Mid-Year Renew

Tonight I am feeling empowered.  I think it is time to get my life back in order again (funny that it seems like no matter how many times I "organize" anything it always falls back into some sort of disarray - must be an original sin defect :)  Think of this as a mid-year-renew of my New Year Resolutions (which I did not make this year - oops!)  So without further ado, here are five things I am planning to put back into my daily schedule.

1) Spending 5 minutes a day doing spiritual reading.

I have done spiritual reading in the past but lately it seems to have gotten put on the back burner and I know it is important (along with reading Scripture which I am still doing).

2) Read the kids at least 5 books a day.

I always read to my kids!!  At least I think I do. . . just in case I am not reading to them as much as I think, I'm going to start counting the books to make sure I'm not missing this important aspect of life - especially with the little ones, but I think the older ones appreciate it, too.

3) Spend 5 minutes writing Scripture verses.

This is a silly thing that makes me happy.  When I read Scripture, I often mark in my bible or write down in a notebook verses that I like or find helpful.  I am planning to have my kids write these bible verses as handwriting for next year, so I'm going to spend 5 minutes each day writing the verses on notecards.  Then next school year I'll have the older kids each grab a notecard and copy it into their handwriting notebook.  I'll probably have Rebekah do hers in cursive.

4) Do 5 stretches each day.

I have learned a ton of stretches as part of the restorative exercise I have been studying and practicing, but I've kind-of put stretching on the back burner lately and it is important to keep up my flexibility and work toward more, so I'm going to start with my favorite five and then maybe branch out as the month goes on - sticking with those that seem to help the most.

5) Set a timer for 5 minutes each time I open up facebook and SHUTTING FACEBOOK when the timer goes off.

I am not planning to restrict my facebook to a set amount of time.  I know I spend too much time there but I cannot simply go cold turkey from it as it is my social center (especially since I do not have a cell phone to text with) and my constant garage sale (I have several open swap ads at the moment).  However, I CAN limit the amount of time I spend checking it in a sitting.  And I think this might be especially helpful as I often get on facebook with a specific purpose and then get distracted and pull myself out a half hour later - if I'm lucky!  By setting a timer I am hopeful that I will be able to stay on track better.

And with all that time I manage to keep myself off of facebook I can spend doing these other things I listed above.  Win win!!

If you made it this far, you deserve some pictures.  So enjoy:

Visiting the museum.

Museum CRAZY!!

Daddy with Zipporah