One of my favorite quotes says, “It has just been reported that the following people had 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year: Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. It has also been reported that You have the same amount of time.” The song Season of Love reminds us we all have “five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes” to do things each year. I constantly ask myself if I’m spending my allotted time wisely.
Life Management for Busy Women, the book for this month, begins, “Do you ever wonder what the purpose of your life is? And do you ever feel like life is piling up on you faster than you can push your way forward? That your days are doomed before dawn? That you’ll never get it all done? That there has to be more to life than this?”
I’m raising my hand (good student that I am) and nodding my head “yes” to all the questions. I actually picked this book up for $1 because there is some funky printing going on (the pages aren’t quite straight). I wasn’t sure what it was about, but I felt drawn to it. Readers, you know what that is like, right? Looks like the right book picked me — again.
My students freak out a bit when they learn I don’t watch TV. I HAVE a TV, but I don’t sit around and watch it. I will often put a movie in for Baby to fall asleep to (Spirit or Disney Bears are his two favorites), but I pull out a book to read. A typical after-work week for me looks like this:
| Monday, Tuesday, Thursday | Wednesday | Friday | ||||
| 3:30 | Get off work | Big girls in rehearsal | Get off work | Big girls in rehearsal | Get off work | Big girls in rehearsal |
| 4:00 | Pick up littles | Pick up littles | Pick up littles | |||
| 4:30 | R reading | R reading | K reading | |||
| 5:00 | K reading | Start dinner | R reading | |||
| 5:30 | Start dinner | Trevor home | Trevor Home | Start dinner | ||
| 6:00 | Out of rehearsal | Dinner | Out of rehearsal | Out of rehersal | ||
| 6:30 | Dinner | Leave for church | Dinner | |||
| 7:00 | Bath time #1 | Date night/Homework | Family night | Movie night | ||
| 7:30 | Bath time #2 | |||||
| 8:00 | Bath time #3 | |||||
| 8:30 | Littles in bed | Bath time #4 | ||||
| 9:00 | Clean up the house | Bath time #5 | Littles in bed | Shower #1 | Kids in bed | |
| 9:30 | Big girls in bed | Clean up the house | Shower #2 | Mom reading | ||
| 10:00 | Mom reading | Mom reading | Lights out | |||
| 10:30 | Lights out | Lights out | ||||
Whew! I’m tired just looking at it. I often feel like there is too much going on and I need to simplify, but what do I take out? I am not able to change the fact I have four kids in school and involved in choir, drama, debate, and honors classes, or the fact that we are involved in our church. I’m not able to cut down on each kid needing some one-on-one time each day, and about an hour each month for a date. I’m NOT cutting out showers no matter how some of the kids beg me to. Somehow I need to add in time to exercise, clean the house, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, start a business, order graduation announcements, update the scrapbook, . . . . some days it takes all I have to get out of bed and turn off the alarm in the morning. I feel torn between what I already have to do, what I want to do, and what I feel like I should be doing. Guilt is often the travel agent for Depression and Anxiety. That is not a trip I enjoy taking, so it’s time to put the brakes on and get off this train!
Having OCD, people generally assume that I’m super organized. I like to be — it makes me calmer and easier to live with. Reality is we have too much stuff and too much going on. Add to that there are others in this family who have the hoarding part of OCD, and what we have is a perfect storm. My “office” is in the corner of the kitchen where I do my bible study, help with homework, and eat all my meals. My “command center” currently looks like it is trying to be organized.
The book is split into eight sections
- Managing Your Spiritual Life
- Managing your Physical Life
- Managing your Home Life
- Managing your Financial Life
- Managing your Social Life
- Managing your Mental Life
- Managing your Ministry Life
- Managing your Time . . . and your Life
Can I tell you how happy it makes me when published people say similar things to confirm my own thinking. I love that most of the categories I plan on focusing on slide right into her chapters — Faith, Fitness, Family, Finances, Friends, Following. I’m going to learn so much from this book!
Refresher of the goal this month: I will reorganize the command center in the kitchen by April 30, 2018 to help daily life be simpler and more focused so I can plan individual time with each member of the family. It will include calendars, rules and consequences, job charts, bible study, and weekly menu. (Book: Life Management for Busy Women by Elizabeth George). Ephesians 5: 15-16
Before you move on with your To Do Today List, leave a comment about what areas you feel you are struggling with.
