How many hours do you think there are in a day?
24, right?
Well, you're wrong. There can be more hours than there are right now!
Not literally, of course. But you can find more time by following this one simple rule:
Admit that you're busy and live with it.
I know tht sounds radical, but follow me for a minute. A few years ago, if anyone ever said, "How are you?", we all knew that the correct answer was, "I'm fine!". That was proper etiquette, even if your dog just died, our souffle fell, or you wanted to bean you husband on the head. You were fine.
Today we have a new answer. We say, "Oh, things are so busy!". And they are.
But what we tend to do is say to ourselves, "When I'm not as busy I will...." and you can fill in the blank. When things aren't as crazy, I'll get around to.... whatever it may be. But things always will be busy!
We're cut out a lot of after school activities in our home. We're home almost every evening. But we're still busy. And I've learned to embrace it, because honestly, hard work isn't that bad. Having a lot to do isn't so horrible, as long as we still make time for ourselves.
And that's where this post comes in. Part of the reason that we feel so out of control is that we aren't making time for ourselves. We figure we'll get around to it when things aren't as busy. But that's never going to happen.
In my book To Love, Honor and Vacuum: When you feel more like a maid than a wife and a mother, I suggest one simple change that can make all the difference in your life: carve out time everyday for something that you need. And schedule that in first. Before the laundry, before the chauffeuring, before the work, know when in the day you're going to take some time for yourself.
When you do that, suddenly you don't feel as busy! It's weird to prioritize ourselves, because we want to give to our families. But don't get burned out.
Here are some creative ways that I've found some time for myself lately:
1. I make my dinner by crockpot almost everyday! You see, in the mornings I have energy, and I have some free time. But I don't have time to go to the gym and workout because we're homeschooling. So now I put dinner on at 9:30 in the morning, and then I can go exercise from 3:30 until 5:00 because dinner's taken care of! So when's the easiest time for you to make dinner? If it's not right before dinner, then it do it earlier!
2. Get rid of time wasters. Turn off that television! Stop playing computer games! They don't make you feel better; they just make you feel like you've wasted an evening! Take that hour and play a game with your kids. Scrapbook for a while. Sew something. Being creative and productive is fun, and then at the end of a busy day you can look back and feel like you got something accomplished.
3. Keep your house more or less neat by cleaning to a schedule. Do one room a day, and one task a day, and then you're done for the day! But the great thing is that your house doesn't get that out of control. When your home feels out of control, you're even more rushed because you can't find anything. And if people ever come over, then you're really stressed. Keeping it neat isn't as hard as you think! I give some great tips in To Love, Honor and Vacuum in that realm, too, including ways to get your kids cleaning, and even ways to motivate your hubby!
So that's my word of wisdom to you today: admit that we're busy. Live with it. But then make yourself a priority, and everything else will fit into place!
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I am reading this book, and I encourage your blog readers to pick up a copy. There is so much in it that is useful to the busy wife and mom!