Marcia Francois's Blog, page 49

Happy Thanksgiving

One of our key partners at my work is a US-based company and so, for the third year running, Dion and I were invited to their end-of-year bash, which is Thanksgiving.

I must say, I love all of it entirely and completely.

Yes, there’s the food which is a huge part of the festivities, but also socialising with my work colleagues is a big part of the evening.

Even though I had my thanksgiving last week, Happy Thanksgiving to you!

I am very thankful that you continue to read my blog after 10 yea...

How I made my kitchen a happy space on a very small budget

Remember I mentioned that I wasn’t very inspired by my kitchen?

I LOVE the size, and that there’s plenty of counter space and storage even with no cabinets on the top in most of the kitchen. I even counted and I’m sure we could have 6 people comfortably working on different things in the same kitchen.

The point is that the bones are good; it just needed some updating.

Now updating usually comes in the form of a renovation which I am not a lover of for two reasons: 1) extreme mess and lack o...

Is your space working for you?

One of my biggest frustrations is when a space doesn’t work properly for me.

I feel like I don’t want to spend time there, and then I’m easily distracted while in that space too.

Can you relate?

Example 1

I saw a room on Instagram that gave me an idea for one of our spaces. The person had a daybed/ bench in the kitchen area and it looked so inviting that I thought, “oh, I’d like one of those” and then I thought of something I could do.

So this weekend I moved one of my couches to the dining...

It’s New Planner/ Diary time :)

Guys, this is the very best time of the year.

Time to get a new diary/ planner.

Time to start reviewing 2016 so you can close off this year completely and thoroughly.

Time to start thinking about 2017 and setting new intentions.

I bought the whole Shining Year caboodle this year and I expect a big box of goodies to arrive on my doorstep very soon

A little end-of-year update

My one big goal for November is done.

I did my Spanish exam. I’ll find out whether I passed tomorrow evening but I did say to friends that I have done my absolute best – I have never in my life practised this hard for anything and I’m proud of all my efforts.

I also had probably 5 times as much fun as I did in the June exam which is all good.

But moving on…

On Saturday 19th I host this year’s 5 love languages of children workshop and I can’t wait. My prayer is that those who have signed up...

Hoarder vs minimalist kids

See these two children?

I have one hoarder and one minimalist.

Case in point: stuffed animals

I went all Konmari on them and asked them to hold each animal and the animal only should stay if it brought them joy.

I received 8 from one and 1 from the other.

!

I don’t think I’m being mean because the truth is that it’s easier to keep a room tidy if there is very little to do in the room.

The minimalist does their room in about 5 minutes flat – fold pyjamas, make bed, tidy up.

The hoarder takes...

A little organising project for the weekend – bookshelves

Two weeks ago I put down on my weekend to-do list to organise Connor’s bookshelves.

It turned our that he got very excited when he heard I wanted to sort it out and decided to join me.

We did the top bookshelf together and that seemed to be his organising threshold because I was left to do the bottom one by myself.

Here are the results:

If you have a bookshelf around, you might want to join me this weekend. If you organise a bookshelf, tag me on Instagram so I can come see and cheer you on...

What I learned in October, and goals for November

As you know, this is my favourite time of the month.

It’s goals review time!

So how was October?

I asked Connor (my 7-year-old) to help me with my review and we filled up almost a whole page with highlights

My weekend planning routine

I’ve written before about how I like to organise my weekends.

Laura Vanderkam also has some good ideas in her little book. My favourite insight from that book is that there are 60 hours from Friday night to Monday morning.

60 hours is plenty to get lots of things done.

I usually start the heading in my bullet journal on the Thursday night because that’s when Beth and I chat.

And this is why I read so many books this winter. Like today, I can’t be bothered to sit in front of a computer beca...

If it has to be done, you might as well enjoy it

I’m learning more and more that everything in life comes down to perspective.

And we can either get really annoyed with things, do something about them or do the best we can.

A few examples:

1. I really don’t enjoy driving in peak hour traffic at all. And that’s a very polite way of stating how I feel.

So since I have to do it, I make it as enjoyable as I can – I listen to podcasts or audio books on the way to work.

It has to be done so that’s one way to enjoy it.

These days I actually look...