Getting it Done

 A few days ago Chase was playing with Cars magnets on the fridge and one of them went UNDER. :( I grabbed an envelope sitting nearby and started sliding it under the front rim of the fridge. Out came a plastic, orange letter magnet. Not what I was trying for but great anyway. I kept on trying. LOTS of dust balls, old cereal, milk jug rings (Blake was happy), pencils, Legos, and everything else was coming out. Finally TWO Cars magnets and a few more plastic letter magnets revealed themselves.

Now I'm really curious as to what else could be under the fridge. It's been YEARS since I pulled it out and swept/mopped/dusted. My curiosity was bigger than my hate of mopping so I pulled out the fridge and got to work. I only found more of what I had already found so it wasn't that exciting but I felt satisfied with the progress I had made dusting the wall, grabbing out big chunks of dust? from the coils, and mopping up the floor.

(Was almost done cleaning when I decided to take a pic.)

Before pushing back the fridge I knew I couldn't ignore the THICK layer of dust, RED dust, on top. UGH. That was a bigger chore than the floor even though it had only been a few years since I cleaned off the top. I don't understand how the koolaid dust gets up there.

I really wanted to pull out the oven, too, but time just didn't allow. The fridge alone had taken an hour and a half and at this rate we were eating lunch at 2:00pm.

After lunch I sat down and looked at my stack of clipboards (4!) that I had beside the laptop with work for me to do for different things I'm involved in and I thought about how much I really wanted to do a good job at these new responsibilities. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing a half job and things and for me if I can't give 100% then I get discouraged and feel like I'm not only let other people down, but also the Lord.

I want to be able to homeschool 100%, do the daily home stuff 100%, be a Mom 100%, a wife 100%, be a co-op leader 100%, do church ministries 100%,  and be available to be used any time by the Lord 100%.

I will admit that I don't make the best use of ALL of my time. I sleep until 9am. Take my good old time having breakfast and whatever before we start school at 11am. Then we eat lunch and do whatever before it's dinner time and we leave the house to do whatever. Then when everyone is in bed I take care of the stuff I should have done during the day while I was doing WHATEVER and then I need to exercise and take care of business that requires my undivided attention.

Don't get me wrong, my days aren't totally wasted. I get the NORMAL stuff done (dishes, homeschool, sweeping, picking up stuff, etc.) but I don't get the EXTRA stuff done... like pulling out the fridge or cleaning out junk drawers or re-folding my clothes in one of the dressers. I don't remember regularly to send co-op e-mails. I am late sending Bible in 90 Days check-in e-mails.

All of this got me to thinking... I need a daily planner. Not to put in my regular stuff that I naturally do every day (brush teeth, make beds, exercise (already have a chart for that), cook, etc.) but for the EXTRAS that I want to do.

I found this form online and plan to alter it a little.

My plan would be the same for every week... Mondays I wash all WHITE laundry (and fold and put away), Wednesdays I was all towels/sheets, Sunday nights I send co-op e-mails, Fridays I go over spring tea stuff, etc. You get the point.

I think if I had a list, a hard copy, of everything I WANTED to accomplish in a day I might be motivated when I woke up to GET IT DONE so I could relax in the evening instead of remembering at midnight that I was supposed to have done something that day. If I don't schedule in "pulling out the fridge" then I won't do it for years.

There will be a spot on my form for one-time things that might arise. You never know what will come up. And if one week I don't pull out the fridge, it's no big deal. It will be on the list next week as a reminder to do it.

I'll let you know how it goes. At the end of the day I want to be able to lay down my head and feel satisfied that I served my husband and children well, that I was organized and therefore a little more patient (cause if you are like me, without organization comes being rushed at the last minute making everyone cranky), and that I was available to be used by God in a way NOT on my planner because I hadn't wasted away precious time doing stupid stuff. (The interruption might not come but at least I was willing and able.)

PS
Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying sittin down and chillin with some Dog the Bounty Hunter or Pinterest isn't okay. I'm just saying, FOR ME, that I feel like my days are only half spent working and that is why I end up working late into the night when I could be chillin OR SLEEPING! And I want my children to not remember that I was online all day or too busy to sit and read/play with them. I want them to see me as a hard worker just as they see their Dad working hard.