When It's All Just Too Much

So you have lots of great ideas banging around in your head now.

You need to clean the kitchen each day. Do Simpleology. Meditate. Take your kids to school. Pick them up...

Oh boy. How did you end up here?

Well, remember that we're working on creating a habit per month. So what about these other habits that are so important, so meaningful, so valuable?

This is one of the things that the Dream-a-Dream box is for. Go in the other room. Write down the habit you want to form. Put it into the Dream-a-Dream box.

When you write it down, though, don't just write down the habit: "Make my bed every morning."

Instead, write down the habit as if it's already created, and what it feels like when you imagine it already created: "I love it that I make my bed each morning. When I walk up into my room at bed time, it always looks so lovely, so organized, and so welcoming. It feels so good to know that my bed is made before I get into it, and that if someone stops by today, they can visit my bedroom and I will feel proud of myself and my room."

Keep it positive, don't include things like, "I won't be embarrassed," instead make it, "I feel proud." Take the fear, and turn it around into its opposite. "I won't be fat" becomes "I look slender and strong."

Then when it comes time to begin creating your next habit, go to your Dream-a-Dream box. Find the dream you feel is highest priority, and turn that one into habit.

One step at a time. One day at a time.

Now that you have a Dream-a-Dream box, you know that it's just a matter of time before each of these habits you want to form become reality for you. No longer is it overwhelming, but now it's just a matter of time. You don't have to do it today-- and you probably wouldn't even if you tried to force yourself to.

So let it come in its own time. Prioritize and put the rest of your dreams back. They'll keep. :)



~ Livin' the Rhythm with Kimberly Weston

The Dream Shelf

One of the big problems that I had when I began this little adventure was the fact that I tend to get very good ideas. No, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that they were flashes of insight that would burn brightly, and then be gone.

Few things are quite so disheartening as losing a great idea!

So I made a "Dream Shelf." This is in a prominent position in the house. It's in a place where you and your family congregate. This might mean a kitchen or dining room. It might be a living room or a family room. And if you don't have a place you congregate, pick something that seems appropriate.

Here, you will put several boxes. Make them lovely, this is here to help you, to help your family. In fact, if you possibly can, make them together with your family, especially if you have young children.

Whatever you do, make this spot a priority to be kept neat and clean. Even if you just start out with simply shoe boxes, that's fine! It's better to do it, than to wait until you can pretty it up. That day may never come.

So start where you are. Don't wait for a better time-- there is no better time. Now is the time. Today is the point of Power.

Do it now. Replace the boxes if/as you get time to make prettier ones.

It's supposed to be fun, not just "yet another project" that you feel overwhelmed by. It's also supposed to be utilitarian, so if you can't have the fun, then accept the utilitarian.

You'll need about 5 boxes to start with. Label one of them the Dream-a-Dream box. Label one the Food Dreams box. Then we'll talk about the other three over the next few days.

Get it started today. Get the boxes, and pretty them up later as you get time.

Remember, it's better to do anything that's really helpful in your life in a bare bones way, than it is to wait until you can do it "perfectly."

Too often we wait until it can be done perfectly before even starting. And this is what leads to overwhelm much of the time.

Speaking of overwhelm, that will be the topic of an upcoming post, rest assured.

~ Livin' the Rhythm with Kimberly Weston

Simple way to make meal planning easier

I make weekly menus and shopping lists. I highly recommend this for everyone who wants an orderly home, especially when they are very busy and have a large household.

There's a very simple way to make this easier. What I usually hear people say are two things:

1. I don't have time.
2. I don't know what to make.

We can knock both of these issues out at the same time, in the same way. The best way to do this is to get your family involved. The most common reason why we don't have time is family.

There are multiple reasons why this is the best thing for you to do. First off, let's look at the statistics. People with families tend to be healthier. Not only that, but the more time spent with family, the healthier both mentally and physically people are. So getting your family to do something together can help their health as well as yours.

This is an excellent learning opportunity for children, too. They learn how to prepare shopping lists, how to designate time, and how to eat nutritionally through planning.

Also, it's important to remember that food is a requirement for life. So if you are going to be living, you're going to be eating. Let's pass on to our children the legacy of having healthy food in the house.

A huge side benefit of this is that you will decrease the likelihood of getting junk food into the house. When you go to the store with a list, you're less likely to wander aimlessly and follow the dictates of your taste buds.

So prepare a weekly menu and shopping list. Then have a place in your kitchen for your family to write down things that you need for next week's list. For example, if you run low on ketchup this week, you can write it on the list. That's something you're not likely to write down if you decide to have hamburgers on Tuesday.

Then, here's the key to making it all come together. During the week, as you go about your day, you're likely to come up with something you'd like to eat. You are out and about, and you smell a restaurant. This makes you realize how much you're craving some yummy fried chicken.

This is a perfect opportunity to sit down a few days later with your kids and look together on the internet to find some baked chicken alternatives to the less-healthy fried chicken. This is time well spent, because you're together, and you're teaching them healthy choices.

But here's the thing. By Saturday when you do your shopping list, what if you've forgotten, and here you sit once more, wondering what the heck to make for a whole entire week!

That's where my secret box trick comes in. It's the food dreamers' box. We'll talk next time about making a Dreamer's Shelf, and that's where your food dreamer box will be.

Use a small, pretty box and label it "Food Dreamer Box," and put it on the Dreamers' Shelf. Then, when you get a craving, or your husband does, or your kids do... you'll write your craving down, and drop it in the box.

Then come Saturday, you can pull out the FDB and check out what your family has been craving this week. If you have left-over dreams, date them, and try to take them before the next week's dreams.

In this simple way, you acknowledge the desires of your family. You get them involved.

And you don't have to wonder, "What am I going to make for dinner tonight?"

So by the simple expedient of a Dreamers' Box, you can begin to pull together the necessary ingredients to make food less of a daily grinding chore. You will make shopping easier and less stressful. You will make it less likely that you'll fill your cabinet with junk food.

And last but not least, you will have assistance in taking care of this very important need on your family's part.


~ Livin' the Rhythm with Kimberly Weston