U - is for Unmotivated

Although I am not feeling this way today, thank goodness, I actually feel this way a lot of the time though. I have these lists of things that I need to be doing, but all that I want to do is sit and watch the Cooking Channel or play a game on Facebook. I often sit there and wonder what it is that makes me feel like that is more important or me interesting than living my real life.

I gave up Facebook games for lent. I am pretty sure that I shared that already. After the first few days of feeling like I needed to be playing them, I found that I didn't miss them at all. Now at the end of the season of lent I find that I really don't want to restart any of them. It is amazing how much more motivated I am to live my own life when I remove that addiction from it. So I have tripled my motivation to do things in my home and with my family by removing one of my excuses to keep being unmotivated.

After seeing what a big difference it made in my day to day life I will keep looking for other things that I use as an excuse to be unmotivated. If it is something that I can fix as easily as I did with the games than I will do it. I challenge all of you to look at the things that you use as a reason to avoid doing the things that you need to be doing. Are they something that you can remove from your life? What is it that makes you unmotivated? Take it away, I promise that it will make your days more enjoyable.

T - is for Traveling a Recap

Well we are home, mostly unpacked and getting the girls calmed down. It was an interesting trip, good and bad interesting.

I was successful in my goal of calm and easy airport trips, the girls did an amazing job getting through the airport both times, including the red eye flight that we took. They really are great little travelers. The only bad thing that happened was that at the end of one very bumpy flight in a very small plane AJ got air sick. The good part about it was that it happened as we were landing at our destination, so it was over quickly.

We did an amazing job with packing. I didn't forget anything that we needed, and I don't feel like I over packed (too much). We made it home with everything that we took and only forgot one gift which is also amazing. We did everything in carry-ons for the plane so that we didn't have to pay that ridiculous baggage fee and I was proud that we weren't one of "those people" who have a carry on that is so big that it can't fit into the bin without help from three people squishing it, and a body builder to lift it.

The time with family and friends was, as it always is, a blessing. While the trip wasn't long we did get to spend some special time with everyone that was home and available to us and that was great. We did a lot of fun things and had a lot of laughs. Also there was a lot of relaxation which was amazing. DH and I were both getting to the point where we needed a few days off.

The only huge glaring fail of the entire week was my food intake. I didn't just forget healthy eating every once in a while, I dove off the healthy eating train head first into the fast food. Yikes. I won't go into detail about my fall from good food, but I will give you one statistic that will illustrate my point. In 9 days I gained 7 lbs. Double Yikes. So now that we are home it is time to get that under control.

So that's it, the recap of Spring Break 2011. All in all I would say that the trip was a huge success. We loved our time over there!

~DD

S - is for Sorry so Behind... Again

Well, not really so behind, but I'm behind for the April A-Z challenge. We have been travelling back home and I never seem to be able to find time to blog when I am travelling. I was going to write out the story of what happened on our vacation, but it is so unbelievable that I am afraid to even write it down. The highlights/lowlights were 6 hours in clothes that were covered in vomit from my 5 year old getting air sick, car breaking down in the pouring rain, no power in the house we stayed at, and 43 hours with no sleep. After those days were over though the trip was great. Really fun!

So now I am home and hoping to get things all put back away and back on schedule, including this blog. All I have to do is get T done sometime tonight so that I can do U tomorrow. Too bad I am clueless as to what I am going to share. Here's hoping that inspiration strikes me sometime soon. Now off to go put away some more clothes.

Happy Easter!

~DD

R - is for Recipes

I have a problem. It isn't a big problem but it is a problem. I have a recipe book addiction. Any time I see a cook book I feel like I have to pick it up and look at every single page to find all sorts of cooking ideas. I love cookbooks. I will spend hours reading and re-reading every cook book that I can get my hands on. I mark recipes and copy down recipes that I want to try. Sometimes I don't get to try everything but it is still fun to look.

So as soon as I get back home from this vacation and the A-Z blogging challenge finishes I will be rolling out with some new Diva Days of the week. Including a recipe day, cleaning tip day, fitness day and more. I am so looking forward to making these changes and sharing them with you. In preperation for that I will keep looking through the cook books and get the ideas brewing. If you would like to share any recipes, tips or suggestions please let me know.

- DD

Q - is for Quitting

Well as I was thinking about what I wanted to bring up for the letter Q I had a lot of ideas. I do want to get back into more recipes and cooking tips so I thought about doing another quinoa recipe. But since we are currently on vacation I really don't have the ability to experament with recipes.

So I started thinking about the Q words that I could talk about. Was there anything that had been rolling around in my mind that fit with my letter and I finally came up with it. Q is for quitting.

This post sort if rolls into the same idea category as the N for new things post. I know that everyone has something that they need to quit doing. A habit that they need to break. So the challenge from this post that I give to me and to you is to go through with it and quit. Whaever that one thing is that every time you do it you think "I really need to stop" well just quit. Stop putting it off and making excuses and quit.

-DD

P - is for Pampering

DH gave me a wonderful surprise today of pampering. He took me to get a manicure and he got a mani pedi too. It was great to spend a day together without the girlies getting something done just for us.

Pampering is an important part of taking care of yourself as a person. You don't have to do something expensive or time consuming. Sometimes all it takes is a bubble bath or an at home facial. Doing things for yourself isn't a selfish thing. I promise. It is a part of taking care of yourself and your body as much as eating or sleeping. Doing the little extras helps not only keep your body healthy by relaxing it and maintaining it but it also helps with your mental state.

So in honor of the P for Pampering day go out and do something for you.

- DD

O - is for Organization

Well first off. I'm sorry that this is late. I am having troubles getting mobile blogging figured out so hopefully this works. We are on our Spring Break vacation and a computer isn't always available.

So organization. I cannot imagine life without organization. I realize that not eveyone has the same level of organization as I do but I also think that a lot of people have more than they think. Even if your organizational style is piles, you have one.

I posted a series on how to start getting organized last summer so I am not going to re do all of that. Trust me. But I do want to say that I used to hate organizing and organization but now I love it. So if you've never given it a shot just try it on a small scale and see if it's for you. As for me having a place for everything and everything in its place has made my life so much less stressful.

- DD