The Art of Getting Things Done...

 

~Photo Source~

 

Greetings,

 

 

 Most recently, let's say within the last couple of years, I've realized that I have faltered at getting things done that I want to accomplish. I feel like I've found a resolve now, so today we're gonna talk about how to get everything done that you've been wanting to do. I'm not just talking about big things like, getting a degree or completely paying off your car. I'm including things like interrupting your couch potato time to do the laundry so it doesn't back up, exercising when you promised yourself that you would, or even something as simple as walking to the mail room/box to get the mail.

I think somewhere along the way as adults we forget how to, (in the words of Nike) Just.Do.It.

As a child, you knew that you had to brush your teeth before you went to bed. That the kitchen had to be cleaned before your parents got home. Let's not forget that homework had to be done lest you bring down your grade average. All of these had to be done and some on a daily or weekly basis. You had to put in the work, because you were told to do so. You had no choice.

I read this article (and for the life of me I can't find it to share! Ugh!) a while back that explained how to always stay motivated at work when you just didn't feel like it. Key words here being FEEL LIKE IT. Here's the thing about being motivated... You're not always going to feel like eating right, studying, exercising, cleaning your car, paying your bills on time, finally cleaning out the garage, or opening that 401K account, because well... you're human and we get lazy. (just being honest) 

But! Here's the good news.

You don't have to feel like doing it. You're never going to feel like doing it for the most part. So, the only answer here is to just do what you need to do and be done with it. Just like you have a habit of brushing your teeth first, when all you want to do is just collapse into bed, you can also create a habit of doing other things too.
 
1st) Make a list of the things you want to do. My suggestion is to make a list of short goals just to get your feet wet. Then as you accomplish more & more, go to bigger goals.


2nd) Carve out some time in the day to get things done. So if you want to prep all of your meals for the week on Sunday at noon, then take that time to get it done. Don't answer the phone & don't let others distract you (unless it's an emergency) until you get as much done as you scheduled for that time period.

3rd)Some big goals might take a long time. For these, write out a schedule or timeline that you'd like to get things done in.


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It has been said that, when you write down your goals, you are more likely to get them done and achieved. So get to writing! It has helped me tremendously in getting my weekly wishes accomplished, so I know it can help you too. When I get things done, I feel proud of myself like I just conquered a large army and saved the freakin world! Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little..  but I do feel really good about myself and about what I've done. Who wouldn't want more of that in their lives, right? It's all about doing what is ultimately best for you and taking care of yourself.


What are some things that you've been wanting to get done? Have a great week!

Ciao!

 

Weekly Wishes #14

Greetings! 

Its that time again for weekly wishes! Did you set any goals for last week? If so, how did they go? Are you just joining me? Let me explain what happens for Weekly Wishes..

The Happenings: You share your weekly, monthly, or yearly goals/wishes/achievements and you get to be a part of this big group of people that are doing the same thing. Yay! Wanna join in? Check out The Nectar Collective and add a link to your blog!

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Happy Monday everyone! Last week, I took a break of sorts from blogging. Mainly because I was feeling very overwhelmed by life and more specifically by my job. Now that I've taken the time to review some things, plus had the weekend off away from work drama, things have become better. I'm working really hard to improve myself right now and so my weekly wishes today and in the future will probably reflect these things. Do you take the time to work on yourself? It just seems natural to me to do so. I always want to be my best self. So let's talk about what happened the last time I made some wishes.


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Last Weeks Wishes



* Write - I did get some writing done! I wrote the 2nd part to the short story I'm working on. I haven't written anymore since then though. Maybe later this week, I'll be in the mood to get back at it and continue on with the 3rd installment.


* Finish a Crochet Project - I didn't complete anything yet, but I have gotten a lot of work done! I hadn't been to my crochet group in almost a year now, so I figured it was time to visit and get some advice on my projects. I swear I made at least 3 booties while there and had to frog two of them. They are coming along nicely now though, so Yay!


