One Little Word 2016

Do you do the one little word thing, or word of the year? I think it's an interesting concept and kind of fun! I knew from about mid November what my OLW would be this year!  I don't think it would work so well if last year my word hadn't been REFINE. SO much change and refining last year!

~ We moved 2x and got rid of so much stuff! Refining our belongings.

~Gave up a whole lot of our normal doings. Refining how we spend our time

~Changed (a little) about who we spend our time with. Refining more of our time.

Refined some of what we eat, how many chores we have, activities. Just a whole lot of changes for the better!

But now we are here with new priorities, time commitments away from home, meals and we still have a house that is not even CLOSE to being done!  So looking at how we do everything with FRESH perspective.  It almost feels like we went through every aspect of our life, cut a whole bunch out and now we just have piles of piles that needed to sorted into Fresh ways of doing things.

So there it is. Fresh. Everything here is about to be FRESH!

What is your WORD?!  I want to hear all about it!

12 Weeks of Christmas {Week 12}

It's down to the LAST week!

I am so excited, our kids will be home!

 

I am pretty much done with everything! Couple things to grab when we are out, but nothing I have to have. Going to decorate cookies with the kids and enjoy the time they are home!

Soaking in this time with my little muffins

Hope your week before Christmas is stress free and full of fun 

12 Weeks of Christmas {Week 11}

In the 11th week of planning, and this week is the LAST week before our kids will be home from school!!!!

Sooo for me that means a whole lot of wrapping. I don't want to attempt it while they are home.

I have a big list for this week because I don't want anything but FUN next week when the kids are home!

~Deep Clean 

Especially if you are having guests. I use my Fall Cleaning list as a guide.

~Finish Food Prep

Freeze what you can, mix your dry ingredients for other stuff.

~Finish Gifts for Hosts and Teachers

~Mail Cards

If you haven't already

~Wrap Up Decorating

I got a good start but I have been watching for sale items so it's pretty bare here still!

Hope you are all enjoying the season and leaving the stress part out of it!

Take your weekend back!

Who doesn't love the weekend?

 Hubby works Mon-Fri and weeknights keep us running around like crazy, but weekends are special! Weekends are meant for family time and relaxing. Not full of chores or errands! Some weekends there is just no avoiding projects or chores but my aim is too make the majority of them mellow and fun filled. A lot of our weekend is filled up with sports activities, which is still considered a FUN thing here!

How do you prioritize family time?  Plan every weekend months in advance and jam pack them all? Say NO to anything that isn't family centered on Sundays? I don't think there is a right or wrong way as long as it works for you and your family.

What do you do during the week to make the weekends as free as they can be?

For us to have FUN weekends

~ I try to get the cleaning that has to be done all taken care of during the week. Check out my (old) schedule HERE!!

~Prep Meals/keep stuff stocked, no wants to go to the grocery store, or COSTCO on a weekend. NO ONE.

~Keep as much of 1 day free as possible if we have something that has to be done on a weekend.

What can you move from your weekend list to your weekday list to free up family time?
Something you can scrap altogether?

Join me in January for a 4 week overhaul to take back your weekend!
Join our group HERE!

12 Weeks of Christmas {Week 10}

That 10 up there means that after this week, Christmas will be here in 2 short weeks!

What is left on your Have to do list?

Want to do list?

This weekend we are getting our tree and have a movie night planned. 

While the kids are at school I am going to prep Christmas treats, and make Christmas cookies that are easy to freeze. Finding a time to make, cool and decorate in 1 day becomes increasingly harder as we get closer.  I will have them all ready to decorate for the kids. Makes it a little easier on me too, cleaning up the baking 1 day, and the decorating mess another.

If you have been watching the sales like I talked about in week 3 then you probably have a good portion, if not all of the things you need to prep Christmas goodies!

What is your must have Christmas treat?

I am also going to say Decorate this week too! Decorating for me isn't a 1 day thing. Especially in our new place. I feel like all our stuff from our old house just isn't right in this one. I am slowly getting stuff out and set where I like it.

I have a few things I have made for our new place. I feel like I share those more on Instagram though! Find me @OregonHousewife

Warning though, I have been posting a whole lot of chicken pictures lately hehe