{Weekly Review} Week 6

A lot of January was working on new habits and figuring out what a morning routine would best look like for this first quarter of 2026. I don’t have it nailed down yet, but I’m making progress. I do know that the most important things need to be put first, and those things have a best order to be sure I get to them. Right now it is doing my reading for school first, then my Bible study, then Bible reading and prayer. Otherwise, school is just a hopeful idea that I’ll get to soon, and never do.

What I quit in January

In January one of my goals was to stop being on YouTube in every spare moment. I had developed a bad habit of listening to all the voices out there that are “experts” on all the things: productivity, cooking, homemaking, apologetics, news commentaries, gardening… plus all the other random things the algorithm thinks I’d like. So I quit. It was hard at first, and there were definitely times I wanted to watch, especially when tired, but it was worth it. I read more, thought more, and had more productive days. I was also less discouraged. I think watching people who seem to have it together in an area, discourages me from even trying. So I just did my thing and tried not to watch anyone else doing theirs. It was good and it will continue for February. (I do watch shows with my family, if we’re all together, but wanted to stop watching things on my own time.)

What I’m quitting in February

So in February, I’m going to quit checking news so often. What I’m finding is that when I’m thinking, I’m thinking about frustrating things on the news, and when I’m talking, I talk about useless things that I’ve seen or read a headline about… and that is just being misinformed at best. I’m going to try to limit myself to no news checking except on Fridays–“Find Out Friday” or maybe “Freak Out Friday”. On Fridays I have limited time, and I hope that will help me think about Philippians 4:8 things during the week.

Reading

• Books I’m Reading:
  I’m still trying to have a daily DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) and it is going well for the most part. I have an alarm set 6 minutes before it’s time so I can wrap up whatever I’m doing and get to my reading spot.
  We Live in Alaska–Finished the book this weekend! (I have a head cold and not much energy, so rather than waste my down time–time that I wish I had more of– watching tv or scrolling, I pushed through finishing this book. It was not on my 5×5 reading challenge, but I started it in 2025 and wanted to finally finish it.
  The End of Absence–This book took a hard turn for the worse and I do not recommend it. I threw it away.
  Cranford–Almost done with chapter eight, and had a great quote to add to my commonplace book.
  Lion of God–Read a couple more chapters in this book. I would have liked to know this man, but I do know a few people who had him as a professor and loved him and they’ve verified all the good things I’m reading about him in the biography.

Learning

• Online Classes I’m taking: Introduction to the Constitution, from Hillsdale College

Getting slowly but surely back to this. It’s one of my first things in the morning for a half an hour. Starting on Lesson 6 this week. I hope to have the readings done by next week.
THIS WEEK’S GOAL: Finish Lesson 6 reading assignment.

Habits:

• Still working on my daily habits and routines. This checklist helps.

• Evening routine: (Goal: 7 times/7 days a week): I’m still working on developing this, but doing better at it since I wrote every single step out. We were gone for part of last week (to welcome our new grandson into the world!) So I’ll report back how it went this week.

• Commonplace: I entered a great quote from a character in Cranford: “…for I knew I was good for little, and that my best work in the world was to do odd jobs quietly, and set others at liberty.”
  -Cranford, p 103

Projects/Tasks:

1. Project last week: Preparing and organizing paperwork and spreadsheets for taxes.
   I didn’t quite finish it, but made huge progress.

Top Three MIT (most important tasks) this week:

1. Finish tax prep for the Farmstand/Bakery
2. Finish personal tax prep
3. List canning jars for sale
   Side task if I have time: Organize my seeds and start planning the garden!

That’s it for me. How are you doing? Any new habits you’re working on? Let me know!