New Month Reboot

Do you ever feel like you need to reboot?  The New Year.  A new season.  A new month.  Heck, even Mondays are good times to reboot.  I feel like July was a warm-up to a reboot.  Everyone has had at least a two-week heads up regarding changes in August.  Changes in our budget, changes in our diet and exercise (or lack thereof), changes in our routines.  Yep, the time has come.

What has prompted this?  Who really knows?  I just know that I felt horrible.  I felt physically failing, mentally a mess and spiritually sliding.

At the beginning of July I decided to walk, well, actually, hubby suggested that I walk to the mailbox everyday because I asked him what I should do to start feeling human again.  And so I did.  Everyday in July except for 3 days, I walked to the mailbox, 1.3 miles round trip according to my phone app.  I get the daily newspaper (remember those?) so I have a reason to walk up there other than focusing on poor pitiful me.  I send hubby a picture of me at the mailbox-there have been pictures of a dead deer in the road (stinky!), and of a truck going down the driveway (I was a bit embarrassed to be taking a selfie at the mailbox at 6:30 in the morning.  Odd, right?).  He has been extremely encouraging and it is becoming part of my morning routine.

Ah, yes, the morning routine.  This brings me to another small change I am working on.  The FLY lady system of cleaning.  (FLY=finally loving yourself as my mother figured out for me.)  This system, if you haven't heard or done it, involves making habits and routines that just make life easier.  For example, one has a morning routine, an after dinner routine, and a bedtime routine.  Then you have weekly things, such as on Monday it is Weekly Home Blessing hour, Tuesday is free day, Wednesday is plan and desk day, Thursday is Errand day and Friday is car and purse day.  The final step is the zone cleaning, which is supposedly deep cleaning one of five zones of your house every week.  I am not there yet.  And that is the great thing about this system.  You start where you are, you add one habit at a time if you have to-the shiny sink, making sure your sink is clean, dry and shiny before bed.  It is a wonderful thing to wake up to.  Then you start creating routines using these habits and these are..."tweakable" to a degree.  My morning routine as of right now is: wake up and do my self-care (face, teeth, hair, lotion, dress), swish and swipe (clean the toilet, sink and surfaces), start laundry, empty dishwasher, make bed (hubby sleeps a little longer than I do), drink water, take my walk, daily devotions and bible study.  Then I consider the rest of my day to begin, starting with the animals and garden and other home chores.  For the past couple of weeks, I have LOVED how it is working for me!  If you feel overwhelmed with housework, consider looking up the website or ordering the book Sink Reflections.  I personally don't have it, but my mother did get it.

The other change I have already begun is my bible study and devotions.  I read Our Daily Bread and follow that bible in a year reading schedule.  I also love Fundamental Faith's Food and Bible study on YouTube.  It kind of focuses on food, but one can glean sooo much from it.  I am falling in love with the Living Word (the Bible) again!

I think another thing that I have done for a couple of months is my MemoryKeeping Planner from Happy Planner.  It is basically a scrapbook with boxes.  But it has made a huge difference in my appreciation of life and family.  Throughout the week I try to take snapshots of life and then on Sunday I either print pictures at Wal-mart or on my Canon Ivy printer and put them in my planner.  I get to enjoy the moments on film and also will type or write a little blurb of things to remember.  It makes me so grateful for everything I have, do and the people in my life.

So I attribute these few things to the new confidence I have in making serious life changes.  Changes that will impact my health, heart and mind.  Life is short and I plan to relish every remaining moment that God gives me!

I hope you join me in making some positive changes and habits in your life as well.

Have a blessed and productive day!

7.1.18 Aldi Haul

As I promised, I am posting my grocery hauls, or receipt in this case, as well as meals made with them.  This week Hubby is home and it is 4th of July so I picked up a few rarely purchased items; cereal for Hubby's quick breakfast before fishing or starting in projects, Pretzel Pieces that Hubby threw in the cart for daily snacking, variety of hot dogs for the early Independence Day celebration.  The milk is for Izzie, the goat we are bottle feeding.  We keep the raw milk for us and she gets the store-brought stuff.  Ew!  Not fair is it?



