Sam is jumping on the
trampoline. Singing “Dude looks like a
lady” at the top of his lungs, by the way.
I was unaware he knew anything about 1987 Aerosmith hits…
Charlie is beating his
almost melted snowman with a stick. And
tackling his brother anytime he gets too close.
And I’m taking a “coffee” break. Minus the coffee. And doing a little blog stalking (necessary
for my adoption induced ADD).
During my non-coffee
break, as I was thinking about all I had gotten done today (and all that still
needed to be done), something hit me…as anal and organized as I can be (or pretend
to be), I am not a good manager of my time.
I work part-time. Three days a week. Only school hours. And I’m in the same building the boys
are. The way I see it, if I’ve got to
work, I can’t think of a better set-up.
So, that leaves me at home the other two days, usually by myself. I use those two days to
clean house, do laundry, run errands, buy groceries, get ahead on cooking
meals, pay bills…you get the point…all my wifely duties of managing the
house. (And I use the term “wifely
duties” in the most positive light because I enjoy serving my family.) I would also try to shove in those short 16
hours anything I needed to get done at the church for Sundays or Wednesdays.
But here’s the
problem. On school days, we are out the
door at 6:45am. Okay. It’s usually closer to 7, but that’s the
plan. You can imagine then that on the
days I’m also working that I arise between 5 and 5:30am in order to have myself
almost totally ready before I get the boys up.
So on the days I don’t work, after the boys have been successfully fed,
watered and clothed (and most of the time have their teeth brushed), it is
terribly tempting to hop back in the bed and get another few uninterrupted
hours of zzzzz’s.
And unfortunately I had
gotten in the habit of doing just that.
Which meant instead of my
day starting at 7am, it was closer to 9.
Or maybe 10. Depending on how
unmotivated I was. I wasn’t asleep all
that time, but once I laid back down it was super difficult to pull myself away
from Live with Kelly & Michael or
the book I was reading or from dozing without having little fingers stuck in my
eyes to wake me up.
But then one day a couple
of weeks ago, I had to get up and follow Kenny to work because we were taking
his car to get some work done. So, by
9am, I was back home and had done two loads of laundry and had the groceries
bought, put up and dinner in the crock-pot.
I was so motivated, I got tons
more done that day than I normally do.
And instead of being crazy, Nazi mom on Saturday about getting the
chores done that didn’t get done during the week (read as: didn’t get done
while I was taking a nap!), we had a nice relaxed weekend and got other things
done around the house. AKA we got the
closet cleaned out so we can start getting EK’s room painted, etc.
So I tried it again the
next week. And would you look at that,
more done, more organized and a less stressed me. Hmmm, seems somewhere someone told me this
would work out good for me….
I was reminded about the
part of Proverbs 31 where it talks about the woman rising while it is still
night to provide and care for her family and her household…
Bam. Convicted.
She rose while it was
still night. Not at 9 o’clock. Or even 10.
Before the sun got up. She was
out bringing home the bacon…well, more exact, the wool and flax and food from
afar (Chinese food?) while it was still dark out. I just hope she was packing her mace. Buying fields, making clothes for her family
(I’m guessing the closest Target was just too far away), planting a vineyard
(in all those fields she bought), making things to sell for the profit of her
family (bet she wishes she had a Pinterest account) all making her arms
strong. I’m sure she had some guns after
all that work. Probably a six pack too,
but it doesn’t say anything about that.
What it does say is that
she didn’t eat any of that bread of idleness.
And as good as that bread might taste, that’s what got me.
Am I using my time wisely
each day? More importantly, am I using
my time wisely to serve my family? I
wish I could say the answer was yes everyday.
But it’s not.
I’m not saying that I’ll
never hop back in bed after the boys are out the door again or that I can’t sit
and enjoy a TV show with Kenny or stalk a few blogs online just for the heck of
it. Shucks, I’ve wasted a good 45
minutes sitting here telling all you goobers how much time I waste everyday.
But what I am saying is
that I’m making a better effort to let that idle bread get some mold on it so I
don’t want to eat it. I want to serve my
family the best I know how.
And I know I can do better
than I was.
She looks well to the ways of her
household and does not eat the bread of
idleness. Her children rise up and
call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women have done excellently, but you
surpass them all. Charm is deceitful,
and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let
her works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:27-31
Now. Let’s fix dinner.
We’ve got to get up early
tomorrow.
