This morning I followed my usual routine of devotions, breakfast, and a walk. Not to be deterred by the possibility of rain, I headed out for my walk inspite of the threatening skies. I hadn’t walked for long before I started to see the rain making its presence known on my glass. I decided to persist and had made it through about 20 minutes of my walk on my usual route when the thunder and lightening commenced. About 5 minutes later, my hero pulled up in his truck to bring his well watered sweetie home safely. My sweet husband was truly my knight in shining armor saving me (the damsel in distress) from the thunderstorm dragon. Isn’t he sweet? I AM truly blessed!!!
Picture courteousy of Nightfire Graphics and Alan Ayers
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
Diet Center food planning
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 Basic School plan with children
12 pm Lunch prep
12:30 Lunch
I ask for your prayers as I put this into action next week.
For those of you couch potatoes like me who are looking for a way to get in shape after the holidays, I came across a website that has the “Walk to Rivendell” challenge. We can walk ourselves healthy following Frodo’s path. They have different distances that represent different parts of his journey. Anyway, I thought it might be a good motivator for LOTR fans like me!!!
