Best Month of my Life

Okay, I know it sounds a little melodramatic, but this has seriously been one of the best months of my life and I think I owe a lot of that to the "Feeling Fabulous" challenge i did with the blog somewhatsimple.com. Remember I mentioned this before? Well January is over and it has been a month to remember.

So with this feeling fabulous challenge each week in January you printed off a checklist of things you should try to do daily and for each thing you did you got a point. You totaled those points each week and submitted them to the blog for a group competition for a prize(and bragging rights). Well I never won, far from, but the girl said that about 60 women all over the country did the challenge a week and it was my goal to get in the top 10. Well this was the last week and I hadn't got top 10 yet, so I was determined, but once I added up my score I did not think it was high enough to make it. But, sure enough i ran downstairs and checked this morning and guess what? Final week of the challenge guess who was #10 in the top 10?!?! ME!!!!!! Yay! I literally started jumping up and down squealing! It feels soo good. My score increased each week and I felt really good about my own accomplishments but i really wanted to see my name on that top 10 as a public statement that I rock! (I know I am too competitive!) But ahhh! I am so happy!

So I want to thank Stephanie over at somewhatsimple for putting on this challenge. It really really helped me get off on the right foot this year and establish some great habits and really push myself to get a lot of things done each day. I would also like to thank Amy over at theidearoom.blogspot.com for this post here about staying organized with to do lists etc. This has also really helped me. (see my cute notebook a few posts down.)

I just have really noticed a difference in my life this past month. I think it helps that I have received the greatest blessing of all to be expecting a little baby girl in May, that knowledge and blessing alone gives me tremendous joy, but I would like to think that I am not just happy because I have everything I want. But, that I am happy because I am choosing to be happy by living a better life. I think I have really gained a testimony this month of routine and schedule. Something my mother has tried to instill in me for years now. Not to say I don't have the occasional day where I sleep in...or the days where I consider myself to have gotten up early (8:30) is early by any means...but it's routine. It's staying motivated to not just waste away my time while I wait for this baby to cook and have nothing else to do.

As I get up and get going, starting off the day with something good to eat, some exercise and then my list of all the things I want to accomplish it has been amazing at the joy I feel as i hack away at my endless to do list. I love crossing things off and telling Erik all that I did that day. I love that he comes home now to mostly a clean and organized house. I love that at least a few times a week he comes home to a great, well thought out, home cooked meal. I love seeing his smile and hearing how proud he is of me when he comes home to this picture. I know these are simple things that most of you awesome mothers and wifes have been doing for years but I feel like although I had my moments before, that I am now having a time where I have internalized this and just made it so easy and so simple to do rather than all dramatic! It's not a big deal to keep things clean and to do all these things (especially when you have all day like me, home alone with no children.) You just have to keep moving, don't plop on that couch, and stay busy. Anyway, this post is so long and there are no pictures so no one will read it but I really wanted to write about this for me.

Heres to a fantastic month. I was really worried about leaving my Mom and the rest of my family after Christmas break to come home and be all alone again with Erik gone all day, but these little things have really challenged me and helped me have one of the best months of my life. I have never smiled so much in a month, never cried so many tears of joy, never felt so lucky and so blessed, never felt so close to my Heavenly Father, never felt so much love for my husband, never felt so proud of myself, never had the bed made so many times, never done so much when I could have done so little. And I know that these are all connected. I know that this is how our Heavenly Father wants us to live. I know that when we are staying active and busy, setting goals and accomplishing them, it makes it so much easier to live the gospel and to make time for the things that are important in our lives. I know that a clean and organized home makes for more peace and love to reside there. I am so grateful for a supportive and patient husband and most of all for a loving and supporting Heavenly Father. I received a blessing from Erik at the beginning of this month that I could do this, be happy and stay productive and boy have I felt the Lord's power and influence in my life this month. I have also been blessed with a great pregnancy so far that has allowed me to for the most part feel awesome and do all that I need to. I would seriously recommend printing off the feeling fabulous checklist on the somewhatsimple.com , or starting a to do notebook, or anything like that for yourself. It has really helped me and made me feel truly fabulous! Hopefully I can keep it up this month! :)