Monday, March 16, 2015

March 2015

Well, February wasn't that busy. The last weekend, I went to a conference with my friend Tara. It is called The Art of Homemaking and is presented by the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth. We had a great time. Next year, I hope to get a fairly decent size group to go. I have been to several very bad women's retreats, so I wanted to check this one out before inviting a bunch of people. I wouldn't say it was the best conference I've ever been to but it was the best women's conference I've ever been to. I dream of hosting a women's conference one of these days & I would do a lot of things differently but this one is still one I would highly recommend. Next year it will be in the fall, so we have to wait almost 18 months for the next one but it will be worth it. :)

On Valentine Day, Anthony got up early and made me breakfast in bed. It was so wonderful. Red roses, heart shaped biscuits, man, I am one blessed woman!

I said in my last two posts that I was going to talk about my goals for 2015. I am going to be really general because I have a very, very long list that speaks of the specifics of each goal so there is no need to address that here. So, here I go.

I have categorized all of my goals into nine main groups: spiritual, physical, mental/educational, entertainment, emotional, family, social, home, and work. Because I'm a little bit crazy when it comes to making lists and outlines and organizing (despite my home not exactly evidencing that), I have subcategories & subsubcategories. Hehe. So, I'll only share a few of them with you and tell you how I'm doing on them so far, being that we are almost 1/4 of the way into 2015. :)

I. Spiritual
     A. Prayer
          1. Prayer journal - I am no where near consistent in setting aside time to pray. However, when I write my prayers out, I can concentrate better. I have also seen how my prayers often start out me-centered but end more God-centered. My husband and my mother-in-law both got me journals for Christmas that I am using as my prayer journal.
          2. Read a prayer from Valley of Vision each night together before we go to bed - I was doing this for a little while and then I stopped. I need to get back into this again. 
     B. Bible reading
          1. BSF - I am almost through my first BSF session. I'm looking forward to studying Revelation. I have different thoughts on eschatology than I did even four years ago so I'll be interested in seeing how they deal with the different viewpoints and it will be good for me to read through Revelation slowly now that my presuppositions have altered somewhat.
          2. Daily Bible reading with Anthony - We have been doing this since we got married. We miss days/weeks every so often but it is a definitely a habit we want to always be a part of our marriage.
          3. Behold Your God study - I am almost finished going through this with my friends. Wow! What an amazing study! It will reprogram your mind to think of God differently, more Biblically. It is by far the best book study I have ever participated in.
          4. Keep a list of what God says about Himself - This was an idea I got from one of the pastors interviewed in the Behold Your God study. 
          5. After reading a passage, always ask, "What does this passage tell me about God?" - The Bible is not all about me, I need to remember that. Asking this question will help me to remember who the Bible really is about.
          6. Practice homiletics - No, I don't want to preach. However, I did take a one hour BSF seminar on homiletics and I can see how it really helps you in studying a passage. I haven't practiced this much but I really want to work on it this year. Plus, I one day want to write Bible studies for women and this will help me practice in doing that.
     C. Scripture memory - I've posted a verse to memorize by our door but I really don't see it that often so I think I'm going to put the same verse in our bathrooms as well so we see it more often. ;)
     D. Church
          1. Get involved - I have joined the audio visual team and Anthony is the hospitality person for our new church, The Church at Pecan Creek. What is great is that we can actually help each other out. Anthony is so gifted at understanding technology and has been helping me & the whole team get some things set up. The other night he was sick so I and another friend of ours took care of the hospitality stuff. I will say that this audio visual stuff is daunting but I'm learning a lot. We have the ability to control both the projector and the sound system from our iPads, allowing us to sit in the audience rather than in a sound booth. 
               a. Audio Visual team
               b. Hospitality
               c. Women's ministry - I want to get a women's ministry going eventually at our new church. We aren't quite there yet but I definitely want to be involved with it.



II. Physical
     A. Exercise
          1. Wii Fit - I got a Wii Fit for Christmas and I love it. I need to be more consistent about doing 20-30 mins every morning, which means I need to get up earlier (another goal further on).
          2. Work up to 10,000 steps a day - I got a pedometer that connects to the Wii Fit so I'm keeping track of this. I didn't realize how sedentary I really am. Very depressing. The other day I walked almost three miles and still didn't even get close to 10,000 steps. I never realized how much walking that actually means. :)
          3. Thirty min move after every meal - Last week I came up with the idea to try to take a 30 min exercise of some sort (gardening, walking, wii) after every meal. I haven't done this yet but I think it is doable and healthy.
     B. Food
          1. Monthly menues - I've been consistent with this for a year; I just want to keep doing so and hopefully be better at sticking to it this year. :)
          2. Try more healthy recipes - I've researched a few new recipes I want to try including cooking with spring rolls, quinoa, and cauliflower, all things I've never experimented or even tasted. 
          3. Keep a food journal - I'm a member of SparkPeople and keep up with my nutrition through their app. I just started back at this last week and I've been pretty good at keeping up with it, with a few meals missed.
          4. Water - I am an avid water drinker however, over the last couple of years, I've gotten into a bad habit of not drinking as much as I use to. I need to be better at getting my water in each day.
     C. Checkups - working on these

