My Whole Life Makeover

I've mentioned before that if there is a difficult way to do things I'm sure to find it, and that statement is true in so many ways. Many times I feel frustrated and not in control of my life because much of what I've done in the past has been done by accident...what I mean is that many times I don't actually have a plan and so I don't know where I'm going until I arrive and then wonder, "Hmmm...how did this happen?"

So anyway, I've decided a "Whole Life Makeover" is in order. I am going to be doing a few things on purpose from now on! Every 3 or 4 weeks or so I've decided to make a couple of changes in my life and the way I do things and see what happens.

About 3 weeks ago I gave myself a very simple morning routine to follow.

Before you do anything else you must do this....
Pray like you believe!
Clean off the table.
Assign chores.
Fix and serve breakfast.
Eat and take meds.
Boys do their chores while I...
Clean dishes and bathroom.
Declutter living room.

I also gave my boys a decent bedtime. I'm sorry to say that I never realized how important this is. My kids used to go to bed around 10 pm (when I was so tired that I had to go too!), now they are in bed at 8 pm. It's amazing! And because of this they wake up nice and sweet not grumpy and lazy.

So far these changes have really turned my day around and have been fairly easy to accomplish so I added two more to the mix 2 days ago.

Before you blog or check email you must do this....
Check bank accounts and work on budget.

Really this only takes a minute or 2 if done daily but when you put it off for 2 weeks like I used to it's very overwhelming.


Before you go to bed you must do this...
stack the dishes (realistically I just know that they are not going to get done each night yet)
sweep the kitchen floor
get all laundry out of the bedroom
start a load
Declutter in bedroom

These have also been easy to implement so far. These things sound so easy and obvious to some but I really struggle with just keeping up with the daily sometimes.

I've also given myself a new motto for the year. Last year my motto was "Where I fail, God's grace will succeed." I needed that motto because I needed to say it over and over until I believed it, and now I do. But looking back I see that it not only allowed but also somewhat encouraged me to focus almost entirely on my failures. So now my new motto is this...

Every new day is a new opportunity for God to work in my life.
Every new day is a new opportunity to experience victory, peace and joy.