Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Summer Sched – Weeks 3 & 4

June 27, 2020

Well, week 3 was pretty good – met most of my goals with regard to my schedule. This week however turned busy – a busyness I haven’t had since early March. I think I like a more quiet life. :-P

Skincare – My routine is working and it’s easy since I’m using the same few products and not worried about extras. My skin has calmed down too. The only “makeup” I wear these days is my cc cream with SPF. When I feel like putting more makeup on, like if I do some actual shopping in an actual store, I take it up a notch with foundation and extras. Loving the freedom of less. I did need to do some light exfoliation this week, so I used Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Sleeping Mask. Despite the light tingling, it did not irritate my skin (no redness) and my skin did seem softer and plumper this morning. Could be a keeper.

Housework – Okay, here’s where I’ve added in some motivation. I found a Youtube channel by an older lady who gives talks to housewives. Her shows run the gamut from how to take care of yourself to taking care of your home and even personal development. It has helped me stay motivated and also given me food for thought.

On the plus side, I am moving along with the Flylady system but this week got derailed due to going to some favorite stores that have opened (we waited until things had settled down – not wanting to go in super crowded stores). That was fun but it turned my housework a little on it’s side so not everything got done as it should. Well, that’s life. I can jump back in next week and it’s all going to be okay.

Menu Planning – So, I decided to just menu plan and shop as usual, but I am making better food choices each day. Like this morning, peanut butter toast and a banana. Yesterday for lunch it was half of a turkey sandwich, cut vegetables, and fruit juice. That’s a lot better than some of my usual “meals”. So, I’m being more thoughtful and intentional. I also upped my water intake and that’s helped too, especially since the summer heat is on.

Daily Schedule – I do the heavy work in the morning and relax and do my thing in the afternoon. Well, I wrap up my housework and decluttering early on in the afternoon, but after that it’s time to relax and do something for me. No guilt. This is working very nicely and so I’ll continue with that. I also work my day the same each day – I like the routine of knowing what to do when. This helps keep the housework flowing as it should and maintaining a clean home much easier.

So, all in all, not a bad two weeks. The one thing I need to do is continue to lower the volume on other voices around me. That means staying away from some social media, and even watching how many books I’m reading. Especially in the inspirational category. I see too many good books and then I start reading them all at once sometimes. So, I’m cutting back to one book for spiritual reading and one for pleasure. Of course, magazines are the icing to that book cake. One of my indulgences.

So, that’s a wrap for the month of June. Hard to believe this month is almost gone and half the year is almost gone too. Going into July I’m just doing the same schedule and seeing where it takes me. I feel that I’m more on top of things (even with running around this week) and allowing myself leisure and recreation is helping me stay afloat mentally and emotionally. Which is good because the danger of going back into depression would be all too easy right now. As a beloved older priest always said, “Slow and easy.” :-)

No comments
Summer Schedule – Week 2

June 14, 2020

Another week has gone by rather quickly and here we are already in the middle of June! After last weekend being really hot and almost unbearable (our poor air conditioner cannot keep up when the humidity is high), this week has been cooler and less humid and far more comfortable.

The housekeeping plan is going well – I have done the Flylady thing for many years so I know what to do. The zone this week was the kitchen and early on I didn’t get much done, but we had a leaking faucet in the laundry room on Thursday which meant a plumber had to come out to fix it. Nothing like a crisis to get you off your butt and get stuff done! So, I dusted the laundry room from top to bottom which made it cleaner immediately and only took 5 minutes. Then I wiped down all my kitchen cabinet fronts and I also spritzed cleaner and wiped the floor around the edges which are always the dirtiest. Well, can you believe it – I didn’t even apologize to the plumber for the way my house looked because I felt it looked okay! For once I acted like I was proud of my house and didn’t feel ashamed. Now that hasn’t happened in a really long time and let me tell you it felt so good! That victory should help keep me going.

As far as the menu plan thing weeeell, I’m planning meals at least, but I keep forgetting about tracking. That said, my eating today was all.over.the.place. And seriously, I need to stop it. It’s not helping. So, this week, I need to at least focus on just one thing – like water – and do that one thing each day. And not worry about losing weight but getting some better habits under my belt.

And about that daily schedule thing, well, not so much on that either. However, I am keeping to the more strenuous work in the morning and the lighter stuff in the afternoon schedule. This way the majority of the housework is done and in the afternoon I can usually relax and do something I like or want to do. And that is just as important as keeping a nice house.

