Balance? Maybe this year.

"I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time."  ~Oprah Winfrey
This post is a part of 

Balance

  Balance. 

       Seek balance. 

                    Balance. 

                         Balance will bless you. 

                                            Achieve Balance. 

  Balance is great, if you can reach it.  I wonder if the striving of balance in life is what is needed more than actually reaching it. You know, that whole idea of the journey being greater than the destination. Does anyone ever get "balanced" anyway? 

  Life is all about choices. When I'm focusing on my daughter, my husband doesn't have my attention. When my husband has my focus, my daughter does not. When they both have my focus, not much is spent on myself. Choices. Is it about seeking this phantom-like goal of "balance", or is it about simply making wiser choices throughout our day? The best choice that you can make in each moment throughout your day. Hmmm.. I think I have my word for next week... Choices. 

  What does balance mean to you? Comment below to let me know your thoughts. 

"What is this thing called balance?" Click to Tweet

Action Toward My Goals 

(Weekly Goal Update)

1. Daily Devotional/Bible Reading - Going well. I am reading on my ipad before getting out of bed and it has been a great start to my day.
2. Eat Better -  I am successfully using my Daily Health Tracker to keep count of my calories, and it is working.  
3. Be More Active - I felt better this week and began working with Jillian Michaels courtesy of my Amazon Prime membership and the Instant Videos available. She is tough. Really tough. But I have completed them 3 out of 4 days so far this week. Two more to go to hit my weekly goal. I feel confident I can do this. I have to say, I really enjoy the comments that Jillian (yeah, sure, I'm on a first name basis with her) makes at the end of the videos. 
4. Focus Computer Time - I'm getting there. Why does it seem that as soon as I can get organized, I give myself another project on the computer? At least this week's was fun and totally a family thing to do. 

  Now it is your turn. I invite you to join me in getting healthy or share with me how you have made your life healthier by joining my Healthy Life Linky Party. Healthy Life - whatever that means to you. I'm keeping this linky list open for the month of January and will have a new one for February. I will re-evaluate making it a shorter time, if it begins to fill up quickly. 

Linky Party "Rules" Requests:
I am thrilled that you stopped by and would love for you to participate in any and/or all of the ways that work for you, below: 

• Join in by linking up a current or old post to our party. A post that shares about "getting a healthier life." This could be nutrition, exercise, simplifying your life, organizing your life, learning to say, "No," etc.

• Top Request: Visit the blog in front of your on the linky and leave them a comment.

• Comment below. Introduce yourself, if this is our first "meeting" and let me know how you found my blog. Need a writing prompt? Tell me how you are doing on your healthy journey. 

• Tweet about this linky party or share it on your favorite social media network. Click to Tweet.

• Follow my blog via email (sign-up on the right-hand side of this page) or add me to one of your Google+ Circles.

~Christine :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Friendship Friday & Healthy Life Linky Party - Keeping it Going.

"Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." ~Dory of Finding Nemo
This post is a part of  Hi! Yay, I made it to the end of my first continual week of blogging here and I am working on those goals, which I will post an update on at the bottom of this post. Overall, I did alright this week and don't feel like giving up, so that is a win. 

Create with Joy has added to Friendship Friday an A to Z theme. This week is A. 

Art Studio iPad App

  This is an app I discovered mentioned at the blog Surfing to Success when I was looking for clip art to use in printables. After reading her blog post, I installed the app on our family iPad to give it a whirl. Woo hoo! 

  I then decided to use the money that I thought I was going to use to purchase licensing rights to clipart (and a few other things), to get an iPad mini and make my own stuff. A week or so later...between this app and PicMonkey (more on that on Monday), I'm having fun working on my artistic talent - or should I say, cultivating it. :)  Here are a few of my creations. Borders are the most fun for me. I can do squiggles. :) 

Action Toward My Goals (Weekly Goal Update)

1. Daily Devotional/Bible Reading - Recently, I purchased an iPad Mini, to work on creating some clip art (like the flower for the linky party) and to have e-books accessible to me. However, I have found that the biggest blessing of this iPad has been to have The Bible (in whatever translation I feel like reading) and devotions accessible to me in one slim electronic item. I even downloaded a prayer journal to keep track of my prayer requests. I haven't missed a day and I am working on reading through the Bible again.  Overall: Going well. 
2. Eat Better -  I counted calories and did well all week. I used my Daily Health Tracker to keep count and it worked well for me. Overall: Going well. 
3. Be More Active - This didn't happen. I've been fighting a cold for going on two weeks and the doctor did tell me to take it easy, so I've been following the doctor's orders. On the positive side, the cold has made it easier to adjust to my new caloric intake. :)
4. Focus Computer Time - Well, the cold really made it easy to catch up on computer stuff, so I didn't have set aside "focused computer time" this week but I did work on organizing things. I unsubscribed from about 20 emails that come in daily, and I delete without reading and setup some folders in my inbox to move things to so that when I open my email I'm not completely overwhelmed but then when I have the time, I will read/respond to the emails in my new folders; "Important/ToDos" & "ThingsToRead." 

I invite you to join me in getting healthy or share with me how you have made your life healthier by joining my Healthy Life Linky Party. Healthy Life - whatever that means to you. I'm keeping this linky list open for the month of January and will have a new one for February. I will re-evaluate making it a shorter time, if it begins to fill up quickly. 

Linky Party "Rules" Requests:
I am thrilled that you stopped by and would love for you to participate in any and/or all of the ways that work for you, below: 

• Top Request: Visit the blog in front of your on the linky and leave them a comment.

• Join in by linking up a current or old post to our party. A post that shares about "getting a healthier life." This could be nutrition, exercise, simplifying your life, organizing your life, learning to say, "No," etc.

• Comment below. Introduce yourself, if this is our first "meeting" and let me know how you found my blog. Need a writing prompt? Tell me how you are doing on your healthy journey. 

• Tweet about this linky party or share it on your favorite social media network. Click to Tweet.

• Follow my blog via email (sign-up on the right-hand side of this page) or add me to one of your Google+ Circles.

~Christine :)

An InLinkz Link-up