The Simple Life
I know I’ve written before about trying not to do my housework while my boys are awake. I really strive to spend as much quality time with them as possible while they’re awake. However, I have new goals for February…even though there are still six days left in January. :) I’ve been so convicted lately about how much time is completely wasted in my day. If Owen is napping and the boys are watching a movie, I can easily spend two or three completely mindless hours in front of the computer. I love to read and I also love to journal about what God is doing in my life and the life of my family, but I rarely make time to do those things. I love reading parenting, homeschooling, and marriage books; constantly striving to do better at all of these things, but I don’t have time to read. I heard a statistic over the weekend that stated, most americans have FIVE hours of screen time a day. That includes video games, computer, and television. That is sickening…unless you are paid to stare at the computer…like my husband. :) Think of all the things you could be doing if you just cut that time in half?! Although it seems like a LOT, it is probably accurate for me. I don’t watch TV during the day, but I do spend a lot of time at the computer in the afternoon and my husband and I can easily watch two or three hours of TV at night after the boys go down.
I’m saying all of this because I want to do better. I want to spend more time in the early morning preparing my house for the day. I would like breakfast to be made when my boys wake up, I’d like to already have lunch and dinner on my mind at 8am so I’m not scrambling at noon and 5pm. I’d love to do “old-fashioned” things like make our own bread, sew some of our clothes (at least for the kids), and have a vegetable garden in my backyard. I would have plenty of time to do these things if I will simply cut out some wasteful items in my day. In a few months, those five hours that used to be screen time could very well save my life. We will have two to three foster children in our home, in addition to our own three children. There will be extra laundry to do, extra food to be cooked, more bodies to bathe, more hearts to be trained, and probably a few less hours in the day. I want to be prepared. It is a proven fact in my life that when you are prepared, you are far less likely to fail.
And finally, I want to laugh more. There are so many opportunities to laugh in my day. I want to say “NO” less often, and overlook the little things that I allow to stress me out. Do you know that stress is the number one factor in aging and health ailments? Stress affects your entire well being. I once heard this phrase: “Life is a big playground…Adults have just forgotten how to play.” I want to be a kid at heart and enjoy life to the fullest…while still being orderly and organized. I think a balance of the two is totally achievable…and I’m going for it!
~audrey