Thursday, March 31, 2016

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

March 2016 Reading List



















Stitched with Love Collection (Romancing America Series)
Tumbling Blocks by Andrea Boeshaar
Old Maid's Choice by Cathy Marie Hake
Jacob's Ladder by Pamela Kaye Tracy
Four Hearts by Sally Laity
Marry for Love by Janet Spaeth
Basket Stitch by Cathy Marie Hake
Double Cross by Tracey V. Bateman
Spiderweb Rose by Vickie McDonough
The Coat by Tracey V. Bateman

The Sunroom by Beverly Lewis

The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis

October Song by Beverly Lewis
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Spring Project Week!



















I’ve decide the week of April 1st-7th to challenge myself to get a few projects off my list. I’ve gotten stuff done over the month of March but not as much as the previous 2 months. It’s time to kick it into gear! I’d welcome anyone who wants to join in doing whatever is needed around your place. What cleaning, purging, or projects do you need to get done? Let’s Organize Now to Make Room for LIFE!

On April 1st, I think I’ll start on my Outdoor Project list in the yard and gardens. I need to weed and clean up beds, remove leaves from the basement window wells, pickup sticks from the yard, and cut up a stack of tree limbs. I have identified the things that are going to the dump during our Village Spring clean week at the end of April.

On my Project: House list for March I have a list of basement maintenance/repairs. We haven’t got those done yet. I’ll ask my husband if he wants to tackle the list together this weekend.
I’ll plan to work on my Photo/Memory Keeping list by doing my photo boxes over the week too. I’ve finished removing all our printed pictures from albums and have put them in the 6 boxes that I bought at the end of February. I need to put the pictures in order, make dividers for years/events/holidays, along with labeling and decorating the dividers. I’ve already went through my sticker collection and picked what I want to use to decorate the dividers. I have a big stack of card stock to make the dividers so I have all the supplies needed.
I’ll have to see what else I can get done in a week’s time.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Love Each Other
























My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15: 12

If you have someone who is a challenge for you to love today, think of something extraordinarily nice you could do for them. Pray for them, and determine in your heart that no matter what happens, you will love them as unconditionally as God loves you.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Plans for March




















My theme for March is Spring Cleaning. I’ll have to see how I can incorporate that into my life beyond the typical cleaning of the house. For now, I'm sharing my plans in my Spring Notebook and Homemaking Notebook. 

In my Spring Notebook for March:



















I really enjoy and look forward to what each season brings into my life. I like the breakdown of my year into the seasonal themes and goals. My Seasonal Notebooks are helpful as I plan and look back over a past season to plan the current season. 

I’ll be Spring Cleaning as I prep and plan to celebrating Easter. Seasonal cleaning isn’t as necessary since my home is easy to clean but I do it each winter, spring, summer, and fall. It’s a ritual that I like to do as I prepare for the next season. I’ll follow my revised version of Flylady’s detailed cleaning list and do a zone per week. 

I’ll need to plan, buy, and prep for our Easter celebration. I’ll pull out my spring tote to decorate and buy an Easter lily. I’ll use the recipes in my Spring Notebook for our Easter dinner. I’ll need to make a list of what to buy. I’ll do my best to use what I have at home to cut down the expense. For my family I’ll bake cut-out cookies and make homemade candies. I have a good amount of cute treat packaging and candy molds. My grandkids will get the same treats along with a few plastic eggs filled with quarters for their piggy bank. They don’t need much candy. I’m thinking about getting them a gift card for Ice Cream. My granddaughter is almost 4 yrs. and grandson is 2 yrs. They really enjoyed their Valentine’s treat of a cupcake in a little box.
I don’t have any plans for seasonal crafts. I might drag something out each Wednesday on my pamper day. I haven’t done much crafting lately and I’d like to get back to it.

In my Homemaking Notebook for March:



















I’ll continue working on my 2016 in 2016 Decluttering Challenge. I’m averaging 100 items each month. I’m happy with that since I’ve been at this for 5 years and 2 months. I’m glad to not be having over 1000 items in a month any longer. I can focus on other projects.  

I’ll continue to take a bite per day out of my projects using the FROG challenge. It has really been motivating and fun to work on something each day toward my unfinished project goals. The FROG challenge feels like what I’ve been looking for to replace the daily purging. I’m enjoying the small steps with daily forward movement to get things done. I’m using the Bullet Journal format for collections to add steps to my projects as I turn them into workable FROGs. 

My husband and I are making plans to strip the old painted over wallpaper in the living room, paint the walls, and refinish the floors. We won’t start the work until April but we need to collect our supplies and make decisions this month. We’ll work on our 2016 Project: House list for March and what we haven’t done yet for the previous months. It’s not working to do the small list of repairs within the same month that we are redo a room. We should be able to get things done this month with the exercise room finished and the living room not starting yet. 

I’ll continue to work on my memory keeping project. I’ll be organizing our pictures in the new photo boxes and labeling them. I need to collect 50 pictures to print since I’ve receive a free offer from Shutterfly. I plan to pick ones that I want for my gallery wall. My memory keeping project is a long term project but I’m gaining ground. I’m feeling like it’s possible to make my goal of being finished by June 2017 in time for our 25th Silver Anniversary celebration. I set a goal for each month and that helps to move it forward.