Resolution Reshape!

Are your 2021's new year's resolutions still front and center in your mind?

 

Farmer Steve will show you the payoff for working slowly towards his goals of a renovated home at the end of this blog!

I know we've all read the motivational blogs, heard our favorite podcasts and watched vloggers great challenges to totally organize the house, homeschool in peace, raise the best garden EVER!, and at the same time be a wonder woman wife and mother.

I listen to all this with an ear of experience. Not bragging, you'll be here one day as I'm on the brink of my 60's. I've seen many new years come around and know my heart. I WANT to have the peace of an organized home...I WANT to homeschool my children in peace and excitement...and I can picture a PERFECT herb and cottage garden, with rows of jars in my cellar. Hmmm...then reality sets in.

Don't get me wrong! I LOVE the energy I find in the new year. It propels me to thin out the winter clothes  I've not touched yet or that I love on the hanger but not on myself. I peered into my pantry and thinned out a few large cookie sheets and pans that only a commercial baker would use many of...and that's not me anymore. I've also revamped my son's high school assignments to make them fit his learning style better. Yes, the new year is a fresh start!

But life does happen, and I know I'll get discouraged if I set my goals so high that I will not be able to attain them. My solution? Set easy to attain goals that will eventually lead to my ultimate goal or resolution. I work in tiny baby steps towards them, keeping my focus. Just like a baby I know I'm going to fall...I don't have to be defeated or discouraged, but the Lord's help I can get back up and take the next step to reach my next goal. 

 I do want to give one caution. Since we can all see miracle stories online of people who will loose fifteen pounds the first month on a new diet...some will loose one doing the exact same menu! We need to give ourselves grace to move forward on any new goal at the pace OUR LIFE before God has set for us, whether it be a diet, reorganizing our home, or settling into the homeschooling lifestyle. 

What do we need to do daily to keep the momentum of our good intentions going? The first thing I did was to take a good look at the rhythm of my year....what I did, and when and why I did it. There are definite seasons of activity in my life...

Winter... schooling, garden planning and seed purchases, starting my onion seeds, order or hatch chicks for late winter or spring arrival, more reading, organizing, making herbal tinctures/glycerites for the year, trying new recipes, honing a new skill, etc.

 Late winter... sewing for spring, accessing the gardens needs such as compost and mulches and lining them up, planting anything that needs 6-8 weeks to grow before transplanting/daily seedling care, drawing a garden plan, (remembering to rotate crops), planting peas by St. Patricks Day, daily chick care or other baby animals born, transplanting onions, making freezer meals for the busy days of spring ahead, keeping homeschooling fresh with a few fun project days, etc. 

Early Spring...I never can trust the calander on this one here in the mountains of east Tennessee, as it may be late February in an odd year or early April!  Setting out young cold-hardy transplants, starting plants that need 4 weeks to grow before transplanting, Pulling winter mulches off garden beds, setting goals to finish school books SOON so the "real learning" can begin outside! We can now direct seed spring greens, green onion sets, and root crops such as beets and radish directly in the garden, spring cleaning of the house, making new fencing or coop/barn projects, etc.

Spring...Finishing up the indoor classroom work of our homeschool, (learning never stops, even for us adults...so in the spring we do a lot of hands on learning) finish the paperwork of the school year and sending in the grades to the umbrella school, prepare beds for the late spring crops and daily tend to hardening off the transplants awaiting the first "frost-free week". Plant as much as the weather permits in the kitchen and herb gardens. For us it may mean new chicks, or other animals to tend to, yard/farm clean-up from a stromy winter, etc. I hope to have all the mending done, sewing finished, meals in the freezer and a fresh house as I spend 6-8 hours a day outside at this point. We can plant the canning garden by the first or second week in May. 

Now that I've taken a look at the first quarter of my year I can make a short term plan. I've heard of "old timers" having a baking day, a washing day, a mending day, etc. In fact, I embroidered towels that have the days of the week with a picture depicting that day's focus. So last fall I began to fashion my days to have a focus. I adjust this to the month's rhythm, so here's what my January looks like:

Sunday ~ Rest

Monday~ Plan Meals, "Gardening Shopping", (going into my garden where cold hardy crops are and gathering what I need for the week.) prep the vegetables, mixing up my artisan bread that sits in the frig for 3 days before I can use it, and begin blog planning. Of course I have a new school week ahead of me for my 7th and 10th grade children, but that's a given.

Tuesday~Sewing & Mending

Wednesday~Baking Prep (sourdough fed, sprouted wheat ground, etc.) Blog

Thursday~ Baking Day

Friday~Homeschool Paperwork (week's work corrected) & Planning (assignment journals for the next week or two filled out).

