Time is Valuable

Since about the beginning of March, I’ve felt like we’ve been going non-stop. Mostly the things that have kept us busy have been wonderful, exciting, important things. However, when we are SO busy I really start to evaluate my time more. Am I spending my time wisely? Am I spending my time on things that are important? Am I wasting time? Am I spending time on things that benefit my family? Am I spending time on things that distract me from my family?

I know that I waste a lot of time. Too much time. I spend too much time on things that don’t matter. Things that suck my precious time away – something that I can’t get back. I realize that in a lot of ways I really need to simplify my life so that I’m surrounded by less “time-wasters.” For instance, clearing out the lengthy list of blogs in my google reader. Don’t get me wrong – I love reading blogs, but I had a ton of blogs in my list that I never actually read anymore – some that I simply just clicked “next” on all the time. Sifting through the clutter of the blogs that I wasn’t reading anymore was taking away valuable time.

I also consider the amount of time I spend working on/cleaning up/organizing the house. There are so many things that we have in our house that we don’t even use or haven’t touched in a long time. I want to clear that stuff away. When it is cleared away, there will be fewer physical things that need to be cared for around the house – which is a great thing on many levels. I also need to keep up with my Flylady daily assignments, which really DO make my life simpler and help me be more efficient with the time I spend working around the house.

In our ladies class we’ve been studying through a book called Because I Said So by Celine Sparks. One of the points she brought out is that we often spend too much time trying to “find time” rather than making it a priority to get the things done we ought to do. When we try to “find time” we rarely actually find it because we haven’t made those things a priority. I can’t simply “find time” to study my Bible or “find time” to spend reading books to my children or “find time” to pray to God– I have to allocate time for those precious activities.

You didn’t need to read the title of my post or the content of this blog to know that time is valuable. But I needed the reminder to make the most of my time and to spend it wisely because it is valuable.

Pep Talk

I love the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the atmosphere of this time of year: everything from Christmas cookies to finding and wrapping the perfect gift to driving around looking at Christmas lights to receiving Christmas cards in the mail to traveling to see family and friends.

Time seems to fly more quickly these days, especially as I watch my children grow.  We haven’t even reached Christmas yet this year, and I already feel like this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has passed too quickly. Throughout this time I’ve felt a bit too spread thin, and, not only have I felt like I haven’t had much time to relish the season, but I have also felt like I haven’t been able to do many of the things I’ve wanted to accomplish. I had great plans to do lots of fun Christmas activities with Ella (who is really getting engaged into the whole idea of Christmas), but we’ve only managed to do two of the many fun ideas I’ve found.  After three Christmases searching, I finally bought material to make Christmas stockings, but I didn’t even make it to the point of pulling the sewing machine out of the box.

This post isn’t about complaining, but simply a reality check for me. I can’t be everywhere at once. I probably won’t get everything done on my to-do list because it is too long and unrealistic in the first place. With two little ones in the house, projects will inevitably get put off and plans will change. Ella and Troy were both sick for a week (my husband and I didn’t feel great either). And, besides actually dealing with kids that didn’t feel good, we also had to deal with the severe lack of sleep (the kids don’t sleep well when they are sick and they share a room which only complicates that problem). On top of sick kiddos, I almost sliced the tip off of my index finger (so, please ignore any typos in this post), and was out of commission for an entire evening after that incident (what can I say, I have an extremely week stomach for almost slicing the tip of my finger off). Things types of things are not things to be worried or bothered by; they are simply things (and not really big things) that happen in life from time to time. But, I need to give myself that pep talk when I get bogged down by these things. And, when I say that I need to give myself a pep talk, I really mean that I need to listen to my husband’s encouraging words (because he is always the one who realizes I need the pep talk).

Hopefully this last week before Christmas will be a chance for me to slow down and breathe a little. As long as I actually figure out what to get for the last few folks on our Christmas list . . .

Attitude Check

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the type of attitude and general “vibe” I give off to those around me. I know that I often portray a more negative attitude, even though I don’t necessarily consider myself a negative person. I’m very happy, and yet I know that I have a tendency to get bogged down in little things that might make me seem otherwise. I think that sometimes the reason I come across negative is because I have this silly feeling that if something isn’t going exactly right with me that I need everyone around me to know about it, and perhaps feel sorry for me, or something along those lines.

I started thinking about these things because I was noticing a pattern on Facebook (as well as on blogs and Twitter) of individuals whose statuses or updates or comments are mostly negative or depressing or, on the flip side, mostly positive or uplifting. I started noticing that I would quickly click “next” in Google reader when coming across certain blogs because I knew the post would likely be a downer, or that I could already predict that someone’s status was going to be a complaint before I even read it. Conversely, I found myself looking forward to reading updates or notes from others because I knew their words would be encouraging in some way or another, whether that be a sweet compliment to someone, a comment of thanks to God for rain, or something great or funny their children said or did.

With all of that said, this post isn’t about the idea that I think that someone should only post happy or uplifting things. Life is life, and sometimes we’ll be down, and expressing those things to others whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, a blog, a text, or over a Sonic drink (I’d say coffee, but I don’t drink it!) is part of the human experience. However, I want to be careful about the attitude that I’m giving off to others.  In addition to being careful about the attitude I’m giving off to others, I need to be careful about what is really in my heart. After all, outward expressions (whether written or verbal or otherwise), are likely a reflection of the heart. I don’t want to be the blogger or the poster that turns readers away with negativity; after all, I’m a Christian, and my joy should be never shaken because it is founded in Jesus Christ.

