Week One, 5 Minutes to Focus on Slow

Loved the early morning sunlight on the wheat

I don’t know about you, but with staying home more, I have started reading all the books that I’ve bought in the last few years, maybe started and then got set aside due to life being a bit busy.  I’m a nut for inspirational books that talk about focusing on your goals, self-care and such.  I had 4 going over the past 3-4 years - quick to buy and start and slow to finish or actual put in the work that they suggest.  And I just bought another book on “A Year for You”  by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.  Right off the bat, the author talks about breaking down techniques each week for a year to help you to focus on self-care, getting a handle on stress  and reducing clutter in your life (which includes your home). What spoke to my soul was that she had a term she called “tourism”,  wherein you buy the book, sort of read it and never put in the work it takes and of course no results come of it.  Ugh…. Spot on!!  I love the concept of the book’s message, but I fail to take the time and do the work it says to do.  So I thought, I’m going to make you my accountability partner, where at the end of each week, I’ll give you a report on the week’s progress.  I have found that I am okay letting myself down and not keeping a promise to myself, but I’d never  not keep a promise to someone else.

So Week One’s lesson was taking the time all week to just take an extra 5 minutes practicing slowing down…. like enjoying coffee for 5 more minutes. And being aware of how you are on auto-pilot as you run through the day and observe yourself. My conscious 5 minutes besides the coffee part (which was pure bliss), was reading, sitting on the porch in the evening (resisting the urge to go spray or pull weeds), play with the dogs, enjoy a glass of wine with Mr. Right (Rod).  I found I had to keep re-reading the chapter during the week, as  I was sort of successful being aware of my auto-pilot state. It’s so easy to slip into.  The other thing that I had to do was write a letter to myself about my reality today, how I feel and what motivated me to take on this challenge of a year for you… and the 2^nd part of the lesson was what my reality would be in a year from now and the letter would be opened on week 50.  It was an interesting exercise.

The other part of my week was merging households as Rod has almost fully moved in.  This meant re-organizing how we work in the kitchen and the office/pantry room.  Here is what my life looked liked:

Before!  Chaos  doesn't even describe it. Rod built more shelves in the armoire so I could re-organize and use the space efficiently. It was hard working in my home office during the day in this chaos 

After... whew!  I ended up having to do some reorganizing of the kitchen too- but worth the effort

I slipped over last Friday night to have dinner with mom and play a game of Scrabble... which my almost 84 yoa mom still whopped my a**.  😳  All in all, a fairly successful week trying to be mindful and slow down when the greenhouse is in full swing producing copious amounts of cucumbers and lettuce that Rod planted.  And harvesting the huge bed of strawberries and all the rows of raspberries.  I’ve canned some spicy green beans and together Rod and I have made batches of strawberry jam and a few jars of pickles. Just part of summer on the farmette.

As always, thank you for taking time to stop by, feel free to leave a comment or email at swheatfarmlife@gmail.com.  I always love to hear from you and if you have any words of wisdom… send them my way on how you slow down and what your extra 5 minutes to enjoy something is.   All my best, Gayle