Rhythms not Schedules

I've been off work for a bit now and I'll continue to be off for the next 5 weeks at least. Even though I don't feel great there are still things I have to do and things that I want to do. But I find myself procrastinating and putting things off. This is not helping my energy levels or my ability to get things done.

But I don't like the term "schedule" it really bothers me. It sounds too hard and inflexible. So I've decided to use the term "rhythm". Rhythm is flexible, soft and enjoyable.

This is what I've come up with in terms of daily and weekly rhythms:

DAILY RHYTHM

morning

~have my lemon/aloe vera water upon awakening, then check blogs/emails while drinking my morning "coffee" drink

~do my workout (walk or yoga at the moment) then meditate

~wash/shower (dry brush first), dress, "swish & swipe" the bathrooms

~breakfast, second cup of "coffee" drink

~laundry, tidy up, weekly chore

~write one page

~finish weekly chores (if necessary), move laundry to dryer or hang to dry

evening

~journal, cup of chai tea

~dinner prep, cooking

~candles, grace, dinner

~kids dinner chores, update blogs, herbal tea

~wash/epsom salt bath (if no shower in am. dry brush first)

~time with kids, husband

~gratitude journal, prayer, read

WEEKLY RHYTHM

~monday

clean master bedroom and bathroom, do my laundry, do groceries and run errands. Take the garbage out and put up new menu.

~tuesday

clean main bathroom and powder room. Launder towels.

~wednesday

change and launder sheets. Water plants. Clean living room, dining room and entryway.

~thursday

clean kitchen, do cooking and baking projects. Josh and Sam laundry.

~friday

free day! Maddie and Nate laundry. Massage therapy appointment.

~saturday

kids household chores and clean rooms. Farmer's market.

~sunday

church, then brunch. Clean fridge and collect garbage. Design week's menu based on produce and sales. Make grocery list.

That's it. We'll see how it goes. A lot of this stuff is being done now anyway. It's just to try and bring more of a rhythm and regularity to my days and weeks. And hopefully, accomplish more in the long run.

update on homemade facial products

I thought I'd post an update on my homemade facial products. It's been fun and interesting but so far I've only made two things.

This is the exfoliator. I ground oatmeal, skim milk powder, oatmeal, dried lavender and cornmeal to a very fine powder in the blender. This I really like. It smells wonderful and your skin feels great after you rinse it off.

This is the citrus cream cleanser. The recipe called for lanolin but I didn't use it, I used extra beeswax instead. I made this about a month ago. It was a little tricky to make. You had to be really quick or your wax started to harden. This contains apricot oil, virgin coconut oil, beeswax, distilled water, a pinch of borax, vitamin E oil, grapefruit essential oil and lavender essential oil.

It smelled like heaven and I really liked the consistency. And it did a good job cleaning my face. BUT it's supposed to have a shelf life of 3 months if kept in the fridge and within 3 weeks it had gotten all watery underneath the cream layer. I tried to remix it but that didn't really work. Maybe I didn't do it quite right in the first place.

Both of these recipes come from the book "Do it Gorgeously" by Sophie Uliano. I'm going to be making more stuff out of here. I think as my technique improves so will the final product!

I'm still doing the vegan cleanse. You can find that blog at http://www.project21days.blogspot.com/

More later