MODERN DAY MARTHA

A couple of weeks ago I was wandering around the internet and stumbled across a blog where a woman was describing her family’s schedule. Among the activities she laid out she mentioned going grocery shopping and running errands “once every month or so“.  How is that even possible? I’m comforting myself with the idea that she must live on a farm or something, because I’m at the grocery store at least two or three times a week, and I feel like I’m running errands more days than not.

So, I decided to assess my schedule and see if there isn’t a way I could condense my errands – plan ahead and not have so many last minute runs out to the store.  I looked at my calendar for the upcoming month and figured out days that need planning for- preschool days that I’m teaching, parties I’m hosting, and came up with a list of things to be done in connection with them.  (I still have to figure out when to do those things, but it’s a step in the right direction.)  Then I planned out our meals for the next two weeks (I usually plan just one week in advance) and did that shopping today. Already I’ve realized I forgot a key item, and I’ll probably need to do a milk run in about a week, but I’m hopeful that skipping the almost daily trips to the store will cut down on the spending that goes with each trip.  (We will be making stops at the local produce stand, but that counts more as an activity than an errand. )

So tell me, how many times do you grocery shop? How many days are you running errands?  Do you have any tips on how to condense, plan ahead?

Organization, Shopping

Is it summer where you are?

It’s not really summer here either, we’re still solidly in spring, but preschool has ended and it’s time to set up a new schedule.

Our new schedule will include lots of being outside, crafts, swimming lessons, and parks. It will also include cleaning, organizing,  cooking, and learning how to read. The ever present question is how to balance everything so that it flows together and forward, keeping us moving and happy. I’m thinking a spreadsheet is in order.

How do you fit everything you want/need to do into your schedule? Is it written down? On the computer? How often do you reassess? Do share!

Organization

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days.”

Anne Dillard

How much do you  schedule? A lot? A little? How specific do you get?

More to come….

Organization

I love new starts. I love the beginning of a new week, a new month, and the opportunity it provides to plan and create a contained set of things to get done in an established time frame.  I appreciate the repeated chance to reflect back and evaluate what worked and what didn’t; what could be changed for next time.

So I especially love the start of a new year.

I’m not a big one for resolutions. They’re too vague for me, it’s too easy to get discouraged. (How do you measure “Be healthier”?)

But a to do list?  That I can do.

To- do lists for a week, by their nature, have to be short, concise, and specific, to be in any way effective.

To-do lists for a year? Expansive, ambitious, long.

Enter the Uberlist.

I’m not sure who first came up with the idea of the Uberlist; I came across it on the blog of a friend of a friend.  The idea is to come up with a to do list for the coming year, with as many items on it as the number of the year. (For the friend of a friend it started in 1998 with 98 items, and continued on, so this year had 109 items, and 2010 will have 110.)  Some of the items will be menial ( #65. Organize desk), some much bigger (#21. Go to Disneyland).  Some are things you’d do anyway, (#82 Go to dentist), others should stretch you (#34 Memorize 10 hymns).

I’ve done an Uberlist for the last 3 years, and I love it. So far this year I’ve finished 48 of my 109 goals, which is pretty good. There’s a good chance I’ll  finish another couple before the year is out (#12 Reread a childhood favorite is a strong contender).

I split my list into sections to make it easier to go through, and to make it easier to balance out. (It gets hard to come up with new items once you hit about 50.)  The sections I used last year were:

Books  (ie. #11 Read something by an author I’ve always meant to try. )

Local attractions (#19 Go to the zoo )

Trips (#22 Visit family in Utah)

Spirituality  (#26 Read the New Testament)

Personal Development (#38 Make a new friend)

Leisure (#48 Go to a musical)

Home  (#63 Get shelving for closets)

Writing (#78 Edit novel)

Health  (# Floss)

Homemaking Skills (#100 Make a master grocery shopping list)

Entrepreneur endeavors (# 107 Come up with name for Etsy store)

This year I’ll probably add Creativity and Education as new sections.

But a list isn’t any good unless you use it, especially one this long, so I come up with the list during December, and then at the beginning of each month I take a look at it. I pick things off of the list I can tackle that month, and then break it into weeks.  Some things are easier to get taken care of than others, some leap to the top of the list (#70 Put away Christmas decorations), others take planning and work (#92 Make a quilt), some stay on the list for years (#55 Make curtains for Z’s room).

And some just become unimportant and never get done.  Interests or time or circumstance change, and things listed at the beginning of the year aren’t always relevant six months later. And that’s just fine.

The point, for me, is to catch a vision of the year to come, from the basics to the dreams. Having it written down gives me a reference point on the days that seem overly cluttered, or unusually empty. When I feel like I’m missing the mark, I can reassess.

