9 March 2025 by Leave a Comment

#8 Let’s do this – menu planning

one of my friend, Shelley’s beautiful salads

It’s possibly because we’re at the end of summer (but it’s still hot so not quite autumn yet) but I’m tired of thinking about and planning food. Although I do like reading about food, especially since I just finished Stanley Tucci’s memoir, Taste, today.

I was in Cape Town this week for work and a very lovely and concerned colleague asked me, “what are the children and Dion going to eat?”

I said, “they’re all old enough to figure it out but don’t worry, I left them a few meals in the freezer”.

Reader, they did not eat even one of my meals.

Normally this would annoy me but I’m thrilled because it means I don’t have to think too hard about suppers for this week.

Read the rest of the post here:

Filed Under: Menu Planning, Planning Tagged With:
2 March 2025 by Leave a Comment

#7 Let’s do this – February wrap-up

I briefly considered pushing through and writing this on Friday so that it could actually still be February but decided to give myself grace instead and use my usual time on a Sunday.

February indeed lived up to its short month status – blink and it was over. However, here in Johannesburg, we had a deliciously COLD week, so cold I needed boots and jackets and scarves! All utterly lovely.

I am already, as I sit here in jeans and flip-flops, longing for real winter. But never fear, it is now officially the most beautiful season, autumn! I cannot wait for the leaves to turn and I will be smiling from ear to ear the minute there is that lovely refreshing crispness to our mornings again.

I’m going to be crossing off another goal this week when I complete my first client trip of the year to Cape Town. I try to be efficient and cram everything into 3 days which means I’ll see 6 – 7 clients, 2 direct reports, 4 friends and will fly back home, completely knackered but with my connection cup full.

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23 February 2025 by Leave a Comment

#6 Let’s do this – one fun goal done

A few years ago I put “watch more TV” on my goals list. Most people would probably not need to do this but I am so hardwired to work first, play later that entire weeks would go by before I’d do anything fun.

“Watch more TV” worked so well that last year I put “Listen to more music” on my list. I subscribed to Spotify Premium and I was set. This worked really well too because the bar was very, very low (I only listened to classical music while writing blogs or a newsletter and certainly never for fun). I now have a routine where I even stop my audio book at the end of a chapter and enjoy a song or two before I get to work.

Read the rest of the post here:

 

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16 February 2025 by Leave a Comment

#5 Let’s do this – let’s talk about spending fasts

Hi friends

Happy Valentine’s weekend to you. I’ll write about mine next weekend because what we’re doing is one of the things on my #25in2025 list.

A confession – I have a hot mug of tea, it’s drizzling outside and I really had to think hard about whether I wanted to write or go read my book.

I am also a girl who loves a streak and so I am here for my #write25in2025.

I must also tell you… for the next 3 days the high will be… 19 C (65F) which is delightfully chilly but I don’t have winter shoes out so I decided sneakers are going to have to do.

Has your work attire changed since the pre-lockdown days?

Let’s talk about spending fasts

They seem to be all the rage these days and (another little confession) I even had a spending fast on my 24 in 2024 goals list.

Read the rest of the post here:

Filed Under: Money and finances Tagged With: ,
9 February 2025 by Leave a Comment

#4 Let’s do this – peek inside my 2025 diary

Hello from a cloudy but still hot (31C) Johannesburg where the thunder is rumbling and threatening (very welcome) rain

organisingqueen

A post shared by @organisingqueen

When you try to make things work

Last year I received a gorgeous (truly gorgeous) diary as a gift and it was perfect for many months until it wasn’t.

You see, I am and have been a weekly planner for a great many years and this was a daily planner.

I made it work because I don’t like to waste and I truly enjoyed it until life got too crazy and I was not seeing my life in weeks when I really needed to do so.

I then bought a weekly diary for only R70 (South Africans, at Mr Price!) and it was amazing.

That purchase took me back to my roots of monthly and weekly planning, and helped me to restore order in my head once again, especially with all the appointments relating to the cancer.

(an aside, where did I find the time to have surgery, recover and go for daily radiation?!)

Read the rest of the post here:

Filed Under: Planning, Productivity, Stationery
1 February 2025 by Leave a Comment

#3 Let’s do this – 5 quick ways to set up your 2025

Hello everyone and welcome to February!

My friend sent me a message this morning that said “happy 2025” because she decided that her 2025 is only starting today. I love it!

I love the idea of a gentle easing in to the year but alas, that has not been the case. Kids going back to school and having to get up early again (!), work, exercise, all of it. Routines are lovely when you’re in them, but when you’ve had two months off, it’s hard to create those habits again. More on this later.

I remember a few years ago (I just went to check and it was 2018!) Susannah Conway followed up her December reflections photo prompt challenge with a gentle January one and I jumped right in because it felt just… lovely. Here is the hashtag to see all the photos. The one below is a photo of a gift from my friend Suzanne.

Read the rest of the post here

Filed Under: Planning Tagged With:
26 January 2025 by Leave a Comment

#2 Let’s do this – January wrap-up

Sunday rituals

There is nothing quite like that feeling on a Sunday night when I’ve already packed my lunch for the next day. When I don’t procrastinate and just do it, I feel virtuous and accomplished. This week was a good week in that I’ve already packed my lunch bag for Tuesday because I’m working from home tomorrow.

