Setting Priorities

Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, that I haven't been around here much lately. Life has it's ways of throwing those pesky curve balls at us and I feel like I've been at constant bat for a while now. When one thing is over something else starts...

For me, the blog has been low on my list of priorities lately and on one hand, I'm sorry, but on the other, I'm not. Here lately I have completely over-extended myself until the point of pure exhaustion and a lot has suffered because of it -including my family.

That is totally NOT cool with me.

I've had to take a hard look at my priorities and to-do lists and do some major rearranging. I had to do this for my sanity as well as the happiness of my family. We all know the saying "if mom ain't happy, then no one is", unfortunately my family knows this all too well.

Usually every day I wake up in a hurry to the baby crying or one or more of the big kids tearing down the house (or so it sounds). So immediately when my feet hit the floor I'm already behind for the day. I'm the type of person that does not do well with being rushed and that is the story of my life lately. I don't get to my quiet time until later in the day, my house isn't all the way cleaned, I'm frantically trying to figure out what's for supper at 5 p.m....you see the pattern here...

We've had baseball 3 out of the 5 weekdays for two months, a death in the family, a family member sick, my own energy and health hasn't been where it needed to be, kids have been sick, Drew has been sick...always something... I have been moody and temperamental...that isn't good for anyone!!

So as I said I had to take a good look at my priorities and to-do lists and come up with a better arrangement to save my sanity and happiness!! I've had to drop some stuff and rearrange the order in which some things happened in my day.

Here are my list of priorities and goals for each:

Faith
-I need to wake up at least 30 minutes before anyone else so that I can have my quiet time/prayer first thing in the morning (along with a cup of coffee). This sets a more peaceful mood for the day and I'm ready for whatever comes my way.
-Church - Wednesday night, Sunday morning and night -I have to make sure nothing else is scheduled on those days and regardless of how I feel I'm there!
-Time after supper to have Bible study with the family.
-Before bed devotional with Drew.

Marriage
Drew is my best friend and the love of my life. I need to make sure daily that I'm making him feel like he is important to me. I want to have time every day just for me and him as well as time for dates and special things just for us.

Kids
A lot of times I don't spend as much quality time with the kids that I need to because of how everything else falls in our days. I don't want them to ever feel like they don't mean the world to me because they do!! I want to spend more time with them as a whole and one-on-one time with each of them weekly.

Home
I spend most of every day cleaning our home and lose out on a lot with my family. I've come to realize that my kids are only young once and my house can wait to be cleaned. I'd rather be spending time with them than anything else. Of course I'm not going to let my house go but I'm going to have specific time daily for house chores and if it's not done during that time then it will have to wait.


Business
I recently started a new business venture in the direct sales market so I have to make sure that I have plenty of time to work so that I can help my family financially!

Friends
As it is now I don't have time at all for my friends and I really don't like that either. One of my friends joined the gym with me so now I can have time with her while exercising too! LOL! But really I would like to have at least one girl's night a month for dinner and a movie or something like that...

Extra Stuff
We have a week and half left of baseball and no other sports stuff until the fall so our calendar will be freed up a lot for the rest of the summer. I want to make sure that I don't schedule any other stuff that interferes with my top priorities like sports have done us this summer. The blog falls into this category at this time so I have to make sure that everything else is taken care of before my computer comes on.

Setting your priorities doesn't have to be a daunting task if you have a clear idea of what you want your day/week/month to look like. Up until this point I had a hard time figuring out how everything would work together until I realized that it doesn't -some stuff will just have to go.

I keep a calendar nearby me at all times. This way if something comes up I can write it down or figure out if it isn't a good match for our family. I also have a daily planner that I can schedule my day in 30 minute increments so I can make sure I have time set aside for the important things in my life. I know that Avery has therapy every Wednesday and Friday at set times so I can't schedule a play date during those times.

I know as well as anyone that life happens and things must change to accommodate that but the most important things in your life should be constant -like faith and family time.  Knowing that nothing comes before them helps me to set the rest of my time!

Do you have your priorities straight? 

Is there something in your life that could be cut to have free time for something more important?

How do you schedule your days and activities?

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