disciplined life

One Habit a Month: Technological Guidelines

March 5, 2012

I was so busy with the No More Student Loans Giveaways last week that I didn’t get my new habit for March posted. [There are over a dozen prizes from some of my very favorite authors and businesses. If you haven't yet, click here to enter the giveaways. Entry closes tonight!]

Rather than make resolutions for 2012, each month I am working to establish one new habit. I would love to have you join me!

In case it got buried in the midst of all the giveaways, here’s the update on February’s Habit (establish a lunch routine).

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit,” said Aristotle. Habits, both good and bad, help shape our character.

Lately, I’ve been slipping into a bad habit. It’s called checking my phone for emails/Facebook updates a dozen times a day (or more!)

I’ve excused myself saying, “Oh, it only takes a minute.”

Often though, that minute grows into five or ten minutes. Even when it really does only take a minute, checking email distracts my mind from the task at hand.

In Amy’s excellent book, Tell Your Time, (enter to win one of 3 copies!) she encourages us to step back and evaluate our longterm life goals. To evaluate the kind of person, wife, mother, homemaker, writer and/or fill in the blank we want to be.

Once we have a vision for our lifetime goals, we must arrange our days and Tell Our Time so we can fulfill those goals.

Needless to say, the kind of mother I want to be does not check her phone constantly while she’s coloring with her kids. The kind of wife I want to be isn’t reading an email when her husband has time to talk. I want to use those “extra” moments to tie heart-strings with my family.

Thanks to Amy, I do have blocks of time set aside for blogging, Facebook and all the other online fun. My habit for March is to stick to my online time budget and not let technology distract me from whole-heartedly pursuing my calling as wife and mother.

If there are down times during the day and checking email will not distract me from other priorities, I am allowing myself two (and only two) unscheduled quick checks.

What about you? Are you working on any new habits this month? If so, I’d love it if you linked up or shared in the comments!

Linked up at Motivation Monday, Better Mom, Raising Arrows and Handful of Heart

February’s Habit: How Did you Do?

February 29, 2012

(taking a break from our “No More Student Loans!” Giveaways, for our One Habit a Month check-in! Be sure to enter the giveaways for Money Saving Mom’s Budget, Vintage Handmade Soaps and Tell Your Time…. more coming soon!)

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“Habits are safer than rules; you don’t have to watch them. And you don’t have to keep them, either. They keep you,” said Frank Crane.

Habits create a rhythm in our days, whether good or bad.

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February’s habit: how did you do?

Establishing a lunch routine was my new habit for February.

With the many variables each day with little ones holds, strict schedules haven’t worked for me. But, as Amy writes in Tell Your Time (enter to win one of 3 copies!), you must order your day to make time for the things that are important.

Intentional routines ensure that the important things are worked into the fabric of your day.

For months I wanted to start reading chapter books consistently to the kids. It kept on not happening.

Now that reading a chapter to the children is worked into my lunch routine, it’s happened. (We’re finishing up In Grandma’s Attic–and the kids are loving it!)

Here’s a peak at the lunch routine that has worked for us:

Tidy home
Fold laundry (it there’s any dry!)
Eat lunch (good part of a lunch routine, don’t you think?)
Clean up kitchen, while kids finish eating
Do any necessary dinner prep
Lay kids down for nap
Read a chapter from a children’s book while kids lay in bed and listen

We’re reading together, but the lunch routine has helped my day in other ways too. Spending a few minutes tidying up and planning ahead has made such a big difference. My afternoons are more productive since I’m not dealing with morning clutter and dinner doesn’t sneak up on me quite as easily.

What about you? Have you been working on a new habit? If so, how have you done? Link up or join in the comments!

Join us tomorrow for the March Habit link-up, Thrifty Thursday Blog Hop (with The Purposeful Mom) and more giveaways!

Linked up at Encourage One Another, Homemaking Linkup, Wise Women, Women Living Well & Provebs 31 Thursdays

(Full Disclosure: Links to products in this post are my referral links.)

Tell Your Time: Review & Giveaway (3 Winners!)

February 29, 2012

Do you feel like your days are slipping through your fingers, but you just don’t have time to read a book on time management?

Amy Andrews’ ebook Tell Your Time is for you!

Amy strips away all the fluff and fits a wealth of information into 30 pages.

Tell Your Time doesn’t teach you the best way to pack one more thing into your day. Why? Because trying to cram in more of the wrong stuff is not wisely using your time.

