by admin | Mar 28, 2019 | Home Solutions Stuff
Sometimes life throws an extra ball or two into the mix of things you’re juggling and it’s all you can do to keep from dropping one. Often it’s the “self-care” aspect of life that suffers, and this pretty much sums up the last few months for me.
New Year, new goals: I vowed to get back on track with my monthly newsletter. But February came and went, and now it’s the end of March and I’m scrambling, but victory WILL be mine!
In January, we moved my mom into the memory care wing of the assisted living facility where she’s been for over a year. Her memory didn’t just decline, it took a nosedive and was further complicated when dementia added horrific hallucinations to her daily life. It has taken over a month to get Mom’s condition somewhat stabilized with medication additions, subtractions and tweaks. Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease.
Work is busier than ever, and Mom’s situation demanded a lot of extra attention. In spite of my best efforts to maintain good health with proper nutrition, hydration, and sleep, I knew I couldn’t keep all those balls in the air indefinitely. I nearly made it through the winter with nary a sniffle when some unwelcome germs came knockin’. Hey there, upper respiratory tract infection!
Having a sense of humor and embracing the bizarreness of life certainly helps lighten the juggling load. So does hearing the right song at just the right time because the universe knows you’ll feel relief when the tears you’ve been squelching finally flow.
And so it goes. We do the best we can, and we can’t do any better than our best. But it’s important to remember that the bar for “our best” isn’t set at a fixed height; it’s adjustable.
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by admin | Jan 23, 2019 | Home Solutions Stuff
It’s been a while since I’ve sent a newsletter or even written a blog post. Sometimes life gets so busy, we have to learn how to get ourselves back on track.
I ask myself four questions when I’m feeling overwhelmed:
- What MUST I do right now? (or in the immediate future)
- What do I have TIME for in my schedule?
- What would I ENJOY doing?
- What can I REALISTICALLY put on hold?
The “must do” items are things that cannot be ignored without consequences; things like paying bills, tending to pressing medical issues, dealing with the “check engine” light on the dashboard, eating, sleeping, staying hydrated…
Figuring out what we actually have time to do on a day-to-day basis is critical. I think that’s why so many of us look to the New Year to get back into a routine. We make annual resolutions with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, they often fall by the wayside before February arrives because we make them too vague or too unrealistic. Here’s a link to a blog post I wrote about setting goals that are obtainable.
Creating space in the schedule for a little “self care” is also important – what sort of things do you like to do? Make time to enjoy hobbies, go to the movies, read a book, get a massage, talk with a friend over a cuppa joe or a glass of wine. Whatever it might be, it’s important to schedule “me” time for ourselves to balance out the “must do” items.
Sometimes, figuring out what you can put on hold means learning to say, “No” to outside pulls for your time and attention. Other times, it’s putting a reminder on the calendar a month or a season from now so you won’t forget about a project, trusting you’ll get to it when you’re not quite so busy.
When there’s something that we really need to do but can’t seem to get started, it’s easy to find a kazillion distractions that we convince ourselves MUST BE DONE NOW! Yeah, you know what I’m talkin’ about. This is when we have to figure out what we can put on hold, what we can ignore – at least temporarily – in order to tend to that thing we’re avoiding. We may need to put blinders on in order to stay committed to a particular task at hand. Not actual blinders like a horse wears, but virtual blinders that allow us to stay focused and block out the other stuff. Set a timer – 15 minutes or an hour, whatever you can reasonably ask of yourself – and when it beeps, get up and do something else.
Wash, rinse, and repeat on a regular basis until that project is done. The satisfaction you’ll feel by tackling that thing you’ve been avoiding will be measurable, trust me.
I hope this series of questions helps you get a handle on how you’re currently spending your time, what you need to focus on, and how to get started.
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by admin | Nov 13, 2018 | Holiday organizing tips, Organizing
I don’t know how holiday meals work at your house, but around here we do NOT mess with tradition!
This makes things easier for me because I know exactly what we’ll be eating – no new recipes to learn, no new ingredients to buy – so I computerize my shopping list for each holiday meal.
I make a simple Word document for each holiday, nothing fancy. I keep notes about what size turkey I need depending on the number of guests, and what time to put the pies in the oven.
