Simplification Goal Update

Here's how the first 2 months went. Planned January in a Home Depot parking lot. February was scary mommy unplanned. There've been wins and lots of learning opportunities.

The Blog: 1 post per week.
For January I wrote out topic ideas, release dates, and even drafts in Notes. All during that Home Depot trip. February was a continuation.

Using a combo of Notes, Reminders, and Weebly app to get posts to nearly finished. Once a week I use the computer to finalize and schedule. Its actually worked. Fairly surprised at myself.

Ruth Designs: keep things at hobby level.
This means monthly sales tracking and a single thank you email with sign-up link. It works well. Takes roughly an hour.

​But I also made 2 big changes.
One: added all of my existing patterns to Ravelry. Yay! Selling on 2 sites now.
Two: redesigned my website to highlight Ruth Designs first and my sole fiction story second. Thankfully I've gotten more adept at using Weebly. The whole redesign took 2 hours.

Daily Life at Home with the Family
While I mostly write about what's happened to my online self, it's how I'm managing me on a daily basis that's had the impact.

When I have childcare help, I'm making a point to hand over both kids. No more "you play with EG; I'll juggle the baby and working." Instead I focus and get stuff done in substantially less time. Win!

The meal plan is working. It's more of a guide to "what we can eat" rather than a true plan. Breakfast and lunch are pretty much the same every day. Boring and routine but requires little thought--a plus since I'm not getting good sleep. Kind of like how successful people wear the same thing every day only for meals!

Our daily schedule is a work in progress. We're all still alive. It's a low standard and yet one I can maintain. I've given up on exercise. Formal exercise. Do a plank or two daily and play with the kids.

In some ways the bar is on the ground. Everything that needs to be done is and we're all happy and content. Sure, there are days. I lost a whole week to illnesses. I still want to do more than I realistically can. It's a daily dance. It's real life being lived.

I stumbled across this article on how to change your life. Simply reminding myself to change the thought "I have to" improves my attitude immediately. Highly recommend.