 * Blog Prepping - I definitely got this one done. Now I need to work on it again, until I can find a good rhythm that works for me.







This Weeks Wishes



* Set up Tours - I'm officially in the process of trying to change careers and I've decided to go back to school. This means that I need to start setting up tours with colleges and gathering questions that I'll need to ask. Any suggestions on questions I should be asking like: What is the success rate of graduates finding a job after graduating? Important stuff like that.


* Meditate - I know it's been on the list before, but I have fallen off the wagon! It would be great if there was another 21 day meditation challenge from Deepak & Oprah, but I will survive.



* Continue Reading Eat Q - I talked about reading Eat Q, a long while back here, here, & here. I put it down to read The Body Book and now it's time to get back into it. I really do want to live a healthier lifestyle and this is just a part of the journey to get there. Plus reading information about my goals helps me to stay focused.



This is where I conclude for today friends. Hope you will achieve all of your goals for this week or month. :)

Ciao!

Weekend Rambles...

Greetings!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend! So far, we've done some shopping downtown, tried some new restaurants (new to me anyway), and now it's time to get some housework and writing done. In the meantime I'll also be catching up on some movies that I have on my DVR. Yay! Speaking of which, we just watched 'Just Enough'. I knew I would like it, and it was funnier than I expected! Have you seen it too?

* I'm proud to say that I have finally chosen a college that will work for what I want to major in. Going back to school is way intimidating to me. Just thinking about having to take all the general classes again.. Blech! The only one I really fear is math. Lemme tell you something.. I am where math goes to die!!! The numbers race at me full speed ahead just to bounce off my head and fall dead to the ground. Lol. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Unless the teacher is really good and patient, then it's going to be a very long semester. People always tell me that math isn't hard because the rules never change, but I think that's what makes it hard for me. The rules can't bend and change like they can when you're interrupting a story or book so I feel constricted.

* Do you have a hobby? I always seem to have something that I'm into, but I never consider them hobbies. Take crochet for instance.. I don't consider that a hobby, but other people do. Sometimes, people are even shocked when I say I have a business selling crochet items. I try to figure out if they think it's weird that I have a business or that selling crochet stuff is business at all. Either way, it seems that I should be mildly offended. Ha ha. :)

* Have you seen those women that wear heels all the time? I've had some friends say that their heels are more comfortable than tennis shoes. I don't find this to be true. Let's think about this for a min shall we? Any shoe that forces your foot to be positioned in such a way as to where you have to walk on the balls of your feet all day cannot be comfortable. Don't get me wrong, I love heels. My feet just don't. :op

Okay, that's it for today kiddies. Share your thoughts with me.

Ciao!

Pinterest Food Challenge: Week 3!

Greetings friends!

Welcome to the Pinterest Food Challenge: Week 3!

 If you missed last week’s post, you can click here. Here’s how this works:

Because it’s really easy to get into a food rut and get bored with eating the same thing over & over, I thought it would be great to actually try the recipes from my pin board. Everything looks so yummy on Pinterest that I figured I couldn’t go wrong. So all you have to do is pick out one recipe that you’d like to try each week, takes pictures, blog about it, then come on over here and add your link to the linkup at the bottom of the post! Sounds fun, no? Don’t forget to give me a shout out in your post and if you’re on Instagram use the tag #PFC or #PinterestFoodChallenge so we can all find you!  

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Well folks, it's been a fairly busy week for me! I did however manage to cook my Pinterest meal and so did my co-worker. She made Coconut Chicken, Jasmine Rice, and it was served with a Sweet Chili Sauce. Very good. Click here for the recipe if you'd like to try it yourself!

