Shades of White

Reaching the Goal

If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time. ~Author unknown

The problem:
How do you organize your life? How do you remember what needs to be done? Do you have a "to do" list? A calendar?

Goal: To put order into my life

Over time, I've put together a method that works for me--as much as possible. I use a calendar, an Excel spreadsheet,and a couple of notebooks.

The calendar hangs in my kitchen and everyone is required to put activities on it so that we can plan who gets the car and work out any other conflicts.

The Excel spreadsheet has a list of activities that I try to do daily and weekly. I have the day's activities organized according to the order I do them--as much as I can, followed by the weekly activities that I do if I have pockets of extra time in my day. I include in my list anything I want to be sure I get done and things I always forget to do--like pick up the mail at the end of the lane (my daughter always did this, but now that she is in college, we keep forgetting to do it). I print a new sheet each day.

On the right side of the paper is an hourly grid which helps me see the overview of the day--when I realize I must be in the car by 6:00 in the evening, then I also know that we cannot eat supper at the same time! My mind is perfectly capable of having 2 schedules running side by side in my head without realizing that the two will NOT work together. This grid helps me to visualize my day so that I will not have this happening.

At the bottom of the page I have enough room to write down my menu and any other notes that will help me.

My larger notebook is a new addition. I open up the page and write the days of the week down the side of the left page. I copy out items from the calendar and add other items I will need to remember. The right side of the page is the "to do" list that I'd like to work on throughout the week.

The little notebook is what I am currently using to track what I eat and what I do for exercise each day--a means of being accountable to myself.

So what do you do?

Stacks and Piles

Piles and stacks.

They've been growing. I don't think I've gotten them all gathered onto the dining room table yet--the astronomy piles in the front porch will be dealt with later. And school, the ungraded papers, were not added here either.

My goal? To organize and eliminate:

Put away
Pay bills
File papers into the filing cabinet
Send out those Christmas letters that never got sent because I was too sick to care
Send out Christmas thank you cards (is it too late to be considered polite??? Yikes!)
Throw away
Books on the bookshelf
Return LLBean order
And, and, and...

O.K. If you'd like to join me, we could have a race to see who can get through her piles the soonest.

Who's in?

My Care Package

A comfortable chair.

A big, warm quilt made by Grandma.

A large box of tissues.

Chicken Noodle Soup--the kind mom fed anyone with the flu when I was little.

Antihistamine for the nose that will not stop running.

Decongestant for the nose that will not run.

Neil Med Sinus Rinse to help the running and not running.

Vicks Vapor Rub for the chest or feet; Mentholatum to rub on the lips and sore nose.

Cough medicine to stop the coughing (which rarely works).

Raw onion and garlic, eaten to sooth the lungs (which usually works much better).

Plenty of liquids, especially Traditional Medicinal Teas or peppermint tea.

A sock filled with rice and microwaved until it is warm, then placed upon the ear to ease the pain..

Ibuprofen or acetaminophen for aches and pains.

Something good to read while you are recuperating.

What did I miss? A good video? A wonderful daughter who makes the chicken noodle soup just like mom (thank you, Bethany)? By the way, this is not the time for you to drop in for a visit. Maybe next week.

Blessings,
Jean

An Ordered World

It is a beautiful morning here in my corner of Wisconsin--cold, crisp, clear. As I drove home last night, Orion was rising on the eastern horizon, Mars, glistening like a large butterscotch star, was nestled near Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and the Hyades was a V-shaped diamond cluster below the Pleiades' soft blur. If it had not been so late, I'm sure I would have pulled my telescope out for a while.

This morning I glanced out my southwest window to see if the skies were clear enough for Venus to be seen. Yes. In all her splendor.

I would like my world to run like the precision of the stars. I'd like my house to be clean, my meals to be healthy and lovely, my routines to get done peacefully, and my time with family and friends to be relaxed. It does not seem, however, that I will ever live in that perfect world while I am walking this earth. So I set priorities and let the rest slide.

Come and visit me. We will sit before the fire and ignore the piles of laundry in the living room. O.K?

Jean

Raining on Tuesday

This is the side of the house that I painted yesterday. I did not scrape and paint it all. The top part did not seem to need as much, so I just worked on the areas that were peeling. It looks much better. My next project is to bleach the deck on the right and the board walk so that I can stain them. The main part of the house was built about 100 years ago. Later someone added the section you can see on the right--it includes a kitchen and a farm entrance. The small section in the middle was added later in order to put a roof over the entrance to the basement. We keep our farm boots there. On the left is our sun porch. A long time ago it was an open porch. Someone closed it in, and we reworked it to have a bay window and a wood stove. Then we added the decks and the board walk. One reason older homes have personality is that everyone who lives there seems to need to add something to the house! Maybe some day we will get that lamp post to stand up straight!

Have a good day!
Jean

May 14th, 2007

I'm painting one side of the house today. The side with the doors and the decks are rather tattered, but the rest of the house is mostly O.K. So I have the ladder and the left-over paint from the last time we painted, and I am being blown away in the strong wind while I try to keep a drop cloth over the deck! Wish me luck!

Jean

Carrot Begger: My Friend

Penelope

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This morning is cloudy again. Dreary. This would be a good day to curl up with a book, a warm blanket, and a pillow in the bay window (the pillow is for the little nap that would be sure to follow). Bethany has the flu, the real "influenza" with a fever that has lasted over 4 days, cough, aches, and chills. Oh, how I pray it does not spread to the rest of us!

