Schedules and Lists

As I have said before, I am not a list maker by nature. I usually go with the flow or fly by the seat of my pants. Needless to say, I drive my very structured husband crazy.

One of my New Year's goals was to really sit down and work on a schedule in order to create some peace in our household. It's not uncommon to see us running frantic around our house before we go somewhere, due to my lack of planning. I know my husband needs a good plan, and it's my goal to come up with a workable one!

So far, I have created a weekly list. This includes my work schedule, weekly Bible studies and Eric's sound schedule at church. I also keep spaces open for any events (birthdays, parties, potlucks) that come up. I include a space on each day of the week to write what I need to bring to an event. For instance, I have a lunch after my Bible study tomorrow and I have signed up to bring a pasta salad. I put that in there so I know in advance I need to add the ingredients to the pasta salad to my grocery list.

I also have a monthly calender where I just write a brief note on each day. Then I can look to my weekly schedule for a more detailed plan of what's going on. This way I have an overview of what's going on in the month.

At this time, I'm still working on a daily schedule. Every day is different for me, so I am trying to figure out the timing of things. So far I've got that I wake up around 5:30 every morning and I go to bed around 9:30 every evening. I'm still working on the stuff in the middle.

On top of my daily, weekly and monthly schedule, I'm also working on a cleaning schedule. I'm trying to break my cleaning into smaller jobs that I can do a little every night, instead of all day on a Saturday. I'm hoping to get this done by next week.

So there you have it. This is my first jump into an organized life. I'm hoping that this all becomes second nature.

Menu Plan Monday and Catching Up

Holy Toledo, has it been nearly a week since I last posted? I had so many blog post ideas last week and I just never had the chance to get on the computer to post them. I was really looking forward to posting my Works for Me Wednesday post, but I was gone most of the day on Wednesday and never got around to it. I'm hoping I can post it this week. My schedule is not as full as it was last week.

Speaking of schedules, I've got a post I'm working on (hopefully it can be up today or tomorrow) about my schedules. I'm a person who needs a schedule to get things done, however, I'm not organized enough to work on a schedule. I've decided to take control of my disorganization and sit down once and for all in order to create some order in my home. I won't be too strict on myself as far as keeping a schedule, but if I can just have something in writing, it keeps me accountable. A good friend of mine e-mailed me her schedule and I'm looking at it to get ideas for my own. Except my schedule won't include feedings and diaper changings.

Till I get that post ready, here is my Menu plan for the week!

As usual, breakfasts and lunches are about the same every day, so I don't include them in my menu planning. Here are the dinners.

Monday night- Out (yay!)

Tuesday night- Chicken stir fry and brown rice

Wednesday night- crock pot chicken, veggies, rolls

Thursday night- Leftovers

Friday night- Beef fillets (I found a couple in our deep freeze!) rice pilaf, broccoli

Saturday night- Spaghetti and Italian Bread

Sunday night- Leftovers

Menu Plan Monday...errrr, Tuesday!

I really meant to do this yesterday, but I just didn't have the time. I usually have some down time at work, and that's when I catch up on my e-mails, blog reading and blog writing, (with full permission from my boss, of course) however, I had absolutely no down time yesterday, so I never got around to putting my menu on my blog, which is why I had to wait till now! Since were on a limited budget, these meals aren't exactly gourmet, but hey, at least we can eat and I'm making it with stuff we already have on hand.

Breakfasts are usually a mix of oatmeal and fruit, toast with peanut butter and some fruit, or cereal. Once and awhile, Eric makes a couple eggs for me. Lunch for me is a sandwich, fruit and some corn chips. Or sometimes some leftovers from dinner the night before. Simple, easy, cheap!

Monday- Eric is on his own (he leaves for a class before I get home from work) and I get spoiled by my parents, since they take me out!

Tuesday- Spaghetti and meat sauce, salad

Wednesday- Beef enchiladas, salad

Thursday- Taco soup

Friday- Leftovers

Saturday- ? (We are helping friends move, so I'm not sure if we will do something light, like sandwiches, or if we will eat with them)

Sunday- Mac and Cheese, chicken tenders (we have people over Sunday nights, so dinner is quick)

So that's it for the week. There's nothing fancy, but the enchiladas are soooo good. I will have to post the recipe on Wednesday or Thursday, after I make them. It's a great meal for a group and it's also nice for us because it gives us some leftovers for the next day.

I'm also hoping to get another blog up this afternoon, if I have some downtime. I have some ideas running through my head, so if I don't forget any of them, I will make a post!

Saturday Snippets

"Saturday Afternoon" by Tim Coffee

It is a beautiful day today. It's a bit chilly (still not cold enough for me) and overcast and I'm just soaking it in. It's not often that we have days like this, here in sunny Southern California. It's also a beautiful day today because my husband is in the kitchen cleaning our ceiling fan blades. He's so good to me.

