An Ephiphany of Sorts

I am full of good intentions. Aren't we all?

• I have a stack of parenting books that I'm dying to read.
• I've been looking at some preschool things and conjuring up ideas for N1.
• I have a start of a daily schedule for us that will help cut down on some of our TV time and just wasted time in general.
• I want to get back into journaling on paper (where I can work out a few more of my private thoughts and struggles).
• I have printed out several weeks work of my Motivated Moms housecleaning plan.
• My Bible and Bible study are sitting out next to my favorite chair ready to go.

But, none of it is really getting done. Because I'm not acting on any of it. I've been setting myself up in some bad habits of procrastinating and doing the just-barely-getting-by thing for way too long. I've been making up way to many excuses and while some are good (or sound good), they are just excuses.

I'm getting ready to start fine-tuning some life areas and I'm already envisioning that some changes are going to hurt. :-) Before too long, our newest family member will be here, and if I don't have some new game plans in place before then, it's going to get even tougher around here to get things done. Time for making some changes ... all good, some hard, but much needed.

Now for a concrete plan of action ... for this week:

• Make a DRAFT of what I think could be a workable daily plan for us. If we don't have it ready to run/test by Thursday or Friday, be ready to go with it next Monday. Things that I want to see happen with this plan are: specific times for TV and computer for N1 (and me *sigh*), our plan to do more reading aloud written down, and getting back to N1 having some sort of rest time with books. (We were doing better at that, but it has been easier for me to let her have computer time if I want to nap in the afternoon ... but books would be my first choice).
• Work on keeping up with my Motivated Moms cleaning plan for THIS week. That's all I'm saying. Just try it consistently for one week. See what works and what doesn't. Fine tune what things need to be daily cleaning jobs and make note on what can go on a once a week schedule, twice a week, every-other-week, etc. Note: If you have not ever checked out Motivated Moms, I recommend it. I was fairly diligent with it after I had N1 and it was a great help to me to stay on top of stuff with a new baby. It's not expensive, and you can download their cleaning planner in several sizes, and with and without daily Bible reading suggestions. I use their 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 size (w/o the Bible reading plan since I have one that I'm working on) and then print out about a month at a time and put it in my planner. When I'm on top of it, it makes it easy for me to see my cleaning to-do's because it's right there in my calendar.
• Do my Bible study lesson for this week. Seriously, the husband is out of town ... the only thing keeping me from getting it done tonight is me turning on the TV after the girls are in bed and vegging when I should be in the Word.

Anyway, just baby steps here to start with. As tempting as it is to overhaul everything today, I have at least realized that's probably not the best plan. :-) For right now, I'm going to go switch a load of laundry, refill my drink, and find the top of my desk. And, as a teaser, hopefully I'll be back later today with a picture post - we FINALLY took N1's 3-year pictures with my Dad, and N2's one-year and there are some fun ones to share.