This Week: A Pinterest Plan

So, I hear all those friends of mine rally to make sure we all know that Pinterest perfection is not attainable, that the comparison kills and that we are enough. And I believe them. And I see the danger and want to avoid it. Only, there's one problem. I LIKE Pinterest. All the pretty stuff. Things organized and in their place. I have some people I connect with there more than anywhere else. Random funnies from my favorite cousin are too good to give up. But mostly, I really find it useful to be able to save things I want to come back to there in a systematic way.

It's that coming back to them thing that can get tricky though. Because now I have a lot of stuff pinned and I can get overwhelmed and distracted before I find the one little inspiration I need.

But I have been trying to figure out a way to bring a bit more creative inspiration to my life, to our family life in many areas for this new year. Life in the mission field can easily become long stretches of just surviving. I wanted to break out of that and bring fresh enjoyment to the kitchen, to schooling, to my writing, and so many other things.

I have also always wished I could find a Monday morning daybook style post that worked for me. It seems so nice to sort of frame the week ahead at its inception and move into with a sense of purpose. But I could never find anything that consistently did that for me. Most of the time it felt like I was trying to squeeze my life into someone else's. It just didn't feel right.

All this comes together in my most recent stroke of genius! (Look when most days you're just trying to get through multiplication tables and get the clothes off the line before it rains, a good idea makes you feel like a genius).

I created a new Pinterest board called THIS WEEK: 

Follow Colleen Mitchell's board This Week on Pinterest.

At some point Sunday evening, I take some time to think through the week ahead. Then I start browsing my Pinterest boards, starting with whatever my priority is for the week: school stuff, home, cooking, etc... I keep pins of book lists for that month of the liturgical year and choose a few pins for mindful living or habit formation pinned there. I just pin it to the new board without deleting it from its original board. That way, as I complete something during the week or decide that it's a lost cause, I can delete it from the THIS WEEK board without losing it all together.

Then during the week, if I find something I want to add, a blog link up I want to participate in or a recipe for a particular ingredient I have on hand, or a video I want to show the kids for school, I simply pin it to the board to have it handy.

I moved the board to show up first when I open my Pinterest page, so in the mornings, I open it up, choose anything that might pertain to that day and open up the tabs, print if I need to, then close out Pinterest and just keep the tabs I need for that day opened and handy.

It worked beautifully last week. And I can see how it would be easy to create a little daybook out it too.

So, top three pins from last week?

1.  Going over these manners. I've left it pinned for this week (and probably for a while because we are going to keep reviewing it, and I might even make it part of copywork assignments this week).
2. Enjoying these conversation starters while the kids worked on art of creative projects.
3. We really enjoyed painting sticks together and I am hoping to make them into some kind of mobile to hang on our porch this week.

This week, here are some hopes:

1. In the kitchen: Do something new with black beans, which are a major staple here.
2. In the school room: A virtual field trip to see how gum is made and a bit of learning about how solar energy works. There are a few math pins in there too.
3. In the creativity corner: Tin foil and glue prints
4. For me: Keep using this daily. I started last week and am loving the way it frames my days.
5. A little goodie for my marriage. It's always good to have a concrete way to be mindful about building your marriage during the busy-ness of the week.

So, there you have, my brilliant new plan to bring a creative spark to my duties, to use Pinterest in a meaningful way, and to have a plan to frame the week by that suits me.

What brilliant ideas are inspiring you this week?