This isn’t the first time I’ve had to downsize my closet for nomadic living, but this time felt different for sure. We’ve come a long way with our attempts to live as minimalists. A few years ago we were in a 5 bedroom house. We…
Well, we’ve made it! The end of packing was a whirlwind, but we had our final walk-through with the apartment complex manager and turned in our keys yesterday morning around noon. We hit the road and only made a quick pitstop for some much needed…
As suspected, I didn’t get quite as much in boxes and out of the apartment as I was anticipating. BUT, instead of getting down on myself I’m going to just take an easy day today. I am going to go to a pilates class and reorganize the things that are left into one space. That will help declutter my apartment and my mind and I can come up with a new timeline for packing what’s left. Sometimes being a full time mom does NOT mean that you have ample time in the day to get to everything on your ‘to-do’ list.
On a sunny side note, Valerie is doing some new things lately that are to die for. She is now taking non-contact naps at least once a day which is SUCH a win. I have loved getting that hour or two-ish of down time in the afternoon. She grins all day, every day and shows off her bottom two teeth. You can really hear her trying to start saying words, even though they don’t sound like real words yet. And the newest thing (that I’m hoping will continue) just happened this morning! Normally I would wake up to Valerie kicking and ‘goo’ing in bed next to me, but this morning I woke up at 6 and got out of bed without her stirring. I made it out of the bedroom and left the door cracked open while I made coffee. I got to spend the first hour and a half-ish of my morning by myself with coffee and start this post before she woke up around 7:30. Game. Changer.
While I have six days before we leave Austin I am keeping my goal simple. This week my hope is to just stay present and enjoy every day we have left. While also wrapping up our move into storage, of course. Planning my packing schedule this week I am keeping a couple things in mind to help keep my productivity up, and keep my anxiety down:
Organization is my key to success and the best way I’ve found is to use a planner. Today there are SO MANY different planner and calendar apps meant to keep you on track. I used to absolutely LOVE Franklin Covey planners when I worked full time. The first year we spent on the road I tried out a dot journal instead and made the decision to switch. Mainly because I just didn’t have as much going on living on the road and I really liked the creative aspect of it. I can make whatever page of information I want, and I can keep a ledger of important pages noted in the front for ease of location. The other thing I really liked about it is the size. The Franklin Covey binders are just a little bulky, where as the dot journal easily can slip into my purse or computer bag.
Something I did enjoy about having removable binder pages is keeping all of my “permanent” important info on the same page and easily transferring it to the next year’s planner. With the dot journal, when I run out of pages I have to re-create those pages which is time consuming. The important thing for me though is just making sure I stick with ONE planner and keeping it on hand. That you never have to remember mental notes or keep your needed information in different locations.
Speaking of schedules, I have found that my self-care is a non-negotiable. I always feel more irritable and impatient when I skimp on my scheduled self care. Being a full time mom, I feel like I NEVER have much time for myself. There just isn’t much time in between feeding/changing/entertaining baby and cleaning the house. It makes every spare moment feel precious and fleeting. However, if a day is going sideways and it comes down to finishing a load of laundry or sitting down for an extra minute, I have learned to choose myself. It is impossible to be your best self if you have an empty cup and I definitely notice a difference in my headspace.
I’ve been working on being looser when it comes to my schedule. When I am flexible with my schedule I feel less stressed. Less stress means more mental clarity. Mental clarity helps keep me organize and keep my ducks in a row. Keeping my ducks in a row and accomplishing my tasks makes me happy. So if I can just stick to remaining flexible and not getting hung up when my schedule needs a shift, I will be happier all in all. (I’ve got another post that goes more in depth about my daily schedule as a FTM currently!)
Lately, it’s seemed a little like chaos in my house. Having a baby is a trip of its own, but trying to keep up with the a baby on the verge of crawling, housework, diapers, laundry, our small social life AND plan our trip while…