I also like to choose my clothes for my office days; on my work from home days, I’m almost always in jeans and a plain coloured t-shirt. This week, I’ll be in shorts because it is 30C most days.

On a Sunday afternoon at around 3:30, I update my (paper) diary for the week, fill in things I missed and need to remember (a friend date, for example), and make notes about what must happen the next week, it being the last few days of January.

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20 January 2025 by Leave a Comment

#1 Let’s do this – my 25 in 2025 goals list

 

hello from a hot Johannesburg

I guess that’s the end of the lovely stretch of overcast days and rainy weather we enjoyed over the last two weeks.

I always say that the only thing hot and sunny weather is good for is drying clothes! So of course, I did two loads of laundry today. Do you love or loathe doing laundry? (I like the “having done” part of laundry but my favourite part is smelling the clean laundry from the machine and then, at the end, folding it. I don’t like putting it away; this is when I usually decide I have too many _____ and declutter)

I’ve wanted to start a Substack for many, many months. I am subscribed to so many great newsletters on here and I love the “old-school blogging” feel where you can like posts (so the author knows people are actually reading) and also chat back and engage with the author. It’s so fun to talk to people in comments!

Read the rest of the post here.

Filed Under: Four Tendencies, Goals, Intentional living, Planning, Work with Marcia Tagged With: ,
13 January 2025 by Leave a Comment

My 2025 word of the year – grace

Every year I usually trust the process and it works. My word will come to me in whichever way.

One year (2014 going into 2015) I thought my word would be tend and once I’d gone through the process, it ended up being enough.

This year (2024) I was listening to Ann Voskamp’s The Greatest Gift and on one of the days, she read two sentences within about 5 minutes that jumped out and grabbed me. The word “grace” was core in both of them and I thought, “ah, that’s what I want for next year”.

I then started seeing this word as applied to enneagram 1s on many of the enneagram teachers I follow (I also follow the hashtag #enneagram1 on instagram) and there was a lot of “give yourself grace” and so on.

So I was 96% sure my word was grace but remembering tend/ enough from ten years ago, I decided to go through the process and work through Susannah Conway’s Find your word challenge.

It was lovely and affirming and confirmed that my word was grace, but also that as supporting words, I have kindness, gentleness, ease and compassion.

So why grace?

  • what do I need more of?
  • what do I need less of?

I answered the first question immediately with grace and the second with pressure.

As an enneagram 1, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do things the right way and do the right things. If anything goes wrong and it does… a lot… the first question I ask is “what did I do wrong? why did I not see this coming?” and so on. Much, much more but let’s just say my inner critic is alive and shrieking at me all the time (plus real people in my life too).

An incident happened last year and I was blamed for something which objectively is absolutely my responsibility. When I shared this with a friend, she reminded me of the fact that I was undergoing radiation therapy during this time and could not possibly be expected to have it all 100% under control.

Here’s the thing – until she said that to me, I forgot that I was going through treatment and only saw the things I did wrong. It was a wake-up call because I would absolutely have seen this in others and shown them grace and compassion, but I didn’t extend the same behaviour to me. Isn’t that wild?!

I can give many more examples but they are all along this theme. The kids do something and I say to Dion, “I am failing as a parent” or during the cancer experience, friends behave in a way that is often not very much how a friend should behave, and I say “everyone’s got their own stuff going on”, showing everyone else grace but still beating myself up about not being 100% there for others when I am the one going through cancer treatment.

I think you can see why I need this word grace this year.

And last but not least, God has shown and will continue to show me grace. There are so many scriptures to prove this but here is the one I like most.

What is your word for 2025? And why?

Filed Under: Goals, Intentional living, Mindset, Word of the year Tagged With: ,
8 January 2025 by 1 Comment

{goals} Reflect on my 2024 word of the year – whole

I just read my 2023/ 2024 post which details why I chose the word tend for 2023 and whole for 2024.

Read it here.

I chose the word whole because I felt broken after 2023’s craziness. Work pressures, leadership pressures, parenting pressures and loneliness.

And then I felt like things started off well in 2024, certainly in areas other than my body but to such an extent that I considered changing my word at the end of June. I thought I’d get some thinking done on holiday to decide if I wanted a new word.

Then I came back from holidays and went straight into the suspicious mammogram and all that happened afterwards.

Of course, then, from 12 July I was plunged into the vortex of medical appointment after medical appointment, treatments and so on.

I then realised that perhaps the word whole meant my body was being restored physically. I have also never cried as much as I did last year; I said to a work friend yesterday that I am now that person who cries everywhere and in front of everyone (in waiting rooms, at the oncology rooms, at the surgeon’s office, at the hospital, in front of people, etc.) – everywhere. Maybe that was also part of becoming whole emotionally? Or am I stretching here?

I still feel somewhat broken in certain parts of my life – is this just how it goes as one ages? is life really this hard? I don’t know. That much is clear – I have no idea  and cannot control a single thing.

In summary, 2024 was not the most fun I ever had in my life (or with a word) but it will be my reminder that I had to focus on my physical body in 2024. Ironically, because of all this “single area” focus, I still have a lot of things on my medical to-do list to sort out, only one of which I have attended to (my new glasses).

How did your 2024 word work out for you?

Did it guide you with decisions? Did it focus your thoughts and feelings?

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