Surviving the Holidays and Keeping Your Sanity

Pin It

Can you believe there is only six weeks until Christmas? How did this happen, why we just got the leaves cleaned up in our yard and all the Fall yard work complete. But like it or not, Thanksgiving is in less than two weeks and Christmas just six weeks away.

Before picture of crate. This was a gift, filled with goodies, for
my youngest son from his cousins

I believe that you can enjoy a stress free holiday season and do more than just survive, you can thrive! How? Easy.

Same crate, aged with leftover paint.

Make a list and check it twice. Remember you don't have to do everything and be everything to everybody. Decide what are your priorities and list those first. This should be a gift list and a wish list of 'to do' items and activities. Then list the 'if I have time' wishes.
Finances -- don't forget to add your budget to the list and do. not. deviate. from. it. Yes, this can be hard. Especially when you see all those last minute gift ideas and displays. Don't let them tempt you! You will be glad you did not give in.
Stick to your list.
Don't be too hard on yourself. The most important thing about the holidays is time with your family not who has the most stuff or how much money you spend. If you have this mentality, your children will too.
Work together! Delegate Christmas duties. Share the baking. Let your kids do the wrapping and don't fret if the gifts are not wrapped perfect. Allowing your kids to take ownership of different aspects of Christmas will help them feel like they are giving back too.

Remember to keep the majors the majors, and the minors the minors and you will enjoy this holiday season!

Linking up this week to:

Inspire Me Monday at Domestically Speaking

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Making Monday at Grace Langdon ARt

Amaze Me Monday

Comments

When your plan really isn't your plan after all.

I don't know about you but before I start a project, I start the vision for the project. Sometimes way before the project starts! But often, that vision changes multiple times before the project is finished. Heck sometimes I don't really even have a plan I just start painting or tearing out stuff and sometimes I just change my mind. But most times, it is because what I really want to do, for one reason or another, I can't. Take our basement bathroom for example. In this case I had a basic plan and everything that could go wrong, went wrong. As I was thinking about the bathroom I realized I hated it in the furnace room to begin with. I also hated the sauna and shower the previous owners had installed at the other end of the basement (which we never use). So I put plans in motion to get rid of the sauna. This would free up a big chunk of space and my plan was to make it a full bath at that end of the basement as it already had a shower. Several months later, and multiple fail...

DIY Kitchen Counter Beadboard Treatment

We have lived in our house for six years this month and every month of every year I have hated the back of this bar area! It is sooo blah and sooo oak and sooo country looking. So, started researching what I wanted to do with it. First I tried to add the decorative wood corner pieces along with a decorative wood scrolly thing (real technical name, huh?) for the center. Did a cool paint treatment and really loved it, just threw some wood glue on and glued them up there. They lasted about six months. Every month or so another decorative piece would fall off until all I had left was one corner piece and the middle thing. I then tried a paper bag wallpaper treatment that really worked well and, of course, was real cheap. After applying the paper bag wallpaper I mixed some brown paint with water and antiqued it. Then, let that dry and antiqued it with a black glaze. Looked absolutely fantastic but as it started to dry the paper bags started lifting off the wall. So, I finally r...

A Quicker and Easier Way to Stepping Stones

Pin It This post came up in my memories feed from 2013 and as I was cleaning my yard up for Spring, I realized just how great these stepping stones still look six years later! So, yes I can still say: " However, my best project yet? Stepping stones. Now you might be wondering why this is such a big deal? I have wanted to put a stepping stone pathway from the gate to the backyard and back towards the patio/pool area for eight years. Eight looooong years. You wouldn't think this would be such hard thing to do now would you? But it was either the money (means about 15-20 stones which can get quite pricey), needing a truck or trailer to haul them, needing help to lift the suckers, or just life that got in the way." Recently I read some articles about quick and easy stepping stones and it got me thinking that I could make that project quicker and easier by cutting a few corners. You won't believe how easy this was! 1. Buy a bag of Quikrete or regular ...

the Decorating Chica

Search This Blog