Without Noticing!

Well, I don't know how much time I have to post. Both babies are sleeping, but I'm definitely toward the end of DS's nap. I'll admit that I piddled away much of his nap time so far. Forgive me when I say it was reading blogs... it's not that I don't appreciate all your blogs, but in light of what I'm about to post on, perhaps I should have been doing something else. :)

I have been newly inspired (and I don't know that it is from an external source... praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit's workings in our lives!) to be a better keeper of my home! I said it isn't external inspiration, and I specify because there has been much that could inspire me and does on a regular basis. Over the last months, I have been "inspired" time and time again to get things together, but nothing has really stuck. Perhaps it isn't any one thing.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the biggest changes in your life are not noticeable at all? Instead they are a series of "baby steps" that just sort of "happen". Now I'm not saying it doesn't take hard work to make them happen, but while you are working hard for that first baby step, and then the next, and then the next... somehow, you look back in amazement at where you've been and how far you've come.

I imagine loosing weight to be like this. Say you need to loose a hundred pounds. If you start out looking at that 100 all at once you will be overwhelmed... and probably never really start. It is, after all "hopeless"! If, however, you simply work hard to loose that first pound or 2 this week, then the next and the next, the weight will go over time. In the end, 100 pounds lighter, it's hard to remember where you started... the journey is what got you there, not the original goal.

Maybe I've lost you in this (I'm almost lost myself). What is my point??? I'm sitting here "newly inspired" to be a better homemaker, but in looking back, I've already taken several strides toward this in the past months... without even noticing!

For a couple of YEARS now I've been wishing I were a better keeper of my home. Then I was trying to be a better keeper of my home. But nothing was happening! I would get the house all cleaned up, then it would fall apart again. I would plan my weeks meals, but I wouldn't actually follow the plan. I would set up a budget or a schedule or a whatever, then I would simply feel more and more like a failure when **again** it would fall to the floor (the dirty floor) and shatter! These "failures" only made it more difficult to start again!

Last night I made up a basic schedule for myself... basically just a daily to-do list ordered according to the different chunks of time in my day. It is flexible and will be a little different each day according to that day's needs, but it is something to keep me on task. Since it's a new schedule, I'm sure it will get some tweaking over the next weeks and days, but here it is:

Wake Up
Nurse DD
Read Bible and Pray
Get dressed
Brush teeth (this needs to be on the list or it doesn't happen)
Check email/Moderate comments (if time)

Morning
Get DS up and dressed
Breakfast
Straighten house/Breakfast dishes
Chores
"School" time for DS (more on this later)
Nurse DD
Lunch
Start dinner

Nap Time
Computer time
Business work
Nurse DD
Make Dinner
Shower (if not done another time)

Afternoon
Get DS up from his nap
Play with DS
Finish Dinner
Straighten house

Evening
Dinner
Walk (as a family)
Family time


Like I said, this will probably be tweaked some in the next week or so, and much of it will change as business picks up in the summer months too, but it's a start for now. I suppose one of the reasons I didn't feel too bad about "piddling" my time reading blogs this afternoon is because I have been on task all day (according to my new schedule) and some of it was done while nursing my little girl. :)

I'll dive a little further into parts of my new schedule next week (as well as update you on how it's going). In the mean time... sound's like DD is just about ready to eat again!

Labels: Home Making, Keeping My Home, Life Lessons for Mommy

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 1:50 PM