My Thanksgiving list, in part, looks like this:
Bread Stuffing:
- ___ 1 bag seasoned croutons
- ___ 1 carton chicken stock
- ___ Celery
- ___ Onion
- ___ Butter
- ___ Salt
- ___ Pepper
- ___ Sage
Squash:
- ___ 2 medium-sized butternut squash
- ___ Butter
- ___ Brown sugar
- ___ Nutmeg, cinnamon
Whipped Cream:
- ___ 2 cups heaving whipping cream
- ___ Sugar
- ___ Vanilla
You get the picture, right? Before shopping, I check the pantry and refrigerator, putting an X next to items I already have. Then I mark things off as I shop, since I usually buy things over the course of a few trips.
It might seem silly, but it saves me time AND money. How?
- I don’t forget anything, so there are no frantic, last minute trips to the store.
- I don’t buy items I already have. Spices are expensive, and who needs multiple containers of sage?
Speaking of spices, here’s a helpful chart regarding their shelf life.
I’m in favor of anything that makes life easier as we head into the busy holiday season. Are there any time-saving tips you’d like to share?
by admin | Sep 30, 2018 | Keeping Stuff, Repurposing, Selling stuff
Sometimes clients cling to items they’re certain they will need or find a use for someday, even though that the particular item either has no practical application in their current life situation, or exists in a quantity that far exceeds probable need. However, I’m confessing here and now that I’ve fallen under the spell of something. In my defense, this something doesn’t occupy space I do not have, nor am I emotionally attached. It’s just…they’re so… I mean… I’m talkin’ GIANT RED RUBBER BANDS, people!
Giant red rubber bands
I’ve added other items to this photo so you can accurately gauge the size. They arrive via the morning paper delivery which means we get, on average, five giant red rubber bands per week. On wet days we get an orange plastic bag. We have no pets, so I readily recycle those or save for a friend’s dog’s poop. (How many blog posts will you read this week that mention dog poop? My money’s on one.) I put some giant red rubber bands in the kitchen “junk drawer,” a few in my desk drawer, a handful in my Home Solutions work bag, and a couple on the tool bench in the basement. Just recently, I was able to secure my rolled-up yoga mat with two, one on each end. Yay! I found a use for two of the twenty giant red rubber bands we have on hand. Because they’re not recyclable, unwanted ones would normally go in the trash, but that feels wrong. Maybe I’ll save them to give back to the paper delivery dude, wrapped in a pretty package with his holiday tip! Or, according to a recent facebook post, I can fund my retirement selling random, everyday household items on ebay, things like empty egg cartons and nubby crayons. Is it possible there’s a market for giant red rubber bands? *turns attention from 401K statement to “selling red rubber bands” research* What’s your thing – the thing you have too many of, the thing you’ve been saving for decades and still haven’t found a use for, the thing that’s just taking up space, both physically AND emotionally, in your life?
by admin | Aug 30, 2018 | Home Solutions Stuff
Ah, September… for many, it’s “back to school” time, whether for your own kiddos, grandkids, or the way your morning commute is affected by the change in traffic.
Remember the feeling of a clean slate, having brand-spankin’-new notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils with erasers so clean they didn’t make smudges? That’s why I deem September the perfect month for goal setting and to-do lists. Most folks traditionally think January is the best time, but there’s a lot of “Why bother, I’m just gonna fail” karma associated with New Year resolutions. I’m all about using September to focus on figuring out what needs to get done and doing it.
To that end, On September First I will embark on what I call my “procrastination diet” by compiling a new “30 Things in 30 Days” list. You can read a previous blog post about it here, but in summary, I use an app called “Wunderlist” (which was supposed to turn into Microsoft’s To-Do app over a year ago, but is still functioning as Wunderlist) that syncs with my computer and smartphone. It makes a little sound when I check off a completed task AND I can also choose to see the completed tasks crossed off at the bottom of my list. It’s a convenient and gratifying way to hold myself accountable and see what I’ve accomplished.
As soon as I get the Home Solutions’ August edition of the monthly newsletter sent out (TODAY! I vow it’s happening TODAY!) I will work on my to-do list for September. The list doesn’t have to be all biggie-diggie in scope; mine is always a blend of small, medium, and large stuff.
A show of hands: Who’s going on the procrastination diet with me? C’mon, it’ll be fun! Let’s do it, y’wanna?
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