Everything is yelling at me!

I am getting a slow start this morning.  Everywhere I turn there is something yelling at me.  The phone is yelling for me to answer it, the house is yelling for me to pick it up and there are projects everywhere to do. 

Do you ever feel this way?

There are some things that don’t take any thought.  The baby needs to be fed.  That is a clear priority.  Then I get into the wishy washy area of what to do first.   It can be paralyzing! 

This is why it is so important to have set up an order for each day.  You can feel free to say NO to things.  Your time map helps you see that the laundry is going to get done during your laundry time, the projects can wait until the project time that you have set aside.  Yes, the bathroom needs to be cleaned today but you see that it is on the schedule for tomorrow so it can wait.  Slowly, all those things that are yelling at you to get done gets put in their place and it is easier to see clearly what needs to be done today!

Use your time map and experience the freedom and QUIET.

Make Time – Not Take Time

It’s all about attitude.  Check your attitude about your obligations in life.  Are you making the time or taking the time? 

If you take time for something like organizing or putting the kids down for bed you are, in essence, stealing time from something else you would rather be doing.

This hit home last night as I was putting my 15 month old down for bed.  I was sitting in the dark with him holding him and rocking him.  He was relaxed and laying his head on my shoulder.  Then he just out of the blue lifted his head up and pressed his lips to mine and started babbling as 15 months old do.  He was smiling and so happy to be with me.  We then continued to give each other what we call nose kisses as we press our noses to one another and nod our heads back and forth as we laugh.  He then layed his head back on my shoulder and went to sleep.

What a moment!  I so often dread putting the kids to sleep because it takes time from all the other things that I feel are pressing.  The raising of my children is oh so important and I want to MAKE the time and give them my all when I am with them. 

It is only then that I can enjoy such moments as the one I shared with my son last night.

Staying on the Path

As I was walking this morning over our well worn path that goes from our house to our church and school I was thinking about our life’s path.  The grass has been worn away by many shoes walking over it.  There isn’t much time for it to take root and grow before we trample it again.  There are several craggly roots that jut across the path which can’t be removed but we have to be watchful of so we don’t trip over them.  The neighbors have taken care to uproot the poison ivy so we don’t rub up against it unknowingly.

So it is with our Walk in LIFE. 

If we are consistent in the way we walk there isn’t enough time for bad thoughts and actions to take root.  We must be purposeful in the path we choose and be watchful of small obstacles and temptations that might try to trip us up.

Be thankful for others that have gone before us clearing the way and helping remove the other irritations that can try to distract us.

The analogy works for household management and financial management as well.  Conistency is often key to success any many areas of life.  Conistency helps keep us on the right path.  Consistency helps keep weeds from growing and slowing us down to distract us in dealing with the weeds instead of heading for what is ahead.  Pray that God will help you be more consistent.

On this cold beautiful day I am rejoicing in the life we have!  We just completed the Laura Ingalls Wilder series which talks about the difficult pioneer life.  Even though many of us are affected by the hard financial times we are having it is nothing compared to the challenges the early settlers faced.  I am reminded of the bounty we now enjoy and how little we really need. 

Have a thankful heart and your outlook on each day will be dramatically changed.

Christmas Decorations

I was walking by my neighbor’s yard right before Thanksgiving and I noticed that she had already put up her Christmas lights.  There is alot said for planning ahead.  I often want to wait until it gets really close to Christmas before putting out my lights and it is always FREEZING out.  Doing it early makes alot of sense.  She can get it done in the cool nights of early November (I obviously live in Virginia and not in Minnesota!) and not put them out in the freezing cold. 

Just because you put up your lights doesn’t mean you have to light them up.  You can choose to turn them on whenever you feel like it is appropriate for you.  Light strands can hardly be seen in the bushes during the day.  If you put lights out on garlands it would be harder to put them out early.  I tend to wrap the gardlands in the light strands inside and then hang them.  This makes it alot easier and quicker.

Enjoy this special season!  We should always be preparing our hearts for the Lord!

Holiday Guests

I love the holidays.  I live a long way from family and I love it when it works out that family can come for the holidays. 

