7-11 Project: Better Late Than Never, Eh?

As I said earlier today,  my Monday has been ATROCIOUS.  I am currently sitting on my couch watching Dr. Phil (cheap therapy) and downing a package of chocolate chip cookies. Because I deserve them. ;)  It is midnight, and I am just NOW able to sit down and write my Monday blog post. My days have been FULL and productive lately, but I am wearing down and to be completely honest, am THRILLED that this 7-11 Project is coming to a close.  I'm not sure how many more projects I can fit into a 24-hour period without pulling my hair out. So lets dive right into the progress from last week so that I can get some sleep. . .not that I'm not enjoying our time together. . .

1. Do/visit/experience 11 new activities/places/things.

Last week, I enrolled my youngest monster in "God's Gift To Stay-At-Home-Moms" a.k.a. "Mother's Day Out" at a local church.  This bought me a few hours a few times a week to have "me time". During my very first session of me time, I decided to do something that I haven't been able to in a good long while.  I went and saw a movie.  This time, however, I went by myself, which is something that I've never done and never thought that I would do.  I'd always heard some of my single friends say how much they loved going to the movies alone and I each time, I'd responded, How sad! Why would you want to go alone? Wouldn't that be sort of. . .pathetic? Now I can say from experience. . . .NO.  It is far from pathetic, and quite wonderful actually.  I went to a Friday matinee to see the movie Courageous. It was nothing short of FANTASTIC.  Let me expand a moment.  It was a Christian movie (which will immediately make some of your eye's roll, but bear with me. . .) and most a lot of the time they cannot escape the cheese factor.  Although there were some "cheesy, cliche-ic" moments, the overall plot and message was amazing.  I am so glad that I saw it alone, because I'm pretty sure I cried at least 4 times and then all-out SOBBED through the last 20 minutes.  And there aren't many movies that the crowd stands up and applauds when it's finished, but that's what happened in the theatre.  Granted, it was mid-morning on a Friday, so it was only about 15 people, but it was a "moment".  Bet you didn't think you were going to get a free review of a movie in my post. . .I always like to go above and beyond for my readers. Just call me Siskel.  Or Eibert. Or Conan. Whoever.  Anyhow, the whole point is that I LOVED seeing a movie all by myself.  I got to sit where I wanted, eat my pickle and butter-saturated popcorn and coke in peace (and guilt-free).  This will definitely become a new hobby of mine.

Another first for me came on Saturday. I was able to run my very first 5K.  This was something that I had been training for for the last 7 weeks and had been anticipating for years.  It's always been a dream of mine to run a marathon, and I saw running a 5K as one of the baby steps to accomplishing that dream.  Let me just say, I had no idea how hard it will be.  Those runner friends of mine, please do not point and laugh.  This was a struggle.  Namely because I had spent most of my training for this 5K on the treadmill.  Boy, is running outside a WHOLE OTHER WORLD compared to running on a treadmill with built-in facial fans, your bottle of water on hand, and the ability to zone out and trust that you're not going to run into a tree. The City on a Hill 5K Run that took place this Saturday was definitely not a treadmill!  In fact, it was FULL of HILLS (go figure!) and on one of the windiest, coldest days that Oklahoma has seen yet this fall season. I wanted to give up about halfway in, but I persisted and finished the entire race. And wouldn't you know, I wasn't even dead last!? I couldn't run the entire 5K, but that is something I will continue to work towards.  All that said, I finished my first 5K in 37.2 minutes.  Not bad, if I do say so myself!

2. Do 11 new activities with the kids.

After the race on Saturday, I was FAMISHED, so we decided to try our hands at making homemade pizzas. The boys were really excited to help, as pizza is one of their favorite foods!

 We went to the store together and bought all the ingredients to make turkey-pepperoni pizzas for lunch. They loved deciding how much sauce, how much cheese, etc would go on their personal pan pizzas. Mr. Grouchy Pants wasn't thrilled at the fact that we had to wait a whole 15 minutes for it to bake in the oven and another whole 10 minutes for it to cool off.  I believe his words were, "Mooooom, this cooking pizza stuff takes way too long.  Next time, you should just call and tell the pizza man to bring it to us." I know, right?  I obviously don't bake enough. In the end, it didn't taste like Little Caesar's or Pizza Hut (meaning the boys voted it a bust), so I ended up eating all three personal pans myself (confession. . .) and warming them up a can of Beefaroni.  But I enjoyed the new endeavour. :)

3. Tackle 11 new house projects.

If any of you have known me well enough to be invited into my mess of a car, you would know what a constant state of disheavel that it stays in.  I'm talking. . .last week's lunch from Sonic in the back floorboard, growing mold of some sort, random fruit loops, tootsie rolls, mismatched tennis shoes and socks, about a million receipts and toys, and enough clothing to start another spare wardrobe.  It's quite frightening at it's best.  And it's been known to smell.  A little. So when I decided to take a trash sack to it on Sunday, I was shocked to realize that I did, indeed have a floorboard.  It took two trash bags, two loads of laundry, and $3.00 in quarters for the carwash vaccuum, but it is now CLEAN.  So I'm checking that project off the to-do list.

Another long-procrastinated project of mine was organizing the boys closet.  Since moving the boys in to the same room, I had never combined their clothes and toys.  Much of Stink's stuff was still taking up residence in my bedroom and closet.  I was so excited to go through all of their fall clothes and put everything together.  I also found, in the course of it all, that these boys have WAY more outfits for Fall than they have time to wear them.  I gave some clothes away to friend's who had a little boy a bit younger than mine, but as you can see below, this closet is OVERSTOCKED.  So grandparents, NO NEW CLOTHING for Christmas.  In fact, they are good in the toy dept. too.  Just send gift cards. Haha. No really. . . it was good to finally get this task taken care of.

4. Read 11 new books.

Well, I decided to switch things up and read Ellen's new book entitled "Seriously. . .I'm Kidding".  It was a riot! I'm talking laugh-out-loud-pee-my-pants funny.  I just love her random sense of humor, but this book was packed to the brim with inspiration too.  I'd highly recommend it.  It's also extremely easy to read, as I finished it in less than 24 hours.

Currently, I am finishing up "52 Things Kids Need From a Mom" by Angela Thomas.  And I really don't think just reading this book is going to cut it for me.  I may take this book on as a yearly project starting in January.  It gives one thing to focus on every single week of the year to allow mom's to provide everything physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually for her kids.  I am learning a lot and it has already changed so much of what I prioritize where my kids are concerned.  I'm making daily changes as I read.  It was definitely a good choice of a "self-help" book for my list.  Moms, a must-read.

Well, that's all folks!  I only have 4 days left to accomplish the remainder of the goals on my list.  Realistically, I won't be able to accomplish it all. But I still plan on trying my darndest to check off as many items as womanly possible. Tune in to the tab at the top labeled "7-11 Project" for a complete progress report.  I'll update it for the final tally on the 11th.

It's now well into the wee hours of the morning.  Yes, I type slow. So I am forced to publish and crawl into bed.  It will only be a matter of time before one of the little monsters is woken up by the flash-flood storms outside.  Or another earthquake. Or tornado sirens. Maybe a locust infestation is next.  Who knows. . .I'm only sure one thing. . .I need to spend a few extra minutes in prayer and thank God for every minute that I'm given lately.  No one knows when Oklahoma will be destroyed by some new natural disaster.