the happy homemaker series

I love all things homemaking.  I enjoy cooking, sewing, organizing, cleaning, and other homemaking arts.  I am trying to get better at gardening and quilting.  And I am sure there are other skills I have yet to learn.

I developed a philosophy of homemaking that I use to guide my actions and decisions.

My Homemaking Philosophy

I believe that homemaking encompasses several different areas:  time management, people management, things management, tasks management, and financial management.

I believe that my job as a homemaker is to do those tasks that are necessary to keep a home running smoothly, looking good and functioning well.

I believe that my job as a homemaker deserves the same level of respect and consideration as my husband's job does.

I believe that it is my duty to do the tasks that need to be done so that my home is clean, tidy, and organized so that those who live here and those who visit here will feel welcome, calm, peaceful and loved. 

I believe that the house we live in is not MY home, but OUR home and ALL of us have a stake in its care and upkeep.  

Therefore, I believe that it is my responsibility to teach my children how to take care of their things (and thus help keep the house looking good and functioning well), moving on up to learning how to do the various tasks required in taking care of a home, until they have the knowledge and skills they need to take care of an entire home themselves.

I believe that my husband should take care of his things and clean up after himself, and help with some of the heavier/more complicated jobs around the house, but it is not his job to do my work because I didn't do it.  He works hard at his job and he deserves to be able to come home and relax. Of course, if I am sick, I appreciate extra help.  Fortunately, I usually don't have anything worse than a cold.

I want to have a clean and tidy home, but I also want it to be a warm, welcoming place where people feel free to sit down, move around, do things and enjoy themselves without worrying about if they're going to mess something up.  I do have some rules to keep things taken care of but I'm not going to worry if my coffee table gets a few scratches because my sons are playing with their cars on it.

I believe in learning everything I can about home management and its various aspects, taking what applies to me and discarding the rest.  

I believe that nothing is written in stone and schedules, tasks, priorities and philosophies can change and be adjusted to fit the season of life I’m currently in.

101 goals in 1001 days

Last week I was reading one of my favorite blogs--Becky Higgins.  I first knew of her when she was the creative editor of Creating Keepsakes, which was a scrapbook magazine that I really liked.  She left CK in 2009 to start her own business.

Her tagline is "Cultivate a good life and record it".  Each Sunday she has a guest poster talk about different ways of cultivating a good life.

Last week, her guest author was Brooke Petermann, who is on the Creative Team for Becky Higgins, LLC.  Brooke wrote about using time wisely as a way of cultivating a good life.  She is in her third round of the 101 goals in 1001 days challenge.  She uses these 101 goals as a resource list to fill her time with worthwhile activities. She said without a plan, any downtime she had would be frittered away with browsing Pinterest, blogs and Instagram.

That really got my attention.  I feel like I spend way too much time doing things that are not important, that don't help me accomplish my goals, improve my life, better my relationships, or help me be more than "just" a wife and mother.

The idea of 101 goals in 1001 days is that you make a list of specific tasks with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined.  1001 days is about 2.75 years, so this allows for a lot of flexibility, as well as time to do big things that might require more than a year to do.

I took a week to write down 101 goals.  They cross all parts of my life.  I went back several times and looked over the list and made changes.  I read other blog posts about this idea and got some new ideas.  I took some off and added others.  I compared my 101 list with my list of goals for 2015 and made sure that the 2015 goals with easily definable results were included on the list.

I also wrote down goals that I have been wanting to do for awhile.  And I wrote down some that would challenge me.  Some of the goals will be fun and fairly easy.  Some will be more challenging.  Some will require forethought and planning, while others will be more easily done with a minimum of planning.

While reading blogs, browsing Pinterest and surfing the Internet are fun, and fine for short periods of time, I want to be living more intentionally.  I want to be able to look back and see what I've accomplished.  When I feel unmotivated and unenthusiastic, I want to be able to look at this list and find a thing or two to work on that will excite me.  I want to do the things that make me "Merilee", not just "Mom" or "Wife" or whatever other label applies to me at the time.

So here are my goals, broken down by category (because I like things to be organized like that)

My 101 goals in 1001 days challenge starts today, March 8,2015, and will end on December 2, 2017
*Some of the goals I have made vague for privacy reasons.

