Amber - Moving on

So I tried the redo week and it was not successful, I'm going to change this week a little.  First and foremost the one thing I did great and have done great for the whole time is my scripture study.  This means I'm moving it off of the 21 days though obviously I'll still be posting my thought.  Also I have been quite failing at not eating after 6 so I think I'm taking that off for now.  Part of the problem has been not eating enough before 6 and the other is that I always want to eat desserts.  I'm going to do a scheduled meal plan thing later but I have some goals I'd like to do first.  So with two goals off of the focused list that leaves me room to add more.  So here are all of the goals for this week.

Focus list:

1. Morning and Evening Routines.  I must get these down so they are number one on the list.

2. Phone out of the room.  This one has been a little difficult and I would like to make it less annoying for me.  So I'm going to try the following.  I can't be on/look at my phone while in my room and it can't stay in my room at all.  However what is allowed is if I have my phone in my pocket or in my purse and I'm just grabbing something or have just come to put my purse away then I won't say I've failed.  So long as I don't get on the phone and I'm taking it right out then it will pass.  If it just becomes a gateway to being on my phone more then I'll have to revert back but right now it seems like a reasonable compromise.

3. The first new goal is going to be a prayer goal.  My prayers have been distant and short and not enough of them so I've decided to track my prayers somehow.  Mom has a midday alarm for a prayer, I think I'll try that.  For my morning prayer I'm going to have a prayer list and need to include everything on it as well as taking time to pray for things I feel I ought to that morning.  This prayer used to happen right as I woke.  But rolling over half asleep never produced good prayers so it is scheduled in my morning routine for after I'm ready and just before I'm off for a short walk or exercise.  The evening prayer has some of the same problems in that I say it right before I go to bed and I'm also half asleep.  I'd like to move this one to earlier in the day.  It is supposed to be what I call a repentance prayer where I focus on repenting for the day's misdeeds or nondeeds.  I'm going to try doing it right before I plan for the next day.

4.  The second goal for the week is that I'm going to add some family history work every day for any amount of time.  Right now I'm trying to get things scanned into my computer.  Grandma has a mountain of stuff up in the library and who knows what will be useful or not.  So I'll probably just scan one piece or pile a day depending on how long that is.  The only other requirement is that I do it before I'm allowed to spend any play time on the computer/phone/tv or other fun thing.

5.  Still going to report my crafting and sewing.

Weight - I know I dropped the eating goal so I'm going to leave this one off too until I add the meal plan thing however I did weigh myself so full disclosure I was 179.6 this morning an hour after breakfast.  I'm not happy about it, I've never cared what the actual number is but I've definitely added more fat to my body and that is not a happy thing.  I want to be healthy and this is not a healthy thing.  I can feel a difference too so I really want to do something about it however I know the spiritual has to come first if I want the other stuff to be successful.  In a couple of weeks when I've done well at my other goals I'll think about adding this one.  We'll see, I really should wait 3 weeks if I want to go the 21 days but maybe I'll be desperate and I'll feel good about adding it.

Monday:

* Alma 32 is really full of stuff and I'm struggling with reading it all in one day.  One thing I noticed about faith is that though it is not a perfect knowledge and is instead a hope for things that you can't see but are true you still treat it as if you had a perfect knowledge.  Even if you only have faith in a part of it for that part you are treating it as if it was the absolute truth, or at least for me it is so.  If anyone who reads this has any thoughts on this then feel free to comment.  Also a side question from Alma 32:21, if what you have faith in is not actually the truth then is that still considered faith?

• Morning routine didn't happen, I went to bed late and didn't set the alarm and then I just laid there instead of getting moving.
• I hadn't actually figured out what I was going to do for the prayer goal for sure until afternoon sometime so I've already missed the morning and midday prayer.  The evening prayer was good, much better than my more recent prayers have been.  Doing it before I'm about to flop into bed is good.
• I kept my phone out of my room, yay!
• I scanned a document of John Greenleaf Holman's wagon train trip in 1868.  It was his third trip and the final wagon train for pioneers because soon after the railroad was completed.
• I had some work to do and final things before bed that took longer than 9:30 but soon after I was off and I got to bed around 10:30 but immediately got sent to the bathroom which put me back in bed at 11.

Tuesday:

* I did a thing I've never done with Alma 32 today.  I read the faith as a seed part with a particular principle in mind and I really recommend that you try it.  I'm working on prayer so as I read that section (26-43) I thought of prayer as the seed I was planting and nourishing and it put it into a whole different light and gave me some insights.

