A Fresh Start part 2

{If you didn't read part 1 you can read that here.}


In efforts to get a little more organized with my time and my home I revamped my daily schedule and set up an easier meal planning method. Hopefully this will help ease my husbands pain of hearing "I dunno" in response to his question of "Whats for dinner?" I also want to be a good steward of my time so that I may have more time to focus on my walk with Christ, relationships in my home and around me, and serving others. I thought I would share what I have been doing and maybe it will lend some motivation or ideas for others....

>Day to Day- I started using THIS wonderful daily schedule from A Holy Experience- Ann Voskamp. I really like it because not only does it give me a place for all the notes and chores for my day but it also helps give purpose to my day. It encourages relationships to focus on cultivating, my daily bible verse, things to be thankful for. {Oh and I love having a place to mark down my water consumption because otherwise I would NEVER drink 8 glasses a day!}

>Meal planning- I started with a cute calendar from HERE and then I made a list of all the meals our family eats and broke it down into 5 categories and assigned each day a category. 
Monday- Mexican
Tuesday- Asian
Wednesday-Italian
Thursday-Other
Friday- Mexican
Saturday-Other
Sunday-Leftovers

Next, I made my meal plan for the first 2 weeks of the month by choosing ideas from the main list, made a grocery list, and actually went to the store! {Earth shattering, I know} Now I don't have to spend so much time jogging my memory trying to think of meals we like to eat and there's really no excuse when dinner time comes around cause it's all planned.

Josh made me this cute background for my list and it's on our fridge

>Weekly Chores- Having a basic weekly chores list helps me from falling into 2  extremes. 1-Being a crazy clean freak who cleans the same thing multiple times in a week when it really doesn't need it or 2- Becoming super lazy and telling myself a particular room in the house is already "too messy" so I will just really clean it some other day when I have time... This basic chore list is what I strive to do each week but honestly it's just a guide and I don't always stick to it. I always try and keep a clean kitchen and sink. I have also been trying to do 1 load of laundry a day to keep from getting overwhelmed. My 15 min pick up helps me keep the clutter kept up. 

>Monthly calendar- One of the things I have figured out about Evelyn is that she likes needs to know whats going on. Every night before bed, every morning and every nap time she is always asking me what we are going to do next. I bought this big calendar at Walmart for like $3.00 and wrote out what our plan for the week/month is. I tried to make it simple and easy for her to understand as she sees the pattern of what we do throughout the weeks. Honestly both girls have been sick for the past 2 weeks so we haven't been able to do much of what we planned but hopefully soon we will all be healthy!


>Reading-One of my goals this year is to read AT LEAST 2 books a month. There are so many books I want to read but never put the time into finishing them. These are some of the first ones on my list as well as a couple of my favorites. I want to re-read Radical and finish it this time. I listened to all the sermons but never finished the book, I already finished Loving The Little Years and LOVED it. Short and to the point in addition to being really encouraging to where I am right now. There are some homeschooling books as well as an adoption book. 

One of my favorites is, Then Sings My Soul-A wonderful collection of 150 favorite hymns, with sheet music and the history behind each one. LOVE reading the stories and My girls love singing these together.

For our morning devotional Evelyn and I are reading Jesus Calling, I really like how the Adult and Kids devotions go together. It's a good start for the day to get me focused right way. Evelyn is having a little bit of a hard time focusing since there are no pictures but it's good for her and I know she will get into being able to focus more in the future. I try picking a story from her Jesus Storybook Bible that goes together to help tie it together in her mind. 

>Memorizing-To help with memorizing scripture, I am trying to have a verse a week and utilizing my big chalkboard to write it out right in our kitchen. It's working pretty well so far and I love having scripture up in a tangible way. 

>Exercise- I don't exercise and quite honestly every time I say I want to exercise more I never end up changing a thing. I have always been able to eat whatever and stay at a weight I am pretty happy with BUT after 2 kids and turning 26 I think things might be a changing.... I know I know don't hate but it's hitting me. I have been having back pain and I am pretty sure it's linked to my complete lack of stomach muscles as well as the fact that pretty much every time I eat a semi filling meal I look about how I looked at 5 months pregnant-also probably contributed to my lack of stomach muscles. So I printed out THIS little workout plan to start with and so far it's made it up on my fridge and I *plan* are starting it soon. ;)

Well that's some of what has been working for me right now. Hopefully it doesn't look super confusing or complex because it's really not. Just guides and helpful tools. I don't always stick to it and everyday usually looks different but for me it's good to have a starting place.