N.C. Transportation Museum Spring Kick Off Event

If you're one of my local readers, you may be interested in this event!  My family and I are hoping to attend!

Here's the official invitation:

Join the N.C. Transportation Museum for a Spring Kick Off on March 15, 2014! This event is a way of welcoming back warmer weather and gearing up for our busiest seasons of the year. Two trains will be available, including the steam powered caboose train.

NCTM Passenger Train: The N.C. Transportation Museum's passenger train is pulled by a vintage diesel engine, with visitors riding in 1950s-era passenger cars. The newly restored Clinchfield 100 will be in the consist for visitors to ride. About 25 minutes long, the ride provides a “from the tracks” view of the town of Spencer and the N.C. Transportation Museum's historic buildings.

Steam Engine Caboose Train: A special offering for this event, the Lehigh Valley #126 will be pulling five of the museum's colorful cabooses for a different view from the rails. The Lehigh Valley #126 is an authentic steam engine, built in 1931. After a long career of working in the coal industry, primarily in Pennsylvania, the engine was nearly lost to a scrap yard. It was purchased by the Gramling Locomotive Works, restored and now tours the country appearing at events like the Spring Kick Off. There is nothing like the sound of a steam engine chugging down the tracks. And since everyone's favorite rail car is the caboose, we give you a train full of them. Ride along in the cupola for an “above the rails” view of the N.C. Transportation Museum.

Clinchfield 100 Passenger Car and Activities: Those on the museum's Passenger Train will be able to ride along in the Clinchfield 100. This newly restored rail car represents the history of the Clinchfield Railroad. Started in 1902, the passenger and freight train line ran from Virginia to South Carolina, with a popular stop at the Little Switzerland resort in the North Carolina Mountains. The railroad is also remembered for it's “Santa Clause Special” that started in 1943 and ran the lenth of the railroad's main line, from Elkhorn City to Spartanburg, handing out gifts for children along the way.

Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society Whistle Machine The Whistle Machine is a self-contained trailer featuring a collection of unique, historically significant whistles from the steam locomotive era and the means to blow them. Steam locomotive train whistles were the sound of an era, more musical than modern horns. Engineers also often had a distinctive way they would sound their whistles as the steam engine moved down the track. The Whistle Machine offers an opportunity for all ages to hear to distinctive sound and to create their own signature whistle sound.

NASCAR Field of Honor Race Car: This NASCAR car, decked out in red, white and blue, serves as an attention getting and fund-raiser for the Carolina Field of Honor at Triad Park. A joint venture of Forsyth and Guilford Counties, the park will commemorate and honor those who fought in the nation's battles, creating a timeline from Iwo Jima and Germany to Iraq and Afghanistan. A project of the War Memorial Foundation, more information on the construction plans for the park can be found at www.ncwmf.org.

History In Person: Across the museum grounds, visitors will find figures from the past. Figures include the hobos at the box car telling their tales, the milk man and his Divco milk truck in the Bumper to Bumper exhibit (with milk and cookies for guests!), the railroad shop worker in the Roundhouse, Wright Brothers' sister Kate Wright at the Wright Brothers Flyer, and the soldier in the Back Shop near by the Deuce and a half army truck. All will provide visitors a unique look at transportation history, from their perspective.

Piedmont Airlines DC-3 Restoration: Special tours will be available as part of your ticket price, including a walk through the Back Shop to get an up close look at the Piedmont Airlines DC-3. The airplane is undergoing a restoration. Former Piedmont and US Air pilot Captain Bill Wilkerson will provide his expertise. Tours happen at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Visitors will gather at the Master Mechanic's Office (near the caboose train boarding) at the appointed times to take advantage of these tours.

Kids Crafts, Storytelling: In the Wagon's, Wheels & Wings exhibit area, crafts will be available (at no extra fee) while Barbie LeBrun will tell children's stories to the gathered kids.

Gold Panning: Our Historic Site partners at Reed Gold Mine will provide their gold panning activity. See how gold was found in the days of the first gold rush and pan for gold yourself! NOTE: Gold panning requires an additional $2 fee.

Fire Truck Displays: See a great display of antique fire trucks on the museum grounds from a private collection. Plus, the museum's own 1929 Ford Model AA Fire Truck will also be displayed.

Rowan Areo Modelers: The Rowan Areo Modelers will be flying their ultra-cool model airplanes from the museum's lower parking lot. See the models on the ground and in flight and talk with the model pilots. Find more at www.rams-fly.com.

MORE!: Events and activities are still being added for what promises to be a huge day of fun at the N.C. Transportation Museum. Purchase tickets now online!

Project Simplify: Turning Goals into Reality

If you have not already printed these free goal-setting printables, you can do that now and work on determining the goals that you would like to reach this year.

Since the theme this year is “Project Simplify”, I thought it would be pretty silly to make some kind of complicated worksheet to help me determine how to reach my goals.

Instead, I am using a simple calendar.

If you care to use my simple method, read on and I'll explain how to make your goals become reality.

