TGIO!
Thank God It’s October.
As I write this on Sunday, 10/3, it is my first-born’s 14th birthday. When it hits inboxes on Wednesday, 10/6, it will be my 15th wedding anniversary. And on 10/10, my parents will celebrate 52 years! No gifts please 😉… I mention this because October is a happy time for our family.
The start of October also means that September is in the books.
And to that I say, so long and farewell.
September was hard.
The transition from the relaxed days of summer to the regimented demands of fall is clunky. Every year.
Even having a plan doesn’t guarantee everyone in the family will adopt it. And frankly, even if they eventually do, everyone gets there on their own sweet time.
So yeah, clunky.
We had a great conversation about this in The Grace Lab last week. (That’s our weekly Zoom call on Friday afternoons. We’d love for you to join us! Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more information.)
Some exciting mom-wins were shared and celebrated and we all walked away with a few new ideas to try this week!
One idea was the reminder that kids thrive on routines. It’s how they survive a 7-hour school day, 5 days a week… Bell schedules, lessons with expectations, ROUTINES!
Like school, we can take a similar approach at home by defining our expectations and making them known.
One mom shared that mornings were a bear and getting out the door was a daily struggle. So, she bought those giant post-it notes and wrote their morning, after-school and evening routines on them.
The verdict: it’s working! Her kids are using them to stay on track. They even got to school early one day last week. What in the world!? Well done mama!
This week, we’re exploring a different take on routines: Targets.
We love the dartboard analogy. Picture it. It has that bullseye in the center that we’re all gunning for, but in reality, hitting it isn’t the norm. It’s the exception.
The lesson there is to keep throwing those darts and work to land them on the board. When you hit the bullseye, celebrate it! And then pick up the next dart and keep shooting.
The MotherShip Method has a section for Home Targets which functions on this analogy. The idea is simple: divide your home into 4 major spaces then focus on 1 space a week, each month, doing what you can with the time that you have.
Whether you choose to…
a) walk into that space and spend a few minutes simply assessing what it needs – maybe ask yourself if it’s functioning the way you need it to for your developing family. Perhaps you jot down some notes for future tasks and projects like, replace bathroom towels or bedsheets, schedule a painter, or find a solution for the chronic shoe problem – ugh! Or…
b) you get in there and scour that sucker; having an out of body cleaning and decluttering experience, swearing you will never let it get that bad again!
I see you nodding your head. We’ve all been that mom. She makes rare appearances in our house but when she does, she get’s ship done!
Whichever approach you take, the goal is to be intentional about that space by scheduling time to address it, then moving on.
You’ll see a version of Home Targets on The ‘Ship List (available to our subscribers). They pop up on Mondays giving you the option to tackle them then or schedule them for later in the week. Look for the 🎯 emoji on the phone image in the newsletter and click on that image to download The ‘Ship List to your calendar.
Finally, our resources this week, center around this notion of targets with a reminder to keep shooting and worry less about hitting that bullseye all the time.
Aim for progress, not perfection – that’s grace!
Access all 15 of this week’s recommended resources for moms in THE LIST 👇🏽
THE LIST
15 Expert Resources for Moms – updated weekly! 6 skimmable articles that offer perspective on this week’s topic, 8 informative and entertaining podcast episodes to make the chores fly by, and 1 insightful video to inspire you to move forward with grace.
📖 6 Skimmable Articles…
This week’s topic: Targets
🗂 This article nailed it when it comes to housework and grace!
“I am not stickler for a perfectly tidy house, but I’d like it to be at least half decent, most of the time, without losing my mind, so I’ve come up with some ways to make housework easier!”
Read Six Tips to Make Housework Easier by Kate at Picklebums
🧗🏽♀️ Use grace to set the right example for your kids!
“When the routines are completed, I feel a sense of satisfaction and calm. And you know what? So do my kids. This is not to make them rigid or too reliant on a routine. This helps us all feel productive and keeps things from becoming too overwhelming.”
Read How to Stop Being a Perfectionist Mom by Laurie McLean
🏡 Take the work smarter approach to a clean home!