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This week, I made a Tater Tot Casserole and I chose it because, I wanted to be done in one shot. Sometimes you just don't want to put forth the effort of making sides in addition to a main dish. So needless to say, I was so excited to have dinner just waiting & ready when I got home! No more assembly required. I was a little concerned at the stability of the tots and whether or not they would hold up. They didn't... (lol) but they still tasted great! This was probably one of the best meals I've made! Here's the rundown of ingredients:


~Tator tots (frozen) ~ Grilled Chicken ~ Bacon ~ Onion ~ Garlic ~ Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Shredded) ~ Butter (to sauté said onions & garlic) ~ Milk ~ Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (dried packet) ~ It also called for frozen mixed veggies, but er um... I think those are gross, so I nixed them! ~



I actually did most of the prep at 5:30 am before I went to work so that when I came home for lunch, I could just throw everything together. Surprisingly enough, the instructions called for only four hours of cooking. I was so enthralled in getting everything done that I forgot to take a lot of pictures of the process. My bad.. I'll do better next week! :)

 



 

 

The finished product. :)

It didn't come out as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped for. However it's so good that it'll make you hurt yourself! I will be making this again next week, if not this weekend. That's how good it was! So what did you make this week?!? Did it turn out well? :) Share it with us and add your blog post to this weeks linkup! :) Bon Appetit!

Ciao! 

Weekend Rambles..

Greetings peeps!

 

 

Are you just joining for Weekend Rambles? I like to think of this as a non-judgment, free flowng thought kind of space. I'm curious about and welcome your rambles and thoughts for today. Enjoy!

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This has been a wonderfully relaxing weekend for me. Yesterday, I just chilled out for the most part and caught up on some TV watching, some sleeping, and did as much crocheting as my hands would allow. Then after going on a new food adventure for dinner(post soon to come), we went to the mall and found that Macy's was having a one day sale and was staying open till 11 o'clock. Needless to say, I bought some things. :) I've never shopped at their one day sales before, but now that I know the goodness of it..... I will go again! I hope you all have had an equally good if not great weekend! Let's do some rambling..

 

 

 

* Since we just talked about shopping.. For whatever reason, people always seem to feel the need to stop in the middle of isles and/or walkways. I don't understand this. You know there are people walking all around you, right? Yet you stop mid-stride to talk on the phone or look at something causing me (and everyone else) to bump into you. Move your stuff or you cart over to the side and get the BLEEP outta the way dude! Geez..

 

 

* Did you see what they call the 'Honey Moon'? It's always amazing to see those big orangy moons. It seems to hold a special kind of mystery when it's not the 'normal' moon color. Apparently, they call this full moon a Honey Moon, because it's more likely to stay that honey color all through the night.

 

 

* I've been crocheting lately, right? I chose this specific pattern for some baby booties that I wanted to make and it is kicking my ass! Part of the instructions didn't make sense to me and quite personally I think it's written wrong. My inner Tim Gunn said 'Make it work!' and so I did. I will not be defeated! :o) To may yarn addicts, do you have a lot of trouble with patterns?

 

 

* I've often wondered how many people really go to the theater. For whatever reason, I've had a hankering to go see a play. I think the last time I saw one was back in 2001 when I went home with my best friend for Spring Break in college! I don't need to see a big huge production. I'd be good with going to a small Playhouse. Have you gone to any plays lately?

 

 

* I'm actually sitting here watching cartoons. It's one of those times when you turn the TV on and there it is, so you watch it.. Whatever happened to Saturday morning cartoons? I used to LIVE to watch those. I would wake up sometimes at 6:30 am and start watching Muppet Babies and then I would surf through the different channels to watch my favorite ones. Didn't even need cable to watch cartoons then. Of course the morning was concluded with Saved By the Bell & California Dreams. Then it was time to get dressed and go outside and play. Good times, man. Good times.

 

 

* Speaking of childhood, we went to Academy Sports store the other day and were riding around on the bikes in the store. I literally almost ran into some shelves, because I was trying to stop and the bike was too tall for me! It was fun and I probably hadn't ridden a bike in 15 + years. I think it would be nice to go bike riding again. Do you have a bike and go riding?

 

 

 

Okay, this is it for me peoples. Have a great weekend!

 

Ciao!

