Hi guys :)
In 2024, Sunday is my weekly reset day every week but the last. On the last week of the month, I’ll have a monthly reset on Saturday, because I don’t teach on Saturdays and I can dedicate more time to it.
I thought I’d give sharing my reset day with you all a try. I hope you’ll see it as a reminder to spend some time resetting your own week today.
First up, a little review of the week just past.
This past week was Ruby’s last week home from college. She’s headed back to campus today. It was so good to have her here for her long winter break. Her campus isn’t all that far away—ninety minutes—and she comes home for a weekend pretty often. But I’m still getting used to her not being here all the time.
I’m really focusing in 2024 on decluttering. That means my schedule, too. I didn’t do everything on my list this week—but I did pay attention and I’m going to be able to tweak some things so that my weekly to-do list comes closer to being what I can (and will) actually do in a week.
Another project for 2024 is to do one little DIY renovation or upcycle for my big old Victorian house a week. I want to do these things, but as a whole, it’s such a big thing that it completely overwhelms me. So, just one thing.
I decided to do this challenge this week, so I actually did two related little things. I upcycled a little wooden plant stand with juicy yellow paint and made a planter out of a vintage glass lampshade and a bowl to plant a miniature weeping willow tree in. I found the tree at the grocery store of all places, for $16.
I made a little TikTok video of the process here.
Adrienne, Kevin (my husband), and I watched a documentary on Netflix called You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment. Scientists took twenty-one pairs of identical twins and had one eat a vegan diet and one eat a healthy omnivore diet. It was very interesting. The whole production clearly had a vegan agenda, but the information was pretty eyeopening.
It was really interesting to see what they had to say about the meat industry through a lens that wasn’t saving the environment or animal rights. The end result is that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat a fast food hamburger or buy grocery-store meat again.
Kevin and I are eating Vegan in January—so we’re two weeks in today. I feel fantastic. I think it’s because vegan means no dairy and I’m severely lactose intolerant. I don’t have a stomach ache for maybe the first time in my entire life. I’m also sleeping better. Kevin feels good, too.
I’m not sure if vegan will stick. We’re not militant and I don’t think we ever will be. We’ll probably add in things we’ve cut out one at a time to see how we feel.
I cut off five or six inches of my hair this week and then my daughter Ruby cleaned it up for me. I think I love it. Also, I’m pretty glad to ditch the messy bun, because I can’t stand my hair down. I don’t know why I keep letting it get so long.
And…this week.
Here’s what’s on my reset agenda for today:
Of course, set up my planner and notebook for next week.
I’m writing this Substack post to you. Check!
I have to write my Ninja Writers Mastermind class for tomorrow, because I didn’t do it last week. We’re talking about blogging as an income stream. (Mastermind meets on Monday at NOON EST. This season we’re making writing income stream plans. It’s free to Guild members.)
I want to organize my workspace for the upcoming week.
Do a little food prep for next week. Mostly chopping veggies and resetting my meal planner.
I’m missing an order from Amazon, so I’m going to look into what’s up with that.
I’m going to take some time to read today. I’m starting Babble by R.F. Kuang. What are you reading?
That’s it for me. How will you reset your week today? Sometimes just writing it down makes it real enough to actually happen.
Love,
Shaunta