changing your list up-

Making time for the important things, the things not so important but must be done, like foul laundry and the things that make your life worth living. Do you find yourself so busy but never really feeling like you've got much accomplished? Well, I do!

I’m a “list” kind of a gal. The problem is, like many women, I fill that paper up with so many things that I need 2 packs of Bic and a 3 ring binder and to hold all of my- think I must accomplish in one day, kind of list.

So why do we do this to ourselves? Seriously, I don’t sit on a pedestal with folks worshiping me. I don’t have a reputation to uphold on the “how clean are your floors & how shiny is your dog contest”.  But I find myself day-in, day-out wasting all this time on making sure everything is just so-so and at the end of a very long day, I’m tired, okay I’m absolutely exhausted. I feel overwhelmed and unsuccessful because I didn’t get that fridge cleaned out (it is bad-things are growing), forgot Debbie’s food at the store, see that awful smear on the mirror, where someone decided to purge their pores and I’ve been meaning to Windex it for 3 days. Doesn’t it seem like when you put all these things into perspective how very un-important they are? Somehow we let these very un-important task that although are necessary at times come in and invade our lives because of some pedestal we’ve put ourselves on. These tasks give us nothing in return but stress and worry. We get side tracked with the “what I’m supposed to be” and the, “what everyone thinks” attitude that really super important things tend to get pushed to the very back of our lives. When we put the majority of our energy into certain things, those are the things that will become important. Even if that’s not our goal- it happens-and often we are unaware that we’ve allowed very useless things to become our focus. Isn’t there a verse for that, Matt 6:21 look it up? It’s true.

 I find myself often complaining, some in my household would call this nagging. I’m going to stick with complaining, when folk in our home are just living in their house. You know what I mean, as the stern voice says, “who’s dishes are these, please go put your shoes up, I thought you cleaned up the cat litter, weren’t you supposed to get your things out of the car, and I could keep going on and on for days. It wears you down and trips me out on most weeks.

We’ve lost our focus.

Getting the focus back-make a list. I encourage you tonight, as your day is winding down to make a list of all the things you did today. Then look at the list and put a check next to the things that mattered, really mattered. WOW!

In the morning make a new list. Start a new day.

There are certainly things that are not on my list that I must accomplish, such as work (I have a couple of houses I clean for extra spending money). The things I must do. Today it’s laundry. I realized that I don’t want to spend my time doing laundry all day just to be annoyed and highly frustrated tomorrow when there’s more. So, I will do one load. Store-it’s a, I can’t wait any longer, Debbie’s hungry sort of the thing. Play time with Cole for 30 minutes, Have a game night with the family. -important

This is what I’m putting on my pedestal for today and only this. It will be a success. I will not be overwhelmed. If something better comes along and the one load of laundry doesn’t get completed can some please call the laundry police? We will need underwear. Wait I can just buy some at the store.

One load of laundry.

-mandy