Oh my goodness – I started this series several weeks ago and meant to make it weekly, but the holidays slapped me upside the head. Seriously – I’ve had some busy Christmases but this one took the cake, and that was even after I let go of a number of obligations.
I even had to let go of my Christmas journal. You know how it is when you want to do something, but don’t have time and then start the avoidance cycle? That was me with this blog – I felt bad for not keeping up with my journal so I found excuses to do other things.
On the bright side, I’ve had some seriously relaxing do-nothing days which I think I needed. I’m coming up on busy season at work, so this chance to be a total couch potato was apparently what I needed.
Getting back on track for the new year – first, refresh yourself on habit #1 – Reboot your dishwasher daily.
Have you been doing this? I have for the most part, although holiday cooking got me a little scrambled for a few days. But it’s interesting how once I set out to make it a habit, the idea of taking a quick few minutes for dishes became both easier and more important.
The habit for this week will build on the dishwasher habit: Clear and wipe your kitchen counters daily.
It will probably help if you take a little time to declutter them, identify any appliances or decorative items that you can stash, sell or donate, and then do a nice deep clean. Get some hot soapy water (or whatever is recommended for your counters, I don’t want you to mess them up) and scrub all the corners. Move stuff out of the way and get behind and under everything.
Once that is done, it be easier to wipe down quickly at least every morning or evening. I’m going to use some sort of spray for daily use but then try to scrub once a week. My counters are formica from the 50s (don’t be jealous, it’s ugly) (P.S. the picture above is NOT my kitchen!! just an aspiration) and not super easy to clean.
Planning to clean daily also means I won’t let stacks of stuff pile up – even when I stay on top of the dishwasher, stray items tend to wander onto my counter.
Keep rebooting your dishwasher daily – I think adding these 2 habits together will make for some super peaceful mornings when school is back in session.
Who’s up for this habit? Post a comment if you’re going to join in!
Christmas dinner… for one thing, it’s never quite what I picture. The kids are tired, I’m done with entertaining… seems like it should be a lot more magical than it typically is.
What’s left? Christmas Eve is a week away!
Today’s topic is the Christmas Tree, but the homily at Mass today took me in a slightly different direction. I am working on evolving some memorable holiday traditions for my kids to look back on and maybe pass to their kids some day. We do some stuff that they really enjoy – the Advent candles, elf, special trip for the live Christmas tree on the first Sunday of Advent… Many of ornaments have stories or special meaning and I try to buy something new every year for the Christmas tree. Next year I also want to start the St. Nick tradition of leaving small gifts in their shoes.
