2012 Home Goals

The Nester's asking about 2012 Home Goals today. To be honest, it's not a topic to which I've given much thought. I KNOW that we are moving in 7 weeks. I just have no idea where. As in, my husband doesn't have a job in seven weeks, and we are required to move from our current house because it is tied to his employment. He's searching for another job, and we have a back-up plan if one doesn't come through right away, but we're anticipating being in some temporary places this year.

That picture at the top. That's my living room 5 minutes ago. Perfect? No. Lived in by my family? Yes.

With that in mind, here are my home goals for this year.

1) Remember that the primary purpose in any living situation is for our family to learn, love, and grow together. Decorate and organize in a way that supports that purpose. For me, that means less clutter and things that are easy to put away.

2) Help my children learn so that they can take on more of the housework. Not only will this hopefully help them not to leave towels in the middle of the living room floor (!), it will also serve them well when they move onto homes of their own one day.

3) Open up our home to more people in friendship this year. We did far too little of that last year. It was sorely missed.

In short, my goal is to have a home--wherever that may be--that serves my family.

Don't just Pin it--Do it!

I admit it. I love good ideas. When I was younger it was magazines, now it's the internet. I love looking for fun things, but I don't always do them. That's a shame because what's the point of spending your time looking for fun things to do with your kids if you don't actually do them?!?

The other day, I pinned http://pinterest.com/pin/239676011388842921/. (I can't get the embed to work correctly at the moment. In the spirit of imperfectionism, I'm leaving it this way so that I can get this post DONE!)

It's a great idea. Yesterday, I was working on reading with my 5yo. He knows all of his letter sounds, but he's just having a frustrating time making that leap to reading. Instead of continuing on the lesson we were working on, I remembered that pin. I grabbed the back of a game that I'd previously made and a Sharpie. Within 5 minutes, we were working on sight words together. Better yet, he likes it so much that he and his brother played it during free time both yesterday and this morning.

Don't you love it when you just DO something?!? Done really is better than perfect.

Perfectly Pink Cookies

This morning, I had plans to make cookies. I asked my daughter if she wanted oatmeal or snickerdoodles. She replied that she wanted pink cookies. Now, my over-the-top brain started thinking about the fabulous cookies that I could make, but I knew that I didn't have time for anything too-involved. I was about to say "no" because it seemed a big project and a hassle, but I decided to take off the perfectionist hat and look at it another way. 

I decided just to make Snickerdoodles and color the dough pink. She was ecstatic!

Making "perfect" Pinterest-worthy cookies wasn't what my daughter wanted. She simply wanted pink cookies. My own expectations were turning it into a bigger project than it needed to be.

(Yes, her dress is on inside-out. She goes through multiple wardrobe changes a day, so I try to encourage her to do it as much as possible on her own.)

Expectations

Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy and rewarding life.

--Marilu Henner

 

Is imperfectionism even a word?

The short answer is no.

The long answer still admits that it's not a real word. You won't find it in Webster's. However, I still think it conveys meaning, and it's the best "word" that I could think of for the spirit of what I'm writing about. I mean it as the opposite of perfectionism...not someone who's seeking to be imperfect, but someone who accepts imperfection and is learning to thrive in imperfect environments. Clear as mud? Maybe a real-life example* will help.

Perfectionist: Can't start the dishes because there's only ten minutes which means there won't be enough time to mop the floor and scrub every surface. Since there's no time to do it right, why bother right now?

Imperfectionist. Realizes that 10 minutes spent loading the dishwasher and wiping off the counters will make a huge difference and just does it.

*Yes, both of these examples are from my own life. Sadly, I've picked the first more times than I care to admit.

Note to self: Always worth it to spend the ten minutes now. In fact, you usually won't even notice that the floor is not spotless or the microwave is still dirty inside if you just clean off the counters and load the dishwasher.

Hello!

I sit here at the conclusion of a really difficult year, and I realize that lots of my difficulties were made so much more difficult by my struggle with perfectionism.

I declare that 2012 is going to be the year that I learn to relish in IMperfectionism.

Why? Because my 3yo daughter thinks that the most important thing that you can be is "perkect". Because I have delayed projects for years because of my own concerns that the finished results wouldn't meet my expectations.* Because the time to enjoy life is now.

My goal is to document my own growth and insight as I learn to more fully embrace life and all of its imperfections. In short, it's time that I finally try to live by something I learned in Sixth grade from Mrs. Bell: "Strive for Excellence, Not Perfection".

*note to self: I'm pretty sure that any finished project is better than half-completed stacks of things in the craft room.