December 1

Tomorrow is December 1st.

The Dad reminds me, on a somewhat regular basis, that it has been scientifically proven that writing down your goals increases your chances of accomplishing them.

I don't think he means the multitude of To-Do Lists that I create, scatter, replicate, and misplace every day.

Tomorrow I am beginning a 6-month experiment project. I am thinking of it as 6 months of homemaking.  Of domestication.  But really?  6 months of trying to make the life that I really want to be living.  A lot of it has to do with the state of our house, but it also is about how I spend my time, how I feed my family, and how I create the home that I really want to be raising my children in.

For my own sake, I am breaking it into monthly chunks.  With goals for each month. And writing those goals down here - since that make me more likely to accomplish them, right?

1. Go room by room through our house and get rid of anything that is extraneous - the clutter, the things we don't use or need anymore (and maybe never did).  For this I am inspired by William Morris - "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." and Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting.  The organizing and decorating will come later - for starters I just need to purge.

2. Eat a 100% plant-based diet for 30 days.  After reading some great books like this and this, I have been eating this way 80-90% of the time for the last eight months.  I'd like to go all the way for the next 30 days and see if it is something that is truly sustainable (and helpful) for me.

3. Sew at least one thing for Ella and Ollie for Christmas.  I spent September through mid-November cramming for the Art Star Craft Bazaar.  I am really looking forward to doing some sewing for my family.  I've got a gazillion patterns I want to try.  And a request for a giant (!) stuffed sheep pillow from the little boy who thinks I can make anything.

4. Spend at least one hour every day doing something for eieio. It could be sewing. It could be photographing or posting in my shop.  I have the habit of just feeling burnt out after a big show, letting my shop fall to the wayside and not capitalizing on the momentum and publicity.  I don't want to let that happen again.

I think that's enough.  Wish me luck!

Recovering

I think we are all recovering from the last couple days right now.

Art Star was a great success and a really fun weekend.  I met some cool people, purchased a fabulous set of prints, saw some repeat customers, and was reminded repeatedly why I do this.  And then I got home to face the aftermath.  Hmmm... 

Next up, Thanksgiving.  And my 20th (Eek!) High School Reunion.  And lots of thought and discussion about balance and benefit.  While I will keep sewing, I will also be starting on a new project when we return home: Six Months of Homemaking.

One of the things I love about reading some of the crafty/family/lifestyle blogs out there is the inspiration.  They help me clarify how I really want to be living my life.  I've been doing a lot of soul searching (while sewing, mostly) since the kids went back to school and I've found some focus lately.  And some motivation.

About eight months ago, I totally changed the way I eat.  Cold Turkey.  And it has had amazing effects on all of us.  Monday, I am changing the way I spend my days.  And I am hoping it will have an even greater effect.  There are multiple pieces to the equation.  I'm guessing they will be factored in slowly.  But it will happen.  And life will change.  And really, I'm so excited.

I figure the more I write about it here, the more likely I am to stick with it.  Some come visit!  Leave a comment!  Suggestions, questions, all are welcome.  I'm diving in.

Striving for Balance

I'm beginning to realize that you can spend your whole life striving for balance.  Balance between work and life.  Between income and expenses.  Between time spent on the computer and everything else you need to get done.  Between working and taking care of your house and taking care of your family.  Between the attention you give your children and ...  There are a lot of balls to juggle in life and I think balance - or near-balance - can only come intentionally.

So the kids have been in school together for two and a half weeks, now.  And I know it will take some time to catch up on all that was neglected over summer vacation, but I am still floundering.  I think I need a schedule.  The two largest pieces of my day should be made up of sewing (I was recently accepted into Art Star's very first Holiday Bazaar!  WooHoo!) and cleaning/working on the house.  By cleaning, I don't mean just dishes and putting laundry away.  I mean deep purging and organizing.  This house is messier than it has been in a long time.

I can break the day (really 9-230) in half.  I can stagger going back and forth.  But really, I just need to do it.  And do them both.

So I am going to pick one room each day (on top of the regular dishes, laundry, picking up) and spend two hours on that room - I am deciding this as I am writing it, but let's see how it goes.  I will start at the top of the house and work my way down.  Since things from the first floor tend to make their way up and stall on stair landings where we look at them everyday when not tripping over them.  This way, things can work their way down and then out of the house.

I have more - about what happens after the Holiday Bazaar - but I'm going to save that.  Let's see how this goes for starters.

** These pictures have absolutely nothing to do with the post.  I can't very well show you pictures of my incredibly messy house, can I?  They were taken a couple weeks ago up at a Girl Scout Camp nearby.  See the image in the sky in the third photo?  We watched, amazed, as a pilot practiced painting smiley faces in the sky.  Pretty cool...

A Peek into E's Room

 I know I've said before that I would show some pictures of E's room.  I've shown you O's, but E's never seems to be clean enough to take pictures of!  We did some major purging in there this weekend.  She was all for it.  It just seemed that it was impossible to get it clean and organized because there was just. too. much. stuff.  Way too much dress up, too many dolls, stuff just ended up all over the floor and the room wasn't very often inviting for play.

Sunday, she filled three laundry baskets of debris to be stored away upstairs for awhile (and hopefully some soon after to be passed on or discarded).  What a difference it has made!  She played in there almost all day today.  And it was so easy to clean up tonight before bed.

Her room is definitely still a work in progress - and is definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint (minus the orange!) this spring.  We're getting there, though.  Slowly but surely.

Domestication

Pumpkin Muffins with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds.

 

The Dad and I had a conversation yesterday morning that went something like this:

Him: So, what do you want to do today?

Me: Really?  If I could do anything?  Some baking, some cleaning, some sewing, and some sitting and reading with E.

And really?  I was completely serious.

Even better?  I got to do it all.

Plus a little tromping in the woods.

And the motivation continues: I bought paint this morning for a bedroom project that's been in process for a while.  The first can of many as we begin (soon!) to go through the house room by room and finally add some color!

A new fleecy poncho for E.

Stay tuned.