We’ve got a fun annual tradition each year on June 2nd! To celebrate my birthday and completely ignore the fact that I’m aging, I give stuff away. 🙂 It’s also a big THANK YOU for reading and helping make my dreams come true for another year
Before we get to that fun, I thought I’d share a couple of the things I’ve learned this year.
The first HUGE one has been giving up some control and asking for help. As much as I love a tidy, organized space, I’m a horrible housekeeper. I told myself that there was no excuse for not having a clean house most of the time because I work from home. I should be able to do it all, right?
WRONG! No one can do everything on their own.
But, I noticed I could stay more focused and get more work done (and make more money) when the house was clean.
It wasn’t just inside the house that was a struggle. The front landscaping has turned into weed central every summer.
When a friend from church mentioned being on a quest to pay off old medical debt, I thought about how much she liked working in flower beds AND liked to stay busy on her days off. BINGO!
Now she comes over about one day a week for just a couple hours and maintains the flower bed, then cleans the downstairs. It’s the best decision I’ve made this year! I pay less than I would a traditional cleaning service and she makes more per hour than she would if she added a part-time job. It’s been the perfect win-win scenario!
Because I’m also helping someone, it helped counter the totally unnecessary guilt I had about not doing everything myself.
My advice to you is to think about your most dreaded activities, and then think about creative solutions to off-load them to someone else’s plate OR think of ways to make them more fun!
The second one is annoying and embarrassing, but hopefully, will help someone else. Or at least help me remember to not go down this path again.
For several months in the past year, I kinda sorta forgot that generosity includes more than money and time. Being generous with knowledge is right up there.
That’s never been a problem in the past, I love teaching people and helping them succeed. And I never stopped doing what I could to help friends and alert them to opportunities, even if it meant them getting a spot instead of me.
But….
I found myself, more than once, saying things to my friend Angela (Bluei Style ) like “that trick can be our little secret” or “yeah, but we don’t want everyone to know that”.
Yikes.
Not only was I going down a path outside of my character, I was dragging her down with me!
When I put together that being stingy can mean many different things, I became much more aware of my words, thoughts, and actions. Hopefully, I’m back to being knowledge-generous for good!
Speaking of that, I’m doing an Intro to Blogging panel in Tulsa at 36 Degrees North on June 8th, 2017. So if you’re local and interested in blogging, come see me!
Now for the giveaway! To pick the prize, I thought about the best additions to our house from the past year.
For Christmas, Corey surprised me with an Amazon Echo, and I LOVE it. I have a full post planned to tell you why, but the short version is that music now fills the house every day, I no longer forget things at the store because we tell Alexa as soon as we run out of something, and verbally setting the timer is awesome for everything from cooking to doing planks!
So that is option A if you win.
Option B is a $150 gift card to Cost Plus World Market!
I know you haven’t seen it yet, but the back patio is finished and it’s my absolute favorite spot to be now.
I’m sharing the photos on Monday, but I got REALLY lucky and World Market was looking for two people to use their patio furniture in a makeover at the same time we were already working on the backyard. It’s probably the most work I’ve ever put into a pitch, because I knew if they selected me, I could save the money we planned to spend on the patio furniture and put it toward the deck and dining furniture. All those prior One Room Challenge examples of makeovers must have paid off, because I was selected!
Since I ended up getting most of the patio decor you’ll see Monday at World Market, I thought it would be fun to give someone the chance to win a gift card and buy several of the items for their own house. This giveaway is NOT sponsored in any way, I just thought the timing would be fun to give back in a way that coincidences with my new favorite spot!
I’m only leaving the giveaway open until Monday night, so enter now!
Thank you so much for reading and your kind comments and emails this year. I appreciate you more than you could ever know!
Dawn C says
I’ve had several challenging obstacles lately and I’ve learned that I just need to relax take one day at a time.
Melissa George says
I’m not the best at that, but it’s so important for saving your sanity during difficult times! I hope the 2nd half of 2017 brings you lots of unexpected joy to counteract the challenges you’ve faced in the 1st half.
Dianne Lanier says
Happy, HAPPY Birthday! I hope you have a happy, healthy, and blessed year to come!
Melissa George says
Thank you so much, Dianne! I appreciate it!
Michelle Catallo says
Well, I found a lot of things out this year ~ all dealing with my very, very invasive hysterectomy. Which, I must say, was worse and has been more difficult to recover from than my prior c-sections. One day at a time, slowly healing.
