what made the cut...

over a week ago i posted about all of the commitments i had made and that i was trying to cross some of them off my list. i just got finished doing our calendar for the month and i am sooooo glad that i did cross some things off, because i am still quite busy!

so, you are probably wondering what made the cut.... well, first i have to say that my putting my family first is the largest commitment i have made. i will continue to seek wisdom and accountability on doing this. i don't want to go back to the place where i am so busy that i don't have time for my husband or kids. or that when i do have a carved out amount of time that i am not completely exhausted and falling asleep during a date night, a sporting event or playing a game. i have realized that having a famiy keeps me pretty busy ~ and that isn't adding anything else to that.

i also do recognize that i do have to have other things in my life that are outside of being a wife and being a mommy. but it all has to be within a balance.

most of the things i have chosen to do will not rock the dynamics of our family too much. i was conscious not to be gone too much (or too little for my sanity!) at night or doing things that require a babysitter. i also was conscious to take my husband's schedule into consideration!

so in addition to taking josh to and from school (oh btw, i have found a carpool to help here!), and taking jordyn and jesiah to school on 3 days a week, and taking them wherever else they need to go (ballet once a week for jordyn and only 2 sports in a year for josh) i am going to be taking care of a sweet three year old boy three days a week -- he will go to school with my kids on 2 of those days and we will have him on one other day as well. i will also work at the kid's preschool one morning a week as a floating teacher. i will figure out how to best volunteer at josh's school in between all of this. i will be doing a mom's book study with some ladies from church - which will be some "me" time! jamil and i will be leading a high school small group. we will not be leading an adult small group - although we will attend one. on sunday mornings i will be helping out with our ekidz area! so those are the commitments we have made. pretty simple yet we will still be busy.

i will use my "free" mornings twice a week while the kids are at school to go to the ymca and work out -- hopefully my friend kelly will hold me accountable there!! and i will also run my errands, so i don't have to grocery shop at night when jamil comes home.

i have been learning that less is more. i can choose to be involved in a few things and do them really well instead of gettng into a lot of things and doing them only a little bit well. i will choose the less is more concept and then apply it by learning how to say "NO". as hard as this can be for me, i know that my family benefits from it. i refuse to allow satan a stronghold and throw me out of balance again. my family will be first. if i commit to everyone else and not my family does that make sense? nope. enough said!