Yes & No!

I had some more eye opener's this week with the whole nothing thing. I was coming into today fairly confident that I had come in under the grocery spent total of $150. But no! When I added up the little shopping trips, here and there, to the grocery store it was $205. So this next week I’m going cash only for groceries to see it that helps me keep better tabs on it. I can honestly say that all food purchased was an absolute need or something to stock up on the food storage. I know $60 was spent on really good sales to cushion some of our food storage.

I was also able to get Evo-man two pair of pants for school at the local thrift store for less than $6 and they don’t even look used. Hopefully he won’t notice when I slip them into his closet.

My biggest light bulb (DING, DING, DING, DOOONNNG!!!) moment for the week was when Prince Erik installed some more security stuff on the computer so that we could better track how much time the whole family was spending plugged in and what they were doing. Well zap me with a lightning bolt! The worst computer time sucker was me. I didn’t see that one coming.

For example my pirate day - last Thursday. I thought I was up and doing stuff. Like canning that Pear Butter that took 3 ½ hours, changing laundry, driving to Value Village, picking up kids from school, etc. Sure every now and then I’d run check email, or look up pirate lingo. But at the end of the day when you added all my hours on computer, the time added up to was over six hours. That was a reality check. Kind of like running into a light pole you didn’t see standing there. Running not walking. Enough to ram some sense back into your head banging. Before - I couldn’t understand why I felt I was working so hard and getting so little done. I had this secret time zapper sucking me dry and I didn’t see it. UGH!

I guess I'm offically addicted to spending time on the computer. Why can't I be addicted to something productive like cleaning or exercising? Or not addicted to anything at all. Why do my passions get the better of me?

So this weekend I was reading about Trenadolls trip to her last organization class and I was disappointed it didn’t tell me to throw out half my knick-knacks, clean the light fixtures, or organize the spices. Instead it said.

4. "Anytime you say 'yes' to something, you automatically say 'no' to something else." Translation = Don't fool yourself; there's always a trade-off. Bonus related quote: Say 'No' to say 'Yes'!

So I took that advice and made myself a challenge. Sooooooo, judging by the unequal time I’ve been giving the passion of my dreams and the computer I’m switching it around now. I’m saying NO to the computer between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and saying YES to my dreams of decluttering, losing weight and having a stress free Christmas. And I’ve got proof that it works.

Thursday’s kitchen time…

Saturday’s kitchen time…

Hooray - The Canning is Done!!! Now I can get rid of those pesky fruit flies.

And bonus… more clutter for the Thrift Store.

I noticed that Busy Mama did the same thing a week ago and has had marvelous results.

I’ll still get to see my blogging friends but not during the day when I should be spending time with my family.

I’m hoping for an amazing week.