Instead, Amy encourages you to take a step back and make sure that what you’re doing is helping you become the kind of person that you want to be. Tell Your Time is about making sure you reach your life goals.

Once you have painted a broad sketch of the goals you are aiming for, Amy gives practical advice for how to paint in the details with the 24 hours we’ve been given each day.

The simple (but brilliant!) ideas she outlines have made a huge difference in my day.

My days still need some tweaking, but that’s part of the beauty of a short book on time management. You can read it, start implementing the ideas and when you’re ready for more, read it again.

Want to read Tell Your Time? Amy is graciously giving away 3 copies! Enter below for your chance to win.

Giveaway closes at mindnight EST on Monday. Winners will be announced Tuesday morning.

Don’t forget to join the rest of the No More Student Loan Giveaways!

(If you’re a blogger, Amy’s website Blogging with Amy is a goldmine of practical tips, heartfelt encouragement and step-by-step guides. Any time I need blogging help, Amy’s archives are the first place I check.)
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Tagged with: book review • disciplined life • giveaway

Learning to Love Hated Chores

February 20, 2012

Few homemakers naturally love every aspect of keeping a house. I love doing laundry and organizing the fridge. Cleaning the shower and washing the floor, not so much. Your favorites and worst chores are probably different than mine.

But household chores are part of keeping the home running smoothly. If we were called to be homemakers, these chores are part of the job assigned by a Good Master. We should learn to love them.

Hated Chores

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Here are a few ways that I am learning to enjoy the jobs I used to hate.

Do it first, quickly: If you really concentrate on it, few chores really take all that much time. If there’s a chore you hate, do it right away. Quickly. It’s amazing how much more enjoyable it will be.

Do it together: Whether it’s with a child, sister, friend or husband, doing a job together makes it much more fun! If you have kiddos, get them involved! Train them to help.

Listen to something: Whether it’s music, a free classic audiobook or lectures from the library, occupying your brain while your hands are busy is a great way to get a hated job done!

Eliminate the job: Yes, I know. This is supposed to be a post about learning to love chores. But, sometimes, we have control over the chores we don’t like and can trim them down or get rid of them all together. Often, it may take a bit more up front time, but will pay off quickly.

Don’t like dusting? Pare down the knick-knacks.
Don’t like tidying? Simplify. Clear out the clutter: throw away, give away or sell.
Dont’ like multiple weekly (or monthly) grocery runs? Stock your pantry and shop less.
Don’t like changing diapers (or buying them?!) Potty-train your child.

If you struggle to enjoy a job, there’s often a way to cut it down and make it more manageable!

How do you conquer the chores you don’t care for?

Linked up at Handful of Heart, Motivate Mondays, Teach Me Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays & Titus 2sdays

Tagged with: disciplined life • household tips • matters of the heart

Student Loans Chapter Coming to an End

February 16, 2012

I have news that I have been bursting to tell you…

Once our tax return goes through we will have enough money to pay off the last of our student loans! Excited is far too mild to describe my feelings. More like I-want-to-shout-and-cry-and-dance (even in Walmart)!

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Sometimes the three years of scrimping and saving during law school seemed to stretch on for ever. Sometimes I didn’t want to put nearly every spare penny since Joshua started his clerkship toward paying the loan. There have been many times that I wanted to just quit.

Yet during this journey God has been so good to us. We have been blessed and encouraged and inspired time and again.

Blessed by unexpected gifts on days when the greatly boost was needed.
Encouraged by reminders that God is sovereign and holds our future in His wise hands.
Inspired by your stories of sacrifice and giving and debt-free life.

This chapter of our lives has been filled with many lessons (I’ll share one of the hardest later today!) but I am so glad that it is coming to an end.

To celebrate (and channel my excitement into something more productive than dancing in Walmart), I’ll be hosting a series of give-aways on February 29th and March 1st from some of my very favorite resources!

Some of you are probably thinking, “what’s so exciting about just paying off a student loan?”

I know, I know! It’s not like we’re paying cash for a house or a trip to Europe.We’re all on different stages of the financial road. Even the little milestones are worth celebrating though, right?

Won’t you celebrate with us and join me for the the upcoming giveaways?

linked up at Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Hearts 4 Home Thursdays, Frugal Friday and Finer Things Friday

Tagged with: debt • disciplined life • matters of the heart