I keep my list on the computer, and when I finish an item I bold it. It’s visually lovely that way.

So I’d like to invite you to join me, if you’re so inclined.  Do it by yourself, or with your family (I might try that this year). Make your list as safe or ambitious as you prefer.   If you’d like, share one or two of your list items with us. It’s always inspiring to see what other people have planned for their life.  And if you’re curious, post a number from 1-110 and I’ll tell you what that item on my Uberlist is.

Happy planning!

Catching the vision, Organization, Traditions

“Despite the changes which come into our lives and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days—as much as we can—with those things which matter most. May we cherish those we hold dear and express our love to them in word and in deed.” – Thomas S. Monson

I’m struggling with this right now- our days are filling themselves up quickly, but I’m not sure they’re filled with those things that matter most.  How do you determine what matters most to you? How do you keep those things at the forefront of your days while still keeping dishes washed and floors clean? (Unless, of course, clean dishes and floors are the things that matter most to you. It’s possible.) How do you find the balance between the urgent and the important, in real, practical terms?

Organization

I’m currently reading Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World by Suzanne Woods Fisher, a fantastic book I HIGHLY recommend.  It’s a great glimpse into the Amish way of life, and Fisher (who is not Amish) does an insightful  job of asking thought provoking questions that help the reader consider what can be learned from Amish beliefs.

I read this yesterday and it was like a kick in the head, so I thought I’d share.

“One Amish man joked that if her were meant to plow at night, God would have put a headlight on a horse. The Amish respect natural limitations: sunlight and seasons, hunger and fatigue. Do you accept those limitations, or do you try to override them? Do you ever feel as if you are expecting too much from yourself?

How many times in a day do you feel rushed? How many times in a day do you feel frustrated? Are those moments always related to each other? Building a margin of error into your schedule – for unexpected things like traffic jams – can be a simple and effective way to add peace to your life.”  p 86 of Amish Peace

Share your thoughts in the comments if you like, and if you need something to read, check out this book. The chapters are really short, so it’s easy to pick up and put down, and I’m really learning a lot from it — about the Amish, and about myself.

Books, Organization

It’s time for a nitty gritty post- a how do you do the things you need to to keep the house moving kind of post.

I’ve realized that if I do a couple of small things on a daily basis, I can keep a handle on the world (or at least my house).

1. Make my bed.

I decided back when Z was just a tiny baby that my bed being made was going to be my signal to myself that everything was ok. Even if the rest of my house was an insane mess, and all I had managed to accomplish was to make my bed, I would have done that, and it was ok.  For a friend of mine, her “ok space” is her kitchen sink- as long as the dishes are done she can feel ok about the world.

2. Fill the dishwasher directly after dinner.

The food hasn’t had a chance to cement itself to the plates, and then it’s not hanging over my head for the rest of the evening.

2a. Start the dishwasher before bed.

Waking up to clean dishes is so much nicer than fishing around in a washer full of dirty dishes to find the plastic valve for a sippy cup while your eyes are still bleary.

3. Tidy up the house before bed.

Everyone else is in bed, so it’s not going to get messed up again, and it’s SO much less depressing to wake up to a clean house than a dirty one.

4. Fully process one load of laundry a day.

I fall behind on this one, but when I do keep up it makes life so much easier. By fully process I mean wash, dry and put away. Doing all of the steps right after the other gets it done, and doing only one load a day is so much less intimidating(and tiring and boring) than attempting to wash all of the clothes in the entire house.  I have it scheduled out which load gets done which day, Monday: white clothes, Tuesday: black clothes, Weds: kids clothes, Thursday: Sheets, Friday: White clothes (again, there’s a lot of them), Sat: Towels , Sunday: other clothes.

What little things do you do to keep things flowing in your house? And do you have an “ok space”? What is it?

Cleaning, Organization Cleaning, the nitty gritty

I have a lot of crafting supplies. A lot. I’m a collector (voracious hoarder? You say tomato, I say tomato) by nature, and I enjoy 1) having  lots of options, 2) being able to put my hands on exactly what I’m imagining, 3) buying pretty things, 4) looking at pretty things. Add to that my tendency toward dabbling in many different crafting genres, and the end result is A LOT of supplies.

Did I mention there’s a lot?

I struggled for a long while figuring out the best storage solutions for all the supplies, and I’ve pretty much hit on what works for me. It’s a strange conglomeration of containers that resides in my closet.

The top shelf is the sewing machine and other sewing items- yarn, crochet needles, knitting needles, yarn, thread, scissors, rotary stencils, etc.

The second shelf holds the Cricut and all related items- as well as paper cutters. And apparently sandpaper and bottle of pink paper flowers.

Third is scrapbook paper and embellishments, and that section overflows into the  fourth shelf in those lovely Martha Stewart boxes.