FINANCIAL
1.  Set up a will/Gather recommended documents for preparation for death/Organize

2.  Pay off Credit Card #1 ($XXX/month will pay off in 39 months)

3.  Pay off Credit Card #2 ($XXX/month will pay off in 7 months)

4.  Pay off $XXXX of Credit Card #3

5.  Set up savings accounts for children/deposit money

6.  Set up USEP accounts for Child #1 and Child #2/deposit money

7.  Set up vacation savings account and save for 2 vacations/20th anniversary vacation

8.  Save $xxxx for new van

9.  Set up a retirement account

10. Find/get van title/ensure lien is removed

WITH/FOR THE WRITER

11. Date nights x 20 (and document!)

12. Celebrate The Writer's birthday (and document!)

13. Celebrate Father's Day (and document!)

14. Nights after bedtime with no computer x 100

15. Put a love note in suitcase for each trip

16. Spend an anniversary night at a bed and breakfast or nice hotel

17. Have a candlelight dinner x 4 (with the good linens, china, etc.)

SPIRITUAL

18. Read all 4 standard works once through

19. Find a family name and prepare it for the temple ordinances x 2

20. Go to Time Out for Women (and document!)

21. Go to BYU Women's Conference (and document!)

22. Go to Education Week (at least 2 days)(and document!)

23. Take an ASL Institute class

24. Attend the temple x 30

TRAVEL

25. Family vacation to Colorado with Swain family

26. Visit Arches National Park

27. Visit Yellowstone

28. Family vacation to San Francisco and area

29. 20th anniversary trip with The Writer 2017

EDUCATION

30. Read 101 books

31. Plan a year of preschool for Child #4 (2015-16 school year) and produce materials

32. Do Tiger Scout activities with Child #3 during first grade year (October 2015-16)

33. Take a class through BYU Continuing Education x 5

HEALTH

34. Train for and run a 5K x 2 (one a Childhood Cancer Awareness run)

35. Reach 175 lbs and maintain

36. Get yearly mammogram 2015 2016 2017

ORGANIZE
37. Organize each room of the house

38. Organize garage

39. Organize shed

DOCUMENT (scrapbooking and related)

40. Finish wedding scrapbook

41. Finish high school/college book

42. Finish each child's baby book (birth to 1st birthday)

43. Finish "almost done" pages and get in albums

44. Organize and back up digital photo files

45. Purchase negative scanner/convert negatives to digital images

46. Finish Christmas book

47. Finish Christmas ornaments book

48. Finish scrapbooking San Diego trip

49. Scrapbook Colorado trip

50. Do Project 52--focusing on the everyday of our life

51. Finish Georgia book

52. Update family portraits book

FOR FUN

53. Visit Cherry Hills

54. Visit Natural History Museum at U of U

55. Visit Living Planet Aquarium

56. Visit Little Sahara sand dunes

57. Hikes x 10 (Ideas: Silver Lake, Ensign Peak, Donut Falls, Minnetonka Cave, Temple Quarry, Rocky Mouth, Delicate Arch, Bell Canyon, Secret/Cecret Lake, Lake Mary)

58. Visit Lagoon

59. All 6 of us dress up for Halloween (6 superheroes?  a group of 6 costume?)

HOUSE STUFF

60. Paint entire house

61. Spruce up kitchen (install crown molding, caulk/paint baseboards, finish kitchen ceiling, decorate)

62. Living room: add some not-family pictures

63. Master bedroom: buy new bed (mattress and headboard/footboard); replace baseboard with something that matches living room; install crown molding; put up curtains; decorate

64. Master bathroom: replace light; install fan; replace sink/vanity; tile floor; decorate

65. Replace front door

66. Replace sliding glass door

CRAFTY/SEWING

67. Finish current craft projects (wood snowflakes, hearts, pumpkins; drying rack; felt Mr. Potato Heads; felt superhero masks; gratitude board; Christmas activity advent board; Jordan's Scout shadow box; egg candlesticks; egg tree w/ leftover eggs)

