When I knew I was going to be leaving the classroom at the end of last school year, I discovered that there was lots of work to be done...starting with cleaning out 13 years of teaching supplies from my classroom. I was moving from a room that housed myself, over twenty children at any given time, and years and years of classroom materials, personal belongings, and random items I had kept "just in case". As I mentioned in my blog post on Monday...usually, "just in case" never came. I started the process of getting my room emptied just as soon as school was out. I donated. I trashed. I boxed up. And I even sold a few items. By the end of June, all that was left was a pile of tubs in the middle of the room that needed to be moved down to my new office. On the afternoon of June 29th, I started the process of transforming my new office into my own.
I started to think of my office in terms of the "zones" I would need to have. I needed:
With these goals in mind, I started the process of going through every single drawer and shelf in the office. After I had been through every piece of paper and book in the office, I started to organize what was there. Finally, I decided what items I would keep from my tubs and sent the rest home or to the donate pile. When my systems were clear, I was ready to decorate. Armed with my clearance finds from Hobby Lobby and Big Lots, the transformation was complete. So without further ado...here's my farmhouse office. The new position has been all I had dreamed of and more.
I'm so thankful for God's providence and guidance over the last several years to bring me to the place I am right now. Happy Sunday night from the farmhouse, friends. ❤️🏡❤️
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I got here after 10:00 p.m. Monday night. I got checked in and headed up to my room. I unpacked for the week and snuggled into my warm, comfy hotel bed to call Mr. Farmhouse and let him know that I arrived safely. I'm spending my week in a hotel as I attend a conference that will teach me all about the responsibilities that come with my new job. Tuesday, I was up early and ready to take on the day. After a day full of meetings, I made it back to my room about 4:00 and worked hard on finishing some items on my school to-do list. I met some friends at 6:00 for supper and came back to the room to do some reading, call and visit with the girls, and hit the sack. This morning, I opened the hotel dresser drawer to get my clothes out and that's when it hit me...hotel life is amazing. When I was packing to come over here Monday, I packed only what I would need. I was intentional about what I put into the bag, as I knew I wouldn't want to carry anything extra with me. I have one outfit for each day, my school bag, my electronics chargers, and the two books I am reading. That's it. And so, as I was getting ready this morning and packing up my bag to take downstairs to the conference, I thought to myself...wouldn't it be wonderful to live like this every day?
Why can't we be intentional with what we have in our home?
Why can't we only keep what we need? You may recall our KonMari journey that I blogged about when we were still living in the old house. It was a journey where we looked at all of our belongings and asked ourselves, "Does this spark joy?" If the answer was no...out it went. Since then, we've moved and we've accumulated more belongings. I think it's time to go on that journey again. I would love to walk into the house every single evening and think to myself, "Living the hotel life is really grand." Happy Wednesday from the 9th floor, friends. Make it a good one. ❤️🏡❤️
Back in January, I made the goal to read 30 books in 2018.
Well, it's mid-April and I am in the middle of books number SIX and SEVEN. Book number six is The 7 Experiment (Jen Hatmaker). And book number seven is The Principal: Three Keys to Maximizing Impact (Michael Fullan). I will post a completed list at year-end, but for today, I would love to talk to you about the book I finished just last week, The 12-Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Get Done in 12 Months (Brian P. Moran & Michael Lennington).
I immediately downloaded it and started listening to it that night.
Wow. The concepts in the book were so obvious and yet, I needed to hear them so badly. How many of us wake up on January 1st every single year with so many hopes and dreams for the year? We make goals (New Years' Resolutions, if you will), whether on paper or in our heads. There are so many things we want to accomplish by December 31st, and yet by the time February hits, adequate progress towards most of our goals has not been made. We don't have to work too hard in January and February because December is still SO...FAR...AWAY. We push through March and April, making excuses as to why we are not moving towards our goals. It's so cold. When it warms up, I will get to work on those goals. I promise! When the school year ends, I'll have so much more time to focus on my plans. There's still PLENTY of time to meet my goals before the end of the year! We're not even halfway through the year! May, June, and July come and go. The summer is just so busy. When school starts, I'll be able to focus more. It's too hot! Summer is for rest and relaxation. By the time we hit August and September, we are ready to get the kids back into the routine of school and get to work on those "New Years' resolutions"! But it's just crazy when everyone is trying to get back into the grind of school. On October 1st, it hits us...we only have three more months to reach our goals. We start to get a glimpse of the urgency that is needed if we're going to hit our goals before January 1st, but by this point...it feels like it's too late. We'll try again next year. I knew I couldn't continue this cycle forever.
