No.925: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Getting My Summer Life in Order

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We are officially on summer break and…I’m tired, ha!  Some of the causes of my fatigue are things outside of my control, but I’m also guilty of living like this:

Feeling overwhelmed?  Let’s add a little more to my plate!  Clearly, that’s not sustainable and leads to burnout every single time.  At 40 years old, you’d think I’d start to learn my lesson!

Anyway, in a moment of clarity, I sat down and made some intentions for the summer months.  To everything there is a season, right?  For this season, I hope to stifle the overwhelm with intentional goals, keeping focused on the most important parts and saying no to all the rest.

• Take Care of Myself // I’ve fallen off of all the wagons for about six weeks now.  Emotional eating isn’t doing me any favors, so I’m getting back on track with vitamins, lots of water, a daily walk and getting lots of protein in my diet.
• Around the House // My poor house gets so neglected during busy seasons.  We don’t live in squalor or anything, but I certainly don’t have time for things like scrubbing the baseboards.  This summer, I plan to deep clean all the things and keep decluttering as I go.
• Control the Things I Can Control // My goals: doing little side hustles to pay off debt faster, finding inexpensive/free fun for the kids, finishing projects and taking each day as it comes.
• Planning and Prepwork // In May, I made a list of thirty-one easy dinners and worked off of the list for the month.  It was one afternoon of work for a month of ease – one less thing I had to think about every day!  This summer, I’m taking that idea and running with it; what can I pre-plan or prepare now to make my life easier this fall?
• REST

Hoping to document 52 weeks of good things!

Five Good Things…

1. A new dishwasher! // We’ve been without a dishwasher for almost two years now (I’ll spare you my passionate planned obsolescence rant) and even though this is definitely a first-world problem, I am thrilled to get some housekeeping help.  We saved our pennies, did a lot of research, bought it during the Memorial Day sale, and even saved $270 by doing the installation ourselves.  Praying this one will last more than six months.
2. New ferns for the front porch. // This was my slightly unconventional, belated Mother’s Day gift.  They are so easy to grow and have a big impact.  Love them.
3. A good blood pressure reading. // Since being diagnosed with pre pre-eclampsia while pregnant with my youngest eight years ago, I’ve struggled with elevated blood pressure.  Nothing terribly concerning, but I’ve never been in the normal range.  This week on a whim, I pulled out my home monitor and lo and behold, my numbers are in the green!  I was shocked.
4. Home projects on a rainy day. // I’m back to stripping the textured walls, this time in another hallway.
5. Not having to turn the air conditioning on yet. // I try to prolong this sweet middle period between heat and A/C as long as possible – I love the financial savings in our electric bill!  Sadly, the forecast predicts temperatures in the 90s soon, so the end is near…

Frugal Accomplishments //

• spent $100 worth of dog food on Chewy and got a $30 gift card for my next purchase
• made chicken broth from the carcass of a whole bird we made for dinner the night before
• made vanilla granola so my kids would finish a new brand of yogurt that they didn’t really like
• made another batch of beef tallow (slowly making a dent in the deep freezer!)
• air-dried a few loads of laundry on drying racks
• made applesauce muffins with applesauce I found in the back of the pantry
• reused a box and bubble wrap to package a resale order
• sold three books, two wine glasses, a DVD, a dress and two homeschool art DVDs and after fees, I made $42.01

This Week in the Liturgical Year //

May 29 was the Solemnity of the Ascension.

Reading //

• Sweet Tea and Sacraments: Flannery O’Connor, the American South, and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition from Raleigh Adams at Front Porch Republic // “…O’Connor’s fiction also speaks to something more immediate: the loss of a rooted, religiously serious culture, and the dangers that come when Christianity is reduced to either cultural heritage or feel-good sentimentality. O’Connor’s fiction challenges the comfortable Christianity of both her time and ours, and in doing so, her vision of grace, disruption, and tradition has much to say to a world where faith is increasingly privatized, disconnected from place, and stripped of its moral demands.”
• Wilhelm Roepke: The Well-Ordered House from Ralph Ancil at The Imaginative Conservative // Thought provoking.

New Additions to The List // 

• The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History by Robert Royal
• Franz Jägerstätter: Letters and Writings from Prison edited by Erna Putz

Watching/Listening //

• Lectures 4-6 of The Life and Teachings of St. Augustine from The Pursuit of Wisdom at Ave Maria University

Loving //

• Everydollar // There are tons of budgeting websites/apps out there, but I returned to this free one to visually determine how to juggle multiple goals at the same time (ie. debt payoff, long-term savings, and short-term “sinking fund” type goals).  Love that it does all the math for me while I manipulate the numbers!
• Soul Gardening Journal // A lovely surprise in my mailbox.

from the archives…

WEEK TWENTY-TWO 2024 // Little Moments of Delight pt.3