“No matter how big or small your home is, if you’re not naturally a tidy person then keeping it clean can be a bit of a challenge.”
Read Keep Your Home Clean by Dividing It Up Into Sections by Emily Price
👨👩👧👦 Practice doesn’t make perfect.
“Think: practice make progress. This requires a real shift in focus for those of us who may have been told that practice makes perfect.”
Read When perfectionism is the enemy of progress | how to help a child who hates making mistakes by Justine Lamont
🥗 Do you find housework overwhelming?
“Whatever you feel holds you back from managing housework with confidence, one – or all! – of these strategies may be your answer.”
Read 7 Solutions to Make Overwhelming Housework Manageable by Brennan at Our Home On Purpose
🎗 Perfect people aren’t what they seem.
“You might think that perfectionists are people who seem to have it all together; whose homes are perpetually spotless. Their home keeping life is a well-oiled, pristine-making machine. That’s not even a little bit true.”
Read 5 “Clean Enough” Housekeeping Rules Every Messy Perfectionist Needs to Learn by Shifrah Combiths
🎧 8 Entertaining Podcast Episodes…
This week’s Grace in the Race Podcast Playlist
📰 What do you do on a monthly basis?
“Lets take a deeper dive into deep cleaning in the home; how often should you be doing it and just exactly what needs to be done?”
Listen to The Jessica Haizman Podcast | Monthly Deep Cleaning Tasks (30 min)
👸🏻 “Caught in limbo”
Imagine one of your sons is a passionate vegetarian… and the other can’t get enough meat… what’s a mom to do?
Listen to This American Life | Stuck in the Middle (60 min)
💡 “Year 2 of Pandemic Chic”
“Lululemon vs. Peloton”
Listen to Business Wars Daily | Sweatpants and Devices Drive Lululemon’s Record Earnings (6 min)
🤰🏻 “There’s one slice of pizza left, and all three of your kids want it.”
“One kid argues that he called dibs on it before it even came out of the oven, so it’s definitely his. Another says that since she had track practice today, she’s the hungriest–and therefore it belongs to her. The third declares that the two slices he already ate were wayyyy smaller than the rest, making him the rightful owner of this final piece. Unable to stop bickering over it, they look to you to decide who gets to eat it….but it seems like all three of them are making a pretty good case!”
Listen to Talking To Teens: Expert Tips for Parenting Teenagers | Hey! That’s Mine! (29 min)
😎 “Is Protein a Nutritional Myth?”
“The story of Nestlé executives, global health institutions and a very racist white lady”
Listen to You’re Wrong About | The Great Protein Fiasco (70 min)
🧗 “Lulu’s wisdom”
“Lulu Loya Wu is the founder of Quietly Confident, a life coaching business where she helps women find peace with body image. Lulu explains how our own energy and mentality shapes how our kiddos learn to view themselves and their place in the world.”
👨👩👧👦 Do you have an NFL buff in the house (with a fantasy team)?
“Will Gardner is joined by Liam Mowat as they discuss the latest in sports news and give their NFL Week 4 Picks.”
Listen with your kids to Just Sports Podcast | NFL Week 4 Picks (56 min)
⏭ “David vs. Goliath”
“Alexander Graham Bell has created one of the most important inventions in history. Now all he has to do is fight a business partner who doesn’t care and a corporate monster that wants to destroy him.”
Listen with us to American Innovations | Telephone | Guided by Voices | 2 (42 min)
🎬 This week’s Insightful Video…
Perfectionism holds us back. Here’s why | Charly Haversat | TED Institute (8:30)
“If you can’t do it perfectly, why do it at all? Recovering perfectionist Charly Haversat challenges our obsession with perfection in our personal lives, workplaces and beyond. Can we fight the crippling fear of failure and the unwillingness to compromise that it creates?”
That’s THE LIST for this week!
We hope THE LIST inspires you to get your ship together and get through your week with grace!
Do you have any go-to tips on this week’s topic … or a take away from The List this week? Leave a reply in the comments.
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Unveiled: The Secret Sauce of Effective Routines