Hitting the Reset Button

Now and then I wish I had a reset button, one you could press and all would be wiped clean and you could start again.  I often wish the kids had an off-button as well, quite frequently, actually almost hourly...

But, I digress.  Reset buttons.  And no I'm not wishing away some indiscretion of my own (though there are so very many, and all of them appalling, but I live with them and rather love them these days). Rather I'm feeling the urge to start afresh, set new goals, make new plans.

I had a few deadlines coming up to Miss 6s birthday party.  The two main ones were...

1. Paint the hall
2. Sort out a chicken run 

However, before I let a spot of paint in the house I wanted to de-clutter and re-organise first.  A gargantuan task that was blogged during my War On Clutter.  I did it.  Every single cupboard, drawer, bedroom, laundry cupboard, box in the shed, has been opened, contents sorted out and put carefully away (if anything was being kept).  The house is cleaner and fresher than it has ever been, and I am one hell of a lot more organised.  The space inside the house is a lot calmer, the kids entertain themselves more readily as they can find what they want, I tidy quickly and easily because everything has its place.  It was a long horrible job, but so worth it.

The chicken run was something that was carefully thought out and budgeted for.  Rather than whack something up that caused us to blow the budget and regret soon after, we did planning and research.  

So chooks, compost and other unsightly-ness reside behind the screen, plus the chooks will be shaded in summer, we can even drape shade-cloth over the top to the fence to protect them more on 40+ days.

Which brings me to today.  Party behind me. Jobs done. Goals reached. House clean and neat-ish (except where they kids have been :)) new term about to start...  I'm thinking about what to plant in the coming year, about continuing to lose weight, about getting stuck into my next novel, about paying off the mortgage... and, as it happens, about what to cook for dinner (spag bol).

I feel like its time to hit the reset button, start at the beginning and start heading towards some new goals. To start with I've signed up for Belinda's Back to Basics Challenge - which simply entails consistently recording the following...

The Back to Basics Challenge for those who choose to accept is to report weekly or fortnightly on either their blog or in comments here on the topics of

• Sowing seed or Planting
• Planning for The Future - meal planning, the next seasons garden plan, working out storage plans or more long term goals and projects like plans for digging root cellars
• Working for the Future - storing food, managing stores, preserving, building that home made cob or solar oven, adding house insulation, saving for manual grain mills etc
• Building Community - volunteering, donations, joining an existing community group, forming your own community group, taking a cake to a friend having a hard time, calling someone you just let drift out of your life, etc
•  Learn a new Skill

To this I'm also going to add 

• a record of what I'm harvesting from the garden and the chooks as I'm curious as to how much I can eke out of them.  
• a comment on my own weightloss journey 
• a lot of photos (not of my weightloss journey... can you imagine ? actually don't, its too horrible)

Other goals include

• Getting The Bunker done and presentable
• Doing some kick-ass budgeting
• Well, I'll write down the other ones when I've discussed them with Hubs (he's good at being the voice of reason) :)

 But yeah, time for a fresh look at things. I think it'll be good.

:)