(On a total side note, this is the photo from my good to wow entry last week. I never got around to showing the edit, but there it is!)

10 on 10

I’m excited that I finally remembered to participate in the 10 on 10 challenge. If you aren’t familiar with the 10 on 10 challenge, the idea is to take ten photos on the tenth day of the month over the course of ten hours – one photo on the hour for ten consecutive hours – to document your day.

 

 

Stressed

I really hate being stressed. I think I handle stress well to a certain point, and once I pass the point I completely melt down – I go from handling everything to feeling like I can’t handle anything. I realize that stress is sometimes a good thing – sometimes it presses me to do the things I really need to do or pushes me in the direction that I need to go, but I still dislike being stressed. I’ve been stressed a lot lately (I’m not going into why here because that’s neither here nor there).  I’m starting to feel like I’m completely underwater, and I must swim to the top of the water and take a deep breath. I need to take time to relax and just breathe.

It is times like these that I realize how much I really need to trust in God. I shouldn’t allow myself to get so down because I have God – the Creator of the Universe and the Almighty and Loving Father to rely on, and yet I do allow myself to become weak in faith. I’m not writing this post to complain, but rather to give myself that reminder that I need: I need to trust in the Lord with all my heart and I need to seek comfort through Him. I ought to be meditating more on His Word and speaking to Him more often through prayer rather than allowing myself to become bogged down.

As a reminder to myself, here are just a few passages from the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Proverbs 16:20: “He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he.”

Proverbs 28:25-26: “He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will be prospered. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”

Proverbs 30:5:” Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”

A few random things on Friday

I'm so thankful it is Friday! I'm ready for a (hopefully) relaxing weekend. It is the first time in a while that I feel like I have the time to relax (at least a little bit). Things will be in full swing again on Monday though, so I need to enjoy it while I can!

I promise to get back to blogging more regularly. October was, uh, a little crazy in our house as we were (and, honestly, still are) getting the hang of having two kids who are both in diapers! Life with two under two is great, but also very tiring especially when one of them doesn't sleep through the night! I'm thankful that I'm having an uneventful weekend so that I can catch up on some blogging. I've got lots of things on my mind to write about, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and type them out. Also, if you notice things out of place on the blog, please excuse the mess. I'm getting an itch to do some revamping of my blog, and I'll probably play with the design some if I find time this weekend.

I'm loving the weather we are having this week! Fall feels like it is really in the air, and we are entering my absolute favorite time of the year - the time of year between Halloween and Christmas! I absolutely love fall, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are my absolute two favorite holidays. I love spending the time with family and friends! We're hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, and I'm already thinking about what will be on our menu. What are your favorite Thanksgiving dishes? My absolute favorite is homemade cornbread dressing . . . yum! And to think now that when I was a kid I used to tell my mom that I didn't like dressing - I was crazy!

Speaking of food, I've tried a couple of recipes recently from one of my new favorite food blogs, Annie's Eats. I made the Rigatoni de Gregorio (minus the wine and mushrooms) and the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins.  The pasta dish was super easy and yummy! The muffins were pretty labor intensive to make, but they were also very tasty. Did I mention that another reason I love this time of year is all the pumpkin dishes?

If you are stopping by from New Friend Fridays, thanks for visiting!

One of Those Days . . . .Little Things

Do you ever have one of those days where it feels like things just aren't going your way? And while nothing in particular that happens during that day is all that bad, when all those different little things don't go your way it makes it feel like it was a bad day?

I kinda feel like today was one of those days. For instance, right now, I'm making homemade ice cream (something I love to do, even though I can only have a tiny bit on my gestational diabetes diet), and I go to check on its progress, only to find out that I have forgotten to put the mixing blade in the machine. Such a little thing, but it feels big when it shouldn't.

Aw, but sometimes it is also the little things that can really make you smile. For instance, I got a beautiful picture of Ella's eyes today. These days I don't feel like I'm able to take many good pictures of her because I physically can't chase after her because I'm too pregnant (and somehow, I think she knows that I can't really follow her too well!), so I am really pleased to get a photo like the one below.

I need to keep the "little things" in life in perspective, remembering the ones that make me smile and forgetting the ones that could bring me down.

Out of Order

So, this post should have been my first post, but I'm doing things a little out of order. The idea for this blog has been rolling around in my head for quite a while now, but until last week I really couldn't settle on a name, and I wanted the perfect name. I'm not sure I came up with the perfect name, but it is really suiting my tastes at the moment for what I want this blog to be about. :) Anyway, I finally got in gear and started the blog up, partially from the motivation of the photography blog "I Heart Faces." I really wanted to enter their "Fix-It Friday" last week, and I needed a blog to show my "fix" (even though my fix really paled in comparison to the other entries). In my rush to get my fix in for the site, I never had time to write my entry about why I wanted to write this blog, and what I wanted it to be about. Doing things out of order seems to happen quite frequently, as life gets in the way of all the plans I've made.

There are so many things that I want to be. I want to be a good wife and a good mother. I want to be a good photographer, a good cook, and a good keeper of the home. I want to be motivated and active. I want to be healthy and helpful. I want to be informed and curious. I want to contend earnestly for the faith, striving daily to serve the Lord as I should (Jude 1:3). The list of things I want to be could continue on, but I'll save those things for now. I'm doing better at being what I want to be on some of the things I listed than I am on others. Hopefully this blog will be a way to share my journey, as well as communicate with others about living the lives we want to live.