How Do I Do It?

I get asked quite a bit how I do it.  How do I keep up with our crazy life?  Well, the truth is...    I don't.  There is always some balls that get dropped.  I just strive to keep as many as possible in the air and let the others fall where they may.

My husband and I both work full time.  He also teaches part time, is working on his PhD dissertation, and is the volunteer Missions & Evangelism pastor at our church.

Our oldest son plays high school baseball (which has become a year round sport), our middle son runs for the middle school cross country team, and our 4 year old daughter just gets dragged around to everything and for some strange reason loves it all.

One of my favorite baseball pics!  This is from 2008.

Add in various church activities, home projects, and other things that just pop up, and we are constantly busy and constantly tired.

In an effort to keep up with everything, I bought this white board from Walmart last year.  The idea is for us to sit down on Sunday, look at our calendars for the week, and put everything down on this calendar, including the menu.

 

When we actually do it, the week goes so much better. However, I didn't write in this week's until this morning!  What is not on there right now is baseball.  We haven't received any information on fall ball yet, but most likely Matt will be staying after school most days this week.  If they are not having an official practice, he and a couple of teammates may be staying to do some things on their own.

I've discovered that things also run better when I can make up a menu for the whole month.  I've tried other ways, but I'm getting back to the monthly one.  It takes me a little bit longer in the beginning, but makes grocery shopping and weekly planning run so much smoother.

You can print off a monthly calendar from several different places, but this one is from thefamilyhomestead.com.

 

No matter how much I plan, something comes up unexpectedly.  So, I just have to be flexible and go with the flow as much as possible.

And, regardless of my expectations, I simply cannot do it all.  In order to do all the other stuff, I have to let go of some things.  Typically, that is the cleaning and the cooking and the exercising.

So, my goal with this new school year is to try to at least do better with cooking so that we are not eating out so much.  I'm really tired of giving McDonald's my money. (Not to mention my expanding waistline!)

Living thru faith,

Misty