Melissa George says
Oh goodness Michelle, I’m so sorry you’re in such a difficult year! I hope your healing accelerates soon.
Stacey Roberson says
I learned that life is all about the journey and less about the destination.
Melissa George says
Yes! It’s funny that you can hear that a million times, and then one day it really hits you. I changed my goal for this year from hitting a specific income to focusing more on how I work and how I prioritize experiences and relationships over working hard for the sake of working toward an arbitrary goal.
Crystal Young says
The one thing I’ve learned this year, is that I enjoy filling out my 5 minute journal every day. It helps me look for the good, get my priorities straight and reflect on how the day went.
I need some things for my back patio, so winning the World Market gfit card, would be fantastic. Thanks for providing giveaways!
Melissa George says
That is so true! I had gotten out of that habit, but actually started again as soon as we finished the back patio. It really does help me refocus on the right things like you said. Good luck with the giveaway!!!
Amanda says
I’ve learned that the only way to keep my wood floors clean is to vacuum every day (or have my teenager do it!). So, I’m also learning to be ok with not always having clean floors….
Melissa George says
That is the truth! Our German Shepherd is losing her undercoat for summer right now, and the battle versus the hair on the wood floors is reaching epic levels!
Heather S says
I learned that if you push the laundry pile through the house to the laundry room it also sweeps the floor… win-win! 🙂
Melissa George says
Brilliant!
Kaitlin says
Two things that I’ve learned this year is, that it is okay to have good days or bad days as SAHM. Often times as a mom in general we feel we have to have everything absolutely perfect and the demands/pressures of society can get to you. So I’ve learned to be myself, take chances, and to stop worrying about what society itself tells me how parenthood/life is suppose to be. I know I am doing my best for my son, that’s what truly matters! Some other things I’ve learned is that killing people with kindness goes so much further than reacting in anger/disappointment. Most importantly waiting for God’s timing is always the best! I’ll leave it at that!
Melissa George says
What empowering and freeing things you’ve learned! I love them all!
michel says
I’ve improved on my health and just starting to lead a more healthy lifestyle
Emily B. says
I’ve learned – or actually, am still learning, because old habits die hard! – to take the time to take care of my top priorities FIRST and letting everything else fall where it may. Each morning, I try to think of at least one thing I can do to connect with God, love my husband, care for my daughter, tend my home, and take care of myself. Only once those things have been done, do I go on to the “everything else” category. It’s been so hard, but so fulfilling and life-changing at the same time!
Melissa George says
This is great, Emily! I’m a total work in progress on this one as well, but things go so much better when I start with the priorities!
Dee says
I don’t know how I missed this post, but I really enjoy your blog and now I look forward to the new staff members posts. I say all that to say Happy Belated Birthday and may God’s face continue to shine upon you. Thankful for you being with us for another year and I look forward to many more. Love the patio.
Melissa George says
Dee – everything about your comment just put the biggest smile on my face! I really appreciate your kind words and you letting me know you are looking forward to the Wednesday posts. It’s been so much fun for me to work with them and come up with ideas we think you’ll like. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and send me this nice note today!
Anne says
My husband and I built our house way back in 1986. I’ve struggled since then with my utility closet — cleaning supplies, vacuum, spare soap bottles, etc. I read your blog and just love to watch how CLEAN and organized everything is. (I especially enjoyed the cleanout of the storage under the sink part.) I put myself to the task of figuring out how to make that closet work for me. I emptied it, pitched all the crap I had never used in decades, bought shelving at Home Depot, installed it with the help of my husband, and voila! Everything now has a place, is accessible AND I don’t dread cleaning nearly as much. The fact that you don’t give up and just keep plugging along is such an inspiration to me. Get this — I actually ENJOY getting out cleaning supplies and putting them back in place. Whoda thunk!
Melissa George says
Thank you so much for sharing, Anne! I’m so glad you were able to tackle one of your big struggles. It’s crazy to me how much better my mood is when I open the door to our tidy cleaning closet versus the old coat closet. It sounds like you’re having that same sweet relief! I’m so glad you’re getting inspiration from my plugging along. I wish I was one of those people that was naturally neat all the time, but since I’m not, we’ll just keep tackling spaces one by one until we can make everything work better for us! And then we’ll start over. LOL