Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As always it seems, 2013 has flown by. Reflecting on it, how much has changed for the better and where have I grown this year? Of course this is the time when everyone starts talking resolutions. I am not a fan of resolutions because they tend to be something fairly far fetched that people strive to follow, fail after a few days or weeks, then give up. I so prefer goals for the year. Brad and I have been talking about doing a vision board. I would love to start that for our family and for he and I personally. But, I will get to all that soon.
December…EPIC FAIL! Perfect example is this…I have been wanting to sit down and blog since my last post on DECEMBER 2! Seriously? How is it already the 27th? Actually, I can tell you how. I crammed way to much into and already over crammed month. So, yes, I give myself a very low grade on my success this month. However, I bet if you asked my kids my grade, it would be much higher than I give myself and that is definitely worth something. But, do we want to succeed in our kids eyes at the expense of our sanity? I spent most of the month feeling like a top spinning out of control or a volcano about to erupt. Some of our dear friends got to experience one particularly bad day. Super pleasant. Sitting and enjoying time with friends and all I can do it try everything not to start balling my eyes out at the table. This is just not ok. This cannot continue and I definitely do not want to repeat it in the 2014 holiday season. So, how do I change it and what things do I focus on? This year is going to be particularly interesting as I plan to go to school during the 2014-2015 school year.
You all saw the organizational system we started. That has been an awesome 1st step but we have a long way to go. So back to the beginning of this blog. Vision boards…what the heck do we even dream of for the year? Why do we do what we do? What do we want to accomplish in 2014 individually, career wise, as a family? I am prepared to spend some time with my peeps working on this over the next week. The holidays add a whole list of things to already full to do lists so how to make it better? If you are like me and insist on cards then how about getting the pictures all done and picked out in the summer or early fall so you can just plop them in once shutterfly or costco has the cards then have them ready to go early November. We are FINALLY going to get addresses into a spreadsheet so we only need to print labels vs me handwriting every address. This year I would like to start my Christmas shopping during the summer. Both for time and budget! Plenty of things can be purchased and packed away. Have a bin or special spot you put everything in so you don't forget where it is! A huge thing for me in 2014 is the goal of adding the help of somebody cleaning our house every 2 weeks. Our kids do tons of chores and we keep the house pretty clean most of the time but it would be a HUGE stress off of me to have the scrubbing off my plate. I would some much rather be having quality time with my family vs quality time with the toilets. Planning a menu for the month. This is a big one. We are going from a week at a time to a month. The good news is with all the AMAZING cookbooks I got for Christmas, this should be pretty fun! Basically we will come up with 30-35 meals. Some are repeats like tacos once a week. Then we will pick 5-6 each week and make the grocery list. Thankfully Brad does most of the grocery shopping so he will get the items and then we both work not he prep. Another idea I think might help is prepping everything that needs chopping, etc and put it in the fridge labeled in a mason jar. All those veggies we put into egg white scrambles could be chopped and in a jar ready to dump in the eggs. My goal is efficient time savers. How can I better use my limited time to be more efficient and less stressed?
This is definitely a work in process! As you can see, I have a few ideas but would love to know some of yours. What are the things you do to make your holiday season less stressful and more fun for you? Where are you struggling to be more successful? What ideas can you share for time saving tips? I would love to hear from you! We are each on our own journey and can use each other's help as we Journey to Wellness together. Happy New Year!
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