With all of the changes coming in our life over the next six months, I knew that I needed to get it together.
I'll be starting a new job on August 1st and life will be different at the farmhouse at that time if we don't start to mark some things off of our giant to-do list. The basic premise of the 12-week year is that we get rid of our "annualized" thinking when it comes to goal-setting and working towards making our vision for our life a reality. We start to think of each 12-week section of time as a year. Instead of putting off tasks until the end of the year when the urgency starts to take over, we keep that sense of urgency year-round, while setting realistic goals and focusing on the execution of daily tasks to help us reach our desired result.
"If you want to know what your future holds, look at your current daily actions. Those are the best predictor of your future. Not your hopes and dreams and visions. Your daily action. Because daily action is what moves a person forward."
We can have the most well thought-out vision and the most wonderful plan in the world. However, if we don't execute well...none of that matters. So remember as you think about your vision, your goals, and your plan that we need to also think about the effectiveness of our execution. We have to DO the hard work every stinking day. Even when we don't feel like it. Just do it.
We are in Week 2 of our first 12-week year and we are LOVING the results we are seeing.
I'm going to take you through the process of how Mr. Farmhouse and I set up our first 12 weeks. This is, in no way, a substitution for you reading the actual book and following the plan. But I'm hoping it can at least inspire you to get started! 1. Write out your personal vision for your life 10 or 15 years down the road. Be specific! Close your eyes and picture the life you've always dreamed about! There's no goal too lofty. Just write it all down!
2. Based on that vision, think about what parts of that vision you could work towards for the next three years.
We are zooming in at this point. We're taking that lifelong vision and breaking it into more measurable and attainable chunks. We went through our vision and wrote some attainable goals. I'm not going to share every single part of our personal family vision because your vision should be your own. However, on our long-term vision, we wrote that we want to be completely debt-free in ten years. So for our three-year plan, we want to work towards having everything paid off except for the farmhouse and my student loans. 3. Based on your three-year goals, set goals for the next 12 weeks. We are zooming in even farther at this point. What can we do to move ourselves closer to meeting that long-term vision and that three-year goal in the next three months? At this point, we broke down our 12-week plan into fourteen very specific, small, and attainable goals.
It includes blogging goals, a plan to get my classroom completely cleaned out before I move into an office next year, and a plan for our first garden here at the farmhouse.
On this step, be specific. Be detailed. And be realistic. 4. Create a weekly plan including activity that needs to be completed every week to help you reach your goals. We did this on the Sunday evening before we started into our first week. These are very specific tasks that will move you toward your 12-week goals. Here's an example of this from our 12-week year. We want to finish the wall and closet for the fourth bedroom. During week 1, we needed to measure the closet and wall space and make a materials list. We needed to order the supplies from Sutherland's. These are the only two tasks for that goal that we could realistically finish in Week 1. But we finished those two tasks and moved farther along in the process than we have in the last six weeks. We aren't putting that task it off any longer because now it seems manageable. It seems attainable. We can do this! 5. Every single week, check your progress from the previous week and plan the next week. This part is crucial to the success of the 12-week year. What daily action did you carry out regarding each goal? How much progress did you make towards your goals? Were you diligent in doing the hard work every single day? If not...OWN IT and vow to do better this week! After checking your progress, make a new weekly plan! In the book, Moran talks about three different blocks of time we need to religiously schedule each week. Strategic Blocks - 3 hours of protected time early in the week where you knock out a lot of your weekly activity work (1 time per week) Buffer Blocks - 30 minutes to one hour blocks of time where you do those mundane yet necessary daily tasks like checking emails and social media (1-2 times per day) Breakout Blocks - 3 hours of time later in the week where you BREAKOUT of the work cycle and focus on pouring back into yourself (1 time per week) I tried this schedule this week and could not believe how much more I was able to accomplish during that first strategic block when I wasn't distracted by emails, my phone, or other daily (sometimes meaningless) tasks that I spend so much time on each week. Week 13.
