After Will was born I really struggled to find balance & a good
routine. It took awhile to learn that there's no such thing as balance. It's
all about priorities and making them a priority, because there is no way you
can balance it all - and you know what?! We weren't meant to.
I LOVED THIS REMINDER:
God has not intended that we should be able to do everything we would
like to do. If there were not more to do than we are individually capable of
doing, we wouldn't have to make choices and we would never realize what we
value most.
Jeanne Inouye
Free agency
& choices are a big part of our earthly life. In the end, our small day to
day choices will determine our destiny and the direction we go in life. I've
talked about this before, but the choice to agree to go rappelling the day of
my accident didn't change my life as much as the small day to day decisions of
choosing joy, optimism, faith & being consistent.
I thrive on
structure & routine and the first 3 months of Will were anything but that.
I never knew when he was sleepy or how long he'd sleep or when he'd wake up or
go to bed. I'd get dressed in my workout clothes and would try and sneak out
during his sporadic naps to try and move my body. I wish I'd just taken 30
minutes for myself and "me time" to exercise and move my body. I knew
the times I needed to pump and so I'd try and get some structure and things
done during those 15-20 minutes.
Since April,
we've had a really good routine going. I've been using this chart to help me
organize my priorities and most important to-do's. There are 4 check boxes and
4 priorities that I want to be sure to do every day -
spiritual,
physical, mental & temporal.
For the last
3 months or so Will has been sleeping through the night and is on a pretty
consistent sleep schedule and so I started waking up at 6 AM. First I get ready
with just the bare minimum & put on my workout clothes. Then by 6:15 I've
started reading God's word. Right now I'm studying in the Doctrine &
Covenants. I've always loved studying there because it feels so easily
applicable to my life.
One of my
favorite verses as of late is:
D&C 6:8
Verily I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be unto you; if you
desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation.
Verse 33
& 34 also go on to talking about doing good.
As I've
tried to be more intentional with my social media lately and what I want my
purpose and mission to be there, this verse has helped me clarify my vision. I
want to be the means of "doing much good" and #sharegoodness.
That is it at the end of the day I want to share goodness and light with
others.
There was
another talk I listened to and it talked about what we do shows our kids our
priorities more than what we say. We've been all over the place with our family
scripture study and life is only going to get busier so we've committed to
family scripture study at breakfast. Back in April while we were doing the
Whole 30, we got in the routine of having breakfast together and I really liked
it. So I figured why not add some scriptures to that time.
David A Bednar also spoke on balance and explained that:
there is no such thing as balance so don't worry about it.
He related a
Chinese acrobat spinning all these plates on a stick to our priorities in
life. He talked about how in order to be successful you can't have too many
plates. "Somethings are nice, a few things are essential. Make
sure that you focus on the things that are essential." He went on
to explain that it's impossible for all the plates to spin at the exact same
speed, but that we need to pay attention to all the plates so they don't fall
off - and so it is with life.
By 7 AM, two
of my four check mark priorities are already done. Lately my mental check boxes
have been writing. I have so much I'm constantly working on. Between girls camp
talks, other speaking engagements, blogging and sharing paraparenting tips, I
feel like I'm never caught up. I check the box, as long as I've done a little
writing, some days thats just a title or a paragraph, then I can check the box.
Finally, my temporal tasks for the day vary based on the day of the week.
Monday's are laundry & groceries, Wednesday are bathroom and the other days
may have a note next to them of medical bills, leases, organize a closet etc.
With these
four daily tasks, I'm able to focus on my priorities. This way I feel more
accountable for my days and all the other minutes in the day are devoted to
Will. Lately after his first morning nap we'll take Cooper down to the dog
hill, which is only shaded in the morning. I'll stretch and work on some
physical therapy exercises, while intermittently throwing the ball to
Cooper and playing with Will, but mostly he enjoys being outside and is pretty
easy to please.
One hour of
"me time" is well worth the investment. The last thing I've been
doing lately is not dealing with social media until after I've completed my
spiritual, physical & mental tasks for the day. It just helps me keep a
clear space in my day to focus on my priorities and also reinsures that I look
to God before I look to the world. So to simplify everything my morning looks
like this:
6:00
AM
Wake
up/simple get ready/put on workout clothes
6:15
AM
Scripture
study
6:30
AM
Workout
7:00
AM
Make
breakfast/Pack lunch/Feed & change Will
7:45
ish
Breakfast
& family scripture study
*In
case life happens and those days when Will wakes up early or I need an extra
half hour of sleep, I do my workout & scripture study time after he goes
down for his first nap around 9 AM depending on how early he wakes up because
that's just life.
I loved THIS talk that I quoted earlier. It was given in 1993 and I feel as though the world has only gotten busier, pulling our attention and focus in more directions. So I'll end with a few more counsel Jeanne gave in this talk.
"Do not make the mistake of being drawn off into secondary tasks which will cause the neglect of your eternal assignments...We may not be able to do everything, but He will bless us in our efforts to do those things he asked us to do."
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