April 3 in 30: Keeping Up

I’m getting there with my goals. My biggest challenge at this point is that the amount of activity during the day is so much greater here than when we were back in Canada, that I’m not making the time to have “office hours” because there’s always something unfinished to do elsewhere.

Then it’s hard for me to keep my online activities relegated to the part of the day where they belong. Just in the last week, I made jam, froze a bunch of strawberries and mulberries, made homemade granola and homemade almond milk, baked two loaves of gluten-free bread in my toaster oven, started a batch of sauerkraut and a batch of kombucha, in addition to making and cleaning up three meals a day! Oh yes, and laundry–it all has to be hung out. There are no driers here.

I realize a lot of this is setting-up activity. I won’t have to freeze berries every week, nor will I have to start sauerkraut or kombucha. These are things I’m doing to get set-up in our new home. I’m also getting closer to a meal plan, so I can simplify my market-going.

I’m plugging away, and I know it will get better soon. Slowly, I’m getting into a routine.

My goals for this month are:

1. Work through Simple Blogging: I’m making my way through. Most of the tips are simple–things I can incorporate smoothly into my life. One challenge I’ll pass on: If Facebook is a time-waster for you, consider your goals for using it. Wow. I’m still thinking about that one. I want to stay connected to friends and family back home. That’s definitely one of my goals. But with Facebook’s new format, I find I’m often hearing about the trivial a lot and missing important events in some people’s lives. Is there a better way?
2. Get into a proper routine. I’ve been doing better at starting the day right, but I must confess, there have been mornings this week when the computer was on my lap when my kids woke up. I want to change that, and it means keeping to office hours in the afternoon. (Refer to the challenge mentioned earlier.) I do feel that the rhythm of things is getting better, and it will resolve as I work on it over this month.
3. Get Hold the MSG posts on a better schedule. The kids and I expressed our desires about this, but didn’t bring it into reality last week. With the kids and JavaMan pitching in, we’ve managed to think up several innovative posts for the next few and hope to get some material built up so that we can be ahead of the game. I’m also planning to set up subscription for Hold the MSG so people can be notified when the post is up, and we don’t miss out on readers, even when we don’t get the post up “on time” as planned.

Things are coming along. My overall goal this month is to bring life into a proper balance. I think I’m getting there.