I mentioned the Lazy Genius in my last post, but for REAL you guys. She’s soooo good. I’ve been binge-listening to her podcasts, and now I’m super hooked. She’s got so many great ideas, but one in particular is really simplifying things for me. One of her philosophies is to “decide once”, and I’m leaning into that this week in a big way!
Ok, so we talked about Soup Saturdays – this is an example of deciding once. The rest of our themed meal planning throughout the week fits this principle too, but this is the newest one – and the most festive! The recipes will change, and maybe even the time of day, but at least for this season, I’ve decided once that Saturdays I will be making soup. Done. No stress. No back and forth about what we’re having. It just is. Soup! Easy and fun, especially for fall. This week’s recipe for Pumpkin Chili was super yummy! I’ll link that recipe below.
Another way I’ve decided once is in my weekly schedule. On Tuesdays, we don’t have school, so we will make any necessary appointments on this day whenever possible. It just makes sense. No need to over think it! On Thursdays, also not a school day, we will go do something super fun! It’s our field trip day, if you will. Last week we went to our local orchard, and it was so sweet and refreshing to just go have fun! No errands, no major chores, just a fun-filled day with the littles. I posted pics on my IG page, if you’d like to see my little men and all their cuteness checking out the apples and pumpkins.
Now here’s a biggie. Gift-giving. I think this is something we either love or it makes us break out in hives. I am somewhere in between. If I know you, know what you’ll like, and have the budget for it, I LOVE giving gifts. If I don’t know what to get or am stressing about the dozens of people on the Christmas list, I start to panic. This year I’ve decided once that for kid’s birthdays, we are going to be gifting a craft. Yep. Every single kid. Doesn’t matter the age or gender, they’re gonna get some sort of art/craft gift. It’s fun, it can generally be purchased ahead of time if I find something awesome and want to stock up, and it’s a fairly consumable product that won’t clutter up my home or someone else’s. This is gold! I love it. If I feel like we need/want to do more, I’m adding a gift card for Dairy Queen or McDonald’s. Decided. Done. I can still completely customize it for each kid if I want to, but I also don’t have to, and can go into my “gift closet” of pre-bought crafts. This doesn’t actually exist right now since I just decided this last week, but it will happen. I used to have a drawer dedicated to random small gifts and another for gift bags, tissue paper, ribbons, and an assortment of cards. It’s such a wonderful way to be prepared and be able to easily love on our people, and I will be creating this space again soon. It’s magic. And I think so is deciding once for things like this! I have some ideas for Christmas gifts and friend’s birthdays, too, but I won’t spoil the surprise here.
There are so many other ways this principle comes into play to simplify our lives… where/when do we get groceries? I added it into my schedule for a regular day/time now when it makes sense for our school pickups. No more, when’s the next available Walmart pickup? Crap. We’re out of… nope! I recently switched over to Instacart for my Aldi pickup (not sure why I wasn’t already doing this) and it’s SO great! And favorite brands of cleaning products, makeup, bath stuff… I am not one who loves to try lots of new things in these areas because I’m super sensitive to most of them. So instead of constantly getting frustrated with fails and wasted money, I went back to the basics and I just get my favorites on repeat. Oh, and I order them online and they get shipped to me. Even better!
Here’s to deciding once, letting go of perfectionism, and making more room for what really matters. ❤️
These are a few of my favorite things:
Instacart (this is a referral link)
Grove (this is a referral link)
Apples.
Live Like A Daylily 
Leave a Reply