68. Finish all started sewing projects

69. Use girly fabrics to make things for girlfriends' daughters

70. Make burp cloths with remaining cloth diapers (half boy, half girl)

71. Make cloth shopping bags with denim squares

72. Make quilt for Child #4

73. Make favorite sports teams quilt for Child #2

74. Make new Arrow of Light for Child #2

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

75. Assemble 72 hour kits for each family member

76. Assemble emergency kits for each vehicle

77. Inventory food storage and make plan to replenish/increase long term food storage

78. Set up tent in backyard/check poles/replace broken poles

79. Buy another water barrel

80. Find permanent home for water barrels/move there/fill with water

GIVE

81. Contribute to ward Sub for Santa program 2015

82. Contribute to ward Sub for Santa program 2016

83. Contribute $10 to 30 different charities/groups/organizations/etc.

84. Volunteer at Deaf Center for 2 events

85. Volunteer at JMS for 2 events

OUTDOORS

86. Fix fences

87. Remove trees in backyard

88. Remove willow tree in front yard

89. Shape new flower beds and put in borders

90. Clean up rocks and put along south side of driveway

91. Plant new plantings in flower beds

92. Plant garden 2015 2016 2017

PERSONAL

93. Complete Personal Progress 2015 2016 2017

94. Girls weekend with 2 girlfriends

95. Get a professional massage

96. Get a pedicure

97. Win NaNoWriMo

98. Have a 45th birthday party with girlfriends (2016)

99. Learn to play 4 songs on the piano--play well!

100. Run a Color Run

101. Complete a 30 day Core challenge and a 30 day Plank challenge

So that's my list!  I think it's a good mix of fun, frivolous, serious, and challenging.  I look forward to seeing what the next 1001 days bring!

February review

Is it March 1st already?  I know February is a short month but it seems like it just started!

I didn't do much in the way of getting projects done/goals accomplished so I'm just going to keep the same list for March, with a few changes to the Outdoors goals.

Two things I did do:  I had a GNO with my best friend!  It was the very last day of the month but it was the week that worked out for us so we did it.  We even made and FINISHED a craft project!  We had a great time and I am excited to keep up our monthly get togethers.

Also, I have been trying out a new idea to help me with my breadmaking.  I bought some containers big enough to hold the dry ingredients for my two favorite bread recipes.  I made two dry ingredient batches of each, giving me 4 altogether and stored them in my pantry.  So all I had to do when I needed to make bread was put in the liquid ingredients and then dump in the dry.  It worked really well and I haven't had to buy bread for 2 weeks.  So I will keep that up!

Goals for March:

Homemaking: 1.  Establish Flylady routines.  2.  Make daily lunches.  3.  Make daily breakfasts.

Church:  1.  Be at church at 10:45 am.  (I've done well so it'll be a continuing goal all year). 2.  Go the extra mile in visiting teaching (My companion didn't schedule appointments for some reason so that didn't get done. I'll have to make early appointments in March and do something extra). 3.  Keep up with RS birthday visits.  4.  Do at least 1/4 of my emergency list.

Spiritual: 1.  Do gospel study daily. 2.  Personal, meaningful daily prayer.

Mental:  1.  Read one classical book of literature (I'm almost done reading The Secret Garden).  2.  Write in blog minimum 3x/week.

Physical: 1.  Exercise daily!  2.  Limit sugar to weekends.  (I need to make a sign or something to remind me--I'm realizing that part of why some of my goals aren't getting accomplished is because I'm trying to change a habit--and I forget!)

Social: 1.  Date with Steven.  2.  GNO with best friend (March--it will be March 28th for the LDS General Women's Session).  3.  Invite family over for dinner

Outdoors:  1.  Clean up garage.  2.  Organize shed.  3.  Rake leaves from yard.  4.  Screw in north fence boards.  5.  Clean out dryer vent cage.  6.  Put lock on electrical panel.  7.  Label electrical panel lock key and put in safe place.  8.  Clear out front flower bed and plant flowers.  9.  Prepare garden boxes with compost.  10.  Plant early season crops.  (I know this is a lot but several are simply things that need to be done that will take 5 minutes each.  I just don't want to forget!)

Financial: 1.  Figure out card repayment schedule and WRITE IT DOWN.  2.  Get savings accounts for each child and deposit money. 3.  Get a savings account set up for vacation

Scrapbooking:  1.  Get almost-finished pages done and in albums.  This will probably be an ongoing project since there's quite a few layouts.  2.  Get funeral album done, printed, assembled and delivered.  3.  Get Georgia trip journaled.

Hope this month goes better.  I need to figure out a way to keep my goals in front of my eyes without advertising to the world some private stuff.