Friday, July 20, 2012

Honey-Do Printable

I'll admit... my hubby needs a little prodding to get stuff done around the house. And I'll admit... I forget what all he needs to do sometimes.
So I made this printable list for both of us. It's good for me so I can write stuff down as they come to me and it's good for him so he knows what I need and roughly when I need it. I'll still have to push him a little to actually look at the list (and not ignore it... ha!) but at least we have the springboard for getting tasks done around the house.

I've put a link on my DOWNLOADS page for this printable. It's a PDF and it prints with two lists per sheet.

ENJOY!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Yum

Honey & Vanilla Granola... I also affectionately call it "Yum-Nola"

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Open for Business

It's been a long, long time... but my m. ranae designs etsy shop is back open!

I reposted some old stuff and plan to put more up tomorrow. Also... as soon as I'm done typing this, I'm gonna sew.

I also officially closed my business in North Carolina. I still need to get the official stuff done in Florida, but sadly it takes more paperwork & money than it did in NC. So I hope I can sell a bag here & there to pay for my license. Then I can register my name and file for state tax.

For now... I'm at least open.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Wife


Well... this is it. This is my new life.
I don't work outside the home. I am now a stay-at-home wife.

And that new role is very strange and difficult for me to get used to living. Prior to the wedding, I used the excuse of the "wedding coming up" to not get into a routine. And last week, I used the excuse of needing to "rest" after our trip to Nebraska for the wedding. But, I can't make excuses any longer. This is my new life... I have to get the hang of it.

So today I spent a good deal of time researching and brainstorming to finally develop a schedule for myself.

In my research, I came across so many great posts from women who were in the same situation and I felt some relief when I learned that they, also, had trouble settling into their new role (especially since I've worked my whole life so far).
If you think about it, when you work for a living (outside the home) you are working on someone else's schedule. You're suppose to show up at a certain time and accomplish certain tasks throughout the day before leaving at a certain time. The next day you do it again.
I got used to that.
Now, I can wake up whenever I want and do whatever I want. It's so easy to go crazy and, in the end, not get a damn thing done. I'm a smart girl... I could see how this much freedom can cause trouble!

So, I've created myself a system to follow. I'll be honest, I have no idea if it will work. Trying it for a while will help and I can always adjust and reformat this system to better fit.

First, I reviewed why I am staying home/what my purpose is in staying home. Then I made goals. Lastly, I worked out the details (mapping out my available time). I figured this out using this blog post from Pursuing Titus 2.

After realizing what I needed to do, I created a few ways to organize my days. I made myself a daily agenda (with checklists) to fill out everyday. I found SO MUCH inspiration for this checklist on Pinterest & other great sites.
I included a morning, afternoon and before bed checklist, menu planner, appointment reminder, exercise log and water intake log. A lot of this is necessary to remind me to do certain things in order to achieve my personal goals (having a clean house, taking care of myself inside & out and saving money).

And I updated a cleaning checklist (the older one was used when I worked full-time... now I do all the cleaning myself) to coordinate with my daily agenda.
Lastly, I made some goals for creating bags and accessories for my Etsy shop... which I'd like to open back up by the end of this week.

So, all in all, I think I'm ready to take this new life on. Again, I'll just see how my new tools work for me and make adjustments as needed. 

DOWNLOAD a PDF version of my daily agenda by clicking on the DOWLOADS tab.

LOVE MY DAILY AGENDA but want a customized one?
E-mail me and we'll work out all the details, including cost.