my mother in law looks and SUPER kind! I was so lucky to not only be born into a great family, but marry into yet another. I think I may have saved a civilization in some past life to get so lucky in this one;-)! And Uncle Matt in his new Air Force Uniform. Kirk was beyond thrilled to dress up in his Halloween costume next to the real deal!

Nightly Roundup - Day 354

Marriage - check.

Kids - Awesome grandma and two uncles and one great uncle with a friend arriving tonight - party on! Kids will have a ball.

Book - Blog will have to do it.

Business - I think my 30 creative ideas a day is paying off. Last night I had a brainstorm about midnight, to extend this idea of "passive education" (my term) meaning if you have to have a nightlight, it might as well also teach you the continents or the states. Then I thought if a child is going to lay her head on a pillow at night and stare at her blanket, why couldn't the blanket have the planets or the alphabet. And if she must eat a bowl of cereal each morning anyway, why couldn't the bowl have the basic story of the Revolutionary War and why couldn't her bath towel have the periodic chart of the elements? You get the idea. If every item a child interacts with does DOUBLE duty, surely that can only be a good thing. And when I woke Greg up at 1:00 a.m. to write down this idea, he said, "You may have a winner there!" So, quite enthused, I'm going to start revising my executive summary.

Garden - Brought in some geraniums that had rested in the halfway house of the garage.

FI - Updated some accounts. We have to move out of Microsoft money as it's ending this service, which we loved, to a new program and the transfer isn't going well, but the company is coming out with a new product to make it easier and receipts have been piling up as we've waited.

Spirit/catchall- Just being in the moment and enjoying our company, which includes meeting Greg's uncle, cousin and second cousin for dinner and having five additional guests overnight. The neighbors will think we've suddenly become highly social with all those cars in the drive!

Health/beauty - A wee bit (3 minutes?) of core to help offset a large gin and tonic - a rarity for this lightweight;-).

Creating my "Coach Purse" identity.

Early on, I wrote briefly about the Coach purse I had purchased for my 40th birthday. It was about $350, more than ten times what I'd ever paid for a purse. So why did I do that?

I can't say I was buying it because I have an eye for quality and nothing less would do. In fact, my Coach purse, with the gigantic Cs all over it didn't seem especially well made. And if it had been a high quality item, but no one other than myself would have known, I don't think I would have gotten it at that point.

What I was seeking was some sort of outward manifistation that I'd arrived at a certain level. If I were from a certain tribe in the Pacific islands, I might have chosen to wear special feathers or bones or stones to signify some sort of status.

For me, the Coach purse was that status. You may well be reading this thinking, "Good Heavens, how shallow!" And if so, prepare yourself as I read recently in a book by Dana Thomas, that there are Japanese girls who work as prostitutes to earn money to buy Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Hermes bags.

Purses are the "luxury" item within most women's reach, if they choose to go that route. Unlike a Mercedes or a $600,000 home, if a woman wants a $300 or even $2000 bag, she can probably get it. And because of the profit driven goal to mass market "luxury" with a Coach or Louis Vuitton store next to a McDonalds kiask in many airports, luxury has lost its quality, if not its status. At least according to Thomas's book, Deluxe How Luxury Lost Its Luster. She writes that to mass produce these items, they are often made on an assembly line in China right along side purses that are 1/10 their price, often with a Made in Italy tag sown inside.

I had the canvas purse a bit over a year and it showed its wear considerably. The seams weren't holding up well and the zipper sometimes stuck. And by the time I'd seen my 10th highschool girl with the same bag, and been the recipient of one friend's ribbing about whether I thought they'd crammed enough C's on that bag, I was doubting the wisdom of my purchase.

On the other hand, people really did notice the bag and comment on it. "Nice purse!" I heard more than once when I was checking out at a store. Often the clerks knew how much it had cost, even in stores that didn't sell Coach. And one Saturday morning when I set it on the ground at a garage sale while I was digging through a clothes basket of kids books, a woman grabbed it. I jumped up and said, "That's mine!" as she carried it to the woman running the sale. She apologized and said it probably was unlikely to find a real Coach purse at a garage sale.

I got the Deluxe book at the library a few weeks ago and reading about the shoddy workmanship prompted me to call Coach and explain what had happened. They said I could mail it to them (at my cost of about $15.00 with insurance) and they would assess it for normal wear and tear or workmanship defects.

Today I got a letter in the mail from Coach offering me a $367.14 credit for another Coach product. They do not give cash back, though I would vastly prefer that as never again shall I plunk down $300 for a purse.

