A Bucket a Day or Setting Daily Goals

   Have you ever noticed how quickly things in your home can get messy or the weeds in your garden can take over?  Left unchecked, it can become overwhelming.  I try to set daily goals for myself as a way to keep up with it all.  As I made my "to do" list for the day, I looked out at my garden where the weeds have had a hay day with all our rain and realized that if I did not get out there and do something, my poor plants would perish under all those weeds.  I set a goal for myself to fill one 5 gallon bucket a day with weeds.  Since I tend to get overwhelmed by huge messes, I thought this would be a way to get things done without being discouraged.  Looking out there now, I can see a huge area that is now weeded and looking good and that motivates me to go out again tomorrow and fill yet another bucket.

    
   One of the things that I love about this time of year is being able to line dry my laundry.  It not only saves money, but the smell of freshly air dried clothing and bedding has to be one of my favorite "perfumes" in the world.  I was so blessed to find a old fashioned laundry line set up in our backyard when we moved here 21 years ago.  Getting my laundry going either the night before or early in the morning allows me to get it all hung out in the morning and have it dry by early afternoon at the latest.

 

 

   Baking was on my daily goals list today.  I had some leftover homemade bread that needed to be made into croutons and some over-ripe bananas that needed to be used up.  Homemade croutons are one of the things that my hubby loves most in life and I try to keep him supplied.  The over-ripe bananas were transformed into 3 delicious loaves of banana bread and while they baked, I threw 4 potatoes in the oven with them.  They will be used to make a baked potato salad later.

 

     While getting out ingredients from the refrigerator for the banana bread, I noticed that we were low on syrup.  Jeff and I like to have pancakes on the weekends so a refill of that was in order.  I got a heavy sugar syrup going and let that simmer while I cleaned the kitchen.  When it had reduced down, I added some Maple flavoring and let it cool before I filled our syrup bottle back up.

 

    I checked my list and saw that I had some green onions to plant.  Did you know you can plant the bottom part of the green onions you buy at the store and they will keep producing more and more onions for you?  I have a pot full of them in the backyard and was running out of space there, so these ended up being planted in the freshly weeded area of the garden.  We go through a lot of green onions here during the warmer months in salads and on pizzas and during the colder months in soups and casseroles.

 

    The last goal I set for myself today was to literally stop and smell the roses. ;)  These roses sit right under my living room window and their perfume is so delicate.  Each year I look forward to their blooming and realize that there is just a short time frame to enjoy them.  I don't want to get so caught up in the busy-ness of life that I miss out on one of life's simple pleasures.   What a nice reward they are after a busy day!