 

 



Pinterest Food Challenge: Week #2

Greetings friends!

Welcome to the Pinterest Food Challenge: Week 2!

 If you missed last week’s post, you can click here. Here’s how this works:

Because it’s really easy to get into a food rut and get bored with eating the same thing over & over, I thought it would be great to actually try the recipes from my pin board. Everything looks so yummy on Pinterest that I figured I couldn’t go wrong. So all you have to do is pick out one recipe that you’d like to try each week, takes pictures, blog about it, then come on over here and add your link to the linkup at the bottom of the post! Sounds fun, no? Don’t forget to give me a shout out in your post and if you’re on Instagram use the tag #PFC or #PinterestFoodChallenge so we can all find you!  

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I hope everyone is having a good week so far. As per my Weekly Wishes, I'm actually writing this prior to needing to post it. Yay, for reaching another goal! Speaking of accomplishments, I feel pretty good about conquering my chosen meal for this week. Before we get into that I wanted to share with you the Pinterest meal my co-worker made! 

It's three cheese tortellini with Italian sausage all made in a crock pot. Good stuff I tell ya.. Good stuff! I totally plan on making it.

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This week,  I felt like I was being a bit ambitious with trying this dish. I mean... it's a Martha Stewart recipe for crying out loud! That in itself makes it somewhat intimidating, ya know? I digress though.. I was pleased that true to what it said, the prep only took about 25 min, and probably less if you don't have to look at the recipe every five min to see what the next step is. It was pretty easy to follow too!

I was inspired to cook these cute little pies, because well.... they're cute, I liked and had most of the ingredients, and I wanted an excuse to use my new rolling pin. Plus it's called a Pinterest Challenge for a reason! Click here for the recipe.

Here's the rundown of ingredients:

• Flaky Pie Dough, recipe doubled and 1 cup shredded cheddar added with flour, or store-bought
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 leek (white and light-green parts only), halved lengthwise, cut crosswise 1/4 inch thick, and rinsed well
• 1 small bunch black (Tuscan) kale, tough stems removed, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, leaves
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup cooked chicken, torn into bite-size pieces (about 5 ounces)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

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Instead of making my own dough from scratch, I cheated and got the pre-made pie shells from Wal-Mart. The only thing I didn't follow in the recipe was using cheddar cheese. I am a cheese fanatic so I love cheddar just as much as the next person, however I just didn't have any on hand. I thought provolone would do just as nice. The next time (and yes there will mos def be a next time) I will make it with the correct cheese.

Did I like this dish? Hell yes! And I added some mac and cheese on the side as well. When in doubt, have mac and cheese as a side dish. ::: wiggles eyebrows ::: I will admit that something was missing from my rendition of this recipe. I think it will taste even better with a handmade dough instead of the already made stuff. All in all I would call it a success!

So what did you cook/bake this week? A gloriously yummy meal or a scrumptious to-die-for desert? Share it with us and add your blog post to this weeks linkup! :) Bon Appetit!

  

Ciao! 

 
    

Weekly Wishes #13

Greetings! 

Its that time again for weekly wishes! Did you set any goals for last week? If so, how did they go? Are you just joining me? Let me explain what happens for Weekly Wishes..

The Happenings: You share your weekly, monthly, or yearly goals/wishes/achievements and you get to be a part of this big group of people that are doing the same thing. Yay! Wanna join in? Check out The Nectar Collective and add a link to your blog!

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Happy Monday everyone! I'm probably a little cheerful for a Monday, but it's for a good reason. I'm feeling especially creative these days and I'm going to ride this wave for as long as it wants to last. I must admit something to you... I've been cheating on Blogger with WordPress! I know..  I know..  Oh! The horror.. I see a ton of blogs as well as websites hosted through there, so I figured why not check it out. I'm not moving or anything (yet), but I have started another blog for writing short stories. Here's a little excerpt. 

