My Summer Bucket List

There is a lot I want to do with my family and friends this summer, and there are also a few personal goals I want to accomplish. I know that if I don't get these things on the calendar they won't happen. I have just a short ten weeks and the little boys have about 11 or 12 weeks left (and they've already been out for over a week now) until we have to report back to our time-pressed school year schedules. Some days and activities will get some extensive planning and other days will be carefree with nothing at all on the agenda. Most days will be somewhere in between, with activities that don't need a lot of preparation or effort. 

Oh, the Places We'll Go: We plan to go on a weekly day trip (zoos, amusement parks, water parks and play fountains, museums, etc.). We also plan to head out to do some serious camping at least once each month during the summer months, including September.

Oh, the Things We'll Do: We will have a family night and spend the evening together at home once or twice each week  watching a movie, playing games, working on craft projects, etc. And I plan to spend a day or two each week creating pages in the family scrapbooks.

Oh, the People We'll See: The best part of summer is getting the chance to visit family and friends, go together on day trips  or invite them over to swim or have a cookout. We will not be venturing far from home this year, so we hope that some of our family from out of the area will make their way this direction.

Oh, the Books We'll Read: I'm planning on reading some good fiction (nearly) every day, mostly with the help of my Kindle and my new electronic library card. The little boys will read with the Summer Reading Club. We will visit the public library and new and used book stores, as well as accessing our home library to get books that they are interested in delving into during summer's quiet moments.

Oh, the Things We'll Grow: This year, for the first time in a couple of decades, I have a small kitchen garden in which the boys and I have planted fruits, vegetables and herbs. It's only 160 square feet, but there is a variety planted there. I also have an even smaller flower garden that has been started and several pots I plan to put flowers in around the patio.

Oh, the Food We'll Eat: We want to go to great places to eat: some that are new and others that are family favorites. The kids want to explore places where they can eat "free" so we may do some Monday and Tuesday night dining out, as those are the days that most commonly have the offer available. We will be visiting the local farmer's markets and at least once we'll go to the city market that is about an hour's drive. During the trip we'll get a variety of fresh produce and enjoy an experience my boys have learned to love. I also want to introduce new foods and cooking styles into the menu at home and finish our outdoor kitchen so we can do the bulk of the summer cooking outside (and hopefully a lot of autumn and spring cooking as well).

Oh, the Closets We'll Clean: This is the time of the year that I find it easiest to lose a bit of house weight. Closets get reorganized each year, and for the past several, I've done the purging and straightening up over the summer months. No storage area will be left untouched. We will also organize the cabinets, drawers, shelves, bins and sheds.

Oh, the Blogs I'll Write: I really miss creating my regular blog entries. Time has just got away from me. I hope to write on a more regular basis as I have a lot of ideas I'd like to share.

So my bucket seems to be filling up fast. My family and I are ready to dig into summer. I hope you enjoy more than a few lazy days enjoying a summer breeze and a cool beverage yourself, and then that you accomplish any goals you set for yourself or your family.

My Life in Organized Disorder- Part I

"Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." — Denis Waitley  

When I think about what I want to be, to have and have accomplished, I am looking at my future with varying degrees from necessity to wishful fantasy.While looking in to my future, I set goals and try to live in the present. I work toward what I want, sometimes with great fervor and other times with distracted failure. There is not much in between. I am an all or nothing kind of person. If I keep my eye on the future prize and avoid distractions, all is well. Of course when I allow distractions to enter into my present, I lose the focus of what is to come. Sometimes that is okay. The present moments are more important than the goals of the future in some instances, especially if the present moment involves relationships with family and friends. But when the distractions are just that, often mindless, solitary disruptions to the routines of my life, then I get off target and at best achieve mediocrity.

     In reflection I find in the past several months, despite working toward one goal or another, I have lost my drive and with it focus. I have felt burn-out in my career and challenged in my spirit and health. I have found myself feeling both careless and unappreciated at work, and the load of responsibilities have increased steadily over the past several years. Health and spiritual issues have forced me to reevaluate my priorities and shut down in those areas that are not at the top of the list. I need to get back on track and get all of my priorities straight. Thank goodness for my family and good friends that have picked me up in my personal life and a few of my work colleagues that have gone above and beyond to help me with focusing on the "have-to" list at work and picking up the slack on those extra things that are expected.

     I have worked these past months on setting goals, making lists, and even naming the time that I want my goal to be accomplished. Some things have happened, just as planned, because I wanted them to happen and allowed others to take charge. These accomplishments are few. The other things that I have set as goals have nearly vaporized due to lack of effort and attention. I feel a bit sad thinking how little effort was put into the things that I would have liked to have happened in my life. Am I depressed? Is this a result of the burn-out I feel at work? Is this a response to my lack of control of my health? Whatever the cause, I need to rise out of it all now. I feel the need to regain myself and take back control that has been lost.

