Benadryl and chigger bites

I don't know about you, but I have allergic reactions to ant bites and chigger bites. We have a westerly facing property, which is wonderful for having a shaded back yard in the heat of the day, but terrible for the fence, which must withstand fierce Texas storms raging against it several times per year. Our fence inevitably loses the battle a few times per year, and my sweet husband has the unpleasant task of putting it back up. We are slowly replacing the wooden posts with metal posts cemented into the ground. With this job, my husband asks me to help hold up the panel, and I just let him do all the hard labor. The real problem with this for me is that there is nothing behind our house except for an open field with tall grass, the perfect breeding ground for mean, nasty, hungry chiggers. Every time we repair the fence I am left with the scars of multiple, itchy and painful chigger bites. I hate chiggers. Why God made them, I will never understand. I suppose there must be a useful purpose for them, but I still don't like them. I am always extremely uncomfortable when they bite me, so I have to resort to allergy medicine to help me handle it. Well, this in turn causes me to be very sleepy, and--you guessed it--very unproductive. I've spent the last two days on allergy medicine and resting in bed between escorting the kids to various activities and the basic housework. So my dresser drawer is not finished. Since my energy is returning because I don't need the medicine, I am planning on it tonight. My goal is to do that dresser along with my daily cleaning.
My younger self would have felt defeated by this setback, and could have given up trying to improve all together, but why go through life feeling defeated by circumstances that are out of your control? Just keep moving forward! So, I am (almost) feeling well, and will pick up right where I left off. When things don't go as planned, don't allow yourself to be paralyzed. You can do it!
If you've "fallen behind" then pick up where you left off. Set one additional small goal for the day and accomplish it. Let me know how you did!

Exhausted, but productive

The temptation for me during the summer months is not to have a plan of action for each day. So, I have decided to set some goals of small extra tasks to accomplish each week. You know, this is for the goals you always say, "If I could ever find the time..." My thought is that we DO have the time. It is just that in this culture, we fill it with mind numbing activities. Anyway, my goal for this week is to re-establish the habit of waking up earlier and praying with my husband. So far, two days in a row. I've read it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so consistency is going to be key. The other practical "if I could ever find the time" goal for the day was to clean my dresser. That is it. I did it! My dresser looks amazing! Tomorrow my small extra goal, besides doing the flylady wake up routine, is to organize ONE drawer in my dresser. You can choose any drawer you like. I am cleaning my pajama/socks drawer. I am going to purge that drawer of all mismated socks and open and close it with ease!
I did alright not wasting time today. I had very few dead spots. It looked like this:
6:55--up and pray with Paul
7:30--roused the kids out of bed and prepared to leave (breakfast, shower, etc.)
8:20--took girls to dance camp.
9:30--took my son to tae kwon do
11:30--made lunch and rested. Watched some "Meet the Robinsons" with my exhausted kids
2:30-taught two piano lessons
3:30 sent JP to stick and puck at mall.
Prepared dinner, fed girls and took them to play practice.
And here I am! Hooray!

I've also started asking the kids to each give me one goal they would like to accomplish each day in addition to their chores. (t.v. and computer are not options) I am hoping to get them thinking about more interesting things to do with their summer days rather than give into the temptation to watch t.v. or go to other media. My Great Aunt Ruby would always tell me that I should never say "bored." She made me feel like it was a bad word. "You can ALWAYS find something to do."

What is your goal for tomorrow?

Sunday

I am not scheduling anything on Sunday. It should be a day of rest, although, I must report I was successful in waking up by 7 and reading and praying with my husband today!!! Tonight, I am going to careful craft a small list of goals for Monday, so that I can be focused throughout the day.