III. Mental/Educational
     A. Reading
          1. Read 10 books this year (not including the Bible) - I am currently reading two books. So, I'm already behind but as long as I'm consistently working toward this goal, I'm happy.
              a. Women's Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan & Susan Hunt - I'm 65% (according to the Kindle app) of the way done with this and I can say it is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it to all women and all leaders (including the men) in a church to read this book.
              b. Everyone's A Theologian by RC Sproul - I'm only a couple of chapters in but this book is so great. It is an intro to systematic theology and is a book that every Christian should read.
               c. 
     B. Sewing - I haven't done these yet.
          1. Learn to make a skirt
          2. Learn to make PJ pants with pockets for Anthony
          3. Learn to make toys
          4. Learn to make window treatments (cornice, drapes)

IV. Entertainment
     A. TV time
          1. Limit TV time to two hours a day (except when sick and doing laundry) - We are actually pretty good at doing this right now. Many nights we don't even turn on the TV. The problem is that when we do, it is very difficult to turn it off.
     B. iPhone/iPad games 
          1. Delete the time wasting games - Done. I had some games on my iPad that I realized one day I was spending hours on and wasting much of my day. They are now gone. I feel so free now; I didn't realize what a slave I had become to them. I still have a couple of games that only take a min to make a move before waiting for the next person to move so those don't suck my time away. I also still have Sudoku but I usually only play that while watching TV.

V. Emotional
     A. Time management
          1. Get up by 6 am - I am so not good at this. I have got to get better at this. If this is the only thing I get in the habit of doing this year, I will cut it a good year. :)
          2. Create and stick to a daily schedule - I have done this several times but I finally think I have created one that works for me. I have been pretty consistent at sticking to it as well...at least most of it...still need to work on getting that exercise in as one of the first things in the morning...hence needing to get up at 6 am. 
          3. Prep dinner in the morning - When I don't do this, I can sometimes dread having to stop what I'm doing to spend the next two or more hours cooking & then cleaning up from cooking. When I get most of the prep work done in the morning, I know if I need anything in time to go to the store, I can know the meat is thawed/marinated, and I usually end up saving myself a lot of frustration and time. Another reason for needing to be out of bed by 6 am.

VI. Family
     A. Family archival - I'm still working on this. I was really consistent of doing this for a while but there was a few weeks that I couldn't and just never got back in the habit. I cleaned off my desk on Sunday so that I would have room to get back at this again.

VII. Social
     A. Game group - We want to create a gaming group that meets fairly consistently. Right now there are four of us but we would like to invite a few other people to join in with us. We are working on this one. :)
     B. Have people over at least once a month - We do this fairly often already but I want to start inviting people who we don't have over that often.

VIII. Home
     A. Major projects
          1. New garage door opener - done
          2. New roof & gutters - I need to call the insurance company to see if they can come take a look at the roof.
     B. Minor projects
          1. New tires - done
          2. Fix door panels - done
          3. Fix fence - not done yet...the weather & our busy weekends had been impeding this. 

IX. Work
     A. Kapp's Kitchen
          1. Make one batch of cookies a day - I'm not doing this consistently yet.
          2. Work the Denton County Community Market - We are trying to get our application in for this but we have a question that hasn't been answered yet, so we are kind of in limbo at this point.
     B. A Narrow-Minded Woman
          1. Research/write 1-2 hrs a day - I am not consistent in this, yet.
          2. Publicly publish the site - Not quite ready yet. I have all the pages up and ready but I want to get at least 10 articles written before I start posting.
          3. Post 2-3 articles a week
     C. COO of the Kapp Family
          1. Create a home management binder - I have created several printables and I am working on more. I have been enjoying a few of the ones I have created so far. One of these days I may put them online for purchase. 
          2. Organize & clean office - I cleaned part of my desk off on Sunday, does that count? ;) Granted, much of this is directly proportional to how far along in the family archiving I am. 

So that is part of what I'm working on this year. Ha. Like I said, I like making lists. It makes me feel calmer and less overwhelmed. Some of these are already complete, some are just habits I want to maintain, others may take many years or a lifetime to complete, and it is highly likely I'll add more to this list as the year goes along. There are a few other things that I didn't list either because they were a little more private or I just didn't want this list to get crazy. Ha. Fail there. ;)