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No Excuses Posts.

It is time for another “no excuses” post.

I have been struggling with some issues over the past few weeks and have not been sure how to address them here, so I am just going to dive right in.

My knee has been really bothering me. Okay, the pain has been horrible. I did my monthly grocery shop last week and later on that day I was in so much pain that I couldn’t walk (even around the house). I pulled the crutches out of the basement, which I got about 4 years ago for some injury (I don’t even remember what it was. I have been using the crutches off and on since the grocery shopping day. They have really helped me with my range of motion as I tend to walk more normally and less gimpy when I am using them.

So, I haven’t been doing my walking videos, I am very discouraged, and the weeks keep racing by before I can catch them.

Last week I worked on the makings of an exercise binder (and only now remembered) but I didn’t print it because we ran out of ink. We bought ink and paper (so I can finish the taxes) and now I have no excuse for printing up the binder and actually use it. Oh, and our accountant is coming tomorrow morning to do our taxes (there is some light at the end of the tunnel of my to do list).

I did make a choice before we planned our grocery shopping this month. I made the decision to go on a low carb diet. On this program I have lost significant weight before. My thinking was that I need to lose some weight before I can start working on my weight. I committed myself to one month, so it would not feel like forever.

It is going to be an interesting month because I picked the month with 6 birthdays and our 12th wedding anniversaries. I did step off the program for one birthday meal and I don’t regret it. I made a decision, it was not an impulsive act. I don’t plan to step off for all of them and I hope to put more effort into planning the meals so it isn’t necessary.

I still need to work on drinking more water, which I still hate because I have to climb the stairs to get to the bathroom and that hurts.

I have had moments of being really discouraged because I am finally making the decision to change and deep inside I fear that it may be too late. All I can do is push as hard as I can through every excuse and see where it gets me to. Which I hope is a healthier, much lighter me.

I will admit that I have been avoiding the blogs where my blogging mama’s are having success and making progress because I so want to be in that place too.

Hopefully I will have a more encouraging post to write soon (next week?), but I am keeping things honest and real.

So, how are you doing? 

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First Impressions

I was invited to Google + by my friend Jenn and my husband (Jonah).

I was hesitant at first because every time I log into one thing on Google I get logged out of something else, but I finally bit the bullet. I signed up and decided to check it out.

At first it seemed very confusing and I wondered if it would just be one more place. One more place to suck my time. One more place to have to post my content.

but let me tell you…

I am really enjoying it. I am enjoying it more than facebook, and dare I say, more than twitter.

Here are the reasons why I like Google+ : 

1. It seems more professional than facebook and more personal than twitter.
2. You can chat with people who you might not be able to on facebook or twitter.
3. You can put people in different circles and read that stream by itself without having to filter through everything.
4. You are not bombarded with games and apps like on facebook (so far).
5. You have access to a huge number of new people to put your content in front of.
6. You can see who is following who and who is connected to who (you can do this in facebook and twitter too, but it seems easier in Google+).

When I first signed up, I hated it, but I felt the same way about WordPress and Twitter when I first started using those. I think each social network (facebook, twitter, Google+) has its place. For marketing and connecting though, Google+ has the potential to be really good.

Making The Experience Easier

I came across a post on Google+ that talked about adding an extension (plugin) to Google Chrome that would give you a share button and a reply to user button on Google+. I installed it and checked it out. It has made my experience easier.

The tutorial on how to add in the plugin to your Google Chrome is coming soon.

In the mean time, here is the link to the share plugin for Google+.

Making It Relevant

I didn’t want Google+ just to be one more thing, I wanted to use it to connect with other homeschoolers and mama bloggers that may be outside my normal circle. In short, I wanted to make it work for me.

I tried the search option on Google+ and it just sent me to links of homeschooling articles (blogs, websites, etc) when what I was really wanting to find were other Google+ users that homeschooled.

I was very excited to discover the Google Plus Search site. I searched homeschooling and up came a list of Google+ users who were discussing homeschooling (yippee!). Then I found this amazing list of homeschoolers and this amazing list of homeschoolers on Google+. I created a homeschooling circle and I added all the wonderful homeschooling mamas and papas to the list.

Now, on to the mingling. Won’t you join me? 

Have you tried Google+ yet? What do you think so far? 

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