OK, I admit it. The last couple of months have been a wonderfully crazy blur, full of many blessed events (hence the reason that I have been blogging so infrequently and also the reason that I encouraged you to add me to your Blogreader —Bloglines is my personal favorite). While wonderful, these last few months have left me feeling a bit out of sorts with our lack of a real daily schedule and our overstuffed house, which never seems to stay picked up for more than 5 minutes!!! In fact I feel as if my head has been spinning and in danger of falling off altogether!!!
Needless to say, I really needed this vacation!!! Vermont is always a place where I find inspiration and peace. Being here in God’s beautiful nature show always makes me long for simplicity and order in my life and the life of my family. Being among the trees and on the lake seem to give me clarity of vision that I can lose at home, if I’m not careful.
Having just recently finished Shopping for Time, I have been enjoying “sitting at Jesus’ feet” these last three or four mornings before my family has arisen from their blessed slumber. This has meant getting up at 6 a.m. while on vacation (I know, I know, I can hear you groaning!!!). I consider this preparation for when I get home and push up my wake up time to 5 a.m. (Now I hear you really moaning!!!). This time away and my early mornings spent at Jesus’ feet have made my path clear to me.
Like it or not, 5 a.m. is a necessary evil. It is the only way that I can have my quiet time, get my housework back on track, and still find time for exercise which is a must for getting off / reducing my blood pressure medication. These are all things that I used to do thanks to Flylady but have lost sight of in the recent past. I am grateful for the Control Journal that I put together a while back which makes it easier to get back on the straight and narrow.
I have spent a couple of hours over the last few days working on a schedule to fulfill all my goals. I know it will need some tweaking and I will need some patience as I put the plan into action. Something that I have been learning over these last several months is that when I stumble, I need to just brush myself off and begin again. Sometimes this means asking the Lord’s forgiveness and forgiving myself. But when all is said and done, I need to get up and try again (preferably without beating myself up too severely). So in this spirit I continue this blessed journey. Now without further adieu, here it is:
Morning Routine
5 am Get up
Make bed
Go to bathroom
Vitamins/Medication
SITTING AT JESUS’ FEET
5:45 Brush teeth
Apply moisturizer
Dress
Hair
Make-up
6:00 Empty dishwasher, if necessary
Breakfast, newspaper
Daily planning, check calendar, update “to do” list, plan day/errands/goals
Menu planning, grocery shopping planning
Puzzles, clip for later
7:00 Defrost meat for dinner, dinner prep
Breakfast prep for children (CHILDREN”S BREAKFAST at 7:30)
Put out hotspots
Wash breakfast dishes
Shine sink
27 Fling Boogie, time permitting
7:30 Walk, while children have Breakfast
8:00 Heather & children: Daily jobs
Monday: Change sheets, vacuum and dust bedrooms
Tuesday: Dust downstairs, vacuum upstairs hallway, vacuum thoroughly downstairs
Wednesday: Blue bathroom
Thursday: Upstairs bathroom
Friday: Kitchen
Daily: 27 Fling Boogie and Zone work, time permitting
8:30 Children’s Individual Chores while I check email, read, blog, correspondence
9:30 Rosary & Beginner’s Bible
10:00
12 pm Lunch prep
12:30 Lunch
I ask for your prayers as I put this into action next week.
I have such difficulty waking up early, but I know the day goes much smoother and so many more things get done. I think I have to work on getting to bed much earlier so that it’s not so difficult to get up the next day.
I’ll pray that your schedule works well for you. Keep us updated!
Lisa:
The first morning is tough but believe me, you will be tired at a reasonable time that night. I find myself ready to head to bed much earlier this week. I’m sure it will be even earlier when I change my waking time to 5 a.m.
Thanks for commenting,
Heather
Well, you’ve inspired me to make it a priority to get up earlier. I’ll do it in increments so it shouldn’t be too bad. Right now since the kids have been on summer vacation, I’ve been getting up at 7:30. That’s too late if I want to have lots done before they get up. I’ll shoot for 7:00 for a couple of days and make my way to 6:00. I’ll see how that works out.
Thanks for writing this.