intentional living, little by little
My second attempt at Ten on Ten! In case you haven’t heard about it, on the tenth of the month, you take a photograph an hour for ten consecutive hours. Like the first time, it was just a typical day for us. The weather was dreary and cold. TJ has a little cold and has been a little fussy and clingy. Looking back at these quickly snapped photographs, our life looks a bit boring, but I think I’ll appreciate the little details more down the road.
I recently found a big can of pureed pumpkin on clearance at Target and it quickly made its way into my cart. Last fall was full of newborn baby goodness and I wasn’t in the kitchen much. Besides my go-to Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies, most of the pumpkin recipes I found on Pinterest went unmade.
Better late than never! On a dreary day in the dead of winter, I made Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. They were soft, puffy and incredibly delicious.
THE RECIPE
The recipe I used is from Nikki at Seeded at the Table. You can find the recipe here.
A collection of our ordinary days, recorded every week. At the end of the year, I’ll publish them into a keepsake to treasure.
Around here, I have been:
reading Overcoming Dyslexia and It Was Me All Along: A Memoir.
making baby steps of progress in D’s school. We got our package from All about Reading and have done the first three lessons. D LOVES it. That excitement alone is worth the purchase.
cleaning up a storm around the house. It feels so refreshing to place unneeded things in the donation box! Clutter is definitely one of my triggers when it comes to overwhelm and anxiety, so I’m happy to be doing something proactive to combat that.
exercising with a mix of running and Insanity workouts. The scale may not be moving, but I’m feeling strong!
homeschool notes:
Every Thursday in February, I’ll be sharing my progress for the February is for Organization challenge. (I’m following Money Saving Mom’s prompts for 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home) Today is a short update – I’m only three days in! – and written in bullet form.
DAY 1 Assignment // Write down 5-10 goals for the week. Get rid of 7 items. 15 minute quick pick-up of the main living areas. Clean out purse/diaper bag.
+ I was crazy motivated today and excited to get started! I knocked out the goal list during breakfast.
+ It was embarrassingly easy to find seven things to get rid of. A few were decor items that I’ve been holding onto “just in case” and since they haven’t left the closet in more than six months…well, they found themselves in the donation box.
+ Cleaning out the diaper bag was simple too. I didn’t have much to throw away, but it was a good time to replenish diapers and organize everything inside.
+ I had the kids “race the clock” with me to clean the first floor before bedtime. They love a challenge and we “won” with three minutes to spare!
DAY 2 Assignment // Complete 2 things from the goal list. Get rid of 7 items. 15 minute quick clean of the kitchen. Clean out the refrigerator.
+ My goals to complete were to wash all the sheets and to wrap a package to send to friends. Two projects I’m happy to have checked off the list!
+ I went through a stack of papers I’ve been saving and threw out at least 10 things. Why do I hold on to this stuff again?
+ I organized everything in the fridge, but am going to wait until this weekend to deep clean the shelves. There will be less food to have to take out then too.
+ I did a quick clean of the kitchen by myself after the kids went to bed and dare I admit it was magical? The silence, the clearing of countertops without someone asking for a snack, the filling of the dishwasher without any helpers…my kitchen was sparkling and Mamma had a bit of alone time. Win/win.
DAY 3 Assignment // Complete 1 thing from the goal list. Get rid of 7 items. 15 minute quick clean of my bedroom. Clean out the freezer.
+ We were out of the house most of the afternoon, so I didn’t complete most of today’s assignment. I did pick up my bedroom and quickly added a couple toys to the donation pile. I’ll catch up with the rest tomorrow.
Have you been cleaning or organizing this week? Let’s keep each other accountable!