Many years ago, when I was a single, career-minded young woman, I read an article in Cosmopolitan magazine that changed my life. No, not a piece of the “how to satisfy your man” ilk. “How to Be House-Proud” by Rita Barnett struck such a deep chord in me, I cut out the article and re-read every couple of years.  The article became a guide in my quest to build a life I loved.

I am a homebody by nature, a nester, as one friend described me. What the article made me realize was that if I took care of my home, my home would take care of me when I needed it. When unexpected company dropped by. When I had a food craving. When I was sick. The mind set served me well for many years.

But life changes. Marriage, children, career advancement, career loss, new job, serious pursuit of my writing, and so on. Besides, when one lives with others, one has to accommodate their concepts of home, too, which might not always coincide with one’s own.

Some habits, however, are worth clinging to.

The habit I developed of keeping certain nonperishable foods on hand is one I’ve maintained. In upstate New York, winter weather can be uncertain. I feel secure (and even smug at times) knowing if my family and I get snowed in, we wouldn’t go hungry. To me, that’s what home is: hearty, (mostly) healthy meals.

Are there days when I wish I could come home from my day job to a clean house? You bet. But I’m not the only one who lives here. And serious pursuit of my writing career meant serious reappraisal and restructuring of my available time.

Being house proud, as the article states, is not about mopping and dusting. It’s about the making of a home.

I love planners. I love the idea of being organized, and I am the type of person who needs to see a list.

Yes, I broke down and purchased an Erin Condren planner for 2018. Many of the aspects of the planner can be customized.  I chose this cover…”She designed a life she loved” in the colors I wanted, along with my “real” name and my author name. (Please excuse the reflections on the cover. It is very glossy!)

I went with a horizontal weekly layout.

The planner comes with stickers. There is also an option to purchase snap-in “dash boards”. I went with bill paying, to-do list/goal setting, and meal planning.  The planner also comes with a snap-in ruler, sticky notes, a pouch for carry stuff. There are a few blank lined pages, a few dot-grid pages of the sort Bullet Journalists like, and 4 “coloring book” pages.Because I went with the colorful layout, almost everything I received is bright and cheerful. EC also caters to those who prefer something more subdued.

I really think this might be what I’ve been look for.

When I was in the third grade, I needed to turn in a book report. I hadn’t read a book that I wanted to write a report on, so I made up a book (plotted a story) in my head and wrote about that. Imagine my surprise when my assignment came back with an A+.

I had gamed the system.

However, I also had a very active conscience. And a cousin, who lived next door who happened to have what our parents called the three-day measles*.

The night before the last day of school–where we reported at 9am and were dismissed at 9:30am–guilt kept me awake all night. After my dad left for work, I crawled into bed with my mom and confessed my crime. She told me I had to tell the teacher what I had done.  However, when I went to get dressed, I discovered red spots all over my stomach: I’d caught the three-day measles from my cousin. No school for me!

And that’s how the measles saved my bacon.

*According to Wikipedia, the three-day measles and the German measles are both rubella. Back in my childhood, at least in my family, the two forms were considered different types of measles. But here’s what’s even more curious. As an adult, my doctor ran some blood work on me, and one of the tests was for measles, mumps, rubella. According to the results, I’d never had any of those diseases. Yet I clearly remember having the measles. It was hot. School was out for the summer. My mom pulled out her galvanized washtubs, filled them with water, and let my sibs at them. My parents have photos of me hanging around my sibs and cousins while they sat in the tubs to cool off. I couldn’t go in because I had the measles. Go figure. Anyway, before I got married, I asked my doctor for the MMR inoculation, because I planned to have children and didn’t want to take any risks. My doctor double checked my records, saw that I had remembered the blood work results correctly, and gave me the shot.