January has become a CLEANING month

I know the new buzz is Clearing Space...but to get right down to it I have been wiping, washing, dumping, re-organizing and deep cleaning.  Not only that, but I have been developing new habits, clean habits.  The first habit that I put in place was that I wasn't going to wash another child's dish.  In exchange for not washing them I have told them that they will have better thought out meals.  Which I have been able to do since I am not behind the eight ball in cleaning all the dishes. (We have a dishwasher...but I have a religious objection to using it, which my kids do not understand.  Plainly it is this; if I have to wash the dishes clean so that machine can throw soap all over them and rinse them, then why shouldn't I just go ahead and wash them.  So I do.)

Today Louise Bird wrote in the comments about how important tea was to British way of life.  I went down determined to have a cup of chia tea.  I could nearly smell it.  But when I went to look for the canister I couldn't find it.  The water was boiling and still I couldn't find it.  I started cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and wiping them down with a rage.  I clean one shelf then another.  Then I found a small bag of the left over chia tea mix that I had made.  I had enough to make a pot of tea.  I continued to clean and search for my container of chia tea mix.

I have done almost two cabinets and four drawers...and four hours later I figured out where it might be.  It had rolled under a metal rack that we store jars and can food.  Well I tell you that there is nothing that modivates me to clean than losing something.  So I feel that I am headed in the right direction for Januaray.


Erika C. at Each Day is a Present has been writing a lot about creating a vision for herself this year.  She has posted about making a Vision Calendar .  I have been thinking about making one...but I have decided to devote 12 pages of my new journal, when it gets here to the task.  She also talks about Choosing Three Qualities that you want to see this year.  I have had a lot to meditate on while I am cleaning...and I think that cleaning is a great way to meditate.  So I am going to be jotting down ideas, goals and qualities on as I work, to write into my journal.


 

I like to keep a journal.  I don't write a lot about what I am doing in the journal.  Sometimes I do but mostly I write about things that are important that I have read or that I heard that I don't want to forget.  I also write reflections of what I think about a certain situation.  I have been reading over my journal the past couple of weeks and have revisited some things that I had forgotten about.  I found they hold some incredible truths and are like a time capsule of the year.  I could just write in a blank book that doesn't have any date.  In fact I do this when I am writing my morning pages.  But I like the fact that it is a journal and that there is a sequence of time that keeps you going forward.

I usually buy a weekly planner.  One that shows five day/ or seven days on a page and then has a few photos through out.  This year I decided to try this Moleskin Artist Collection which is a blank page for each day.  Perhaps sometimes there will be art or sometime a Mind Map for a page. 

Have you been inspired by the New Year to make some changes, create a new habit, or change your focus by  giving you some new direction for the new year.  I wish you would share it with me.  It feels like we are all starting again at the starting line.

LETS GO!!!