Today I take another Latin test. I've been getting A's on all my tests so far. It certainly is a lot of work to learn this language. Bethany did most of her Latin studies on her own, but JM and I are slogging along side by side. I went through a 3 inch pile of flashcards last night. Alienus, locus/loca, laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatus... And then those macrons! I only learn the macrons that are part of the suffixes. I don't know if that is O.K., but I'm limited to doing what retains sanity, right?!? Wish me luck!

I'd love to think deep thoughts and share wisdom, but I am called to dishes, scooping cat litter, cleaning toilets, checking on the baby calf, starting up the wood stove, and planning meals for the day. You know, with my mind as foggy as it is this morning, these are probably good tasks for this gray-haired marm. Maybe tomorrow I will wax poetic.

Don't forget to notice beauty...
Jean

Tackling the Drifts

Now this is a REAL snowblower! It cleared our lane when the township snow plow could not.
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Many say they have no peace nor rest, but so many crosses and trials, afflictions and sorrows, that they know not how they shall ever get through them. Now he who in truth will perceive and take note, perceiveth clearly that true peace and rest lie not in outward things. There liveth no man on earth who may always have rest and peace without troubles and crosses. Wherefore yield thyself willingly to them, and seek only that true peace of the heart, which none can take away from thee, that thou mayest overcome all assaults.

Theologia Germanica

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    We have two sick cows. I think we will end up putting one down because it is so ill. The other we will need to medicate, but I do not know that we will be able to keep it alive.

    I have my wood stove up and running again. Yesterday I removed all the gaskets (no small task) and replaced them. I also replaced part of the door hinge. When I did the dollar bill test (put the bill into the door, close it up tight, and then pull it out to see if the gasket is snug), the new gasket failed the test. I called the people who sold me the gasket, and they claim that this smaller-gasket-than-the-book-recommends is what they always use, and it should be "just fine", and they will call me back after they talk to the boss. No phone call yet.

    Chore time! School time! Have a great day!
    Jean

Protect Donkey

On the Farm
Penelope has been upset this week. We've moved several of "her" cattle out of her pasture. She likes to herd the cattle down to the stream when she thinks it is time to get a drink. Periodically, she takes them all for a run up and down the hills. If a dog comes through, she will chase it out, protecting  her cows and calves. The fences have been weakened over the winter, though, and a few of the steers keep getting out of where they are suppose to be, and often they end up in Penny's domain. They should keep her busy for a while.

My mom called tonight. She asked me to check our barometer because hers was lower than she had ever seen since she starting keeping track of her father's barometer when she was a child. Ours was below 990 tonight. I've never seen it that low.

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IRL (In Real Life)

I am reworking my daily schedule. Every so often I need to do that. I like to organize my day by choosing which activities should fit into "slots" in my day. Right now my day goes something like this:

Before breakfast
Personal devotions
Core exercises
Shower/dress
Email/boards

Now I'm working on changing the next part of my schedule; I think I'll try to get into the kitchen by 6:30 so that I can have the kitchen work started before the family gets there at 7:00:

Morning
Breakfast
Family devotions
Morning chores
Work with JM (grade/correct work, assignments, Latin)

Noon/PM
Dinner
Relax
Work with Jacob (grade/correct work, assignments)
Work with Bethany (grade/correct/assignments, Spanish)
Afternoon chores and errands
Supper
Read out loud

Evenings
(Schedule according to the calendar :-)
Lock up house, stoke stove, read

I tend to make these schedules as detailed as I need them. Lately I've gotten out of the habit of taking my calcium, so I've put that on the list. The goal is not to dictate what I must do each day, but to help me get things done--and to help me decide what is most important when I get pulled off course and don't have time to do it all (which is a normal, everyday occurrence).

Do you keep a schedule?

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Friday. Roller skating is canceled. We are out of wood and the stove is cold. The cats are hungry. The day is starting. Time to run! Don't forget to play "I Spy"--I Spy Something Beautiful!

Jean

P.S. Strange. Very strange. On my computer and the kid's computer, my writing is directly under the photos here on this blog. On my dh's computer, there is a hugh gap between the photos and the pictures. What do you see?

Shades of White

Turn left at the 6th power pole. Drive until you come to a set of mail boxes, and on the right, in a grove of pine trees, you will find my house. The trees on the right in this photo are on our land. We were out early feeding the cattle before the storm.

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Thoughts From My Big Green Chair

    One of the arts of homemaking includes sitting, standing still, listening, and quietly being.       
    I spend hours curled up on a couch or soft chair listening to the conversation of my teens. I stand in the doorway each time someone is leaving to wave out the door and remind him to drive safely. I curl up in my bed while someone reads me something humorous out of the newspaper. I drop my task to "come see" what the cats, cattle, computer or brother is doing. I read out loud while the family is doing dishes.   
    If I were to insist that I do something productive instead, I would have a cleaner house, better meals, more organized world. I could keep my house tidy and organized so that it was always ready for company.
    If you come to visit, I will sit, stand still, listen, and quietly be while you are here, but you may have to overlook the pile of papers on the cupboard, the wood mess around the wood stove, and clean laundry piled in baskets along the living room wall.   
    Some things in life are more important than others.

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 Have you forgotten to find beauty in your surroundings? Go in search...
    Jean