I went ahead and got some vegetable shortening and oil spray for frying up rabbits and sautéing garden fare, even though I know the health factors involved. I am not happy with this grocery haul. I grabbed the wrong grocery list, an old one, and this is what happened.  Obviously, I need just a little more structure in my shopping?  

Do you have your shopping and menu plan done for this week?  

7.2.18 To Do and Ramblings

Already July!  Crazy!  I can tell because Back to School items are going up in stores, which is even crazier.  How come we can't just be present in the moment?  Enjoy this day without worrying about 7 weeks away?  No wonder most of us are stressed out and feel like we are losing our minds...or is that just me. 

On that note, I do need to worry about the 7 days ahead.  Is that hypocritical?  Still, it's better than 7 weeks. 

 Hubby is on staycation this week.  We have been back and forth with plans, but there is always so much to do here on the homestead that guilt overwhelms when we are away, let alone the fact that one night at a decent hotel covers two barrels of goat feed, the new floor in the closet that needs to be completed or a couple of weeks of really good groceries!.  So, I think we have decided to do some of these chores and enjoy our days, yes, be present in the moment.  Friday is our 25th anniversary so we will go out that night.  Definitely a steak and maybe even a movie or game of putt-putt.  

Today, however, mom and I are going to town to pick up her kayak, stop at CVS and Sam's. I also need to pick up my milk filters at the post office.  I haven't been very good at milking consistently because of our goat layout.  The kids can't be separated because there is no shelter in the fenced off area.  I used to be able to put them in the chicken coop, but right now we have 49 (a hawk killed one) Cornish cross we are growing out for the freezer in there, along with the other 10 more permanent chickens.  So there is no milk when we put them on the stanchion, at least not enough to strain and goes to Oreo the cat or Hannah the dog. 

I need to call the local orchard to see if peaches are ready.  Last week they were gone.  If the weather holds, I need to mow the garden and rake the goat yard.  It did rain quite a bit last night and things are still very wet, so this may have to wait.  Time will tell.  

I do want Hubby to help me set up my outdoor laundry station.  We need to move the cement blocks to put some plywood on.  This year I do want to raise it a few inches for easier plunging and scrubbing.  I also want an extra rinse bucket.  Needy, aren't I?  

Otherwise, I plan on just doing some general cleaning, including working on the craft room.  

Mostly because I have to get my stickers and planners and memory books out of the living room.  Hubby even got me a storage cart for our early anniversary present.  Uh-oh. 

Speaking of which, I love my Happy Planner Memory Keeping book!   I am only a year or two behind on finding it.  But am so loving it!!  If you haven't seen them, it is a large Happy Planner that is set up to be a weekly scrapbook.  I had been using my rewind planner to do the same thing but sometimes it was empty or sometimes there was too much for the horizontal lines.  I still use it to remind myself of what to put in the HP Memory Keeping book.  Maybe overkill, but so is my sticker inventory, sooo…Anyway, I have had it for a month, so our beach trip was in there, our gardening and preserving, Sarah's birthday, Father's Day, Sarah's party.  I bought a Cannon Ivy, which is like a HP Sproket or Polaroid Zip-mobile printers that use 2x3 Zink paper.  Because the zink paper is very pricey, I use a photo editing app on my phone and then connect to Kiosk and just pick up my prints at Wal-mart.  It is so fun.  I hope to improve on my layouts as I learn the ropes, but I still can flip through and enjoy those memories. As of late, I am wanting to preserve my memories as well as enjoy the past in photos and even local history.  Is it an age thing?  

I am not doing too well on menu-planning, however, even with my new planner layout of a box specifically for meals. Again, my freezer and pantry are still well-stocked and am not worrying about starving, but do want to try and do better with well-rounded meals.  I just spent $64 at Aldi yesterday and really don't have anything solid to work with.  WHY does that happen??  Because I didn't eat breakfast and just started grabbing things-probably.  I have resolved to do better with the budget, including taking advantage of deals and coupons, within reason, of course.  I can go up to 6 bottles of shampoo, especially with our plans for a pantry room!  

I will be posting my meals and grocery hauls in July for my own accountability to see how well I am doing, and maybe someone can glean a thing or two from it-either good or bad.  

Hope you have a blessed and productive day!