"Her hands were cold. The kind of cold that seems to seep way down deep. Deep into your

veins, your blood, and your bones and encompass your whole being. Vie despised the cold and had immediately ordered a cup of black coffee when she sat down at the small cafe. No sugar and no cream. She liked things classic and simple. It’s the way she preferred to dress herself and to live her life. As Vie bounced her crossed legs and sat looking out of the window of the cafe, she contemplated leaving even though she had just gotten there no more than ten minutes ago.

Things could get very ugly if she did. Complications could ensue and that would threaten the Classic & Simple life motto that Vie wanted to live by. It was just one complication really. His name was Claudio Ubenski."

Are you intrigued? Click here to read more! Okay, on with the show! Let's talk about Last Weeks Wishes. 

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Last Weeks Wishes 

* Research Colleges - Okay so, I did research some schools. I however didn't get any further that I already was. I really wanted to find a school that would work for me and one that I could go tour and sit down and speak with a counselor. So I'm going to keep on looking and in the meantime I'll be taking some internet training courses. 

* Food Prep - I totally nailed this one! I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this one, especially since I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire. I chopped, bagged, and set out items I needed ahead of time. It came in handy, because I woke up 30 minutes late one day, but because I did that prep I didn't have to scramble to be on time for work. I've even started picking out my clothes the night before. It saves SO MUCH time in the morning. Yay!

* Send Packages - I finally finally finally got this one done!! It feels good knowing that that is done. I literally gave an exhale of relief when I left the post office! I've also sent off a letter to my pal and two greeting cards. I'm on a roll folks!

 

 

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This Weeks Wishes
 

* Write! - I know I've had this one on the list before, but now it's for the new short story I'm working on. I'm really digging the vibe it gives and I've gotten positive feedback so far. Feel free to tell me what you think too! :o)

* Complete a Crochet Project - I've been working on a couple sparkle babies as of late and I can't seem to finish any of them. I keep frogging the project and redoing it in an attempt to make it better. I just found a new pattern that I'm going to try and I hope it's easy enough to understand. Wish me luck!

* Blog Prepping - I really want to start writing my blog posts before the day I need to post them! I've just got to bite the bullet and decide that I'm going to start writing on a certain day and time. Like right now... I'm at work in the break room, trying to finish this up. Crazy. (pause for time elapsed) Now I'm at home really finishing. Got to do better!



So these are my wishes for this week and I'm excited about them! Is that weird to say? Ever since I started writing them down on a Post-It, it has made all the difference in me getting them done and remembering what they are. Speaking of exciting, if you missed the last Pinterest Food Challenge, then you can still participate this week and the weeks to come! I've decided to make this a weekly event (I will be posting on Wednesdays) and the challenge is to cook something from your pin board that you've been telling yourself you're going to cook and you just haven't. Take pictures of the process and the meal, write a blog post about it, and then you can add your link to the Link Up and share it with the world! And let's be honest here.. Who doesn't love to self-promote their blog? :)

That is all for now friends! Have a great week and good luck on your weekly wishes!

Ciao!

The Saturday Short

Greetings friends!!

It's been what feels like a long week, after having two short work weeks in a row. I love waking up on Saturday mornings, knowing that the day is new and filled with possibilities.  

Although I've been a slacker lately... I've gotten my workout in for the day and now it's time to a cup of tea, a little breakfast, and then it's off to the range and to anywhere else The Boo and I see fit. There are a lot of movies out that we what to check out. I see a large dark room, with many seats, and movie popcorn in my future. What are you up to today?


Ciao!

I Challenge You!

~Photo Source~
 

Greetings!

I'm excited to talk about today's blog post! I pretty much like anything that involves being creative and cooking is no exception. I don't know about you, but I like sitting down and watching cooking shows. They make me feel inspired to cook lavish and extremely tasty meals. I was talking with a co-worker last month (Ok, we were lollygagging because we didn't feel like working) and I came up with the idea to do a Pinterest Challenge! A lot of times, I pin quite a bit of recipes yet I never bother to cook them. There are plenty of  Pinterest challenges for clothes or DIY's, so why not food too?

