Reporting

For those of you who are wondering how well I'm sticking to my morning routine:

Praise God, it's going well! Knowing that I've committed to report my progress on my blog has been a huge motivation.

After three days of trying to meet my goals, I've realized I need to allow for a little more time for everything. I'm still getting up at 6:00 AM, but the children won't rise until 7:30 AM. If they wake up early, I just tell them to go back to sleep. This has happened twice, and both times they were sleepy enough that they laid quietly in their cribs until I came to get them.

Breakfast is now at 8:00 AM, and family worship is at 8:30 AM. Breakfast dishes should be done by 9:30 AM.

I know even with this little bit of tweaking, we will rarely have to-the-minute success, and I'm okay with that. The goal is not to be a slave to the clock, but rather accomplishing these things within a reasonable time-frame. So long as we're not still dragging by 10:00 AM, I'll feel like we've been successful.

A few things I've found that make it easier for me to meet these goals:

Go to bed no later that 10:00 PM. If I don't get the proper amount of rest, it's much more difficult to get up on time. Neither is it good for my health or the baby growing within me.

Don't start any type of housework before 7:30 AM. If I allow myself to start into any type of housework before I've had my devotions, I find I not only loose part of that precious quiet time but I also get mentally distracted when I want to just be focused on the Lord and his Word. I'm not saying I don't put away my nightgown and hang up the bath towels before 7:30 AM; but I certainly don't try to wash any dishes left over from the night before. And, so that that's not even a temptation...

...go to bed with a tidy, clean house. When I wake up to a mess, it can be very discouraging as well as distracting, as the aforementioned point denoted. There are times when I just can't manage to have everything perfect before I go to bed, and occasionally I need to be okay with that. But generally speaking, I want to have my house organized before I retire.

For achieving success with the rest of my day, write out a to-do list after cleaning the breakfast dishes. I LOVE LISTS! Like a schedule, they keep me focused and on task.

I was glad to see that some of you were encouraged by this. That's part of the purpose of this blog. I'll look forward to hearing your stories too!

There is new information on Dad at the CaringBridge website that I'm sure many of you will be interested in. He and Mom are arriving home tomorrow evening. Thank you for your prayers.

And now, to clean my house up a bit before going to bed! :)