• Good morning.  I woke at 6 without alarm assistance and got up and ready.  I was unable to complete my routine because I got stuck in the bathroom and then didn't feel well enough to go walking but everything else has worked out.
• Morning prayer was good.  I confess I forgot to set a midday alarm so no prayer then.  Even prayer was ok, I wasn't sleeping in my room so my routine got all messed up and I didn't have much of a place to kneel down, however I was a little more focused than usual so I say it wasn't too bad.
• I had my phone in my room a lot but this was due to the fact that I ate something that my body did not like and I felt like rather nauseous.  My bed was the only comfortable place so I used my phone to distract myself.  I think I may have had a slight case of food poisoning.
• My family history work was me learning how to combine jpgs into a pdf. 
• Mom and Aubrey and Aaron came to visit so I slept upstairs and didn't get to bed until around 11.

Wednesday:

* Come Follow me suggested reading the first of Alma 32 with the idea of how do you prepare to hear the word of God.  What stuck out to me is that the poor of the Zoramites came not only humble but with sincere questions for Alma.  I've done this many times for conference and of course in prayer.  Also this makes for fantastic scripture study.  However I have rarely if ever done it for regular sunday meetings.  It really is hardly any different from conference, the speakers are generally always prepared by the spirit and the topics are chosen the same way, there is even beautiful music and prayers.  I think I'm going to try this and see how it goes.

• I got up at around 6 and was able to do my morning routine.
• Morning prayer was good but I forgot to set the alarm again so nothing in the midday.  The evening prayer was out of order again and I was so tired that it was minimal.
• I kept the phone out of the room.
• For family history I researched how to turn image into text.
• I was up really late with Mom again, I didn't go to bed until after midnight.

Thursday:

* I read Alma 33 and the poor of the Zoramites asked how they could plant the seed and do as Alma said.  Alma told them to do two things to pray and to search the scriptures.  If you are doing those two things then you are headed in the right direction.

• I don't know what time I got up but I have a headache and cramps so I didn't do any routine.
• Morning and Evening prayers weren't great but then I was feeling awful today so nothing was great.  I did set that alarm finally, however I didn't use my phone much so I missed it.
• Phone was in the room later in the evening when I was feeling awful in bed.
• Didn't do any family history stuff today.
• Oddly enough I stayed up despite feeling bad.  I went to bed at 11 but I couldn't sleep for about 2 hours because of those cramps.

Friday:

*Alma 34 is super good, it is full of fantastic things but one thing I really liked was the phrase in v 38 says "live in thanksgiving daily".  I have done that a few times in my life.  Oh I always say thank you in my morning and night prayers and blessings on the food or group prayers.  However this says living to me that means something more than at all of the formal prayers.  I've had days where I've had a running conversation with God, when I've asked for specific things and then recognized many of the blessings as I've received them.  I can tell you that whoa! those are some of the best days I've ever had and some of the happiest too.  I feel like I receive more blessings on those days, though I know on other days I don't recognize many of the blessings at the time but it also seems likely that the more grateful you are the more blessings God will give you.

• I woke up feeling much better today, though I got less sleep because I was awake around 6:15.  I will say that I still stayed in bed for an hour and didn't do my routine.
• Here I missed a day so we'll see what I can remember.  Prayers...can't remember much.
• Phone was in my room...I think.
• No family history
• Don't remember my bedtime except that I definitely didn't do my routine.

Saturday:

* I read through the parts about prayer again and one thing I noticed is that when you continue to pray to God that it helps keep you humble.

• I woke today as is always the case.  No routine and feeling much better physically but really not super well otherwise.
• I prayed but missed my alarm again and the prayers were not great.
• I've kind of ignored this rule for the last couple of days.  I've been sleeping with it in my room too.  In the evening I'm not ready to go to bed so I play sudoku or do a puzzle or watch youtube.
• No family history again, I've been distracted do so home design on Sketchup.
• I was asleep around 11, no routine and was on my phone until just before.

Sunday:

* Alas I never finished my  reading and don't have a thought to share.  I had intended to of course but I got busy and then I got sick with the stomach flu and went to bed early.

• I woke up at around 7-7:30 but I felt off so I didn't do much for a routine.
• I'm not doing this pray thing any better.  I keep missing my alarm.
• Still ignoring the phone rule.
• Sadly of all days I didn't do any family history.
• Went to bed at around 9 but kept running to the bathroom to think about throwing up.  Eventually one of those times I did and then I finally got to sleep at around 12.  Though I woke up to do it again at 1:30.  Not the greatest evening, I haven't thrown up for years.

So I think I'd call this week a failure.  I must do better but getting sick gets in the way.  However I can still pray while sick so I want to get that one down next week sick or not.