Saturday~ Outdoors (if bad weather, plan for gardens)

By seeing all my major responsibilities (not including the given of homeschooling) and scattering them out to a different day of the week I can be assured that "nothing" (ha ha!) will fall into a crack and surprise me by being left undone. I don't get AS distracted with a spur of the moment project till I'm done with the main focus of my day....and my phone is often left on the charger till up in my day because I'm working my plan!

If you are a list maker like me, you'll love this! I put all the aspects of finishing a job on the "assigned" day in my bullet journal, and then I can forget about them until that day comes. I don't have to look at the big picture of my goals each day, just the steps needed for the day in front of me! 

Here's an example: 

You'll see that my categories for each day aren't always accomplished...like with this blog, I didn't actually sit down at the computer, but just mulled over the topic the Lord gave me. (In fact, I told Him [ha ha] there were plenty of people speaking about the new year! When will I simply obey!?)

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psalm 90:12

The Word teaches us to be accountable for how we use each day.  I want to hear, "well done, thou good and faithful servant..." Matthew 25:21 at the end of my race, so I must, "run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:" 1 Corinthians 9:26 You and I need a plan that will help us take baby steps towards being faithful each day. 

Why not join me? You may not be learning to draw like I am, so any spiral bound notebook will probably do until you make a written plan a habit. I like to use a dot grid to guide my creativity. There are some weeks there will only be my plan without drawing, some weeks I go all out with my drawing. But for YEARS I only made my lists with nothing fancy. Being able to mark off a task was my reward until I began hearing praise from my husband. That praise told me the plan was working. He saw the small steps towards growth and it made him proud! And I gained confidence in my role as a homemaker!

As you can see from my bullet journal, it's ok not to mark a task off...it'll happen. I put on diaginal slash for a task begun, then I jot it down on the next day's list for completion. Just knowing I'm working towards the goal of completion brings me a sense of accomplishment. 

There were seasons though when this tiny step encouraged me for I seemed to "only" be caring for small children and anything "important" "never got done". Be careful of the word never! satan uses these thoughts to discourage us. When you have a new baby, or/and have other children to care for THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK IN YOUR DAY. Oh, to go back with hind sight!

At this point in our family's life we used a wringer washer (by choice) and hung our laundry outside. I                                         joked that we could make a Liberty overall commercial!

I didn't have the Internet in the early 80's when I was a new mother...but I felt a sense of inadequacy in all I did. I can just imagine a new mother now trying to live up to the example of a half dozen bloggers who set the stage for each picture or vloggers who never turn the camera from the perfectly staged meal they just made so you can see the reality of their lives too! Believe me, their lives are just like yours. 

This picture was taken in the late 90's.

" There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 

We all can be eaisly be tempted to doing nothing...we're EXHAUSTED...we seemingly can't even think straight when the lil' ones finally go down for their naps. BUT with a plan YOU CAN! Even if the first half hour is YOU TAKING A NAP! (I recommend this!) Having a visual plan is your "way of escape" from the temptation to just sit, phone in hand for an hour or two till they wake up! 

For anyone that reads this and the Spirit whispers, "This is for you!", I'm praying for you!

Abundant Blessings, as You Seek to Obey Our Savior Jesus Christ,

Val Colvin

The Farmer's Wife

P.S.

We're nearing the end of our living room renovation...in a couple of weeks it will be one year since we moved into our 70's ranch with smoke stained walls, layers upon layers of carpet, wall paper, and contact paper covered hearth! Steve has been diligent to work since the cast came off his hand, and here we are!

For Christmas I asked for the new floors to be laid in the living room. That's really all I wanted!

I didn't understand that Steve had to start in the kitchen! But I got far more than I asked for!

Then he started the living room flooring. We used luxury vynal flooring which is waterproof.

He was itching to finish the fireplace, so he began the day after Christmas.

He had found a box of this antique brick at Lowe's marked down, so that is what we started with. We ended up having to order another box, but it was a budget friendly face for the fireplace that matched the brick we exposed when pulling down walls.

I waited till the end to reveal a big surprise! In the three weeks since Christmas our living room went from this... 

To this...

There are barn doors covering the monitor over the fireplace.

How did Steve reach this goal so quickly? He picked a few things each day and put the effort into reaching his daily goals. When you add all the little steps up it equaled a refaced "antique" fireplace with his home designed and built custom cabinet work.

 I'm so thankful for all the hard work Steve put into our home!