Friday, October 3, 2008

What Motivates Me?

A friend introduced me to Home Sanctuary earlier this year. I soon became a regular visitor, and a Small Thing completer. Over the summer, with the kids being home, my husband traveling, summer vacations, and the kids being home all day, my visits lessened. When the kids returned to school I was determined to returned to the Small Things, except with all the summer excitement the house was a wreck and I've spent the month deep cleaning.

So here we are in October, my how the year flew by, and I'm back on the Small Things caravan. If you are visiting today you are probably on the Small Things caravan already, but if not why not give it a try. The Small Things are more then just household chores, just see October's first two activities.

October 1st Rachel Anne asked us to empty out our pockets, or was it fill our pockets? Pockets of time that is. I am very bad at remembering it only takes a few minutes to complete small tasks like folding a load of laundry, emptying the dishwasher, or wiping down the kitchen cabinets. I seem to think it takes large chunks of time to pick up a pile of books and put them away, making the bed, or even hanging up the fall wreath. Yes, all little tasks I manage to not complete until the piles around our house grow to toppling, at which time they become a time consuming task. What I am crossing off my pocket list is checking email. I don't get that much email to be checking it every half-hour (and reading a blog, surfing over to ebay, checking monthly specials at my favorite shopping sites, ...) Needless to say checking my email (and more) is eating into my time pockets.

Yesterday we were encouraged to write, or update, our Housekeeping Mission Statement. Sorry to say I was completely unoriginal and borrowed Rachel Anne's from January. What can I say, but it fit perfectly with what I would like to accomplish around here. In the past we, my husband and I, have written mission statements for the family. OK, it was once, at the beginning of the year, and the theme for the year as The Year of Growth. When your house is over-flowing with little ones there is much growing happening, year, after year, after year. (And that would be my excuse for not having changed it for several years.)

And though I copied borrowed the mission statement it has reminded me to review my motivations as I go through each day, and what it is I want to accomplish within myself and my family. So, stay tuned. In the coming months I may post a new (and entirely written by me) mission statement. Right after I fold the laundry, pick up the books, make the bed (today I'm pulling out the flannel sheets, yeah!) and hang the fall wreath on the front door.

For more coffee (or your beverage of choice) chat head over to Home Sanctuary.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Erin, Like you, I love how Rachel Anne has shown me how much I can accomplish in just a few minutes.

I'm the queen of procrastinators, but finishing a task in just a few minutes has helped me to overcome this - a little anyway.

Carol said...

Me too! I procrastinate all of the time. I always tend to put things off. Claudia, if you are the queen of procrastinators, then I am the queen of justifiers. If you need a reason for you not to do something just ask me. I ma sure that I can come up with something.

Grace said...

Yay for hanging wreaths!! I put mine out yesterday. Aren't small things the best? It's amazing how much we can accomplish to keep the house looking nice in a few minutes... I have the habit of waiting too long, letting stuff pile up, and then it takes hours to get on top of it all... Of course I forget that if I'd just spent a few minutes here and there in the first place, it wouldn't have piled up at all!!

Forgetfulone said...

Great post. I just love Rachel Anne's home sanctuary site. She really gets us thinking, too.

Rachel Anne said...

Erin, I'm so glad you're back around! I'm just so thrilled to have found others who share my struggles with procrastination and emptying or filling pockets of time! I KNEW I couldn't possibly be the only one in the world!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Erin -- I read Rachel Anne through my feed reader (Google) so that I can easily keep track of all the small things. It's my one way of reading the blogs I want without having to search out which ones are updated :-)

Thanks for stopping by my blog!!
God bless,
Sallie