Week 13 in the 12-week year is for reflection and celebration!
Because you're not thinking about the annual goals that are looming over you, you are able to be more focused on a few attainable goals and the tasks that will get you to the end result you desire. I would encourage you to grab the book or at the very least, try to plan your own 12-week year soon. You won't be sorry. Happy Windy Saturday from the farmhouse, friends. Week 2...here we come! ❤️?❤️
I really love Amazon.
We have had a Prime account for several years and use it for everything from coffee to toilet paper, books to home decor, music to movies. Some day, I will talk to you about the joys of Amazon's "Subscribe & Save" program and my new-found love for Audible. Some day, I will talk to you about how amazing the Amazon app is and the fact that I have a dream to sell a children's book I wrote on Amazon someday.
Amazon has a host of items that fit my taste...and my budget.
As you've probably seen in some of my other posts, I love signs and wall-hangings to fill the walls of the farmhouse. Amazon has a nice selection of high-quality signs.
I have tried to be very intentional with the items I bring into the farmhouse, since we moved in last July.
One of the things I try to think about when I purchase items is the functional purpose that they could serve in our home. These containers are perfect for organizing AND looking adorable.
A nice warm throw is always a good item to have lying over a chair, reading available for snuggling up with a good book. I also love the natural pop of color that this wreath brings.
Seek out items that bring joy to your heart and make your home feel peace and calming to you.
Be responsible in your spending and intentional in what you allow into your home. And enjoy the process! Happy Friday from the Farmhouse, friends! ❤️?❤️ Every single year, I take pictures of the girls and purchase Christmas cards in the beginning of December. Every single year, I don't send them on time. Like really... Every. Single. Year. In fact, when we moved out to the farmhouse, I literally kept three prints from the last several years' of cards and threw the rest away. 😫
And in mid-December, I mailed some!
I mailed a whole SIX cards, in fact! I also handed out some cards at church and even gave some to a few of our family members! That is a definite improvement from years past. However, come January 31st, the rest of them were still in a pile in my office...ready to be mailed out. So I set a goal for myself to mail them by Valentine's Day. And this morning, I am dropping them off to the post office. I didn't order as many cards as I did in the past and didn't even get to some of the people on my Christmas card list...so I still wouldn't call it a success. But it was an adequate effort. Maybe 2018 will be the year that I get my Christmas card life together. We'll see. Merry Valentine's Day from the Farmhouse, friends. 'Tis the Season! ❤️🎁🏡🎄❤️ Happy Week 4!
This week we're going to go back through the first three zones we worked on and make sure that those areas of the house are in a "resting state". You might remember my blog post WAY back in July about getting to start over. In that blog post, I talked a little bit about my experience with the KonMari method of tidying your home. This method has given me a different way of thinking about my house, but I have to be honest and tell you that I didn't finish the process completely during either round that I went through and so I have rebounded a little bit. I want to go through another round in the new year, but until then the zone work from the Christmas Countdown will have to pull me through! So this week, we're going to think about that "resting state" as we run back through our first three zones. Look around each room you've already gone through on your zone list. Is there anything that can be taken away? Does it all flow nicely? Is there any object that looks out of place? Are you pleased with all of your decorative items that are out on the flat surfaces or on the walls? If not, take a few moments to change those things. You can print your Week 4 checklist and Zone worksheet here. Let's revisit our Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 zones and get Week 4 in order this week. We are almost halfway there...only five weeks until Christmas! Make it a great week, friends! ❤️🏡❤️ If you're just catching up with the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown, feel free to join the Facebook group HERE and print out the Planning Calendar and Week 1 Checklist HERE. Christmas Countdown Blog Posts Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Hello! Welcome back to the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown Challenge!