In closing, I think I learned a few things. If girls at 16 are caught up in wanting to create an image based on an expensive status product, I can only hope 25 years later, at my own age of 41, they will know better;-). But I also believe there is such a thing as quality or art that does bring you enjoyment, and that is for each person to define for themselves. I have a friend who carries a $1500 Louis Vuitton bag, which she's had for almost 10 years now, that brings her a lot of enjoyment and for her it was worth it.

In closing, one irony is that I often grab all the loose change around the house and stick it in a plastic baggie and toss it in my purse. Then when buying something (I usually pay cash), I was pulling this plastic ziploc bag of change out of my $350 purse and how did that contribute to the whole image thing??? Wish me some personal growth this year;-). Eileen

Could 10 new days a word boost you to the top one percent?

Of all our human resources, the most precious is the desire to improve. Anon

I've been listening to Dennis Waitley's, Seeds of Greatness, in the car. Today he talked about the value of a large vocabulary. Paraphrasing what he said,

A large vocabulary that implies broad general knowledge, characterizes the most successful people, regardless of occupation. In this brain over brawn economy, learning ten new words a day, would put the average person among the most learned and well-spoken individuals in the world. It is only 3500 words that distinguish the average from the top percent in their fields. Most people use only 400 words in 80 percent of their daily language and this limits their ability to express or understand many concepts. .

I found this concept intriguing. I once taught a creative thinking course and one question we asked as a group was whether you could really "know" a concept if you didn't have a word for it. You've probably heard the oft quoted statement that eskimos have over 100 different words for snow, based on texture, moisture, etc. Does that then mean that those of us who only know "snow" don't have a similar understanding and never could without the additional words? I'm not sure.

According to Ben Macintyre's TimesOnline article, THE MORE WORDS YOU know, the higher you climb the evolutionary ladder.

Words can be hijacked and misused. Powerful men, for good or ill (both Hitler and Churchill), have understood the might of words. In 1940, a 12-year-old boy wrote to President Roosevelt, asking for help expanding his English vocabulary: “I don’t know English but I know very much Spanish and I suppose you don’t know very Spanish but you know very English because you are American.” The boy’s name was Fidel Castro.

Words extend the horizon, and our knowledge of ourselves. When Hamlet in Act II, scene 2, is asked what he is reading, he replies “Words, words, words”. He may seem dismissive, but words are part of Hamlet’s quest: through words, he is seeking the answer to the question of to be, or not.

Word power is not about using a complicated and obscure word where a short or familiar one is already at hand. It is not about waving your vocab around to attract a mate. It is about the discovery of a word to describe something in a new and unexpected way.

Adopt a new word. Take it home. Add it to your word family and introduce it to the others in your collection. They will play with each other, form new patterns and meanings, making the world a little bigger, a little clearer.

Since one of this year's goals is to successfully launch my night light company, a more thorough understanding of economics could only help. And since I've determined this year that I'm going all out and willing to take on what I need to, I decided to add five economic terms each day to my vocabulary. I will start with the Wall Street Journal, where I usually just read the first section and the personal section, but skip the finance and marketplace sections. No more! If I'm going out there to build a company, I'd be better served to know just what a common stock split is;-). Any of you starting a new company this year, feel free to join in. Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 355 - 10 days into the program!

We have five very welcome guests arriving tomorrow for the big game weekend and I'm scrambling to find beds for everyone. My good friend and neighbor Cathy just dropped off some air mattresses so I hope to get that job done tonight. And the crazy pile of laundry is about five days worth that I kept dumping on the family room floor from the dryer each day thinking "I'll get to it later"....fly lady would not be pleased:-). That is another of tonight's projects so I'll keep this short. Have a lovely night!

Marriage - Check

Kids - We got out the blocks and played "Monster Trucks" for quite some time. Kirk's dream is to go to one of these events. Can you guess his mom is so not drawn to the Monster Truck Big Jam? But who knows, maybe after seeing it in person, I'll be rooting on Batman or Turtle or Jammer much as Greg does his Iowa Hawkeyes?

Book - I've been getting a daily free "writing lesson" of sorts for the past two days from the following internet site www.writetowin.org. And I've liked the positive tone. The Bestseller book sometimes gets me a bit stressed as it starts to sound impossible, though I think it is a very helpful and practical book. The author of the website looks at things a bit differently. In Ten Lessons to Conquer Procrastination Part II, Earma Brown states:

Weapon #6 Realize your message is significant and deserves
your tender loving care.