Well, my plan for getting up early bombed today. I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this, but we didn't get up till nearly 11. I don't remember the last time I slept in that late. To my credit though, my sinuses have been really acting up and I haven't been feeling well the past couple of days, so my body was probably needing the rest. I will be getting up extra early tomorrow to make up for it though, since Eric has to be at church at 6:30 in the morning. That's what he gets for being a sound tech. When he gets up at four dark thirty in the morning, I get up with him and make his coffee and breakfast while he's getting ready. He likes to have a big breakfast to hold him over till church is done by 2 in the afternoon (we have three services, so he's there for a loooong time). Yeah, it's early and I don't have to get up with him, but he really appreciates it and I like doing it for him.

Once we got up this morning, Eric made some coffee and I warmed up some of the banana bread I made yesterday, then it was time to tackle the house cleaning. I put away our Christmas decorations yesterday, but we didn't take the tree down because Eric's back was bugging him and we have a pretty big tree. Usually we dread taking the tree down, not only because it's sad (I LOVE my Christmas tree) but because it's so big and bulky, we don't know what to do with it once we take it apart. This year, my brilliant husband (he has good ideas once and awhile) thought of a new way to pack up our tree. You'll have to wait till Wednesday, because I will be making this a
Works for me Wednesday post. I've never done one before, so I'm excited. It's the little things that makes me happy.

Well, I've been on here too long and I still have some dusting to do and a couch to vacuum, so I better skedaddle. I hope you guys have had a beautiful day too.

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe the new year is here already. I realize, as I get older, every year flies by quicker than the last. I remember a time when it would seem like for.ev.er for Christmas to get here. Now it just seems like I blink and Christmas is over and it's time to put my Christmas stuff away.

Every year, around this time, I just randomly think of things that I want to see happen in the new year, and every year without fail, I never see any of it happen. This year I want it to be different. Instead of randomly selecting things I want to see happen, I decided to pray about it first. I thought that since God knows what it best for my life, I should seek Him first and see if He brings anything to my mind that I should work on. Ask and ye shall receive, right? Well, I asked and I received!

One of the things that came up was the use of my time. I tend to fill up my time with things that can be good, but also take away from more important things. Things like cleaning my house, reading my Bible or spending quality time with my husband. For instance, blogging can be one of these things. As other bloggers have noted in the past, blogs can be great. I can glean information in things like cooking, home organization and even great spiritual insights. The bad things about blogs, however, is that they are a real time sucker. It's amazing how time flies when I get online and start reading some of my favorite blogs. I just need to scale back on my reading time and make sure my home life doesn't suffer because of it.

Another thing that came to my mind was that I do need to spend more quality time with Eric. We both (more often, it's me) get so busy with other things that nearly a whole day goes by and we rarely said two words to eachother. I want to end that crazy cycle and begin to just turn distractions off and sit and talk, play games or hang out with Eric.

A great way that I can spend time with him, and something else that God brought to me, was that we really needed to spend some time in family worship. Eric and I have batted the idea back and forth for a couple of months now, but this is something that's stirring more in my heart now. I'm not sure how that is going to look for us at this time, but Eric and I are planning spending time together, each evening, praying, worshiping and spending time in the Word. We may even listen to a sermon once and awhile. All I know is that it is imparitive to our spiritual growth and our marriage that we spend more time in God's word as a unit.

I also realized that I needed to have a more structured quiet time. I know that a quiet time is not demanded of us as Christians, but I do know that I do better if I have read the Bible and spend some time in prayer. It's amazing how just spending 15 to 30 minutes each morning can really effect my day. So in saying this, I am planning on getting up early each morning so that I can spend some quality time with God. I've had sporadic quiet times my whole life, but I am now wanting something steady. None of this once every couple of weeks thing.

Since I am wanting to get up early each morning, I will need to get to bed earlier in the evening. I know this is easier said than done, but this is something that I really need to work on. Not only because I will be waking up a little earlier, but simply because I just need the sleep. I am hoping to get to bed no later than 10, but even earlier would be great, if possible.

The last thing that God brought to my mind is the biggie for me. It may seem small to others, but for me, it's something I really do struggle with. Organization and structure in my daily life. I am not a structured person. I know I have mentioned orginazation in the past, but I haven't really grasped the concept yet. Sure my house is clean (most of the time), but you don't know what's crammed in my drawers and closets. Actually, I don't know what's crammed in my drawers and closets. The big problem with this is that I'm married to a man who thrives on orginazation, structure and lists and my way of life drives him crazy. Instead of making him an unorginazed slob like me, I realized that I needed to make some changes. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I am going to work on some sort of schedule for us that will work for us. This is something else I will be praying for because I don't know the first thing about schedules. I am hoping to read some books on orginazation when I have the chance and hopefully I can learn some stuff.

The last thing I want to mention in this huge post of mine, is the verse that God has put in my heart to be my verse for the year. I am hoping to make a yearly tradition from now on, to have a piece of scripture that can define how I see the up and coming new season in my life. This year's verse is 2nd Chronicles 7:14:

"if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

I am praying that this year I can remember to pray and seek His face at all times. I know my sin is already forgiven, but I'm looking forward to see what "healing" God has in store for me.