A Busy March and April's Goals

I feel like each month brings its own challenges somehow.  March has been a busy month.  The rest of the spring as far as I can tell is going to be pretty busy, but for some reason March felt especially so.  I was talking to a friend/co-worker of mine the other day about busy-ness (business? I never know how to spell it so feel free to weigh in, all of you word people. I intend for that word to be that act of being busy and NOT an organization involved in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers.  Anyway, it seems as though each season, I start planning and putting important dates and things we want to make time for and other obligations that we know about in advance in our calendar.  And then I start planning dates for dinners and lunches with people (sometimes up to a month in advance because our schedule is already quite busy).  And then, as we were discussing, I think to myself, "Ok, calendar is planned.  Looks good! Not to busy!"  And then things come up, and that is when it gets busy.  And that is what I did to us this spring.

In January I feel especially eager to plan (a bit of a problem for me in general but especially in January).  I want everything neatly in our calendar and planned out for us.  I think this is amplified since I am pregnant too.  On top of the normal obligations, things we want to do/make time for, events, there is a list of extra things that we need to do-birthing and breastfeeding classes, showers, and projects, and on top of that there is a list of extra things that I want to do.  I have been super reflective lately and really just enjoying this season of life-the last season of just the two of us.  It is the first season that we have had that has felt like it has a tangible deadline.  I guess in a sense college and engagement fall into that category as well, but I never enjoyed college and was never sentimental about it and quite frankly engagement felt hard and stressful and I was just ready to be married.  And while I am super excited about the next season-parenthood- I have really loved this season, the almost four years as just a married couple.  I've enjoyed being together and the freedom that comes with it and all of the time we have for each other and the adventures we've had and the projects we've done, and I've especially loved how much we have grown and changed.  I want to soak in every moment of this season before it ends- and thus ensues plans like weekends away and a day date with our closest friends who are also pregnant (this was originally going to be a weekend camping trip, but then neither of us had any weekends left) and the such!

But anyway, back to where I was going with this, this spring is busy! March has been really busy!  We have done projects- painting part of the laundry room (so that I feel a little more sane while I am back in that ugly, messy space), painting a dresser, end table, and bookshelf for baby boy's room (which I am super excited about since we purchased the dresser from a friend and had the other two pieces sitting around since they were given to us when our neighbors moved-I love making old things pretty), crocheting baby blankets (for the many pregnant ladies in my life), caulking nail holes in trim (a task I have been putting off for far too long), finally finishing the end table Ryan made me 2 years ago (he routed the edges and I sander-sealed and polyurethaned it), creating a year book from engagement until our 3rd anniversary (I plan to start doing this yearly from anniversary to anniversary, an idea I gleaned from this blog), and most importantly finishing the stairs (a task I have been encouraging-okay let's be honest it verged on nagging most of the time-Ryan to do since at least 2 October's ago).  We watched a friend/co-workers kids for a few days while they were gone, and Ryan was gone for a few nights to Vegas for work, and we celebrated Ryan's birthday and went on a weekend away just the two of us, and we are heading to St. Louis this weekend to visit my sister, and we went to a breastfeeding class.  Add in lunches and dates with friends, and the normal small group and church activities, and family activities, and showers (again for all of the pregnant ladies in my life), and graduations, and increased Dr.'s appointments, and making baby registries, and finding pediatricians, and blah, blah, blah.  All good things, and things that need to be done or that we wanted to squeeze in some time before baby, but still just a lot of things.

Baby Room Furniture

Stairs Before and After

This busy month has led to a loosening of some of my normal routines.  I had gotten out of these routines in the fall because I had been sick with some weird undiagnosed illness for a couple of months, and then just about the time I was starting to feel better I found out we were pregnant and the morning sickness set in, and then the Holidays hit us with all of their craziness, so when January arrived, and I was done being sick and pregnancy sick, I was pumped to get back to routines. 

One of these routines is menu planning and grocery shopping.  What I like to do and what works best for our family since I work full time and we live a little ways out of town, is to plan out a monthly menu at the end of each month for the following month.  I try to plan about 3-4 meals a week or else we aren't able to keep up with all of the leftovers.  I use a fancy little template that I got somewhere on the internet (it's not really that fancy).  It has a spot for each meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks), a spot for items from the pantry and a spot for what I need to buy.  I do this for the entire month and make my grocery list from that (plus whatever staples we are low on).  Then I enter all of those into my google calendar, and head to the grocery store.  I cannot actually seem to find where I printed these from, but there are free printable menus all over the internet.  Mine is actually really simple and boring, so I may be on a quest for prettier ones when I run out of my current ones.

