A new kind of Monday

The new kind of Monday is likely to see me spend at least as much time at my kitchen bench making rye bread, as sitting at my desk.



I am now only working three days per week! This will be quite a change to a lifestyle -and one which I have worked for and planned for quite a long time now. My DH and I used to share a job, when our children were little, so having one of us work part time is something like normal, for us at least. It has been over 15 years since I started working full time, however, so it is going to take a bit of an adjustment.

I have a number of goals to achieve in my new Monday and Tuesday space.

1. I want to take care of things. By that I mean that when I am able to maintain our home and the possessions in it, it will remove the necessity to buy more things because they are broken or unserviceable. Making things last, is an important contributor to reducing greenhouse gasses. My goals will include taking much more care of our finances, too, as I will have time to monitor things more carefully.

Sometimes taking care of things will actually be letting things go from here -de-cluttering.

Sometimes it will be re-organising things so we know where they are and can use them as required.

All of these activities take time and now I will be spending at least all day Monday doing this.

Today I spent an hour doing a quick tidy up and clean. I made the bread. I swept the front porch. I put the laundry away. I wrote a menu plan for the next two weeks. I pulled a few weeds. I stirred the compost. I will make dinner from scratch.

2. I want to take care of people. The most common message I hear from my full-time colleagues and friends is that they wish they had more time-for themselves, their families, their friends.

Today I have been enjoying writing comments on my friend's blogs, and I have been reading old quilting magazines. Tonight I will go to choir practice and I won't be too tired!

3. I want to have fun! In particular, I am going to be setting aside each Tuesday for quilting -something I enjoy very much and have far too little time for when working full time.

4. I will be project managing the bathroom renovation. Again, it is too hard to fit seeking out suppliers and products, organising tradesmen to come and visit the house and leave a quotation, and all of the disruption that such work entails. We have been saving for this renovation for some time, and we have finally the time and space to make it happen. I will be poring over catalogues and making detailed plans. Our goal is to reduce our water consumption by installing water efficient appliances, and also to see the house through the next 20 years of our life in it.


Today I wrote the project scope, I researched some local companies and did a bit of a budget and Gantt chart. I collected some brochures.

All of these new Monday activities are, hopefully, going to help us build a more sustainable future for ourselves.

Please come back next week for the next exciting installment!