Thursday, August 1, 2013

it's January around here and I'm sweating


I don't know what happened.
Well.
I do know what happened.
We moved in the middle of the school year.
So,
I thought we'd just keep schooling through the summer to make up for time we lost during the move.

Except summer is stupid.
It tricks you into thinking things like:
Long, lazy days.
Time spent relaxing by the pool.
Your kids will be begging to do school with you because they've missed it so!
Crafts!
You'll have a fairy godmother who will do all your house work and projects for you....
and so on.

It was one week of camp,
two weeks of swim lessons, 
three different weeks of company and BAM!

By the time I knew it, we'd taken an unplanned summer "break", only we were kinda tired...dang it.

I don't sweat it usually.
Until I start sweating it...and then I just start printing stuff to make me feel better.

Things like:
New chore charts.
New exercises to do.
New Dr. lists.

And I start swearing off ever eating fried foods and sugar and pizza...ever. again.  
(because that one always works out for me!)

Seriously though.
I did print stuff and I do feel better.

Budget stuff:

Chore stuff :
My new 'command center' - the girls have been there since we got here, a whole whopping 6 months...but I just claimed the top for me!  They have one paper each...I have four. Poo.

Up close with the girls chore chart:

I already described how our chore system works but when I was poking around looking for a good checklist for myself I just couldn't find one.
Lists like this are SO personal!
The girls system works because I work it.
I like it and I can wrap my head around it.
And so was born MY Weekly Task Checklist:


My 'chore chart' explanations:
FAR LEFT:
until I get the hang of just using the titles of my chart as a reference for what to do, I typed them all out
MIDDLE:
Just a cute little deep cleaning list that is supposed to take you through 52 weeks.
We just moved in here so things are fairly clean...I'm, instead, using it as a 52 day, rotating deep cleaning schedule - after moving as many times as we have, you start to REALLY appreciate keeping things deeply cleaned so you aren't slammed with it every three years.
FAR RIGHT:
What my 'daily', not deep cleaning, focus is.
I found it on Pinterest late one night when I was 'sweating'.

Rant:
We have double the square footage in this house than we did in the last AND we are on 5 acres.
We still have projects that aren't finished from when we moved in and set up.
Like, our bedroom is HUMONGOUS and has ONE picture on the wall.
One.
Our hallway has a bunch of cool frames hung but no pictures in them.
There are stacks of furniture sitting in the garage that either need to be gotten rid of or refinished.
Shoot, the garage itself needs some love.
Don't get me started on the craft closet or the brand new sewing machine we haven't had time to play with.....  

And when there are rivers and lakes and trails and adventures SO close by.
And when we decided to pretty much eat NO convenience food (except Friday night pizza still!) but instead make almost everything from scratch....

Oh.. and there's that whole 'education of my children' thing!
And the, 'I need to build some friendships' thing.

I sweat.

So.
You've heard of 
Bootcamp Mommy.

Well, 
January in August 
is somewhat similar in intensity.

I make charts, I follow them or else.....I don't know what, I'm just weird and if it's a chart I made or I feel like I can do, I just do.

So.
August:
New Chore System.

Doing a second Whole30 but this time I'm tracking calories with the MyFitnessPal App 'cause as awesome as I felt on the last Whole30, I was the odd soul who did NOT loose weight doing it....that is not normal....so, even though tracking calories is looked down upon, I'm doin' it.

And I don't care if it's the middle of summer, we are doing school.

Projects?  Taking a new, 'eat an elephant one bite at a time' approach and just working on the 'list' a few minutes each day instead of chunks of hours at a time.

Friends?  This sounds horrible but I'm over play dates.  I was over them from day one but now I'm really over them. (they make me all panicy that I'm wasting precious time!)  
I know it will take me longer to get to know people but I'm at peace with that.
Either we see each other doing life or you come over as a family or we do a girls night -  I'm releasing that and I feel great about it!  I feel like I 'get' to release that every time we move...it's lame, but I do.

Moving.
The splash is so much more than the actual 'move' and the ripples last what seems like a long time.
They are not all bad things, just things.

We are at the 6 month point and just NOW have the rhythm of the house down.
Like, THIS WEEK.

Here's to January in August!




2 comments:

Liza said...

I totally love this. You know I'm a "systems" girl, too.

Love the analogy of the moving "splash" and ripples.

And Amen to the deep cleaning throughout the year! This last move totally scared me into keeping an (as clean as possible) house at ALL times - not just before a move...

Go ahead, girl. I am in full support of January in August :)

Anonymous said...

Love systems, and chores, and organization....maybe I should print some stuff :)
We finally found a gluten-free pizza crust recipe that is actually really good - tried a ton of not very good recipes first.
We have been doing school all summer too - the whole having a baby and taking breaks whenever we want - but I love that it takes away a lot of the stress of "school" for me.

--Tina