Which leads to my next routine-doing one big Aldi shopping trip the first week of the month to get all of the non-perishables and staples for the month and perishables for the first week or two.  This allows me to make 1 big stop and then I can stop wherever is most convenient the rest of the month (once a week) as we need things.  It helps our budget because I am intentionally shopping at Aldi for the bulk of our groceries, and it helps my time management-I only like to stop at a store for groceries and household items once a week or less.  In March, I ended up stopping wherever was most convenient (Walmart) to get urgent items, and our budget and meals and schedule reflected it!

Another thing I like to do is follow a cleaning schedule.  I found this great cleaning schedule that works really well for me.  It has you doing one task that theoretically takes 20 minutes each day, that way you never spend hours cleaning your house, you never have to completely deep clean, and if someone is coming over you don't have to spend the whole day prepping your house for them.  It requires some adjusting for your own preference and life (for example, we have a giant sectional and a giant woodbox in our house;  I cannot sweep underneath them every month when I deep clean the living room because it takes way more than 20 minutes and a ton of energy.  I also do not usually get around to cleaning out our cars once a month-although I hope to get there).  Much like the menu planning and grocery shopping, I got off track in the fall, but January and February I was good about following it, and then March hit and it all went out the window.  I am working on adapting this.  My rule following ways want to follow everything to a "T", and then when I get off track I have a hard time having grace on myself and picking up where I left off.  So my goal for April is not to complete my cleaning schedule perfectly, but to do it consistently and not give up doing it.

A few last things I want to stay motivated with is our Bible reading plan.  Ryan and I have been doing this together, and we got a little behind.  We were trying frantically to catch up, but much like having grace on myself with my cleaning schedule, our reading time is much more fruitful and productive if I am doing it to grow closer to God by being in His word rather than staying on top of the schedule.  If we have a couple weeks left (or a couple months) at the end of the year, that's okay.  The point of it shouldn't be to accomplish it anyway; if that's the point, I've completely lost focus on why we want to read each day anyway!  Walking or jogging 2-3 times a week.  I used to run most days and really enjoyed it, and then I got sick, and then I got morning sick, and then it got cold, and then it stayed cold.  This winter has been rough on my time outdoors.  So once April gets here I want to walk or jog at least 2-3 times each week because it's good for my body, and it's good for my spirit (this is my best quiet time or prayer time), and it's good for my mental health (believe me, some vitamin D and physical exertion do my emotions good), and it's good for my baby!  Lifting weights 2-3 times each week.  I'm not talking pumping some iron, I'm talking 10-15 lb dumbbells.  Since I don't have a gym membership and have a hard time paying for one and have a harder time making myself go before or after work in the winter, my goal was to do a short 5-10 minute weight routine several times a week through the winter especially since I was not running or walking consistently, but I have been very hit or miss with this. Some weeks I do well, and some weeks I don't do it at all.  I am not going to get ripped with this by any means, but I do notice a huge difference in my strength and tone by just 5-10 minutes a few times a week (I tend to build muscle easily so I should take advantage right).  

So to sum up this very lengthy post (and add to it a bit), here are a few of my goals for April:

-Menu plan for the month and actually cook meals consistently
-Make one breakfast a week for the upcoming week (muffins, cinnamon bread, coffee cake, etc-seems to help if we have 1 go to option each week)
-Make bread for sandwiches, toast, etc. as much as I can verses buying it (I have done this in the past and really enjoy making bread)

-Do one big grocery trip to Aldi at the beginning of the month (as opposed to lots of little disorganized trips to Walmart)

-Stick to my cleaning schedule (even if I don't perfectly complete it)

-Stick with our Bible reading plan (even if we never catch up)

-Walk or jog 2-3 times per week (yay vitamin D)

-5-10 minute weight routine 2-3 times per week
-Start my sewing projects for baby boy's room
-Finish the baby blanket for a dear friend
-Finish the laundry room revamp (walls are painted; I want to add some organization and decor)
-Paint the upstairs bathroom grey (I am hoping that the grey will make the room look less yellowy from the almond colored shower we got for free-poor life choice)
-Sand and paint the dining room chairs (I painted the table last spring but have been procrastinating the chairs ever since)
-Get a carpet remnant from Menards and have it bound at Carpet Land for baby boy's room

Wish me luck!