Skincare is going well and really, I’ve been in a skincare routine a long time – I just bounce around with products with no consistency. Consistency is what gets your skin where you want it. I keep getting drawn to Sephora thought to see what’s new, but have to say, no, this is what I’m doing now and stick to it.

I want to touch on reading because I decided to do a Bible Study for the next 4 weeks. It’s called Flourish by Elizabeth Foss and covers the book of Romans which is timely because I had started reading Romans and felt the desire to study a little further. I also bought a book called Make My Life Simple about burnout and taking back your life a little at a time. Hmm, sounds familiar. :-) So far a good read.

Going forward I decided to distill my daily routines into one list on one piece of paper. The list is how I originally did Flylady way back in the day and so it’s what I know. I slipped it into the cover of my binder so I can check off with a dry erase marker each thing I need to do. The whole point of this summer schedule is to streamline and simplify and five pages of lists is too much. I need to just cut to the chase and truly make my housekeeping simple.

I’ll end with a little story. When I went to Walmart recently on that big grocery haul, the guy behind me in line mentioned that he’d been living in Alaska for 7 years and I said I didn’t know if I could do that. He said that it made him stronger and then he said, “You need to get strong”. And I just looked at him – it was almost like a divine message. Then I said that the last several years had been so rough that all my strength was gone. Basically I’ve been barely surviving for a long time. And it shows in many ways. That man is right – I do need to get my strength back (physical, mental, emotional) and this schedule is a start.

No comments
Summer Schedule – Week 1

June 8, 2020

I want to give updates each week so not only do you, dear reader, see my progress, but I do too. It’ll be something I can look back on and it will also help me see what works and what doesn’t from week to week. And right off the bat I knew one thing wasn’t going to work and that was the meal plan.

I remembered one or two days in why I never stuck to that meal plan – it was repetitive. A lot of ground beef and chicken and one of the meals repeated already in week 2. :-/ After that realization I made a huge grocery haul at a local store to stock up on food and other necessities we’ve been out of. I hadn’t been inside a store in months (much like a lot of other people) and the app for pickup didn’t show some stuff in stock when it actually was so I never really got all that we needed on those days. So – I went in and spent out and filled in all the gaps in our cupboards. I almost cried when I saw liquid soap on an end cap – the kind we use too. I was wiped out for the rest of the day but felt so much better.

Now, this week I’ve been watching more of the Richard Simmons channel and another channel which is showing Richard’s motivational messages from back in the late 80’s called Day by Day. That got me to thinking that this would be a good time to track my food with my Food Mover. Today, I realized that this is perfect because his booklets outline several meal plans – ta da! Meal planning problem solved. :-) I really, really want to lose weight and be healthy and buy cute clothes again so this is a great time to make it happen. Water tracking and exercise also go here so it’s a big win.

Okay, so let’s move on to housekeeping and going back on the Flylady wagon. I’m re-reading her book “Sink Reflections” and following the program. This last week was Zone 1 – the Front Porch, Entryway, and Dining Room. Well, my dining room hasn’t had much love lately so I decided to focus just there. My youngest daughters and I attacked the school cubbies and shelf and we got those areas in shape. They had to go through their old school papers and most of the homeschool stuff got tossed. Things I wanted to think about went in a box that I’ll go through another day (yeah, that’s asking for trouble but at least it’s in one place). Did the whole room get done? No. But what did get done isn’t a horrible mess anymore and that’s progress.

On the skincare front the jury is still out but I also haven’t exactly kept up with the actual plan – I’m using another cleanser as well to finish it up and I drifted off the path this weekend so I’m going to get it together and follow the actual plan. If I need to make adjustments after that I will.

And how about my daily schedule? Well, it’s going except I still have spots where I don’t know what to do with myself. So eventually I need to add some personal development in there. Otherwise, I like having the heavy duty stuff done in the morning and low key stuff to do in the afternoon. That said, I did too much on Saturday and really felt tired so I need to respect my limits. However, the banana bread did turn out good.

And that’s where I’m at going into Week 2. I’ve got a handle on the housekeeping so my focus can really be on the personal health front. It just feels so good that I have plans that are all laid out for me so brain power can go into the doing. I like that.

4 comments

» 2020 » June » Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Summer Sched – Weeks 3 & 4

June 27, 2020

Summer Schedule – Week 2

June 14, 2020

Summer Schedule – Week 1

June 8, 2020

About Me

Recent Posts

Archives