Maximize your Mornings Challenge

Over at Inspired to Action the blog author Kat and her co-leader are encouraging women, especially busy moms, to get back in touch with the quiet early hours of the day, starting with time spent knowing and praying to God as well as taking care of ourselves first (exercise, breakfast, getting dressed and ready for the day) before we serve and take care of the rest of our troop and their daily needs. I know that I have in the past been a very good morning routine keeper. I would even have everyone's breakfast and hubby's lunch ready by the time they woke up. I have been on again and off again, but since my bout with morning sickness, and even before that I have NOT been waking up early enough in the mornings. And it shows. It really does. When I was waking up early for prayer and reading the Bible it did make a difference. I am not trying to be cheesy, just stating an actual fact. I usually start too big so I need to readjust a bit. I want to start with my quiet time, waking up 30 minutes earlier to do so and have my cup of tea before Jman, my first riser and followed closely by Liv wake up. First thing is to get my alarm set. I don't like alarms for I have a great biological clock. However, even though I do tend to wake up around 6 am (mostly b/c hubby has just gotten back from delivering papers!) I let myself go back to sleep! Not very disciplined uh? So I must make friends with the alarm clock.
 But my end goal will be to be also exercising, doing some stretching/yoga as well as hopefully walking. Finally I want to have had breakfast and hub's take-to-work lunch done as well as breakfast for all ready so that we will NOT have morning cartoons!! I might need to use tv (PBS/Qubo channel) from time to time, but I really want to reduce the time kids watch T.V. There are plenty of other times I need it so I hope to eliminate mornings. It will be hard for them because this is our routine now (mom turns on tv for Jman and Liv while she prepares their breakfast and hubby's lunch. Finally, with lots of interruptions she sits down an HOUR later to her breakfast, starving, and keeps the kids watching TV so she can have some time to herself online, writing emails, reading the news, planning her day, etc.)

 I think it will work best if I do the things I need to for myself FIRST. I will be a less grumpy person in the morning, giving a great boost to my busy day.

 You can join the challenge too. They actually have accountability partners (called captains) through twitter. I don't tweet (enough distractions with email, blogs and facebook for me right now, maybe when I am finally in a good routine and better with my time!). They also have a link on facebook so you can follow it there. Of course just go to the website, start following Inspired to Action so you can download for FREE her Maximize Your Mornings E-book (if you are like me and are wondering : how long is this e-book? Not long. It printed a total of 32 pages.)

Happy Mornings to me and to you then!

Practical and Inspirational ideas for the New Year from other bloggers

  I was reading different blogs recently (a new non-written resolution of mine, to keep up with blogs I like) and I discovered a few great pearls of wisdom about what is important about making resolutions.

Practical: 

On The Simple Mom's blog post on NY's resolutions, she discusses about the importance of creating habits and how much more effective that is than just making a whole entire resolution and hoping it will come to pass by the end of the year. The way to create lasting habits is to start with one small step at a time. I should know that, but an eager 'eater' like myself, I tend to bite off more than I can chew. My first habit change should be choosing smaller bites, and not just when it comes to food. I am not sure how I will start with this, but I am going to try for the next few weeks to focus on one thing that I want to do, and make sure I take small steps. For example, even though this is definitely not a top priority, this coming week I have decided to just let myself get my Homemaking Notebook in order. I'll share more about this and all the free printables and ideas about creating one I found online. All the information about them was a good thing as well as not so good, because now how do I simplify and create what I need from all those ideas? Well, I'll let you know how I've worked it out later on! My main challenge will be to NOT waste time finding the 'perfect' little design to print for my cover!

Inspirational:

 Another great thought comes from this mom at Inspired to Action who is actually learning about 'getting things done' from her seven year old, who read the entire Bible in less than a year. I am so impressed as well as so utterly challenged and convicted! How did she do it? Simply by doing it, one page at a time, anytime she could (choosing to read the Bible in her free time over other things). The main thing that hit me is that she didn't talk about wanting to do it. She just started doing it. It was something just for her to think about and not to talk about with others (wanting to have something to 'show' like I might have done). I have a cousin as well as a sister who seem to get things done all the time, finishing what they have started. I have always thought that they have a gift. Perhaps it's also because they just don't waste time talking about things and just do them!Perhaps if I would follow that example and not blog about all I want to do....