21 Days to a More Disciplined Life

I finished the fun book I was reading, so I started reading the new book 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal, the Money Saving Mom blog author last night.

After a short foreword, she got right into the challenge for Day One! A number of other bloggers that follow her are taking the challenge starting on Thursday, November 1st. So, I'm getting a bit of a head start. ;)

So, for those who haven't invested in the book yet, you get a sneak peek. Challenge One was to take some little task that needs getting done & get it DONE!
I actually had a fairly productive day yesterday & was ready to count that as my accomplishment for this challenge, but today, despite babysitting, I was able to accomplish even more. I got most of my laundry folded & put away & I washed, dried & folded Amber's laundry. I can't put hers away until she wakes up from her nap, but I'm glad it's all folded & sorted & she's all packed up to go spend the next couple nights at Grandma & Grandpa's place.

The next part was to brainstorm a few ideas for the Mega Project to spend the next 21 days on & then to settle on one.
I thought of a few ideas & I'm still not 100% sure which one to work on first. My plan is to do one & then go back through & work on the next one. So, the first thing that comes to mind as a MEGA Mega Project, is organizing/cleaning my craft room. It's kinda scary in there right now. In fact, that project is intimidating enough that I'm not ready to start with it. So, I kept thinking.
Next was what my hubby & I are already working on: cleaning out Amber's room so it's ready for us to convert her crib into a bed & taking the art supplies, easel & drawing table that we didn't trust to leave in the room & set up her own little craft room in our basement hall.
A fun project I started on recently is tempting to do as my challenge; I've decided to make Amber a play mat with streets & buildings & stuff for her toy cars. I'm hoping to get this done as either a Christmas or birthday present for her, so I have a deadline on it. Her birthday is right after Christmas, but with her baby brother being due in January, we're planning to celebrate it before Christmas this year.
Another fun idea was based on one of the suggestions by one of the other bloggers & that is to set out to complete a scrapbook. I seriously have about 10 scrapbooks started & pretty much none truly finished! Most of those are recent ones for Amber, but our wedding book is high on my list as well!
The other more "productive" idea I had was to work on cleaning out & re-organizing our storage areas. This actually seems less daunting to me than the craft room & if I get them done well, I might be able to use them to store some of the stuff that's currently in the craft room.

I also thought of a few projects that I didn't think would take 21 days or even a week to accomplish, but I decided to write a few down in case Crystal decided to throw in some extra challenges or I just needed to change focus for a while.
We need to clean out the freezer. I started the clean house challenge with her last spring & fell off the wagon when I got pregnant & started fighting a lot of morning sickness & very low energy. When I did that challenge I got the fridge cleaned out, but I never did get the freezer done.
I didn't write it down last night, but now that I think about it, the pantry is getting pretty jam-packed with all the stuff we've accumulated with couponing.
Also high on my list is cleaning up the master bedroom. There are a lot of random things I've accumulated on the floor, in & on my nightstand & the bookshelf on my side of the room. The top of Paul's dresser needs a little attention as well.
We took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill recently, which cleared up some space in the basement & in our closet, but during that process I realized that we(I) really need to clean out the closet. The clothes are fine, & most of the stuff in the medicine drawers that are in there are fine, but there are a lot of other random things in there that need sorted out & we need to make room for some new luggage we got back in the spring.
While I was on that line of thought, I can't deny that I really need to work on the stuff in the guest room closet & some of the dresser drawers there in the guest room. A lot of what's in those dresser drawers are my non-maternity clothes, but there are a few drawers with random other stuff, extra bedding & such that needs sorted through. I did a little of this before the donation, but decided to hold on to some of the extra bedding that I know we're not going to use as bedding to use for sewing projects. Mainly, the aforementioned play car mat project.
Another little project that's on my list of things to accomplish before we have Thanksgiving guests, is to thoroughly clean out the snake's cage. It's ideal to do this when it's not too cold out, so we can just hose it out, but I'm not sure we've hit that window. Also, the cage is big & heavy enough that I can't handle it on my own, so I have to convince Paul to help me with it.
The last littler project I thought of was to clean out the kitchen catch-all basket. We've been just tossing a lot of things in there that we didn't want to deal with immediately, so it really needs to be dealt with now!

So, after that diversion, the next part of the challenge was to take your choice of Mega Project and break it down into 21 smaller parts to accomplish each day. So, I guess I, uh, have to choose which Mega Project to work on so I can do this part. Last night, I thought I better start with one of the more productive projects to really get my momentum going & then use one of the fun projects as more of a reward for my next go-around. So, I was thinking I should work on cleaning out the basement hall & setting up Amber's craft room. So, I started to brainstorm how to break it down into 21 parts & the main thing is to get it cleaned up. I predicted that each of the tasks I could think of (without actually looking down there) would only take up a week & the actual set-up after that would only take a day or two at most. So, I'm not sure if I want to just be less (hopeful? The word I'm looking for is eluding me... I think it starts w/an "A") and stretch it out, thus improving my odds of actually accomplishing it, or just pick one of the others.

So, I'm stuck at that point, but the last part of the Day One Challenge is to take the first part of the Mega Project & do it! So, yeah... now nap time's over & I have accomplished the laundry stuff I mentioned above & writing this post. I have some time tonight to work on it & also some grocery shopping. Yikes... trying not to get bogged down/overwhelmed. If anything, I'm still ahead of schedule, technically & I was productive today! Yay!!

EDIT: Update: So, I took my time with the shopping & checked out a bunch of clearance stuff. Made some good finds. Got all but one thing on my list, which I just plain forgot until I was way across the store from it & it's not something I need right away anyway. So, anyway, by the time I got home, my feet were killing me & I still can't make up my mind on my Mega Project. So, my plan is to tackle one of the smaller projects tomorrow/Wednesday & make up my mind about the Mega Project just in time to start it w/the "official" Challenge day on Thursday.
I have most of the day free tomorrow. Amber's at my mom's & I just have a dentist's appt late in the morning... SO not looking forward to that! I have bad gums in general & pregnancy makes them even more sensitive. Last time I got a cleaning while pregnant they ended up having to chemically cauterize them in a place or two because they were bleeding so badly. :( That was at a different dentist's office though & I wasn't thrilled with other aspects of the service, so I'm holding out hope that this time is different!
The only other thing on the agenda is... date night! ^_^ Since we'll have the whole evening to ourselves, we're going to go out to Logan's (with our BOGO coupon) and then go see Frankenweenie. :D
Wednesday is going to be a busy day. I see my OB, do the glucose test & get my next & (if all goes well) last sonogram. Then I have my therapy appt in the afternoon & then we get kiddo back just in time to go trick-or-treating!
Oh! That's what I forgot about while shopping... candy! I bought a bunch a week or so ago, but I keep eating it! [Probably also not helpful towards the dentist's appt tomorrow! :P ]
Wish me luck!