    So how do I get back on track? What do I need to do to increase my motivation to achieve my goals, let routines guide the mundane tasks and cut out those pesky, but in-the-moment enjoyable, distractions and disruptions? I guess that would be to recognize my distractions, list them, put them in the forefront so I may deal with them as what they are; goal-killers, routine-avoiders and time-wasters. If I don't do this, I will continue to lose control. I will lose who I am. I feel that in the moment, my free time has been great, but my spirit, my family, my health, my finances and my career need a boost. I find it hard to focus on more than one of these at a time, but they all need to get both short, and long-term attention. It is almost selfish to continue as I have, avoiding what I need to do and what I can do to improve the areas of my life.

     My distractions and diversions are many, but usually work in cycles (as does my productivity when I'm in gear). I think my habits of allowing the phone, computer, TV, books, social networking, games and often people get me off task are easily recognized as distractions. But there are other time-destructing habits that I find I must bring to light. Shuffling papers that should have been dealt with when they first entered my home or desk at work, doing things myself when they should be delegated because I want the control, and procrastination of tasks that are high priority or routine are probably more a problem than the activities that can be used as rewards.  I read an idea that made me cringe, as I really don't feel the need to control others, just my own personal space. Never-the-less, the avoidance of doing what you should, being late, and procrastination are all really ways of taking control in a passive-aggressive way. So really, I am treating myself badly. And that reflects on to the people that I have chosen to include in my life and personal or professional space. OUCH!!!

     In order to become more in control of my life in a more positive fashion, all of the enjoyable activities that I have placed in my life are now going to become my rewards. I do not want to cut them out completely, but to use them as a reward for accomplishing my short-term goals, for completing steps accomplished toward a goal, and for following through in those mindless tasks that are part of my daily/weekly routines. And likewise, all of the habits and behaviors that I have adopted to try to gain control in a passive-aggressive manner need to be replaced with positive and effectively productive behaviors. Hmm.... There is much to think about and change in my future. 

 

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"My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things." — Bill Gates 

365 Out

I am not into making resolutions for the new year, but I am all for setting goals for myself. As this year started up, I was floundering at getting some focus in my life. I seem to have the normal routines down, but being a working SHE, I feel that I need a bit more going in my "stuff" filled life. I need a guideline to keep me engaged in the quest for more peace.

So I thought about setting some expectations for myself. I thought about doing a daily fling, but that is more of a short term solution, and often is a task that goes by the wayside in the world of the work week. I had also read about the minimalist that challenged others to reduce their belongings to just 100 things. Well, that may have been possible if I only had me to worry about, but it still had me wondering if I am still way to thing heavy. So I came up with a couple of guidelines for the year that hopefully will not be too tough to accomplish, and that I will be able to follow through with over the course of the year.

First, nothing new into my space without losing two things in the same general area (could be the physical area where the new item is going or just from the general area of my life).

Then, over the next twelve months I will lose 365 additional items.

AS FLYLady says, "You can't organize clutter." And my favorite CEO (Cynthia Ewer, Organized) in Houseworks and Organized Home, the one-in, one-out rule and going on a no-buy diet are good ways to keep clutter from coming back into your life once you get it under control. So since I think I still have too many things in my life, and I know the reality that I won't completey curb obtaining new things, this new commitment seems to be the answer for me. Baby-stepping all the way to less "stuff" in my life. 

I have steadily, year by year, reduced the amount of stuff that I possess. I have slimmed down from closets and a shed stuffed with boxes and tubs of things that really were in the way with day to day living. Even so, I am really going to get serious about getting down to a lot less stuff. I don't think I will ever get to the point where I own just 100 things, but I do want to have the things that I need or love close at hand. The rest has just got to go.

As with most goals, the beginning seems to be going smoothly. Christmas gifts came in during the last week of the year, so I gave myself a jump start getting rid of  several no longer loved things 

*Kindle and two new books in, six books out---nice thing is that new Kindle books will not be clutter in my house

*Kindle cover in, two more books out---okay, I know the Kindle cover actually is an accessory, but since it won't always be on the Kindle I need to make some more room

*Travel mug, giant cocoa mug, soft throw, penlight key chain, stationary and memo pad with magnet on back in, 6 more books out (what can I say? I was on a roll with the book declutter)

*Blu-ray player in, DVD player and a no longer watched DVD out

*Necklace tree in, an unloved candle from my dresser and a broken necklace out- not sure why I was saving the necklace, since it can't be fixed but it was a favorite

*New bottle of perfume in, empty bottle out as soon as I finished with the last drops, along with passing along a small tube of scented lotion that was sitting on my dresser, unused for way too long 

Last week I went shopping and bought a new 6 quart crock pot as I needed to replace the 16 year old model, a 5-quart that had questionable temperature on low with one broken handle. I think limiting myself to getting rid of the old crock pot and an old cookie sheet (now too dark for baking cookies) was hard to do. My kitchen is in a very full state at the moment and I will enjoy lightening that load as time goes by, but it's not the time to do more just yet.

I will say that shopping is becoming a new kind of experience for me. Contemplating that I will have to get rid of two items in order to bring something new in is making me think twice. So unless it is something that I need to replace or something that I really have planned on getting for some time, I am sure I will just skip the shopping altogether.

Mail in, twice the magazines out. I haven't been counting the junk that went straight to the recycling.

I still need to focus on the 365 additional things out...so far six home improvement idea magazines are out...that leaves 359 more things to go. I can so do this.