February 2021 Monthly Reflection

[Holiday_Mom]

It's the end of February. Here are reflection questions for the month.

1. What worked and didn't work for me this month? Why?
2. What things or activities made me happy this month?
3. What energized me this month?
4. What drained me this month?
5. What stress or concern worked itself out?

 

[MrsSoup]

My first time doing a monthly reflection, even though I did save the questions in one of my monthly planners. I just wasn't ready to tackle it before.

1. What worked for me this month, that I unfortunately discovered the last week of the month, was writing out a daily to-do list in my planner. I wrote it out on the Sunday before the week started as I was preparing my planner and anticipated what I wanted to get done each day. Some things were repetitive but I knew I wanted to tackle at least one "moving" task each day. For the most part I was way more productive this way than I have been of late. What didn't work for me this month was not writing things out this way. Not having a daily list of to-do's and scheduling things out this way left me hard core procrastinating since I feel like I have all the time in the world to get things done because i'm not working and we still have months before our move. In reality, we now have a month and a half before our household goods get picked up and 3 months before we leave island, as of today. Procrastination is my vice.

2. Things or activities that made me happy: Whale watching, getting a new game on the Switch and playing with DD, family book club, flowers from DH, Eli getting a positive referral card from school, songs every hour on V-Day from DH, double rainbow, video of ducks going down a slide, endless dog reels on Instagram, decorating for DH's birthday, Mahjong, Happy Color...

3. Hmmm, I never feel very energized these days but I think the days I am most productive it makes me feel energized because I know i'm getting things done. Some days I just wake up and know that it's going to be a productive day and I make things happen. So, I guess productivity makes me feel energized, getting things accomplished, being happy and fulfilled, having time and space to myself (which rarely happens anymore).

4. Honestly, everyone being home every second of the day. Granted, DD and Eli go to school two days a week and DS goes to work (usually in the evenings when everyone else is home). DH goes to base occasionally to do things. However, there is never a time when I am completely alone in this house. If I make an offhand comment DH gets offended immediately and I let it go. The bickering about this move is draining, about anything under the sun, about stupid little things, the giant elephant that I feel is in the room sometimes even though I don't know why, the lack of communication, the quiet when there shouldn't be.... Retirement is draining, major life changes are draining and stressful and we're feeling it hard right now.

5. The issue with the dogs and DS and hotel has been worked out. We agreed and I pulled the trigger on a plan by paying a deposit for the dogs through a pet moving company. Done deal. Now we can book a hotel without having to worry if it's pet friendly. That seems to be the only thing that has worked itself out.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

1. What worked for me? Having a declutter plan for the basement. I get overwhelmed with the space. It's really a storage room and laundry area. It's not finished because of the flooding that happens when we get an inch or two of rain rather quickly. Breaking the room down into weeks and also assigning 4 quadrants to those 4 weeks helped me tremendously. I wrote out the specific goals to help be stay on track and not get sidelined with going down memory lane. Sharing the plan on the declutter plan held me accountable and motivated me when I got weary. What didn't work was not having a plan for the other things in my life. After seeing all that got done in one month in one area, I see the areas in my life that I want to do better.

2. Things that made me happy was setting aside time to attend a virtual conference on one of my hobbies. I always feel rejuvenated when I'm done. I touched based with some of my longtime online genealogy friends and we encouraged one another through out the conference. Another thing that made me happy was enjoying the snow days with the family. School and work happened but it was virtual and we all gathered for lunch together.

3. What energized me? Taking morning walks in the cold weather gets me motivated for the rest of the day. I struggle to get up, dressed and out the door but the moment I start walking, I feel good. When I walk back into the house, I feel like I've got a good start to the day. The other thing that energized me was taking a carload of items to be donated. I love seeing space in areas where there wasn't any space. I'm realizing that we are not using things like we use to use them because family life is changing slowly but gradually. It was good to pass things on even if it was sad at first.

4. What drained me? Listening to people share their stories and knowing that I can't do anything but listen and pray. I take on too much personally. I have to learn to hear with my ears and not with my heart. When I get my heart involved, I'm emotionally drained and no good to the family.

5. What stress or concern worked itself out? With many of the thrift stores closing their donation doors due to the influx of items, I didn't know where I was going to put everything at the end of the month. Our mudroom was full. I found another option called Green Drop. They are located in former gas stations. They have a tractor trailer at their locations. The employee takes the items from the car and puts it into the tractor trailer. Once it fills up, they take the items to a for-profit thrift store and sell them the items.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Honestly, everyone being home every second of the day.

This is hard when you are use to quiet times in the house. I really had a difficult time last March when everyone was home 24/7. I absolutely love my family and hanging out with them. However, I'm introverted and quiet energizes me. It was difficult to find quiet so I had to convert my bedroom into a space where I could feel like I could be alone. I put on a fan for white noise and read with a cup of tea by the bed. It helped me. Maybe something like that would help you?

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

1) What worked for me?
Like you, writing EVERYTHING in my planner and checking it regularly. Whenever I think of something it goes straight into my planner. I find as I am getting older it is harder to recall things so it is definately helping to write things down. Continuing with my 5 chores a week is helping. As I have said they are probably chores that no one really notices but are making a difference to the running of the house.


2) What things or activities made me happy this month? Asking my Mum what she would like to do has been nice. We have been working on tidying her craft room and have scheduled a few more appointments for her. We went on a road trip in the last week of February and really enjoyed that. It was something that we had be planning to do for a while.

3) What energized me this month?I can honestly say I am never "energised". There are things that make me excited like ticking things off my to do list, or having a productive day at work. I really enjoy planning so that gives me a buzz. I had a lovely visit with DS early in the month and that made me very happy.

4) What drained me this month? Work issues continued. Is it always problematic or am I just noticing it more at the moment? DrillDance is also draining me. Lots of trainings to get the team ready for competition but not seeing the results that I am wanting.

5) What stress or concern worked itself out? I don't think there were too many stresses this month other than day to day problems which are sorted very quickly. I feel that I wanted to get more done than I actually achieved but that is a time management issue....I just need to give up work and sleep and I will have enough time to do what I want.

 

[jampss]

However, I'm introverted and quiet energizes me. It was difficult to find quiet so I had to convert my bedroom into a space where I could feel like I could be alone. I put on a fan for white noise and read with a cup of tea by the bed.

I hear ya!!! I found a YouTube with a crackling campfire with little bug noises, too. I love that as my white noise while I am in my room ... re-energizing.

 

[girlsinmo]

1. What worked and didn't work for me this month? Why?
Focusing on what I can do even if its a little thing works for me. Keeping a notepad on my phone showing me what I'd done worked for me. What didn't work is having higher expectations than I'm able to accomplish.

2. What things or activities made me happy this month?
I was happy when all the ice, sleet & snow were gone. And we didn't lose power or have any busted pipes.

3. What energized me this month?
Getting lost in a good book. When temps were where screen could go down to let fresh air in the house. When I can get a good nap in.

4. What drained me this month?
The same thing that has been happening since last May. The days it's a chore to get DH to help around the house.

5. What stress or concern worked itself out?
I was concerned about having busted pipes when the weather cleared thankfully we didn't.