Grocery Shrink

I’m taking this week to get ready for a new year.  Everything that I’d like to improve is overwhelming, so I’m reminding myself that it doesn’t have to happen all at once.  A gentle plan is more my speed.  If I can only change 1 thing, but do it well and feel really good about it, then that sure beats trying to do it all, falling flat on my face, and feeling like a failure.

I’m basing my plan around the parts of life that bring the most stress and fixing that.   What am I running around wasting time looking for?  What sets off a stress response? What keeps me awake at night? What makes me nervous when I hear the door bell ring with unexpected company? Some of those are:

1. My desk drawers full of things I don’t use and not being able to find things I do use.
   • Solution: purge and oragnize
2. Bathrooms not company ready for unexpected drop ins.
   • Create a regular cleaning schedule. Train and delegate to the kids.
3. Not being able to find my keys.
   • A key rack
4. No spot for my coat, hat and gloves.
   • Install a hook in the garage
5. Getting double booked because I don’t have everything on the family calendar.
   • Add things instantly when I find out about them, and don’t worry what people will think if I’m on my phone (especially in church) while I’m doing it.
6. Not being ready for music at church when my turn comes up
   • Create a notebook of songs in order ready for prelude, set aside daily practice time, and music pre-selected for solos.
7. Having Freezer Meals/Slow Cooker meals ready for busy nights
   • Put together a dump and go slow cooker freezer meal plan
8. The attic storage area needing more organization
   • Schedule a work day
9. Light blaring in through the front windows while I’m teaching music lessons
   • Order and hang light filtering blinds.
10. The stack of papers on the kitchen counter.
    • Create a system, admit the old one didn’t work
11. My weight
    • This isn’t an easy fix, but I’m so much further along than I was this time last year and I’m excited to keep going with my Fit Mama meal plans and our accountability group.

This past year, I’ve been slowly putting systems in place like this that help me to live the life I want to live instead of getting tossed about by all the demands on our time.   It has helped a lot and I’m excited to keep going. The beauty is once the plans are in place, that problem is solved until something big changes.  It’s part of my overall plan to nourish my adrenal system by reducing daily stress.

I’m also re-evaluating some of my systems that didn’t work as well as I had hoped and changing them up.  For example, I bought a cute file box for my kitchen counter to tame the papers, but it’s full and now there’s a stack of papers in front of it.  It’s not working for me, so I’m setting aside time to figure out why and how I can improve.

The main theme behind the goals on my list are size.  They are all tiny little accomplishable things.  I want goals that lead to action, so I broke stuff down.  Instead of writing “get organized” I identified a few areas to organize that I can solve easily, then I assigned a date to them and scheduled the time to make it happen.

To make goal setting more fun, I created this free printable for us. If you are already subscribed to the blog, you’ve got the download link in your inbox.  If not, you can get it here:[wd_hustle id=”blog-subscriber”]

My other task this week is making a business budget.  It’s embarrassing to admit that I haven’t had a decent business budget EVER.  If I wanted to buy an ad or a course, I’d look in the account and if I had money I’d buy it, without a thought to my longtime plans.   I want to be more purposeful than that, so not only am I writing down my monthly business expenses, I’m also looking at the income side of things and how much I need to make our goals happen.  Darren’s income covers our basic needs like housing, gasoline, food, clothing etc.  My income covers the fun stuff like vacations, remodel expenses, and home decor and not so fun stuff like Irlen glasses and specialist appointments.   If I want to take my kids on a cruise or to see the Grand Canyon….It’s up to me to make it happen.

What about you?  Are there parts of your life that are driving you crazy?  What can you do about it?  Leave a comment and tell me about it.

The new year is a gift waiting to be unwrapped and revealed little by little. There’s not much in the new year that I have control over and that’s a little scary.  One thing I can control is that I can draw closer to God through it all.  That is a peaceful though.

It’s always interesting to look back and see what the most popular posts were through the last year.  They usually surprise me and this year is no different.

1.  3 Ingredient Slow Cooker Biscuits and Gravy.  I created this recipe during the year that I didn’t have a functional kitchen and it struck a chord with overwhelmed moms everywhere.

2.  Coconut Blueberry Muffin in a Mug.  I made this recipe for a blueberry contest with a big cash prize that I was hoping to use to finish our master bathroom.  I was in the middle of a fitness contest and made the recipe as healthy as I could and still taste great. I didn’t win or even make it onto their website, but the rest of the world approved.

3.  Plywood Countertops:  These countertops are temporary while we save up money for real ones.  Seems like there are lots of people needing lower cost options for their kitchen.  Here’s the update post for how they look finished.

4.  First-Steps:  This isn’t technically a blog post, but it’s the heart of what this blog is about. I’m happy that the message is getting out.

Look how tiny these kids are.  That baby is now 8 and the girl holding his hand is almost 16.  And little Grant wasn’t even born yet….sniff.  Good memories.  We have got to take an updated family picture!

Speaking of the message getting out, I’m dedicating January to shrinking grocery budgets everywhere.  If you haven’t known where to start or how to spend less, this is the month for you!