So here's the deal: We decided to cook one recipe from Pinterest per week and bring the other person a serving of it. So it's kind of a double whammy of trying the foods of Pinterest.. Bam!

Because I'm in love with all food that is Latin/Mexican/Tex-Mex, my first dish is Chicken Tortilla Soup. Here's what it calls for:


1 lb of raw chicken 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 medium onion, diced

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
2 cups (or 1 can) of chicken broth
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 T chopped cilantro

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All the ingredients got thrown in a crock pot on low heating and left to cook all the day is long. I did all of my prep last night as far as chopping up the onion and garlic and I pre-measured all of the spices. Looks like I'm getting at least one of my Weekly Wishes done! (yay) I used canned chicken by Tyson because well.... it's my go to chicken for everything. It needs no seasoning to taste good and who really wants to deal with raw chicken. Not I! Blech...

Can I just tell you that it turned out awesome! Did you really have any doubt that it would though? I didn't. Haha! You can't really go wrong with a crock pot meal unless you under season.

 

 So are you in this with me??? Go ahead and try that recipe that you salivated over. Share it with friends or like me with co-workers. Share it right here with me too. I wanna read about about it! Until the next time.. 

Ciao! 



An InLinkz Link-up

Weekly Wishes #12

 

Greetings Friends! 

Its that time again for weekly wishes! Did you set any goals for last week? If so, how did they go? Are you just joining me? Let me explain what happens for Weekly Wishes..

The Happenings: You share your weekly, monthly, or yearly goals/wishes/achievements and you get to be a part of this big group of people that are doing the same thing. Yay! Wanna join in? Check out The Nectar Collective and add a link to your blog!
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Happy Monday you guys! The past week and a half went by in a flurry! Now that my birthday as past, I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. I didn’t get the opportunity to write a lot last week, but I’ll be making up for it this week. Lots of writing and crochet will be done in the following days, so let’s hope I can stay organized. Do you ever feel like you’re about to start a ‘New Season’ in your life? Something like be changes are about to happen for you? That’s how I feel and my wishes this week will reflect that. I know I missed a post for last week, so let’s talk about what happened the last time I made some wishes. :)

Last Weeks Wishes 

* Meditate Daily – This was a bit of a struggle for me surprisingly. It was almost as if I just couldn’t fit the time in to do this one. I will continue to work on this though, because I feel like it’s important. Plus, it will help build up my discipline.  

* Yoga - Oddly enough I did more yoga than I did meditating! It seemed like whenever I had a free moment I was striking a pose. Having the Daily Yoga app on my phone really made a difference. I just discovered that you can follow a few 10 day programs on there, so I just started one yesterday. I'm pretty geeked about it. Before long I'm going to build muscle and become quite flexible!  

* Finish The Body Book - I did it! Now it's in the hands of my mother so that the knowledge will continue to spread. Now it's time to put all of that know-how to good use.  


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This Weeks Wishes 

* Research Colleges - I've been talking about making a career change and I've finally decided to do coding, as in build websites. Yay! I already have a degree in art and now this will give me the technical side of things. The best things about this choice is that the IT field is booming right now and is projected to keep on growing, I can still work at my same job, but possibly switch positions, and I can work freelance... Cha-Ching! So it's time to see what school is going to work best for me. I'm hoping that I won't have to be in school forrrrevvvverrrr to reach my goal, but I'm prepared to do what it takes to get to where I want to be. 

* Food Prep - I'd really like to start preparing my lunches the night before as well as chop up anything that I may need the for dinners I'll make the day before. That way I'll have more time to devote to the things I love to do. Plus, it's just good to be organized. I feel so much better when I am. 

* Send Packages - I was really supposed to go to the post office over the weekend and just didn't! I just gotta pick a day and do it. Yuck... 

Okay peeps, tell me what's going on in your world. What are you trying to accomplish this week or even this month? Let me know! 

Ciao!