Part of my inner Advent this year is really looking to see how we can bring more peace into our life. When we moved to the farm 18 months ago, it was whirlwind of necessary projects (water and heat, anyone?) and we had a list of a number of cosmetic/flow type issues that would make living here easier. The necessary projects definitely outweighed the cosmetic things, so the ongoing projects are still there for the future, which causes me as a visual person to often feel unsettled. We also began boarding horses a year ago, which took some time to build a rhythm around, and now that we have had a year of that here, our routines are more set with that and I think I can figure out how to fit my homemaking routines with this.
The first point in figuring out my rhythm has been to look at where my time is going this week. Some things have changed since we moved here – more of my time went to animal care and outside projects, more of my time went to driving since we moved further out and there isn’t as much around us and work is further away, and I felt like every day was semi-different and it has been hard to get a set morning or evening routine.
One thing I noticed this week has been a lack of an evening routine. My evening routine honestly has been trying to squish in a bunch of online CEU courses and then do night check in the barn. Which is fine, but it doesn’t cover a lot of the other areas I need pulled together for the next day.
So I am headed back to Flylady I used Flylady so much when my children were small and up into early high school (modified for our own family), and it was helpful. Somehow I lost a lot of the routines for our home and am ready to get back to it.
I have many more areas pulling for my attention these days, so it is important that I get those areas in, but also important that I literally schedule in time to rest, to relax, to create. And, in order to keep my priorities straight, I am taking the word I am using for 2023 (bold) and using that to divide my life into faith, family, work and finances, farm, health, homeschooling. I created Pinterest boards for each of these areas to help me grasp what massive action steps I want to take this year to help things move a bit forward.
I would love to hear where you are now – are you drowning, are you feeling triumphant and productive, are you looking forward to a new year?
Blessings and love,
Carrie