Reset and Refocus: Renewing your heart and home without reinventing yourself.

It’s January. The whirlwind is over. Now what?

No matter what the previous year held or our expectations of the coming one, we can all find ourselves wanting to push the reset button. Start fresh. A do-over, even?

Do you have goals for the new year? Did you make any resolutions? Maybe a word for the year?

All of those can be great tools and needed motivation after a busy, stressful holiday season. How do these good intentions play out in the everyday of a mama, homemaker or wife?

A gentle reset for the new year.

Begin by looking at your day to day – routines, rhythms, responsibilities – what are the foundations? What needs to be removed or re-worked? What needs to be added?

This doesn’t have to be a huge overhaul (although those can certainly be helpful at times!) More likely just a realignment of priorities and the flow of daily life.

Prayer. The best place to start.

Renewing your heart each day can be as simple as beginning the morning with a focused prayer.

There are lots of resources out there if desired, but you don’t need one. A simple prayer for whatever your day will include and the grace to do it well – even if it feels like it’s the same as yesterday.

You might also want to refresh your “quiet time.”

There is a lot of stigma and pressure surrounding the Believer’s “quiet time.” Many moms feel like they are failing because it doesn’t look like it did before kids.

While a traditional, quiet time with the Lord is certainly a good thing and we should aim to incorporate it into our life, it may not look like it once did. It may not look the same as your neighbor’s or your best friend’s.

For a mama of littles, a mama of many, a working mama… insert any description you like here.

The truth is that the most important part of our time with the Lord is the relationship. And this can be nurtured throughout the day, in small ways, by asking for patience, encouragement, guidance, wisdom, stamina in the moments that we need them.

He is faithful. Ask him to increase your faithfulness.

For our family, the foundation of almost every single day are without question the meals. These people seem to be always hungry – unless you ask my 4-year-old at dinner time – she’s mysteriously never hungry then.

I’m not really a meal-planner, but if you are, or feel this is the season to try it, here is your opportunity to overhaul your plan and get back to the basics! In this season of winter, basics are the place to start.

The closest I’ve ever gotten to sticking to a meal plan is planning a theme night.

This worked for us for a season:

• Mon – pasta.
• Tue – Mexican.
• Wed – crock pot or soup.
• Thurs – leftovers.
• Fri – homemade pizza.
• Sat – Comfort Food or try a new recipe
• Sun – Leftovers

I don’t use this anymore, but I do think about it sometimes if I am utterly uninspired and need an idea for dinner.

Tip: Keep a well-stocked pantry of ingredients you use most.

Especially in a large family but undoubtedly for any family size, having a well-stocked pantry of essentials and basic ingredients is the key to (un)meal-planning success.

If I have a well-stocked pantry, which usually means a once-a-month Costco haul, I know I can make any of our families go-to favorites or even try something new on any given evening.

For me, this means I don’t have to plan ahead, and I can still accomplish dinner on a regular basis.

Our pantry stock consists of very basic items that can be used in a variety of dishes, and even cuisines, to give us plenty of variety. I don’t buy very many specialty items unless they are for tried-and-true favorites that we don’t mind repeating.

I stick to ingredients like plain, organic tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, good quality pasta for nights when I don’t make my own, a large variety of spices and spice blends, a variety of beans, either canned or dried, etc.

I try to keep potatoes, rice, oats, onions, garlic, and a variety of fresh produce on hand, as well. The produce of course varies from week to week and is bought more frequently.

This foundation allows me to think of what I’m in the mood to cook or eat for that evening and most likely I have the ingredients I need to do it. If there’s a particular item I need that I don’t have, I’ll either substitute something in its place or keep the meal in the back of my mind until I can make it, usually a day or two later.

Meal planning doesn’t work for me mostly just because I won’t want to eat that particular meal on the scheduled day (or even week). It was like the plan was boxing me in and I didn’t like it! Haha. Counter-productive, for sure.

Maybe what would help you most is having healthy breakfast on hand and ready to go. My children basically lived off of store-bought cereals for many, many years.

It was a hard habit to break.

Especially hard because I am not a morning person and I don’t eat breakfast myself. My children are exactly the opposite, however.

I don’t make breakfast every morning, but I do try to on a regular basis. And when I make something like pancakes or waffles, I usually double (at least) the recipe so I can stock the freezer for mornings when I don’t want to make breakfast. They can pop a waffle or pancake in the toaster and breakfast is done.

Muffins & bagels are a great make-ahead option (even freezable!). Sourdough overnight options like English muffins, stratas, even cinnamon rolls can make mornings operate smoothly!

Those points of friction don’t exist so they can’t become an excuse for me to not make the bread that needs to be made. (There are plenty of other excuses however…)

Consider other pain-points in your day.

If your meal plan doesn’t need attention, perhaps your day would benefit from some decluttering or reworking your cleaning routine.

Decluttering is popular this time of year – and for good reason! We all ended the year with more things than we started with. Even if you planned ahead and did some decluttering before the holidays, it’s likely there more things you can do without! Decluttering is best when done in layers!

If you need a place to start, check out my 100-item Whole House Decluttering Checklist! The checklist includes every area of the house to help you get back on track and keep the things in your home manageable.

If you’re ready to tackle even more to regain peace in your home, the 6-week House Reset guide could be helpful to you!

Keep it simple!

Whether you’re decluttering, meal planning, stocking your pantry, or editing your cleaning routine – the key is simplicity.

Complicated routines in any area of our lives are not likely to stick when we what we really need is to get back to basics.

This basics-based routine will support your homemaking journey and the little steps of faithfulness you are taking each moment of each day.

Being faithful in the little things is what it is all about.