Every Monday is a New Beginning

Posted on October 22, 2007 
Filed Under Inspiration, Organization / Time Management

I love Monday– it’s my favorite day of the week!

From the pinnacle of Monday morning, there stretches before me a string of four perfect days at home. From now until Friday, I’m able to focus on home and to be with my family, doing the ordinary tasks of home life– setting the house in order, working on home and garden projects, making meals to nourish my loved ones, writing to communicate with others. This is my life, and I love it.

It’s not an accident that I enjoy four unblemished days each week. It began years ago when our children were small and I discovered that life went more smoothly when we organized our time. The most important things in our lives happened at home, so we made it a point to designate only one day of the week for errands. This left four uncluttered days for living, one day of the weekend for fellowship, and one day of the weekend for projects or family pursuits.

Time management makes life so much easier. Instead of a series of days broken and fragmented by disorganized errands, home days have a pleasant rhythm and routine that ensures that there’s a time for everything. Errand day begins with a list, and items are checked off one by one.

There was great wisdom in our grandmother’s weekly routine. It often looked something like this:

My own grandmother was amazingly organized in her homemaking tasks. Our home was always sparkling clean, but what I remember most was that every day after lunch she had time for a little nap, some handwork, a bit of reading, and time outside. Her time had been so well organized that she was never rushed or untidy.

If you’re struggling with days that feel fragmented, try setting aside only one day a week for errands. Then create weekly routines that will help you feel more organized and less stressed. We used to do school in the morning, and home tasks in the afternoon, and family time in the evening, and that is a simple routine that still works.

I’ll revisit this topic again, as I think it’s critical if you want to make time for things that matter. But now, it’s almost 2:00 p.m., and time for my daily visit with my grandmother. If you’d like to read more about planning and organizing, be sure to look at the reviews of organizational books in previous posts.

Monday is beautiful!

*If you haven’t checked out the benefit sale of Lynda Coats’ new phonics program (see my last post), today is the last day. Don’t miss it!

*November 2, 2007- There will be a Beat-the-Clock SAT Prep Essay Workshop in Williamsburg, VA. Visit http://www.EssayWorkshop.com for details.

Comments

3 Responses to “Every Monday is a New Beginning”

  1. Pat R. on October 25th, 2007 7:08 am

    What a blessing to read this small but very significant article. I’ve been inspired by your ‘PLAN’.

    I’ve homeschooled 4 children for the past 15 years and am currently finishing up with my youngest daughter who is 17 yrs old. I have been finding myself out of the house more since we began school this year and struggling with either no direction or aimlessly wandering throughout my day. The bottom line is no productivity because I don’t have a PLAN of my own — for just me!

    I’ve always had a plan that involved everyone else. Well now, everyone else is away at work during the day or moved into their own home, etc. So I have a lot of extra time to be more productive.

    Thank you for inspiring me with a PLAN to stay home and be productive.

    I’ve enjoyed reading so many of your posts, thanks so much for sharing them!

    Pat R.
    Texas

  2. Janice Campbell on November 1st, 2007 5:35 am

    Thank you for stopping by, Pat. I think you’ll enjoy creating your own plan– it’s a funny feeling to have big portions of your days back, and it’s hard to know what to do! The delightful part is that when you get into a nice routine, everything moves more smoothly, and you can be amazingly productive. Your family will be impressed;-).

  3. Kimmie on November 24th, 2007 7:34 pm

    Oh, I love this, I am a homebody and you have to drag me out of here. Usually the house is tidy, though I find now that we have added 3 little ones (through a sibling adoption)…that piles here and there tend to stack up. (sigh) I am trying to enjoy them all, trying to share our life (hopefully to the Glory of God) and enjoy all that God has for me (us) for today.

    thanks for sharing this post…it made be breath deep and be thankful for home.

    Kimmie
    mama to 6
    one homemade and 5 adopted

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