Time usage Tuesday! A day for planning. Trim healthy mama meal plans and my basic weekly schedule.
A lot of women ask me how I stay so organized with my time, and how I keep from feeling scattered, so I thought I would draw it out for you. My mother can tell you that I was not born organized but had to study many experts such as the Flylady and read books such as The One Thing, 7 habits of highly effective people, and A Woman After God's Own Heart.
Basic weekly schedule. The tasks I do each day of the week are in bold.
Tuesday is time usage day/desk day. I pray for my husbands and my time management and I take time to work on our calendar, order anything we need online and pay bills. I also turn on a timer for 15 minutes and file our receipts and do data entry in preparation for our taxes.
Wednesday is work habit day. I pray for our work that it would be as unto the Lord and not unto men. That we would do our best in our secular jobs and that we would have a "marketplace ministry". This is the day I ask myself if there is anything important that I have been putting off. You know it's important if it matters 5 years from now. Are there important phonecalls I need to make? A project for work with a deadline looming? I pray for the courage to stop procrastinating and I get it done! It feels great to mark these things off my to-do list! This is also the day I clean out the car and lead a midweek service at a nursing home and teach music lessons in our home.
Thursday Thought Life/errand day! I pray for our thought life to be dwelling on the lovely and never dwelling on our mistakes or the mistakes of others. I try to schedule all errands for Thursday such as dentist appointments, chiropractic appointments etc. If no errands need to be run I get out if the house to make an impact and brighten someone's day. The spartan and I are currently taking Dave Ramsey's financial peace university on Thursday nights and then having our weekly planning meeting/date night afterwards to sync our calendars, budget, bill pay and communicate any pressing matters.
Friday family day! We do something fun or relax as a family. We rarely take appointments or answer the phone on Friday. I take time to pray for friends and family.
Saturday sexuality day! Yep. You read that right. Saturdays I take time to pray for our sex life and check in about how that is going. It's a vital part of marriage and deserves prayer. While the Spartan is at work on Saturdays and the Heiress is slumbering I often meet with one of the women I am mentoring. With how many dragons the Spartan is slaying during this season of life, I do not make plans with just my girlfriends unless the Mighty Warrior is working.
Sunday- Spiritual Walk Sunday is the day I go to church. I pray on the way to church for the service to be led by God and for me to play skillfully unto the Lord. I pray for my spiritual walk with Christ. This is not a restful day for me because I help lead the service for a retirement facility. I'm an extreme introvert so Sunday leaves me pleasantly fatigued. After the heiress has her nap, we go grocery shopping and I do some food prep.
Monday missionaries and mental health. On Mondays I pray for my mental/emotional health as a wife and mother and I pray for missionaries such as Sayid. I help the house recover from the weekend by having a Weekly Cleanup Hour or as Flylady so lovingly calls it- weekly home blessing hour. I have to clean up the mess because it's another evening that I teach music lessons in our home.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. There is a lot of grace in this basic weekly schedule and I follow it with a lot of flexibility. For instance, Sunday I was exhausted and skipped the grocery shopping/meal prep and I ended up prepping some meals on Monday from what was left in the pantry. Once in a while we will be too exhausted to have our planning meeting Thursday night so we will do it Friday morning. As long as we get the important stuff done on a weekly basis that is all that matters. Remember- if it won't matter five years from now, it doesn't matter! Reading to the heiress today WILL matter five years from now because otherwise she won't learn to read. Although we should keep the house clean enough, five years from now, no one will know if you let the dishes pile for one night. Instead of beating yourself up over the dust on the coffee table, write "JOY" in the dust and then go play with your kiddos! (And then dust tomorrow because that can get seriously gross after a while and not to mention, some people have allergies;)
Meal Plans
I had to get creative with what we had left in the pantry because instead of going to the store on Sunday, I went to bed early! I follow the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle. If you don't know what that is check out their Facebook page and buy the book! I've been able to trim the last few pesky pregnancy pounds while eating amazing carbs and fats and not restricting my calories!
Meals for this week- I mix and match and repeat favorites as cravings demand but the basic plan helps!
Breakfast-
1. Fatstripping frappa (fp) add frozen
spinach plus buttered coffee (s)*
2. Oatmeal, yogurt and energy drink
Bar (e)*
3. Meal shake mocha (e)
4. Granola with cream (co)*
1. cake in a mug (s)
2. Chicken,spinach, cream cheese casserole (s)
3. Chicken and beans (e)
4. Chicken sandwich (crossover)
Dinner-
1. Steak and mashed faux-tato (cauliflower) (s)
2. Spaghetti squash with meatball spaghetti sauce (s)
3. Spaghetti squash "hash browns" and eggs (s)
4. Chicken stir fry (s)
5. Italian Chicken sandwiches (co)
6. Leftovers
7. Dinner out
*S-satisfying
E- energizing
Co- crossover
Fp- fuel pull
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