• Re-read your list of goals and determine how they can broken up into actionable items.  For example, if you wrote that you want to memorize more scripture, you should decide  which specific verses you want to memorize and by what date you want to have them memorized.  Add that to your calendar.  I want to memorize Colossians chapter 3, and I am planning to memorize one verse each week.  So I have added “Colossians 3:1” to the first week of the calendar, “Colossians 3:2” to the second week, and so on.

• If you have long-term goals, break them down into steps and determine a deadline for each step.  Add each step to your calendar.  For example, let's say you want to re-decorate your bedroom.  Give yourself a couple weeks to decide on the colors you want.  Mark that deadline on your calendar and focus the next couple weeks on browsing Pinterest and magazines until you're sure you know what you want.  The next deadline could be when you want to have it painted by.  Then when you want to have the new curtains made (or bought).  And so on.

• Make sure your goals are reasonable.  I know many people suggest to aim high, but I'm going to suggest the opposite.  You can always add more if you easily reach one goal.  My tendency in years past has been to be all starry-eyed about the things I'm going to accomplish.  Then when it's too much to keep up with I end up getting discouraged and scrapping everything.  I'd rather choose a couple simple things and do a good job keeping up with them than to end up aiming too high and ending up accomplishing nothing.

See how simple this is?  I bet I  could sum up this whole post in one sentence.  Let me try:

After assuring that your goals are reasonable, turn them into specific actions and add them to your calendar in the appropriate places.

In a few days I'll be sharing my daily planner (if you can even call it that -it's so easy!) and how I translate what's on my calendar into daily actions. But for now, go ahead and print your 12 calendar pages and work on translating your goals into specific actions you can put onto the calendar.

(And go ahead and add birthdays and other yearly events now too. )

 Download here

For those of you who indicated on Facebook that you really could use some help in the organizational department, you will not want to miss the post where I share my daily planner! I'm calling it “The Planner for the ADD Personality”, or “A Simple Planning System for People who Hate to Plan” or something like that.  It's working for me, and I've been pretty much hopeless until now.

Be sure you're subscribed to email updates so you won't miss it when it's posted!

Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the prizes from the book launch of Farewell, Fatigue!  If you are on this list, you should have already received an email from me:

Grand prize giveaway – Andrea H.

Kerrygold Prize Package – Renee W.

Kind Bars variety pack – Rachel A. L.

Non-toxic Living eBooks – Karen G. D.

Real Food eBooks – Eileen H.

Boiron homeopathic sleep aid – Tyra N Blake W.

Propur Sport Filtration Bottle – Nikki S.

You’re Invited!

You are all invited to a Facebook party on Tuesday evening from 8 – 10 pm.

We will be discussing various aspects about my new ebook Farewell, Fatigue.  There will be a lot of great information there for everyone, regardless of your current health.

And of course there will be door prizes and party favors!

RSVP here so you can get a little reminder before the party starts!

And, would you do me a little favor and invite your friends too?

Looking forward to chatting with you there!

Does Caffeine Make You Tired?

There are many things that can contribute to fatigue in your body. One of the most surprising things that may be adding to your fatigue is the very thing you are using to stay energized – – caffeine.

Head over to Growing Slower where I've posted 3 Reasons Caffeine is Making You Tired…

Free Goal-Setting Printables

Have you thought about what you'd like to accomplish in 2014?

More importantly, have you thought about what God wants you to accomplish this year?

My husband and I have a date planned for this Friday night to sit down and make a list of goals that we believe God would have our family to work towards.

I will also be sitting down this evening to work on my personal goals for this year.

You've probably all heard the old saying, “If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time.”  I want to aim for something.  In this season of my life, that may not be anything “big”.  My life is full right now with taking care of my home and children, and there's not much room for many “big” things.  And that's okay.

As you think through your goals for the year, just keep them simple and realistic.  You don't have to come up with specific steps for reaching those goals quite yet – I'll be providing printable worksheets for that within the next few days.  Just start jotting down everything you can think of that you'd like to accomplish, then go back and pray over your list and re-evaluate what you should keep and what you should cross off.  Remember, if you try to focus on doing too much, you'll actually accomplish less.

You can use these free printable goal setting sheets.

Download Here

I've included the following:

Spiritual goals – Do you want to read all the way through the Bible this year?  Memorize a large passage of scripture?  Those things go here.

Personal goals – this is for things like exercising, personal hobbies, home business ventures like blogging or direct sales, etc.

Homemaking goals – this includes anything that has to do with your home and family like menu planning, cleaning and organizing, spending quality time with your husband or children, etc.

Family goals – this is for goals that you set as a family and all work on together.  Maybe you'd like to accomplish some yard or house projects together or participate in some type of ministry as a family.  Work on those goals together and put them here.

You'll probably want to put these printables in a binder as I will be offering many, many printables this year as a part of Project Simplify.  (Get the first one here if you missed it.)

Don't forget to subscribe to email updates so you can keep up with each step of Project Simplify and receive the new printables as they are published.  Simply enter your email address in the form below this post.

What area do you most need to simplify this year?