Calendars and Lists

It's true. LOL But mostly because plans change.

Sometimes I change the plan and sometimes others change the plan. It does create work to revise the plan but its worth the effort. 

Spring Project Week Day #7

On Thursday, I worked on my blog but didn't do any project stuff.  It seems like it was a really slow week for me. I usually do more within a normal week. I wasn’t feeling too motivated this week. I’ve really worked hard over the last 5 yrs. 3 ½ months on my home. I set aside time every afternoon to work on a project, after my normal daily chores are finished.  I have several lists that I use to work from if their isn't anything that that needs my immediate attention. I’m at the point that I’m comfortable. Although, I still have projects and things that need done, I don’t feel anything pressing. I’ll have to do another Spring Project week after I gather a few supplies.

 

Spring Project Week Day #6

My project was to find free local activities for my husband and me, to do together over the next few months.  I added the ones for this month that we wanted to do to our wall calendar. The ones that I found for other months I added to our facebook calendar so that I can go back later and decide what we would like to do.

To the calendar for April I added two library activities Stories from the Holocaust and a Dish and Dine. The Stories from the Holocaust should be an interesting event and our 19 yrs. son will be going with us. The Dish and Dine cookbook theme for the month is Not Your Mothers Casserole. You make a recipe from the book to share with other library patrons. I found a few Earth Day events, because I believe it’s important to take care of the earth God made for us. Time spent in God’s creation reveals the face of God. We will probably take our grandchildren with us to one of them since it’s geared toward children. I found a night hike series every other week in our local parks. The one event that I found that cost was free admission but you pay for restaurant vendor food sample, called Taste of Marysville. I went to the Beverly Lewis book signing yesterday with my daughter Nastasja. That makes 7 activities for the month for free or minimal cost. There are a few more but I don’t want to overload us with activities or choices.

We aren’t very strict about doing activities like this. We tend to decide if we want to go or not before the event and don’t stress if we decide we’d rather stay home or do something else. We haven’t attended many local events since the fall and wanted to do something together besides our normal go out to dinner date nights. We have family dinner every other Sunday. This month we celebrate our oldest daughter Brittany's 27^th birthday. We will have a full month of family and local activities to entertain us.

Spring Project Week Day #5

I met award-winning inspirational author Beverly Lewis today. Beverly created the genre of Amish fiction with the release of her first adult novel, The Shunning, in 1997. She gave a short talk about the Amish and her books along with answering questions of library patrons. Se signed copies of her book and chatted with her reader-friends as she calls them.  My daughter Nastasja went along and bought me the book The Atonement.

After the book signing event my daughter went to work. I decided to spend the day in town running errands. I don't go to town or run errand alone very often, maybe every couple months. I like being at home and going out with my husband or family. I went to Walmart to do some browsing, we tend to go shopping for what we need and don't go to stores to just look very often. I visited the craft, clothing, and seasonal isles. I did purchase a thermal shirt and pants for $3 apiece on clearance. I dropped off donations at the Clothes Closet drop box, books went to the library drop box, and browsed a used furniture store. My last stop was Wendy's for a late lunch were I read two chapters in the book I'm reading. It was very enjoyable day, although I'm not doing so well completing projects for the week. 

Spring Project Week Day #4

I spent the day doing my daily chores, creating blog posts, and working in my Homemaking Notebook. My 19 yrs. son had three friends spend last week with us for their Spring break but they cleaned up most of their mess. I’m honestly at a loss as to how to spend my project time.  It’s gotten cold again in Ohio so my yard and garden work is on hold. I need to purchase supplies for my photo boxes so that is on hold. My husband and I got a good amount on our Project: House list done, and need to buy supplies to complete a few more. I don’t have much on my FROG list to do.  I either don’t have the supplies, need my husband’s help, or aren’t feeling motivated to do what I can that’s left.  I need a project! LOL

Spring Project Week Day #3

On Sunday, for my Spring Project week, I took the day off for the Lord’s Day. We didn’t have family dinner so I watched Hallmark movies and read all day. I’m reading The Crossroads by Beverly Lewis. Have you ever had it happen, that while reading fiction that it takes you on a rabbit trail though the bible? Yep, that is what happened to me.

As I was reading I came across 2 Timothy 2:21. In a few versions of the bible they use the word purges rather than cleanses. I found it interested not only for personal possessions but for inner heart purging as well. I ended up reading all of 2 Timothy 2 but I wanted to share 2 Timothy 2:20-21.

20. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 (NKJV)

Oh, on a side note... I happen to be going to meet author Beverly Lewis tomorrow morning at 10:00 at a local library. I've almost read all her books and found out last week that she will be in my area of Ohio on her new book tour. Yippy.

Spring Project Week Day #2

On Saturday for my Spring Project week, my husband and I spent time working on our Project: House list. We got a whole trash cans worth of stuff to purge from the day’s work. I spent the evening reading and watching hallmark movies because I was sore after our days work. 

 

What we did:

 

Replace batteries in smoke & carbon detectors.

Count the light switches/outlets for whole house.

Check the attic for possible problems. (None found)

Remove hook from family room ceiling.

Clean dehumidifier in basement.

Remove old satellite cable in basement.

Remove old networking cable in basement.

Remove old oil pipes in basement.

Dump and refill water jugs in basement.

Dispose of old insulation in basement.

Clean windows seals in basement.

Put away the spray paint cardboard in basement.

Clean up paint and sanding supplies in basement.

Fix the weight tree in basement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Project Week Day #1

On Friday, I started my Spring Project Week!

I worked on my photo boxes in the morning. I realized that my cardstock isn't thick enough to hold my pictures in place. I need to buy something that is thicker than the pictures. Any ideas?

In my yard I have a few Sheppard’s hooks that need something to hang on them. I spent a half hour on Pinterest looking for yard ornaments that I can make. I don’t want to spend money so I’m looking into recycling projects. I found cool ideas for plastic bottle cap art, soda bottle spinners, tin can chimes, and soda can spinners. I’ll need to collect a few things over the next couple days. I’m hoping I can repair a wind chime I have too. 

I worked outside on my yard in the afternoon. I removed all the weeds and dead plants along the front and one side of our shed. I raked the leaves back into the bed for mulch. This is what I see when I’m in the kitchen doing dishes so I wanted to start their first. I cleaned the squirrel feeder and bird feeder too. I brought in the wind chime that I plan to try to fix and cleaned it. I cleaned up trash that had blown into the backyard. It was trash day so I moved our trashcans into the garage from the street. If I do a section of the yard everyday I’ll finish by the end of the week. I have a list started so I'll have to see what I can get done.

What are you working on?

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 1^st, 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.

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 25^th Silver Anniversary celebration. I set a goal for each month and that helps to move it forward.

Eat That Frog! Part 4

Day 22: My FROG was a couple things. I moved all my memory keeping stuff into the entertainment center in the living room. I was able to empty out both my totes. No more totes of memory stored away, they are all available for the family to enjoy. I’ve decided I’d rather them be accessible even if they are undone than wait another year to be finished. It may not look the way I want but the memories are more important.

I moved the grandkids toys and books to the upstairs hall closet. They were displaced by the memory keeping stuff. That’s where I keep most of their stuff anyway. Storing everything in a category in one location is helpful. You see the bulk of what you own.

 
















I transferred my summer decor into a different tote. This makes all my holiday totes match. I transfer my quilting fabric into a different tote. That makes both my fabric totes match.

Day 23 and 24: I didn't have a FROG. I did general cleaning to prepare for my granddaughter to spend the night. I spent the day playing and didn't do any special chores. 

Day 25: My FROG was office tasks. I paid and organized our bills. I worked on my blog. It’s the last Thursday of the month so I worked in the March section of my Spring Notebook. I updated my Homemaking Notebook for the month.

Day 26: My FROG was to make a list for my photos/memories project. I made the list while riding in the car with my husband to our weekend getaway. We had a nice time talking about our family memory keeping.

Day 27 and 28: I didn't have a FROG. I was enjoying a Winter getaway with my husband.

Day 29: My FROG was memory keeping. On our drive home from our weekend getaway we stopped at Michael's Crafts and got photo boxes for our printed pictures. They were on clearance for $2 a piece so we bought 8 boxes. Later in the evening I put all our loose pictures into the boxes. I filled a box with pictures as I took them out of a large magnetic style album and my husband took pictures out of a smaller one. We had two boxes leftover. I'm not sure if we will use them or not since all of our printed pictures so far fit into the boxes. The two extra boxes definitely won't fit into the space allotted to them. The side for our photo books on our entertainment center is looking thinner without the magnetic albums. I'm going to be working on making Shutterfly books.

You maybe interested in: 
Eat That Frog! Part 3
Eat That Frog! Part 2  Eat That Frog! Part 1