Consider what your readers need and want. If your book shares
something unique, encouraging, useful, entertaining, it is
important enough to be written. Think about your gift? God gave
you your gift to share with others. Our gift back to God is what
we do with it. The loving care you put into your gift (book) the
more rewards await you.

Business - Spent seven minutes on my resume, which is required for the business mentor program. That's as much as I wanted to do in a stretch. Does ANYONE like working on those things?? And I was surprised at how much that got done. Then the balance of 13 minutes was spent on an executive summary, which also has to be attached to the mentor application. I studied the ones from the All Things Life Sciences handout that we'd been given that sparked this whole desire to just DO IT and start a company as Nike would say;-). When I get it completed, hopefully within a few more days, I will post it.

Garden- Put down oodles of old Wall Street Journals and the carpet I snagged from my neighbor. They will sit there this winter and that last stretch of garden can then be filled in this spring, hopefully with winter sown plants.

Health-Beauty- I actually got a compliment from a friend - "Your skin is GLOWING!" which I never hear. I told her I'd but oiled my face the night before and that morning with enough to fry an egg (I no longer think that little bottle is going to last till spring), then put on foundation, then a wee bit of blush and bronzer, then added a thin layer of moisturizer. She, who wears no makeup, looked a bit dumbfounded, but reiterated that she thought my skin looked great. So two thumbs up for the MORE magazine tips. And I managed to remove the last of the sad, chipped, too orangish red nail polish that has been on my toes since August......

Spirit/catchall - Have been keeping up with writing down 30 ideas each day. I'm really enjoying this. Will see if day five I find my creativity flourishing.

FI - Did come SO close to a no spend day, but did get one 20 ounce Dr. Pepper in a weak moment. But not bad overall.

Off to pump air mattresses and fold laundry....

Hope your first ten days have seen steps taken to your own dreams. Looking forward to the next 355. Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 356

Marriage - Check.

Kids - Fun time at the pumpkin patch with a friend.

Book - Read a chapter about preparing for rejection in "From Book Idea to Bestseller".

You might suffer from the harshest form of rejection as Poet A. Wilber Stevens did when a publisher returned to him not his beloved manuscript but a pile of ashes. Or you may receive an excruciatingly polite rejection, as one writer did from a Chinese economic journal with this note: "We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper it would be impossible for us to publish any work of a lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that, in the next thousand years, we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity."

I personally would prefer the second letter;-).

Business - Am gearing up for the mentor program and realized that the application requires a resume. Looked the entire house over for my old one to no avail. I haven't needed it in at least four years as I've taught at the same schools. So I began again, about 20 minutes, to recreate my work history.

Garden - Got in the last two shrubs and lots of leaf mulch.

FI - Finished another short chapter in the true story "How I lived a year on just a pound a day." We learn in chapter two she's now hitchhiking to get around and sees a huge environmental problem with so many drivers as single passengers in five passenger cars and hopes that changes in time.

Health/Beauty - Got in 40 minutes of exercise - a rarity.

Spirit/catchall - Plan to read a funny book at bedtime, with no self-improvement ideas whatsoever;-)!

Day 9 of this fun year of goals! What's Working & What Could Use Tweaking?

Begin where you are. But don't say where you are.

14,000 Quips


We're closing in on the ten day mark of our one year to an even better life, and I thought it would be a good idea to check in on what's working and what's not.

Working:

1. The nightly roundup for me has been hugely helpful. I feel each day like I've taken at least a small step on each of my goals and that's SUPER empowering. In days past, I might be on a "be a better mom" kick, but then be frustrated two weeks later when I thought about the fact that I'd done nothing with the other areas in my life. Now I feel each area is getting some care and is starting to sprout some new life.

2. I find myself more energetic than usual. It's kind of nice that there is little if any "what is the best use of my time now?" as I've always got these eight areas that keep me focused. And time spent on any of them never feels wasted. I go to bed with a sense of accomplishment and I awake knowing my main directions of the day. No longer am I wavering about whether the should I do this or should I just do that? And that lack of waffling my friends is spelled RELIEF!;-)

3. Lots and lots of positive messages around the house. I've got my hallway of posters, my refrigerator magnets, my dream poster in my bedroom, another motivational poster on my closet door, I read at least a few pages of some positive book each day, and listen, when possible, in the car to something that goes along with this year of goals. Right now it's an old Dennis Waitley tape that I picked up at a library sale.