Here are some ways to prepare the house for those special holiday guests:

Prepare the guest room

1. Put fresh sheets on the bed
2. Have an easy to use alarm clock near the bed
3. Have an extra blanket and pillow available
4. Make there is drawer space and hanging space for guests’ clothing (including empty hangers)
5. A waste basket and tissues

Many of us don’t have a special room reserved just for guests.  We have to convert a child’s room or a family room with a pull out bed into a temporary guest room. 

I think the best way to make someone feel welcome is to create their own special space without having family members walking through all of the time.  If you use a child’s room for the guest room take out the clothing and any other necessitties for the following day so the guest won’t need to be interrupted.  Let that space show that you have prepared for them and you want them to be there.  Nice extra touches are a small vase of flowers in their space, a small bottle of water and perhaps a small chocolate treat.

Unwanted catalogs

I ordered a sweater from a catalog once and then all of a sudden I started getting all kinds of clothing catalogs coming in the mail!  I know I didn’t ask for them or subscribe to them but how were they getting my address.  You guessed it.  Often companies sell or give your name and information to other companies.  You can call each catalog and ask to be removed from their mailing list and put on their do not sell list or you can go to this website I found.  It is http://www.catalogchoice.org/.  You have the opportunity to say which kind of catalogs you want and don’t want and they will do the calling for you!  Nice.

Managing Email

 

In a study last year, Dr Thomas Jackson of Loughborough University,

England, found that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train

of thought after interruption by email (bit.ly/email2). So people who check

their email every five minutes waste 81/2hours a week figuring out what

they were doing moments before.

It had been assumed that email doesn’t cause interruptions because the

recipient chooses when to check for and respond to email (bit.ly/email3).

But Dr Jackson found that people tend to respond to email as it arrives,

taking an average of only one minute and 44 seconds to act upon a new

email notification; 70% of alerts got a reaction within six seconds. That’s

faster than letting the phone ring three times.

 

 

Keeping control of the inbox

If you find your mouse straying towards the “check email” button far too often, try these tactics:

- Turn off intrusive alerts. Anything that pops up, flashes, or goes “ding!” will interrupt you when you’re trying to focus and will trigger a response to check your email.

- Set your email client to display just the title and first few lines of the email, so you can easily decide if it is important enough to deal with right now.

- Use other tools. Twitter and instant messaging (IM) are better for asking short questions of chosen groups. Wikis are better for collaborating on documents. Blogs are better for publishing information and having informal conversations.

- Send fewer emails. Do you need to hit “reply to all”?

- Schedule your email. Set aside time each day to deal with your inbox and ignore it for the rest of the day. Most people check first thing in the morning and late afternoon.

Suw Charman-Anderson is an expert in collaboration and communications

This entire excerpt was taken from an article entitled Email becomes a dangerous distraction by Suw Charman-Anderson September 9, 2008 

Put it where you use it

There would be a tendency to put my daughter’s hairbrush and detangling spray with her hair items in her room because that’s what the organizing books say.  If you read closely you will find that there is a rule that overrides putting like things together.  That rule is — put it where you use it. 

Ideally, you would want all things that are in a like category together, for instance, hair accessories.  But if, for any reason, you don’t do all your hair prep in one area then it makes sense that all your hair prep items are not in one area.  My daughter needs me to help her brush her golden locks every morning.  I am not upstairs so I don’t want to go upstairs just to brush her hair.  We keep her spray and brush downstairs in a special spot because that’s where I almost always help her with her hair.

Daily Flatware

Don’t be confined to using the typical drawer organizers for flatware.  The typical organizer works well for alot of people but it falls short for many as well.  The typical organizer I am speaking of separates your fork, knives and spoons into small compartments shaped like the utensil it is supposed to hold.  You know what I’m talking about.  They typically only hold 6-8 pieces each. 

In our house we can go through that many spoons in one meal!  I don’t do dishes after every meal and I don’t want to.  We have a great number of forks, knives and spoons so a typical organizer won’t work for us.  I have small rectangular wire organizers that hold pieces at a time.  I have one for forks, one for knives, one for spoons, one for serving spoons and a few more.  It works well for me because I still keep the different utensils separated but I can hold many more without one type spilling into another type.

Another option, a client uses is the small wire utensil carrier.  This is the carrier that keeps her utensils standing up.  She only has 4 people in her house and she doesn’t even set the table.  She just grabs the carrier at every meal and sets it in the middle of the table for people to grab what they need.  It is a unique solution and it works for her.  Think outside the box and think what might work for you and your family.