We are getting ready to start week 3, but before I go there with you, I want to be real with you. I didn't get my kitchen done this week! I got the mudroom finished and the kitchen was on my zone list for this week, too. I've been catching up on some photography sessions and editing pictures. I stayed late at school almost every single day this last week and last night, instead of working on the kitchen...I watched a movie with my 10-year-old, Harlee-girl, and one of her besties. It is what it is. This is why the countdown concept works for me. I have now completed my Week 1 challenge of the Living Room and Entry-way. I have completed half of my Week 2 challenge of the Kitchen and Mudroom. And I'm (almost) ready to move on to my Week 3 challenge of the Dining Room and my Office. Instead of just focusing on those two rooms though, I'll move the Kitchen over on my calendar and get them all knocked out this week! I don't feel like I'm so overwhelmed by not completing half of the kitchen task to just stop and give up. Instead, I move the few parts of the kitchen over to this week and work hard to finish all three rooms before Week 4. This week, outside of our Zone work, we are focusing on our vision for the holidays. I really feel like it's important to set a goal and make a plan to get there. Set a goal and make a plan. I use this phrase in my classroom. I use it in my budgeting. I use it when talking to my girls about all areas of life. So today, we're setting a goal for our holiday season. What do we want our holidays to look like? To feel like? To smell like? What do we want our kids...our friends...our families to remember about this special time of year? What can we start doing over the next few weeks to make these dreams a reality? Make sure to print out our Week 3 Planning Pages to help keep you on track! I'm so grateful that we are on this journey together. I love sharing life with all of you! Happy November from the Farmhouse! ❤️🏡❤️ If you're just catching up with the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown, feel free to join the Facebook group HERE and print out the Planning Calendar and Week 1 Checklist HERE. Christmas Countdown Blog Posts Week 1 Week 2 Hello there and welcome to Week 2 of the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown!
Last week, we focused on getting organized before we begin our journey to a peaceful holiday season with our families! We divided our home into eight zones and worked all week through the deep-cleaning process for Zone 1. At the farmhouse, this was my Living Room & Entryway. I started the week by decluttering any shelves and drawers in the living room...I went through our DVDs and purged anything we don't watch, cleaned out a few drawers that had acquired some junk, and minimized a few decorations on the flat surfaces. After a crazy week of parent-teacher conferences and the first slumber party in the farmhouse, I used my Friday off school to finish up Zone 1 by deep-cleaning from floor to ceiling...dusting, cleaning the windows, and making the floors shine. If you didn't get to join us for the Week 1 challenge, just try to squeeze both of the first two weeks in this week! Our week 2 challenge is to think about our giving. You can print my Week 2 Planning Printable here. This week, we are focusing on the friends and family members we would like to give gifts to this year. We want to be intentional with our giving! This year for the girls, we are going to do four main gifts... 1. Something they want, 2. Something they need, 3. Something to wear, and 4. Something to read. We're also going to buy a few "family experiences"...zoo passes, a Royals game, and gift cards to some of our favorite restaurants. Thanks to this list, coupled with the fact that we had a Christmas sinking fund (using CapitalOne 360 that I talked about in my blog post a few weeks ago), I am almost finished Christmas shopping. This week, make a list of who you need to buy for, any gifts you might have already, and ideas of what you would like to purchase or make over the next several weeks. The second part of our challenge this week is about how we can give to others during this season. Mr. Farmhouse and I do this in a few different ways that I've outlined on the Week 2 Challenge printable. Start thinking about how you can give back! Finally, we are starting work in Zone 2 this week! My Zone 2 is my Kitchen & Mud Room! These two rooms will be a bit more challenging than the Living Room was! I still haven't felt "settled" in the Mud Room since we moved into the farmhouse three months ago. I'm hoping to change that feeling over the next week by breaking the process up into manageable tasks and tackle those two rooms! I hope and pray that you are already feeling a little more peaceful about the upcoming holiday season! Let's not get bogged down with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season! Let's take a moment and enjoy the process of getting us to this special time of year! Happy New Week, friends! Much love to you and yours from the farmhouse! ❤️🏡❤️ If you're just catching up with the Farmhouse654 Christmas Countdown, feel free to join the Facebook group HERE and print out the Planning Calendar and Week 1 Checklist HERE. Christmas Countdown Blog Posts Week 1
In another way, this year IS different.
This will be our first holiday season in the farmhouse. Finding a new place for the holiday decorations. Hosting dinners since we have more room in this house. A new way of purchasing gifts for the girls this year for Christmas (more on that later). I always like to divide up my holiday planning and kind of challenge myself to complete certain aspects of it each week...and I thought it might be fun for my online friends to join me. If you'd like to join me, just join my Facebook group here. We'll be starting some weekly & daily challenges on Sunday, October 22nd! See you there! ❤️🏡❤️ |
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