the 10 to 10 challenge: day 1 + a smashing life journal

So yesterday was the first day of the 10 to 10 challenge, and I'm happy to report that it went very well!

saying goodbye to this from 10-10 was a very good thing

I was surprised by five things:

#1- that it was so incredibly hard. It's become such a habit that keeping myself from doing it made me conscious of just how often I would touch a computer. It was painful to realize how much I used it.

#2- that the internet has become my second brain. No joke. If I want to look something up, I go look it up. I had a thought about looking up a dress I remembered seeing, and would've normally stopped and looked it up right then. Instead, I had to wait until later, and then I totally forgot about it, and still haven't searched for it as of yet. Score one for the brain!

#3- that my husband would be so pleased I was doing it. When I told him, not only was he really surprised, he even smiled and said, "Good! I like it, baby. I get my wife back!" {insert knife into chest and twist...!! ouch!} He was thrilled though, and that made my soul happy {and convicted to keep it up}.

#4- that I felt so much better. My brain emerged from the fog of distraction in just one day. It's true. Something about staring at the computer screen is hypnotic, and not in the good way.  I could breathe  deeply again.

#5- that I had more time to talk to God. Clearing out some head space made way for little conversations to be lifted up throughout the day. The coolest thing happened. I thought I would make time for the kids by doing this, but God used it to bring me to Him yesterday. Please, Jesus, let it be so again.

So all in all, it was completely challenging and convicting. And I'm excited to see how it changes our life even more.

Oh, and speaking of life changing things... :)

I found this at Target and it's so perfect for me right now as I'm trying to focus on being more intentional. I thought you would love it too! {I'm not being paid by the Smash people or anything, but I love it so much that I would be their spokesperson! ha!}

It's called a Smash journal {and it comes with a glue stick/pen attached!}:

I could explain it, but I thought they did it so well:

Messy and beautiful. It's perfect for us! 

I love how funky and fun it is! It's got the cutest sets of paper! Here's the first page:

I love how it's all laid out and cute and waiting for things to fill it...

because I'm totally not a scrapbooker. I did a short stint in 2004, right before baby #2 came along, and then like that, it was over. :P

Another thing I love: they have tons of list-making pages.

Like lists of things we want to do:

And lists so we can remember all of our special family bike rides:

And some pages are just pretty too. These two belong to my Isabella Rose. This is very similar to her nursery scheme almost five years ago. {tears!}

It was only $12.99 for the book and pen. I thought it was well worth the price for a non-scrapbooker like me! I think it's just precious.

To go with it, they had the cutest sets of writing prompts for $1.99 each.

I bought the "family" one.

Here is one of my favorites inside it:

Dear Smash journal people, we're going to need an entire pad of just this one:

I used one titled "the kind of parent I want to be" for my first entry:

So fitting for this week, yes? I was so excited about it! I think recording our family's special moments and even our struggles will be so good for me.

I love sweet little gifts like this... thank you Lord for knowing just what I needed to be help me to be more intentional in my time with them!

What helps you live an more intentional life? Do you journal? Or set goals? I'd love to hear!