Balance and Discipline -- September 16, 2011

Good morning!  I hope this has been a good week for y'all!

As usual, it's been busy around here.  I've been doing fairly well keeping up with household chores.  I'm trying to do more at night, so that when I get up in the morning, I have less that I have to do.

I've been thinking lately about Shortcuts.  I think, sometimes, it is perfectly ok to use shortcuts when the time saved outweighs the importance of the perfectionism involved.  For example, I have two dishtubs that I use to store my dishcloths in.  One contains the smaller ones that I use to handwash dishes, clean off countertops, and give to Gracie to clean up her several-times-daily little messes.  (Yes, I make her wipe up her spills, unless it's a huge spill and she is overwhelmed.  Like yesterday, I gave her a small bottle of milk leftover from lunch at Wendy's.  She spilled just about the whole thing on the floor, and started crying.  That in itself is unusual; usually, she says, "uh-oh!")  Anyway, where was I?  Oh, yes, the other dishtub has the larger dishtowels that I use to dry off dishes and dry off my hands.  Once upon a time, I would fold all of these before putting them in the dishtubs.  Since I keep them on the bottom shelf of my pantry, they aren't really visible to the public.  I finally figured out I was wasting time by doing this, and now, I just throw them in there.  Just to let you in on a little OCD tendency of mine, I like to rotate things so that they are evenly used.  I'll put just-cleaned items in the back, so that they are used after the ones that were cleaned at an earlier time.  Now, I just try not to think about that.  LOL!

In the Teaching and Training area, I made a little hand-held set of routine cards for Gracie.  One is the Good Morning Routine and the other one is the Night-Night Time Routine.  She hasn't shown much interest in them yet, so I may have to wait until she is a little older.  I will have a post for these routine cards next week.

In the Hobbies department, my husband bought me an early Christmas present:  a new dSLR camera!  (Nikon D7000 with 18-105 mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens plus 50 mm f/1.8 lens)  I have been wanting one for quite some time.  Robert got it early for me, so that I can practice and be able to take Christmas photos (for my Christmas cards) with them.  It's been fun learning how to use it, but I definitely have a lot of learning left to do!  I love mental challenges, and this one stretches me both mentally and creatively.

Organizing has been put on the back burner for a while.  I mean, big organizing, like all the stuff in our shed.  I don't know when our garage will be finished (all that's left is the mudding and painting of the inside).  We're waiting on the guy we asked to do it to have some free time.  I can't wait, because I'm anxious to go through all our boxes and get ready for a garage sale plus be able to use some of our things that have been boxed up.

I'm really enjoying listening to the Bible in the car.  I listen to the CDs with Alexander Scourby reading the Bible, and I'm really enjoying how he reads It.  I'm making good progress towards catching up on my Bible-in-a-year plan.

It seems like I always have a lot going on, and with a toddler, there's that much more going on!  Sometimes trying to keep up and maintain a balance can get somewhat overwhelming.  I see all that I need to do and want to do and have to make priority choices.  I'm trying to take a good look at things that can be, or should be, cut out.  I would love to be able to browse Pinterest for new ideas, but realistically, when am I ever going to have the time to implement those ideas?  I've decided to "pin" things as I come across them on websites and save the browsing when I truly have the time to do it without it negatively affecting anything else, perhaps during bouts of insomnia.  I have also found a way to cut down on Facebook time.  I created a list of people and pages called "Favorites" and I designated certain people in that group.  When I am pressed for time and/or when I don't feel like reading through the non-favorites' drama, I tell Facebook to only show the posts from my Favorites.  It really helps to cut down the time.  I like keeping up with people too much to totally get rid of Facebook.

That's what it's like around here.  How about you?  How are you doing maintaining balance and discipline in your life?  Link up with the Linky Thingie below.