4. My blog in general has been a wonderful catylist to jumpstart a lot of these goals. Thanks Greg for encouraging me to follow your idea on that. And thanks Blogspot for the free, awesome blog. Some experts say only one percent of the population writes down their exact goals and that writing them down is a very powerful momentum builder, to which I can attest. Both the book and nightlight idea have languished in the back of my head probably four years or so. And now, having them down on paper, if virtual paper, along with a nightly updates, is getting me there and I hope you're all following your dreams and taking those baby steps.

Not working:

1. The no spend days are not working. I'm zero for three so far. The goal was Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday of this week. Saturday, I was visiting my mom and she asked if I would run into Staples to make a copy of a magazine article about weight. She was embarrassed to do so, so of course I said sure and didn't get into my no spend issue. So there was $1.50.
Sunday, Mom suggested we go to some antique shops as my dad had offered to watch the kids for a few hours. I could have said no. I don't think she would have minded, but I thought, "How fun!". And I could have gone and bought nothing, but when I saw the $25 green coat stand, the $10 garden plant holder, and the great $11 white coat rack, my great grandmother's admonishments of "Do you REALLY need that Eileen?" fell on deaf ears and $48.00 later, I was the proud owner of these three items.
Tuesday, I was out running errands and found I was starving and driving past my favorite bagel place, so I swung in and got myself a bagel and large iced tea for $3.85.
Clearly, I can use some real work in this area. One of the reasons I started the blog is that I'd seen our expenses creep up over the past five years or so and I wanted to get back to our more frugal habits. I really need to recommit to the no spend days, as there was not only monetary, but time costs here that could have been more wisely spent. I am going to try and tweak this and start with just two no spend days and see where I go from there.

2. Driving less - It ties back to the no-spend days. To spend, usually I am driving, so if I have fewer spend days, I will automatically drive less.

3. 30 Tops - Still haven't culled enough to reach this standard. Thinking I may start with 45 as a more reasonable number and tweak it that way.

What's working for you and what's not working? Wishing you a brisk wind to your sails, and just the right amount of tweaking to keep going in the direction you've chosen....

Eileen

Nightly Roundup - Day 357

Marriage - check
Kids - Carved the tiny pumpkin we got from my aunt Carol. We still plan to go to the pumpkin patch tomorrow for a big one for the front stoop. LOTS of story time
Book - Blog entries
Business - 20 minutes on edutainment article and studying a business plan for a completely different product (portable generator) but getting a better sense of the big picture of these plans.
Garden - Thoroughly watered all new plants.
FI - One chapter in great new book called, "How I lived a year on just a pound a day" written by Kath Kelly and recommended to me by an English woman. Fascinating so far!
Spirit- Nice long chat with my friend Paul, who is married to one of my best friends. He's the greatest guy! When I had my reading academy/study skill business, I was in the local papers and he took copies and had them framed for me. When I needed a new mini-van, but dreaded negotiating for it (Greg was swamped at work), Paul called a bunch of local dealers and had them fax quotes so I could go into the dealer I planned to buy from well armed. I wish a good friend like that on everyone!
Health/beauty - Long walk with neighbor and dogs.

Goodnight!

Your free new garden next spring.

If you're thinking of starting a new garden for spring, now is the time to get that baby going! Pick out the area you want it in and put a posting on Freecycle requesting used carpeting. Usually you'll get more offers than you could use. I always put a note that I'd like to find some near my hometown to save travel costs and have always been successful.

Then put the carpets right over the grass or area you want a new garden and just let it sit through May, depending on your zone. When you pull it up, you'll see lovely brown dirt just waiting to be dug.

The dirt may be compacted if it was a lawn for many years, but go ahead and dig holes for all your new plants, then mulch like crazy!! There will still be a lot of weed/grass seeds in that dirt that will spring to life if you don't put down a heavy layer of newspaper or grass clippings or leaves in the bare areas between plants.

Another great use for carpets is under paths between two gardens. My neighbor was about to toss the carpet in the photo above, and I quickly scavenged it and will put it down as paths in my woodland garden, then cover it with free mulch from the city. If you've never gotten a free dumptruck load of mulch from your township, you're in for a treat. Completely without cost and enough to cover many gardens and pathways. They don't advertise this, so you may need to make a call to your town's public works department. Some landscapers that trim trees will also offer free wood chips. I've never had a problem, but I will note that some say wood chips from a diseased tree could cause problems for your trees, so you may want to research this.

Thinking spring this chilly October day! Oops - not so in the moment;-).

Eileen