My Fall To-Be List

This is the first fall post-college that I'm not nesting my home for new children or nesting a classroom for new students.  It should feel strange, but I must say, I am a little excited about it.  I will miss teaching so much- the spilling of my life and my life's love into other students, the getting out of the house on a regular basis, the excuse to put on a skirt and look pretty and brush my teeth and put on mascara, the coming home in the afternoon to my children napping and my house being cleaned by my rockstar baby sitter..it will be missed.  (I'm still planning on brushing my teeth, I hope.)  It's wonderful and mysterious how God takes a desire and changes it into something new.  Fall is the perfect time for it, because, for me, it is and has always been my "new year".

Here's my game plan for the coming school year.  I've decided I need two things to be successful:

1.  A plan
2.  Accountability

I figure in my limited access to people taller than 3 feet, my accountability will be blogging...so bear with me, and please, please, encourage me, pray for me, challenge yourself along with me.  I do so need it.  My default is slughood....literally wasting my time away on the couch while my house is a mess, and dinner is not planned, and the children are plugged into Little Mermaid for the 147th time.  I am lazy, I admit it.  I don't naturally love to clean, although having a clean house is necessary for sanity for me, which is why I can get depressed and resentful of my husband when he gets to leave the house everyday and I don't.  Which is why having a messy house is bad for my marriage.       

So in addition to trying to keep my house cleaner,  this is my plan...

1.  I started doing the Couch to 5K exercise routine.  I am not a runner, nor have I ever been.  But the baby weight did not magically disappear as I was hoping, so I find myself actually having to buckle down and do something about it.  The free app + an excuse to buy new running shoes and new music + being able to take a break from being in the house are all very appealing to me. 

2.  I want to have a bed time routine.  In bed (not sleep, but up in bed) by 9:30 so I can be up by 6:00.  (I have become a reader, and I love it, and I always love when I get to read before bed.)  I have this terrible habit of wasting time on Pinterest until the wee hours of the evening and then wondering why the next day I am so exhausted.  No more.  There is no t.v. show that is good enough that it will steal my energy away from being a good mom.  I was reading some great tips on moneysavingmom about how to make the most of your mornings, and she challenged her readers with making a before-bedtime routine, and making a list of must-do's before going to bed.  Mine are:
     
1.  No dishes in the sink
2.  All toys picked up
3.  Laundry in washer on delay start (that way all I have to do is throw it in the dryer in the morning, and I'll be able to fold it after breakfast).....because my plan is 1 load a day and to never be burried in dirty clothes.
4.  Juice cups filled and in the fridge.  (Nothing starts the morning off badly for me more than the girls crying for cups, and me realizing there are no clean cups.... or no cups at all.  Seriously...where do they all go?!?!)
5.  Clothes laid out for the girls.  Having two pairs of matching socks is going to highly alleviate dressing-stress.   

3.  I have a friend who is really good about building into relationships, and I think I've tapped into one of her secrets.  She is what I call "a calendar person."  Whenever I talk to her, the conversation never ends with, "We should hang out sometime."  It always ends with, "Ok...lets get out the calendar and pick a day."  We don't get caught up in "my house or yours, plans for the day, who's making lunch," because by the end of the conversation, both of us usually have to go quickly.  What matters is: the day is set aside.  The details come later.

I want to be a calendar person-  A person with a plan for seeing people.  I don't naturally come by this.  I'm not an initiator.  I attend to avoid people because it means my house has to be clean, and that stresses me out.  That's silly.  Friends do not like me for my clean house.  In fact, there is nothing more liberating that going over to someone's house and it not being clean.  The fore-mentioned friend actually has a "don't clean your house before I come over" policy, and I love her for it, and I see her more often because of it.

So call me, friends. We'll get out our calendars together and make a plan, and I won't care about your house if you don't care about mine.  

4.  I want to be a better meal planner.  No more 4:30 scramble.  It is my worst and most stressful part of the day with screaming children serenading me, which turns out is not optimal for decision making.     

5.  And finally, I have an idea for a "curriculum" for my littles, and for me too, actually.  I am pumped, and I mean over-the-moon excited about it.  I still have to flesh out some details, so I'll save that for another post, but its coming soon.    

So during this new fall....  
I want to be a better and more attentive and creative mommy.
I want be a better cleaner and fill my home with the peace that a clean home brings.
I want to be a person who takes the time to stay healthy.
I want to be a better student of the Word, so I can speak truth more into the lives of my littles.
I want to be a good friend.

I just want to find balance.  Anyone with me?   

What is on your fall to-do, or to-be list?