The ground houses all the generic supplies (glue, scissors, tape) and various inks, glimmer mists, and stencils.

And there’s more in the rest of the closet – stamps, fabric, stationary, chipboard and o-wires.

(Somehow my clothes, shoes, and bags fit in there too.)

It’s really nice to have everything in one place and accessible when I need it. But because it’s put away and out of sight, I find I don’t “need” things as often, because I get distracted by the rest of life and forget about the 17 projects I have going and the other 15 I’m thinking up.

Earlier this week I got out the sewing machine to work on a set of baby blankets I’m making for a friend who is having twins. I got almost done with one blanket and hit a rough patch, so I put it aside. But since the sewing machine was out, I decided to tackle some other projects I’ve been thinking about but hadn’t gotten to, because it was “too much trouble to get the sewing machine out”.

Pillows for Z and A to play their favorite game on- appropriately called “Fall on the pillow”. They were later used as stepping stones:

A new bag to cart A’s toys to church on Sunday:

Two easy, quick projects out of the way and done, and all because the instruments to make them were out and ready. I wonder how many other projects I would magically find time for if the sewing machine (or scrapbook stuff, or knitting stuff) was always out.

I’m tempted to pick a supply and leave it out in plain sight for a week, and see what comes of it. Will you join me? Let me know what you’re leaving out in the comments.

Crafts, Creativity, Organization Creativity, projects, sewing, supplies

Today I woke up motivated.  As I snuggled with my two year old under the warm covers I contemplated what my day would hold.  I said my morning prayers and thought about change, progress and many good things that I wanted to incorporate into this beautiful Saturday.

Among the things I was thinking about, one in particular was that I needed to do a major cleaning job on my kitchen.  I had let it go for two days and in that short period of time it had come to resemble the wake of a Class 5 hurricane.  Pretty bad.  Worse than bad.

After I finally decided to get up, I went upstairs to the kitchen and began the morning’s cleaning; unloading the dishwasher, filling it up and so forth.  I fed my boys.  Then I turned around three times and the kitchen was a total disaster again complete with oatmeal smeared on the floor, the table, the chairs and a few spots on the living room carpet.

I had a minor conniption fit while basking in my self-pity and uselessness.  I ran downstairs and vented to my husband for a minute or two and then attempted to pull myself together.  I was struggling with the suffocating feeling of being overwhelmed by all the chores I had to do this day.  I was feeling let down because I had been so motivated just an hour or so before.  I was feeling like I would never get all the rooms clean and my mental to-do list would never get complete, especially when my kids were seemingly running behind like some kind of elves and undoing all the work I had just done.

So while I was trying to get my motivation back, I spent some time looking over Fly Lady’s site.  I watched her Shine Your Sink video and read the first few baby steps.  That was the inspiration I needed.  I decided to follow her advice and tackle my jobs in smaller increments and I decided to make a list of all the things I wanted to get done this day.

My list looked like this:

• Put up new bedside lamp
• Change light bulb in laundry room
• Shine kitchen sink
• Put away dishes
• Re-fill dishwasher
• Wash kitchen floor
• Clean off my dresser
• Fold laundry
• Wash/Dust TVs
• Make a box for the cat to sleep in on the deck

Not the most elaborate list but detailed enough so that I wouldn’t loose track of what I was supposed to be working on.  I find that I get side tracked pretty easily.  There is always something else that needs to be cleaned, put away, scrubbed, folded, shopped, chopped, watered, baked, etc.  I’m a mom.  That’s life.  I turn around and there is another project staring me down.  If I look at the whole house and all of the daily projects and chores that need to be done, I get overwhelmed and then shut down.  Then I spend the entire day on Facebook refreshing my browser hoping that one of my friends has updated their status or searching Craigslist for cute antique couches that I can’t afford to buy and I’m not really sure that I want anyway.

My bite sized pieces were the thing the kept me going today.  I was able to come back to my to-do list after cleaning up my son’s broken piggy bank and know what I should do next.  Like a buffet, I can pick and choose from my list the items I feel like doing at that particular moment.  I was able to maintain momentum and even found joy in performing the mundain tasks such as changing the light bulb in the laundry room.  I had so much fun doing that task that I was inspired to change all the light bulbs in my bathroom to the energy efficient bulbs.  Maybe I’ll save a couple of cents and can buy a new notebook when this one gets full of my To-Do lists…

Tomorrow is a new day with a new list.  I will carry over a few of the items such as Fold Laundry.  All those clean clothes that I washed in between checking off items on my list are still piled up on the floor in the family room.  I’ll be honest, they might be there for a few days.  But that job will also be on each day’s new To-Do list and eventually I’ll happily cross that nice bite-sized chore off.

Cleaning, Organization