organization

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode

~ Megan

Wow! I don’t know if it’s the season of life I am in or just the truth in her words, but Crystal Paine (moneysavingmom.com) really hit the nail on the head with Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. This book was very encouraging. Originally, I thought it was going to speak to moms. Whenever I hear survival mode I think of two things: a teacher in her first year and new moms. But    this book is more than that.

I think it’s unfortunate how we can get carried away with our daily to dos & need to be busy that we forget life can be simple. Get sleep. Say No. Exercise. All of these things Crystal encourages us to do. She aptly reminds us that without these things our priorities can’t get done and we will experience burnout. 

Two things really hit home for me: stop trying to do it all & stop comparing myself to other women.

I am a new bride. I have only been married for 9 months. I know I jumped into marriage with both feet and a desire to be the best homemaker & wife I could be. I wanted to be in control of all the house duties: meal planning, cooking, cleaning, organizing, etc. But I quickly learned this was not going to be as easy as I thought. (Have I mentioned that I teach junior high?) I began to realize that I needed a priorities list. I needed to zero in on the things that were most important for this season. Otherwise, I was going to run myself ragged trying to complete all my duties at home and at work. Crystal writes, “If we want to say goodbye to survival mode, we need to make time for what really matters. This means we have to clear out the nonessential commitments. (17)”  While I still desire to be the best homemaker I can be, I am getting better at focusing on my priorities. If things don’t fall in line with them, then I say no.

“I think we, as women, are our worst critics. Comparison is one of the biggest traps to losing our momentum or giving up before we even start our journies to say goodbye to survival mode. It’s easy to want what we don’t have or see something better in others that we lack ourselves. (167)”  As I read this, I was jumping up & down shouting YES!! (Well, not literally, but I was in my head.) This is so true. Being a new bride does cause me to compare myself to others. I want to be organized and well put together. I want my husband to be proud to be married to me and excited to come home. Man, have I worked myself up in a comparison tizzy. It really does steal my joy. Thankfully, my husband is loving, gracious, and patient with me.

The other area where I struggle with comparison is Bible journaling and decorating my planner! It has become such a trend now, that you can find an infinite amount of videos, blogs, pictures, etc on it. I am by no means an artist, but I can’t get caught up comparing myself to others in this area. I certainly don’t want to give up my joy in the Lord because I am too busy wishing I could animate Bible verses better. Crystal goes on to say that we can’t make the most of who we are or our talents if we are too busy comparing ourselves to others. We can’t live with gratitude, intentionality or purpose. (167)

I feel like I could become quite long winded about the encouragement that is on every page of this book. So let me leave you with a few more of the things I loved:

 

  1. Crystal encourages us to create a priorities list. She gives you space to do so right in the book. Jami Balmet discusses this particular point more on her blog. 
  2. It is ok to say NO! (I am still working on this one.)
  3. I am excited to undertake her 4 weeks of declutter plan. I have a tendency to pick one drawer or cabinet to declutter. But I am excited to take a bigger chunk of space and declutter that. For more on decluttering, see How to Manage your Home Without Losing Your Mind by Dana K. White.

If you’re ready to start thriving and not just surviving, grab a copy of Crystal Paine’s Say Goodbye to Survival Mode!

Personalizing my Happy Planner Budget Section

~ Megan

If you follow me on instagram, there is no doubt that you have seen my love for my Happy Planner. I can’t help myself! When I first bought it, I posted a picture of my planner and my new inserts.

But once I finally started using it, I realized it wasn’t quite fitting all of my needs. The budget section needing the most modification. After I got past my desire for it to look super cute, I realized that I needed it to work for me. So, I personalized it… using white out!    It certainly has lost a little of the adorableness it had before, but let me tell you, it has been way more useful to me.

There are still some areas that do not quite fit how I need to write my budget. For example, I created a section for my hubby & me to have $100 of fun money a month. But there is not any space to itemize what we spend that money on, thus allowing us to ensure we stay in that budget. So, I started using sticky notes to help with that. 

You can also see where I modified it to fit our budget categories using my trusty white out.

All in all, I just wanted to share that while I want my planner to be super cute and live up to all the wonderfulness posted on Pinterest and instagram, I need it, first and foremost, to work for me!

How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind

~ Megan

I initially read this book as part of a 2017 Reading Challenge put together by Jami Balmet at a Young Wife’s Guide. As a newlywed, I am currently gobbling up any and every book on homemaking. When starting the challenge, I sat down and looked at all the titles and cross-referenced them with those on Audibles. This book was one of them. So I decided to use my free Audibles book in order to listen to this book. I AM SO GLAD I DID!!!

 

This book was wonderful! Ironically, I listened to it as I was doing the dishes and laundry. (I felt less guilty about listening if I was being productive.)

Dana K. White continually said, “ do what is best for you”. She never once said, “ do it like me!”. She spent the entire book offering practical advice all the while encouraging her readers in their deslobification journey. There were two specific ideals that stuck out to me:

  1. Just… do the dishes.
  2. Just declutter.

Long before this book, I started the habit of doing the dishes daily; sometimes multiple times a day. I can attest to what she says about the importance of just doing the dishes. It makes such a big difference when my kitchen is clean. (Sidenote: I started hand washing most of my dishes so that I can listen to a podcast or a book. This has become a great way to refill myself.)

About seven months ago, I watched Katie Bennett’s course in the Homemaking Mentor’s Academy. She discusses the amazingness of a simplified wardrobe. After listening to her course, I went through my closet. Several months later, I was bit by the bug again and I went through my closet again. (After rewatching her course.) This motivated me to start decluttering other parts of my apartment. The last few months, I have spent time really decluttering. I found Dana’s idea about decluttering to be great! She pointed out that decluttering is DIFFERENT from organizing. She felt less overwhelmed when she decluttered versus trying to organize. Because, let’s be real, how can we organize when we have so much stuff? A lot of what she said reminded me of Elsie Callendar’s lesson in 2016’s Online Homemaking Conference.

 

Dana does a great job of discussing the potential difficulty one might face decluttering. She also discusses the possible grief one might go through when decluttering. She also brings up the difficulty of telling people “No” when they ask you if you want something. She points out how difficult this is! But I thought her points were really very good. Do not take something out of guilt.

 

She also discusses the importance of having a donate-able box close by that you fill up and then donate!

If you feel like you don’t have the time to read, then this is the best book to listen to audibly. Dana is such a great writer and reader. Listening to her book was motivating and thoroughly enjoyable.
So, go get her book NOW and just… do the dishes!