Friday, May 28, 2010

Keeping it Real

I was putting laundry away the other day, when the thought occurred to me that people might think that I actually do all of the things that I write about in my posts.  I don't usually like to write about all my shortcomings because that wouldn't be very uplifting to others, or pleasant for me to expose on the internet, but I do like to be honest in what I portray so I thought I better write a "reality check" post for those of you whom I may have deceived :-)

Well, first of all, I wrote my "Master Inspire Plan" on Saturday.  It is now Friday and I have done ZERO of the "Weekly" inspiring things that I wanted to do with my free time.  Did I set an unrealistic goal for myself?  I don't think so.  Well, maybe - I might have to cut "Cuddle Time" in half by alternating it - one day the girls and the next day the boys, but really I think I just waste too much time.

For some reason, it takes my children an hour to eat a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, so our schedule is often off to a late start.  Okay, sometimes it is my fault that we start a little late if I've been working on a blog post.  They take me a little longer that you would think.  We usually don't get done with our work and get to eating lunch until after 1.  We are supposed to have dinner prepared by the time "family work" is over, but about half the time I end up fixing it myself at dinner time because our family work was taking too long in the morning.  The kids are doing great, but they are still working on not getting distracted!

I "check my e-mails" too often.  To be honest, I spend more time (if you don't count the time I'm reading to the children) on the computer than I do reading my books (*gulp* that was a hard one for me to admit).

I still have too much stuff.  Things are a lot better, but our "project room" is a mess, so I close the door and let no one in and wait for a time when I think I can actually get rid of all the crafty-stuff I have in there.

I haven't practiced the piano in months (no, not even the 10 minutes per day that I'm shooting for).

I love to snack on bread with honey when I don't think anyone is looking.  Sometimes I hide chocolate in secret places in the pantry.

I still have a small tub of plastic baby toys.

My kids will talk me into letting them have loose paper sometimes, as I write this there are two paper airplanes sitting on the side table next to me.  I know it's no great crime, but considering what I've written on the subject - it makes me a bit uneasy...

I could go on and on I'm sure, but that is all the shortcomings I care to think of right now.  You get the picture.

Now that I have that off my chest - I should probably add that I am really, really happy with how things are going.  We are really having a great time with all of our attempts at this ideal I have in my head.  We are making progress and, best of all, we are doing it together.

I know what I need to work on (right now it's staying off the computer during the day, in case you were wondering.  I even asked my hubby to get rid of our high-speed internet and just get dial-up so I wouldn't be so tempted to check my e-mails whenever I nurse the baby or when I happen to be getting something upstairs and I walk by the computer room.  He didn't like the idea though, so I am left to exercising self-discipline.  Isn't that so mean of him?!) and once I get that down, I'll move on to the next challenge.   It's actually nice that I have so many faults because I like a good challenge and I won't be running out of them anytime soon!

Another thing I want to start working on is having our free time outside in the mountains, inspired by Charlotte Mason and this post from my friend Lara.  I'll still keep trying to pursue my "Master Inspire Plan", but there is no reason why I can't just take my nature book with me and "Have a drawing lesson" by drawing something outside, or read a chapter of a math classic as I sit on a fold-out camping chair, etc.  Maybe I can teach my baby to sleep in a play pen outside during his nap so we can spend all of our day outside after we work... or maybe this is wishful thinking and I'll just have to go out for a couple of hours after his nap ;-)

By the way, I highly recommend reading this post about separating yourself and your family from worldliness.  It is great food for thought.

7 comments:

  1. Great thoughts Karen! I'm really working hard on shutting off my headgates now. It's painful and I don't like it (pout), like my computer time.

    You are doing great with your goals and you are an inspiration to me.

    Good luck with everything. : )

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  2. Karen, I have enjoyed reading your blog and find it helpful and inspirational and I have to say I'm happy to read that what you write is also inspirational for you, too, and not truly as you do it. I know I need a lot of work with self-discipline and it is good to know that there are others with lots of great ideas that also struggle with actually getting the routines going. I'm still far behind you but enjoying the journey!

    And I loved yesterday's post about your master plan. It is great to have the vision!

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  3. Well it's good to know that you are human. Some of us were beginning to wonder if you were SUPER Mama. :) We all have our weakness and shortcomings. I found yours funny because I share some. I enjoyed the "real-ness"

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  4. Ha ha! Thank goodness - I was beginning to think I was probably too far behind to even have hopes of improving. This post is still just as inspirational as all your other ones, though - it shows that maybe there is hope for even us regular people to make some of the changes you've made.

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  5. Staying away from the computer is a problem I have as well.

    I know there is some kind of software that will lock you out of certain programs for either a specific amount of time or between certain hours of the day. These things have been written about on the business/GTD productivity blogs, but of course I can't find it right now. I'd ask my sister, who uses something like it at work, but she's out of town for the week-end. If I find it I'll share. I wish I could use it, but my husband and i use e-mail to keep in touch while he's at work.

    Good luck

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  6. Oh, I am so glad I read this tonight. I have just had one of those weeks where, for a few days, I slept in and stayed in my bathrobe all day. But, I am still going forward, just not as fast as when I spiritually created my plan... :)

    One thing that has helped me to limit my "email checking" time was to get a new cell phone. I know that doesn't seem to make sense at first, but my new cell phone has email capability, so I quickly check it throughout the day and it only takes me a few seconds at a time. I found that when I finally sat down at my laptop, I wasn't overwhelmed with tons of email and distraction.

    I don't know if this would even work for anyone else, but it really cut down the amount of time I am on the computer, and checking email on my phone doesn't distract me into going online to read, because the internet is completely separate from the email function.

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  7. "I still have a small tub of plastic baby toys."

    I can't believe you're admitting to that! The horror!!!

    You're so funny. I can't even begin to list my faults. There are too many. All I know is that I'm doing better than I was a year ago, or even last month, so I'm happy.

    Now I want to go make a list of all my old faults so I can start working on them instead of always finding new things to work on.

    Hey, I just had a thought. Maybe all the new good things I'm doing are making my old faults disappear without me even working on them. Just having all our meals sitting down at the table together and now eating outside has kept me off the computer just that much more, not to mention the amount of time I spend preparing healthy meals. Before I know it we'll be doing so many good things that the computer will be a distant memory. What do you think?

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