It's almost halfway through December, and that means we're almost done 2017. Although there's nothing overly magical about the turning of the page to a new year, we seem universally to want to "start over" with each new year.

So what's holding you back?

Take a few minutes to think about what you want in the new year, and what you can do to make it happen. As nice as it would be to think that the changes we want will magically appear under the tree on Christmas morning, realistically speaking the changes we need to make are made up of the steps we need to take ourselves.

For example, I would love to wake up on Boxing Day and find out that our house is magically uncluttered and clean. Will that happen? Not overnight. But if we consistently make the effort together as a family to make that a goal for the new year- and take steps to ensure it happens- at some point it will happen. Slow and tedious, yes. Worth it in the end? Oh, yes.

Here are some suggestions to help you get a handle on your kitchens going into the new year. Tedious? Maybe. But if you really want to make the changes, you will make the effort.

1. Issue: Don't know what food you have?
Solutions:

• Clean out your spice cupboard- pull out all your spice bags, repackage in containers, label and organize- make them visible in a way that makes sense (alphabetical, tiered shelving, stack, etc) Throw out old or expired spices.
• Clean out your food pantry- pull out all your food items. Throw out old, damaged, expired options.
  Set up a food bank box for food that falls into the "never going to eat" category and donate.
  Group "like" foods together (spices, baking ingredients, beans and other legumes, pasta and rice, etc)
  Re-populate your pantry- find storage solutions that work for you to keep "like" items together- tiered shelving, boxes, bins, etc.- Keep things visible in a way that makes sense for you...often used items at eye level and in the middle, less often used to the edges and above or below

2. Issue: Don't know what's in your freezer?
Solutions:

• Clean out your freezer- pull everything out (defrost if required)
• Throw out anything that has been in there longer than a year, is freezer burned (full of ice, smells funny, looks dry), that you will never eat, or that you don't recognize.
• Group "like" foods together (meat, vegetables, fruit, bread, etc)
• Re-populate your freezer- find storage solutions that work for you to keep "like" items together- tiered shelving, boxes, bins, etc.  As above, keep things visible in a way that makes sense for you.

3. Issue: Don't know what to make for dinner?
Solutions:

• Google recipes using what food you have in your freezer or pantry (eg. recipes using green peas and pork)
• Ask your family for suggestions
• Go through your old cookbooks
• Try to build a meal plan around what you already own, and what changes you want to make to your diet (ie. more fruits and vegetables, meatless, ethnic, etc)
• Pay attention to the time you have to use- plot your meal plan on your calendar, choosing your quick meals for busy days and your longer ones for when you have more time

4. Don't know what to buy at the grocery store?
Solutions:

• Make a list! Look at your meal plan recipes, and figure out what you already own. Add the rest to the list
• Think about snacks- what do you want to have on hand when you're in a snacking mood?
• Think about lunches- what do you want to take to school and/or work? 
• Think about nutrition and skip the processed foods- just because the box says 100 cal/serving, how much of that food is useful for your body? 100 cal of something "real" will do more good for you, such as nuts, dairy, whole grains, etc.
• Think about cost- Pre-cooked meals in the freezer section look inexpensive until you consider how many servings they provide. Can you get better bang for your grocery buck if you cook something yourself?
  The best part of this is that many of the pre-cooked meals can be made cheaper and more healthy at home, and frozen yourself for nothing more in cost than a little time and the price of a couple of freezer bags or foil pans from the dollar store.

I hope some of these suggestions help fuel your new year thoughts and plans! Any questions please feel free to reach out!
​Have a good day, friends!
Stacy

Today I have a guest post from Sherry, owner of Stamped Treasures. I've known Sherry for many years in a friendship that began when we were both new Stampin' Up! demonstators. Sherry has a unique art style that creates functional items with timeless beauty, and today she's writing about the value of planners. She's got a class coming up in a couple of weeks, and I am her guest speaker!
Last week we talked about New Years Resolutions, and now it's time to talk about out how we manage to organize and keep them. Without further ado, here's Sherry!

Planning with paper and pen has been around for years. With the rise in popularity of technology, you'd think it would be a dying craft. You may be surprised to learn that the planner community and the love of paper planners are actually becoming more popular.

Planners can help organize your busy life, plan your meals, record your thoughts, and document and track your goals. Planners can help keep you on task and focused. I find nothing quite as satisfying as making a check mark next to a completed task. At the end of the day seeing that list of checkmarks makes me feel accomplished. It sounds odd, but I find being able to check a task so rewarding that it makes me stay focused on my list of to do’s. For me, that check mark has to be in the form of putting pen to paper, a check box on my phone or computer just doesn’t give me that same sense of accomplishment.

How about you? Are you a list maker? Do you love pretty notebooks, planners or calendars? Maybe you are looking for a creative outlet? Or maybe a way to document things your kids say or do that makes you smile? You’d be surprised at what a planner can do to improve your life and productivity.

If you are curious about types of planners, what all the hype is and/or how you can use a planner to stay organized, as a creative outlet or to record your memories, I'd love for you to join me at my upcoming planner class on Tuesday January 17th at 7pm. Class fee of $15 includes an abundance of information on types, styles and how to use planners, two make and takes and a brief talk from my friend Stacy from The Meals Maven on menu planning.
If you own a planner(s), please bring it along with adhesive (available to purchase in class if needed) and scissors to class.

​Sherry

Simple but straightforward and easy to track, with just enough ambition to have to make an effort. Resolutions shouldn't be something you can do in your sleep. The point is to grow this year, not maintain.

There's that old song I turn up whenever it's on the radio and the wisdom in one of the lines catches my attention everytime..."every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end".

So it is with each new year.
Did you know that just 8% of people who make New Years Resolutions end up meeting them?
I'll admit that my motif for 2015 kind of sucked. It was a great idea, but not terribly measurable. I don't think I set a resolution at all last year, and I think my year reflected that. Not that it was a bad year overall- I just didn't have a lot of focus.

2017, though, is off to a running start. Not only have I decided some important release dates ahead of time, I've also started working a consistent 3-day work week, thanks to a fabulous share of content care of Cailen Ascher.

Why 3 days?
3 days, because I have a family at home, and I need the focused time with all the distractions in my life. 3 days, because it allows me to have a couple of flex days each week that can be used to focus on household matters or allows me to rearrange work days if I need to. 3 days, because in those 3 days of solid, steady, consistent work I think I will find achievable, measurable gains. I'm really excited to have started my work week in spite of the fact that the kids are still home from school. It's early yet, but going really well. I can see the value.

My biggest challenge?
Discipline. It's so easy to skip like a stone across the water, flitting from this to that and never really making any progress. In fact, that defined a lot of my last year. A nugget of wisdom picked up from Cailen Ascher makes so much sense to me: "If it's not scheduled, it won't happen". I spent the last 3 weeks of 2016 deciding what my goals, deadlines, release dates, appointments and so on would be in 2017. I stumbled across the 3-day work week content share on December 28, and spent last Saturday sorting out what my schedule will look like. I'm excited and I think it's attainable.

What are your challenges?
What do you want from 2017? Make your goals measurable and attainable. It's easy to make a list a mile long but in reality it's hard to maintain that sort of momentum.  Over the next week we'll talk about some possible goals relating to food and nutrition. I'll be here to help you start setting down your intentions. There's something about the new year that makes all of us a little more open to possibility.

Happy New Year, friends. You've got this!
​Stacy