Too Rushed

I'm tired of being in the middle of something and feeling like I need to finish it so I can get to the next thing.

Here's an example of how most days go- I'm rocking/singing Graham to sleep for his nap and feeling like I need him to go to sleep so I can have my quiet time which I then race through so I can get a shower and some things around the house cleaned before he wakes up. Then when he wakes up, I rush to get him nursed and out the door to run errands so we're home for lunch with Anthony and back before his afternoon nap. I then rock/sing Graham to sleep for his afternoon nap, hoping he'll fall asleep quickly so I can rush around finishing what wasn't finished earlier in the day as well as begin making dinner. We usually have to rush through dinner because one or both of us have somewhere to be that night. When we get home we're rushing to get him bathed, nursed, and in bed so we can a little bit of alone time before rushing to get to bed so we're not going to bed too late.

It seems like all I'm doing is rushing around. I think I've figured out that my rushing around is due to mixed up priorities. I feel like that my day is productive if I've cleaned everything up around the house and made a tasty dinner. Apparently my standard of productivity doesn't include spending quality time with the Lord or playing with my son. Both of these facts break my heart and I'm determined to change them.

I'm making it a goal to be more organized around the house in order to free up more time and to make the Word of God more visible. Since the Word of God is living (Hebrews 4:12) I hope that my heart will become more sensitive to it if I see it on a regular basis. To accomplish these goals, this is what I plan to do:

1. Find a place for everything in the house. I noticed that when my mom prepared for her Monday night bible study, she didn't have to spend hours cleaning up all the stuff that had accumulated around the house. To make my home more like this, I'm planning on going through each room and figuring out what doesn't have a place and finding one for it. If one cannot be found, then we probably don't need it and into the garage sale pile it will go. My hope on this is that it will cut down on clean up time. If everything has a place and is always returned to that place, then I shouldn't have to spend as much time sorting through things which will hopefully give me more time.

2. Memorize Scripture- This has always been a struggle for me, but now that we're entering into the disciplining stage of parenting, I realize more than ever that I need to stay on top of things. After all, I know I cannot expect Graham to learn the Word of God if I'm not willing to teach it to him and I cannot teach it to him, unless I know it myself. To help with memorizing, I'm going to use the basis for a program that a friend of mine wrote about on her blog. The idea is that you review the passage throughout the day by reading it every hour for 8 hours. After 8 days of working on the same passage, you will have reviewed it 64 times which should really help with hiding it in your heart.

3. Sidebar Review- I'm going to add the verses I'm working on to the side bar as well. That way it will be right there for me to see whenever I check the blog and you all will know what I'm working on :)

4. Hang Scripture Up- I realized that if someone was to break into my house, they probably wouldn't know we were believers in Jesus Christ because there are maybe 3-4 things around the house with scripture on them. It seems like everywhere you look in my parents house, there is a verse to read. What a great way to review those verses that I should be memorizing. I plan to get some picture frames as well as a marker board to start with. The marker board can have the verse we're currently working on written on it and be easily accessible to review.

I'll keep you updated with my progress and let you know if I come up with anymore ideas!!