So it’s Monday and I’m planning my week out. I wondered if anyone else is interested in sharing what you are doing in your simple living endeavors on Mondays and sharing results on Fridays? I know that I could use some inspiration from other women as I create a simple and cozy home. Could you?
I say reasonable goals because it’s easy to look at the week ahead and want to do so many things, but I know I can’t. I can, however, focus on three homemaking goals (beyond the normal laundry, meals, etc.) and feel good about accomplishing those things rather than getting to the end of the week and wondering what I got done.
So this week, my three extra homemaking goals are the following.
First, I need to do an updated home inventory. Our home contents have changed a lot since I did it the last time so a new inventory will be a priority this week. I’m simply going to do a video with the phone and upload it to our idrive account. It will take me all of about twenty to thirty minutes and then it will be done. It will also be good to do this before the holiday decorations come out.
Second, I’m going to organize my Christmas thoughts with A Cozy Christmas Planner. I need to inventory my paper, ribbons, cards, etc. I’ve already asked Caroline to start making a wish list. Thanksgiving is really late this year so December will be upon us as soon as Thanksgiving is over. I don’t plan on doing a whole lot more than thinking through stuff at this point and maybe buying Christmas stamps before they get picked over. I do know that writing it all down frees up a lot of mental space because I can see in writing what I need to do and plan.
Third, I’m going to do an inventory of my food (special foods required for my EoE diet). I need to determine what I have and how long it will last in an emergency as I work on my own Prudent & Prepared things. With this week’s grocery money, I’m going to make a priority of building up my pantry with foods specific to my needs.
So those are my three main goals for the week. What do you hope to accomplish? They can be big or small, depending on the season of life you are in. Even tackling small goals can increase the peace, understanding, and joy in your home. Sometimes small changes can make a big difference.
And if you have big goals, share those as well! Maybe you will inspire some of us to do something big next week or next month.
Artwork: “The Sewing Circle” by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Ordering The Stops – Streams in the Desert
I’m leery of putting these up in writing…maybe doing so will motivate me to complete them
1) Put my office/craft room back into workable order (I got to the “explosion” part of organizing/decluttering. Now I need to put it all back together.)
2) Focus-clean the living room, i.e. straighten bookshelves, dust nicely, vacuum furniture, weed through magazines and books and papers
3) Cook up and preserve the squash that won’t keep through the winter
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing your goals. Those sound like good ones!
How do you preserve your squash? Do you freeze it after you cook it?
Sallie
I peeled and cooked the squash. Saved some for squash bread, froze the rest. Should have mashed it or something, because my squash bread has yellow chunks in it! Oh well, maybe potluck organizers will never ask me to bring quick bread again…
I am going to change the sheets and pillow cases tomorrow. I want to start helping my twin sister decorate for Thanksgiving. I intend to wrap my older sister’s birthday gifts. Her birthday is in December.
Marilyn
Hi Marilyn,
Those sound like great goals. Thanks for sharing them with us.
How fun to have a twin sister!
Sallie
I must eliminate all the piles in my office. I’m purging through cookbooks etc. I’d like to see my desk by Friday.
Oh, purging cookbooks. That’s one I could add to my list one of these weeks.
And my desk is fine, but I’d like to see my craft table in the basement by, oh, Christmas. LOL!
Sallie
So before anyone else feels badly about how they might have done with their goals, let me be right up front.
Goal 1 – Fail
Goal 2 – Partial fail
Goal 3 – Fail
All I managed to accomplish was to print off my Cozy Christmas Planner pages. That’s it.
The week took on a life of its own. Caroline’s laptop died with a small pop sound Wednesday night (which is a rather big deal in her world), but we didn’t realize it had actually happened until Thursday morning. This, of course, threw off our entire Thursday routine. So we had to figure out what to do about that and spent quite a bit of time researching options and then shopping. (This threw off our Friday routine.)
I confess I mocked the Black Friday sales already starting until we benefited greatly from them at Best Buy.
And there were just so many other little things. This was a week devoid of flow, if you know what I mean.
It’s almost like I should never, ever set up these things on here that involve deadlines or accountability because they always come back to bite me in the end.
However, I’m not giving up. I’ve never pretended to be a perfect homemaker on here who has it all together and I don’t intend to start now.
So I will pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. I’m going to still try to finish one of the goals this weekend or else I’ll carry them over to next Monday.
https://youtu.be/AGUsRGuZb6k
Well, I got through most of most of mine, so I count that as a vast improvement over my usual.
1) got the craft clutter cleared away and onto shelves. Didn’t get started on the office desk disaster, but I can breathe in that room now
2) living room dusted, vacuumed, and bookshelves straightened, but—my coat rack broke and I can’t organize our outdoor gear until it’s replaced. The main entry is into the living room, we live in the country, it snowed, and our stuff kept piling higher and higher. So I just ignored that corner of the room!
3) squash is processed
I’m sorry your week went crooked, but glad you were able to buy a new computer quickly. Whenever I felt stressed about my unfinished tasks and messy house, my friend would always say, “Don’t worry. The work will be there waiting for you tomorrow.” And she was right! Somehow that reassurance relieved my anxiety and allowed me to rest with my babies and husband.
Hi Sarah,
Three steps forward and one step back (the coat rack) is still two steps forward. Woo hoo!
Glad you were able to accomplish some good things this week!
Sallie