How did August go for you? Did it whizz past? Or were you able to savor long stretches of time?
I can hardly believe that we are here, first day of September. It's back to real life for me. I think of the year as beginning with September and ending with June. July and August are just freebies. It must stem from my educational past. I spent the first half of my life in school, and the second half with kids in school. At both ends, my life revolved around a school calendar. Even when we homeschooled, I still followed a traditional school calendar.
With the new school year, I always rethink how the fabric of my life is looking. Am I being productive enough? Am I allowing periods of leisure? Have I been saying "yes" to so many people that I don't have time for family or self? Do I give myself a day off? Am I making my health a priority? These are the questions that I've been asking myself this past week.
I think I'm getting better about saying "no" from time to time. I really do need to make my health a priority this year. I've not been on top of that for a while. I'm a fairly productive person, but I believe that I can find ways to work smarter and not harder. I'll focus on that.
I've been terrible about giving myself time off. And I often find myself grumbling in my head about how much I'm doing. That's not a good sign. I want to figure a way to give myself one day off per week. It would be nice if it were Sunday. But as a mom and homemaker, well that just doesn't happen. There is always so much to get done for the upcoming school/work week. I'm thinking Friday might be a good day to not schedule appointments, not take on paying or volunteer work, have an easy dinner, and not plan any big projects.
So with the new school year, I'm going to focus more energy on gaining more energy, if that makes any sense. I have some to-do items for the month. And as always I have at least one task that I just do not want to do. I need to de-rust the laundry rack. I did some research last month and know what needs doing on it. I'd rather not, but if I'm to have a clean rack for indoor drying this winter, it's a must do.
There's also a couple of things from last month that went unattended. Never got to pie-making, and still need to do another batch of salsa and some bread and butter pickles. And a big oops, I forgot to call to have our furnace inspected and cleaned. The furnace is nearing the end of its life and so we really can't let it go a season without cleaning and inspection.
The garden gate -- I'm still thinking on it. I've looked at some photos and have a few ideas, but just not sure. I'll give myself a few weeks on that one. This will likely not be a DIY project. I think it's important to know your limits with fix-it projects. So we do what we can and hire out the rest. We have an awesome contractor that we know through church. He's the type of guy that you can feel confident giving your house key to and then leave town. I'm always happy to give him some work.
The other major thing for me to tackle this fall is making the family room cozier. It needs work! With cold weather just around the corner, I'd really like to have a more appealing family room.
How about you? What will this fall hold in store for you?
