Budgeting Time

 Something that my husband said today was so profound I have to share it with all of you.  He said, "We have been budgeting our finances and are making some much needed changes in that area of our lives but what about budgeting our time?".  Wow.  This statement rocks my world.  We are a family of 5, soon to be 7.  (adoption)  We really need to be careful we spend time doing the right things.  If you know anything about me you know that I homeschool my girls.  If you've ever been to my house you'll know that it's a huge part of what we do here.  When you walk in the front door, there is the schoolroom.  The biggest room in the house.  I LOVE it!  But even though we've made the decision to homeschool (which causes me to be with them all day) am I budgeting my time like I should?  I don't purposely budget my time so that I am not just teaching them but actually spending great quality time with them.  I teach them and lead them but do I take time to listen to their hopes and dreams and their view points on different situations.  If I did I could probably learn a lot from them.

I feel like we are such a FAMILY oriented family.  We homeschool and most of the stuff we do outside of the home is as a family, but our time is still not BUDGETED EFFICIENTLY.  I want to share with you some of the things that we want to purposely start to pursue from now on in our lives...  (These are just some of the things that we are going to do, please don't feel like you have to copy the list exactly in your family.  Find out what works for your family, the idea is to just live purposely and budget your time so that the most important things in life aren't left out.)

1.  More praise and worship.  Worship is so much more than just the songs we sing but right now that is what I'm talking about. We want to worship more as a family.  Whenever your 7 year old is complaining that we don't worship and pray as a family enough then you know that maybe it is lacking a little in your life.

2.  Playing games as a family.  Board games, PlayStation games, card games, Hide and Seek, etc.  Not super spirtitual but something that is necessary in our house because it shows our girls that we value them and that we want to be around them.

3.  More quality time with the love of my life.  Less movies at night after the kids go to bed.  Okay, so most of the time the kids go to bed and that's relax time so on goes a movie or TV show and off goes my brain.  This is okay, but I know that Micah and I could get to know each other better if this wasn't what happened every night.  It's good sometimes, not always.

4.  Discipline differently and explain things.  Take time to explain to my girls what they did wrong and relate it to something they'll need to know that information for outside of our house.  I don't know how many times I just want my girls to be obedient so I tell them to do something and they ask why and I say because this is just how it is.  When I am more patient and gentle with them and I teach them and show them scripturally why they need to remember this specific thing, it sticks and they'll hopefully want to do it for life, instead of JUST to please Mama while they live here.  Also instead of just putting them in timeout, actually giving them a creative consequence that fits what they've done.  Again this takes more time to do but if I know that I won't budge when I'm teaching my girls these life lessons then I know I'll have time for it.

5.  Get relax time.  This is one that I've implemented for our family (those of us that don't go out of the house to a job) since we started homeschooling.  Every day that we are not out and about (doing homeschool activities or the like) we have an hour or more of quiet time a day.  Everyone goes to a room and is quiet and reading.  Natalie (5 years old) reads, Samara (7 years old) has to read 1 chapter in her assigned book during this time and Alyssa (9 years old) has to read 2.  After they do that they can continue to read, sleep, do a craft (loom loops, cross stitch, crochet, etc.), or just sit and stare at the wall, as long as they do it quietly.  For me this is time to pray, read the Word, read a good book, do a Bible study, sleep, stare off into space, write a blog, etc.  This time is not a time to get my to do list done or the chores.  It's time for me to get some rest as well.  I have had so much success with this time that it has been unreal.

One of the things that I find so crucial in our lives is to not compare ourselves to other families.  Ask God to show you what will work for your family.  Take advice from people and if it works great and if not that's okay too.  Every family is different.  I tried comparing my mothering skills to a friend of mine but she is task oriented and go, go, go all the time.  I am not!  I am scatter brained, somewhat task oriented, but I love to sit in silence for a little while every day, I don't like to be go, go, go all of the time.  So I took some advice from another friend of mine and that's when number 5 on my list started happening and I've found that when I do this I am much more happy and I'm able to tackle the day with new vigor after my rest.  Also, knowing that rest time is coming motivates me to get done what needs to get done before rest time.

I didn't mean to type so much!  Oh well, I can now look back on this later and see if I'm meeting some of the goals I have laid out for myself.  Happy BUDGETING!!!