Heather says:
January 1st is an excellent time to take stock of what needs to change for positive growth. Life’s rough enough without creating additional problems. Just opening my calendar app makes my stomach clench and causes my eye to start twitching -truly an attractive quirk. Is my calendar that jam packed? Well, no it’s just significantly more than I am used managing. To get through the next six months I must practice discipline.
*No! This is a family oriented site, put that away.*
Is it fun?
Nope.
However, the results are much more exciting than the alternative. One of my goals for January is to get my butt out of bed on time. I’ve slipped into a bad habit of waiting until I hear the kids stirring. Even if I took weekends off, I still lose more than 20 hours of guilt and interruption free time.
My second goal for January is to quit abandoning small tasks before they are done. I’ve become a master avoider, this quickly leads to piles of laundry and unwashed dishes. These two chores alone create a cascade of guilt and avoidance that ooze into every corner of my home. So my plan is to quit leaving dishes in the sink and fold (and put away) all the laundry. Neither of these chores are hard,they’re just repetitive in a busy home.
What areas of your life lack discipline? No, the kids don’t count.
I finally learned some years ago to fold each load of laundry from the dryer into baskets (one for each family member). It took some doing to make it a habit but it really does make a difference. Everyone was responsible for putting away their own laundry (kids were old enough at that point).
I need to get a dresser the boys can open. We have a hand-me-down with sticky, wide / shallow drawers. Once they can open it I won't feel badly about handing them their piles and sending them up the stairs.
re: sticky drawers — have you tried waxing them? Take out the drawer, turn it upside down, and rub paraffin (or an old candle) on the parts that make contact with the wood in the "body" of the dresser (for lack of a better word – the thesaurus part of my brain is still in 2009) – we do this and it makes sticky drawers much easier to open.
I remember trying a bar of soap a while ago. I'll see if I can find a candle and give that a go (or I'll break down and buy some wax). Thanks for the tip!
That word always makes me think of Arnold in Kindergarten Cop 🙂
"Stop whining! You kids are soft. You lack discipline!"
Ahnold is always talking in my head. He was always a ubiquitous pop culture influence, at least in my little world.
In the past few years I've gotten really good at recording the money I've earned and spent in Quicken. What I've realized lately, though, is I have never planned in advance what I would do with my money. This year I'm attempting a budget (and that scares the living daylights out of me). Today I'm reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and playing with numbers in Excel.
Happy New Year, Heather. And early happy anniversary to Home-Ec101.com. I love this site!
I am going to be more disciplined in my morning routine: getting out of bed early, which gives me time for Bible reading & exercise before shower and breakfast. I love mornings and want to make the most of them!
I was a nightowl until the kids came along and broke me of the habit. Now i have to do my work before they are up, at night I'm just too exhausted or cranky to futz with things like grammar.
I have become extremely lax in my health habits – both exercise and what I eat. Also, I tend to slump into a chair on weekends and not stir for two days instead of running errands, etc., which raises my stress level. I want to discipline myself in those two areas.
Inertia is such a sneaky, ugly thing. It always seems to start, I'll just rest for a little while before I do x, and then x never happens while y & z show up clamor for attention, too.
Money stuff. I always drag my feet with money stuff. I finally established a household budget and started seriously saving in 2009, but it is a monthly struggle to change my old habits. Now I'm procrastinating on some other biggies… setting up Roth IRAs and making sure our insurance coverage is adequate. I know what I need to do, I just can't bring myself to actually do it when it comes to this stuff.
I have been none to pull an ostrich with money matters. I'm not saying I splurge when I shouldn't, rather I'm nowhere near as detail oriented in that area as I should be. Maybe that will be July's focus (after this first six months of crazy is over).
Dishes and laundry are big issue with me too (and today it's Christmas decorations – ugh!). I love to cook, but the clean-up becomes huge throughout the day. And laundry, I can wash and dry it, but I never feel I have the time to sit and fold and then put it away. My husband has started folding for me and he is great. He just doesn't put it away, but I will take all the help I can get!
Maybe I need to simplify my creative process in the kitchen. Keep a garbage bowl handy and vow to clean as I go. An empty dishwasher would help too, but it always seems to be full of clean dishes. Good luck to you and I will attemp the same in 2010!
I posted all my goals on my blog. Today, after my dentist appointment, I will focus on getting my closet back in order. I have no clue what I own or what's clean at this point, because it's all on the floor. I can only find 2 pairs of shoes at this point. After that, I will remove all clothing I have not worn in a year and put it in a box to go to the church's big bazaar in July. I figure if I go room by room I'll get cleaning done faster.