Big Plans

One week off of school and I have big plans. I thought I'd share my goals with you to help me get them organized and to keep me accountable.

 

I want to organize the photos on my camera's SD card which leads me into my next goal of doing LOTS of scrapbooking. I want to try out some new recipes from my friend Sarah's blog -  "Whole and Heavenly Oven". Some of the recipes I'd like to try are..

• rye bread - my husband's favourite kind of bread so I'd like to master it.
• homemade marshmallows - I think this would be cool. It's been on my to do list for a long time and Sarah's recipe looks good.
• ginger molasses snickernoodles - I love molasses cookies.
• red velvet fudge cookies - fudge - need I say more? I think not.

I need to put away our annual grain order. My husband took a couple of our children and picked up our year's supply of grain on Saturday. They were out of spelt and steel cut oats so we'll have to go backfor those when they come in. Other than that we got hard wheat, quick cook oat flakes, navy beans, black beans and maple syrup. You know you're out in the country when the road sign looks like this...

 

All of this for less than $600 - That's less than $60 per person for a year's worth of grains.

I may or may not do some sewing. I have a few projects kicking around in my head.

 

But my biggest goal of all is to potty train my three-year-old. We've talked about this for months trying to prepare him. He's pretty excited right now. We'll see how he is once we actually start.

 

Do you have any great potty training tips? This is #7 for me, and I'm still dreading it.

 

Daylight Savings Time

 

So I just realized today that we have to put our clocks ahead an hour this weekend. Not a happy time - losing an hour of sleep. Years ago I worried about how it would affect my baby's night time schedule. I came up with this idea, and it has worked well ever since.

 

After nap time I move all the clocks forward one hour. That means I lose an hour in the afternoon which isn't a huge problem since it's a Saturday. I try to have a laid back day on that particular Saturday. The nice thing is that I don't get everyone finally wiggled into bed around 8 or 8:30 and realize that I really have to count it as 9 or 9:30. That's not a nice feeling.

 

Try this, especially if you have little ones. I think you will find it to be a lifesaver mentally which will affect you positively emotionally and physically too.

 

Do you have any tips for making this transition easier?

I'm Having a Personal Retreat

Recently I downloaded a free book from a blog that I follow. The book is free to subscribers of the blog. I would encourage you to subscribe to The Humbled Homemaker just to get this book, but also I enjoy this blog. She has so much useful information especially for mothers. She writes with a real heart to help women everywhere.

 

So what is this book, you ask. I'm glad you asked. It's a book about planning a personal retreat. What is a personal retreat, you ask. You're full of a lot of questions, aren't you? ☺ It's a time for you to step back and assess your life and the direction you want it to go in. A time to think about being more purposeful in your plans.

 

The book is very thorough and covers making a mission statement for yourself and setting goals for your life: spiritual, health and wellness, personal growth. She also looks at your roles as wife, mother, homemaker and work. She includes pages of printable worksheets as well. So far I've worked my way through about half of the worksheets and have found it to be very helpful. I've been blessed and inspired to pursue my goals in a realistic manner.

I can't get away for several hours to do this so I've been doing it at nap time. The house is quiet and the children know I'm not to be disturbed. I really can't emphasize enough what a blessing this time has been to me.

 

Here are some quotes from Erin:

• "Without this planning retreat to help me focus, I’ve found that I often get stuck in the daily grind of responding to what’s most urgent—instead of to what’s most important." 
• "I’ve learned that I will never meet my goals if I don’t schedule in time to actually set my goals."
• "Having a flexible, workable, written list of goals to keep me accountable and on track helps me immensely."

All you have to do to get this book about a personal planning retreat is to become a subscriber to The Humbled Homemaker blog. Even without this book, I would encourage you to do this. The book is the icing on the cake.

On a different note, I have a couple of exciting things happening on the blog. I'm nearly at the one-year anniversary mark, and I'm nearly at 200 posts written. It looks like these two events will nearly coincide so to celebrate I'm going to be having a giveaway soon. Here's a hint about what I'm giving away...

How does a personal retreat sound to you?
 

 

My Complicated Lists (for an easier life)

To-do lists. I love them. I've written them for as long as I can remember. I love the feeling of crossing things off. The feeling of accomplishment. Which is why I always add things I know I'm going to do anyway - like take my vitamins - just for the pleasure of crossing it off. Believe me, when you have changed five diapers and it isn't even lunch yet, it's nice to realize you actually have accomplished more than changing diapers.

 

Often I have lists in my head. Sunday morning are famous "head list" times for me. I'm getting ready for church and I'm thinking, "Okay, I still need to brush my teeth. Oh, put my watch on. The diaper bag needs more diapers, I think. Perfume, don't forget perfume." Then I abbreviate it for myself so I can remember it all. Now my head sounds like this, "Teeth, watch, perfume, diapers." I say it over and over. As I do something I drop it off the list. Usually I've thought of something else by then so I tag it on to the end of the list. It drives me crazy and keeps me sane at the same time. If that makes sense. ☺

My notebook system is rather awkward, but it works for me so that's what's important, right? First of all, I have a notebook that I keep my yearly type lists in. Lists like what our grain order is year to year. It's nice to have a record of what I ordered so I know how to adjust it. This year I know I need to order more spelt and steel cut oats than I did last year. I will plan out curriculum in this notebook or our vacation.

My next notebook is an address book at the front. It's nice to have phone numbers handy. In the notebook part I make out a list every week - either Sunday night or Monday morning - of what I want to accomplish that week. I use this notebook while filling in my third notebook. I told you this was awkward. ☺

My third and final notebook is my daily notebook. Nearly every morning I sit down with my weekly and daily notebook. I review my goals for that week and figure out how I'm going to move closer to accomplishing those goals. For instance, if my weekly goal is "sew a dress for Elisabeth" my daily goals will look something like this: Monday - "cut out fabric"; Tuesday - "sew bodice"; Wednesday - "attach skirt"; Thursday - "buttons and hem". If I just wrote sew Elisabeth's dress in my daily notebook that would be too overwhelming. Very rarely do I have the time to sit down and sew a dress in one sitting, but I can  do a bit every day. Every day I'm crossing something off my to-do list that leaves me a step closer to a finished goal.

 

This year I've joined a group on Facebook called "52 Lists". Every week there is a new list to write, and I have had so much fun doing these. So far we have done our goals for 2014, the highlights of 2013, rainy day activities and things that remind us of home. This week is a list of our favourite quotes which really has me thinking.

 

Below are my lists. I hope they inspire you to come and join us in this Facebook group. Making these lists has really been meaningful and fun for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No doubt I'll share more lists with you throughout the year. Do you make lists for yourself?