5 Small Changes I’ve Stuck With In 2018

How has 2018 been treating everyone!? Are you one for setting high standards for yourself!? Or do you just roll with the punches and see where life takes you? I have to say, I’m quite proud of myself thus far!! My goals for 2018 had been weighing on my mind for a few months, knowing full well I needed to get on board with these things but, lacked the motivation to commit to fulfilling them. I’ve never been one to set New Years resolutions, but this year brings many new changes for us and I wanted to walk into 2018 on the ball or at least feel like I am.. LOL! It’s so easy to overwhelm yourself with big goals and become frustrated when you can’t keep up with them. So I really focused on things that were important to me and went in with the intention of turning them into life long habits. So here we go!

1. Weekly Meal Planning

I’m sure most of you mommas do meal prep in some variation and by no means am I an expert in this field. I’ve dabbled into meal planning a few times but, life would get busy, things would change and I would stray from the idea. I’ve always walked into the week with dinner ideas in mind, but would just go with the flow and base it on what we were doing and what the kids felt like having. BAD, bad idea. Honestly, I felt like I was going to the grocery store three ..sometimes four times a week!! And these picky eating phases would really throw me for a loop! My kids are typically good eaters, but there were days.. that I found myself so consumed with trying to get them to eat, bribing every which way just to get them to take a couple bites. So I’ve committed to every Sunday evening, sitting down and planning dinner for the week. Keeping in mind of course things I’m 90% sure my kids will enjoy, but also introducing a couple new things. And surprisingly enough the battles to eat have for the most part have subsided. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve just tried to keep in mind that kids will eat when they’re hungry and forcing it only makes it worse or being prepared and involving little miss in cooking a bit more has eased her anxiety about trying something new.

2. Reduce Our Waste

This ties in along with our meal planning and was another big reason why I wanted to focus on pre-planning our weekly meals. Like I mentioned above I was a frequent shopper at our local grocery store and it was only to replenish the things we would fly through instead of just coming up with new ideas for our snacks and meals with what we had. We’ve always been pretty good about recycling everything that can be, but PACKAGING!! I’ve recently become more aware of my neighbours waste that is put out each week. I’m incredibly amazed at how little waste some have, it makes me ashamed to put ours out. My goodness, it can be tough to avoid but, I’m determined to minimize the amount of waste that comes in and out of our home and sticking to only one grocery shop a week seems to be helping that along!

3. Set Realistic Intentions for Each Day

Does anyone else feel like their days just fly by!? And you look back and think what did I even do today?? As great as it feels to celebrate FRIYAY, I always start with great intensions for the week and then find myself stressed by the end of it and trying to cram in what I wanted to get done into the weekend. Sooo my solution for this.. write. a. list! And a REALISTIC one at that. Simple enough right!? Every morning I quickly jot down the things I need to get done today. Having that visual reminder and the great feeling of ticking off items as you go is strangely rewarding! You could easily do this on your phone there are some great apps out there. My husband and I actually use Google Keep for lists of things that need to be done over the coming weeks or months that can easily be forgotten in the chaos of life. We can both see and edit these lists from our phones and set reminders if need be!

4. Carving Out ‘Me Time’

While I absolutely LOVE being with my family, I have also learned that it’s necessary to carve out ‘me time’. Being a sahm and having a husband who works so hard for us around the clock, I was constantly prioritizing our time together as a family and never taking a moment for me. Whether it’s a candlelit bath, starting up a new hobby or even just strolling the grocery aisles solo, whatever it is, as long as it makes you feel good that’s all that matters. I think it’s so important for everyone to take some much needed ‘me time’ in their lives!

5. Declutter, Declutter, Declutter!!

What seemed like such a daunting task, really hasn’t been too bad and actually incredibly refreshing! I’ve been picking one space in our home a few times a week, leaving the bigger tasks for the weekend, so that I had hubby around to keep the little ones occupied.. otherwise I would have been running in circles!! What I’ve also found though with decluttering is you MUST either dispose or donate what you no longer need within one weeks time and be strict on that! Otherwise it makes its way to the garage and sits for weeks, if not months and ends up weighing on you every time you have to look at. The city I live in actually has a pay it forward Facebook group, so all you do is take a photo, leave a brief description with pickup details and my experience thus far, most items I’ve posted are gone by the end of the day! So if you don’t have something like that maybe consider creating one!! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

So tell me! What are some changes you’ve made for this new year!? Big or small I would love to hear of your success!

 

Andreana xo