Day Two

I did better today, how about you? I only woke up 15 minutes earlier today, but I had accomplished 2 things before breakfast! I cleaned the bathroom (fly lady's "swish and swipe") and I read my devotional today first thing. I can truly say that I had a full day and wasted very little time. It looked something like this:
7:30--awake.
7:45 out of bed, wipe down bathroom
8-devotional, coffee, check messages.
8:45--breakfast, prepared by my husband, prep to leave
10-I take Justin to shop for clothes for a wedding.
11-return, prepare for wedding, lunch
12:15--leave for wedding
1-4:30--gone to wedding, stopping at grocery store on way home.
4:45--immediately to chores, cleaning kitchen, etc. I had the kids do theirs.
5:00--made pizza dough, started laundry, clean pizza mess
5:30--transfer clothes to dryer, started a load of whites
I then failed to keep track of time, but I promise you I did stay on my feet all the way until dinner. I put the pizza in the oven around 6:30 and folded and put away laundry, swept floor, etc.
at 7:30, I sat down with the kids to enjoy our weekly pizza/movie night.
I understand why I am so tired today! Not too bad.
Tomorrow my goal is to reproduce my morning habits--morning devotion and the fly lady morning routine, plus I want to pray with my husband. That's only one more thing. I think I can do it, if I get out of bed soon enough!

Day One

I completed the day, with the attempt not to do anything differently than I would on a payday Friday so I could see where I am succeeding and where I can improve. My day looked like this:
7:44--wake up slowly!
8:15--breakfast, e-mail, coffee and various time wasting news browsing that led me to finally start this project, because, before
I knew it, it was 9:15!
9:30 a.m.--started this blog. It took all of 30 minutes to get it up and running.
10--showered and prepared to leave for an appointment
11--chiropractor, hooray!
12-12:30--lunch with the kids
12:30-12:50--talked to my husband
1-3:15--errands to Fed Ex and Costco
3:15--put it all away
3:30-4:15--took a break, visited with kids, rested sore muscles from chiropractor appt.
4:30--prep dinner
5:15- eat
5:45-6:30--family devotional
6:40--take girls to rehearsal
7-8--went to furniture store
8:15-home dept
9:00--I patched the carpet in two places where the dog ruined it.
And here I am!

Now, I don't plan on posting my schedule every day, but I want to start out looking at how I can change. I think my first step is to utilize that early morning time more wisely. Since the school year is over, the tendency is to not do anything--the antithesis of doing EVERYTHING! But, I don't want to waste another summer. So, my first goal is to correct my bad habits in the morning. The only different part of the day tomorrow is a wedding in the afternoon. The girls might have a commitment at the theater.
I think I really need to be purposeful about spending time in the Word again. This means getting up earlier. I will try to wake up about 30 minutes earlier tomorrow and see if I can do it!
The other goal I have for the mornings is getting back into my fly lady routine. If you haven't heard of her, you must check her out! www.flylady.net.

Welcome!

My idea for this blog comes from a need to be accountable for the use of the time I have been given every day. Most days go by and I just wonder, "Where has all the time gone? What have I done?" My kids are unknowingly destined to go on this journey with me. I wonder what would happen if I were to write down how I spend each minute of the day. What would that reveal about my priorities? We live in a time when people sit at some kind of screen for hours each day, endlessly and mindlessly wasting away precious moments of our lives. It bothers me how we have all gotten caught up in this constant need to anesthesize our minds--this constant need to have entertainment provided for us, rather than being those who are innovative and creative, and productive in our lives. So, here is the project: Write down how you spend every moment of your day. At the end of the day, sit down and evaluate how you used the gift of time you were given today. Was it spent wisely? Could you have done anything differently? Was your list accomplished? Is there anything that is a time parasite? (for me, that could be e-mail, facebook, etc)
I am going to publish my journal and see what happened to my day. Hopefully, my days will become more purposeful. We hear of this concept with money--"Most people don't plan to fail, they just fail to plan," or applying the concepts of Weight Watchers and after writing everything down, it suddenly becomes clear why that weight is not coming off!
I invite you to join me on this journey, and post any comments, observations, or tips you have to help us all learn how to better budget our time!