In order to have the perfect day A LOT of things have to come together because there are A LOT of things I strive to be better in - none of them take a particularly large amount of time, so I figure, "if I do this every day, even just for 20 or 30 minutes, I'll be SO AWESOME!" And yet 20 or 30 minutes, when applied to 12 different things, actually takes quite a bit of time; I might get 1 OR 2 of those done, certainly not ALL of them. I strive to eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water, work out, dress cute (hair & makeup included), clean the house, cook delicious meals, play outside, read my scriptures, read with my kids, scrapbook, and have some personal down time. WHEW! Tough to be perfect...
Cut to Pinterest. Lots of interesting ideas and articles, and I try to work on the ones I pin (or maybe I try to only pin the things I know I will get around to working on...), so there was one particular pin (blog) that's a 4-week challenge to get your house organized. Each day includes getting up, dressed, daily devotional, making a short "to-do" list to accomplish any weekly goals, getting rid of 7 things, doing a 15-minutes chore, then doing a project. I usually turn the 15-minute chore into a project as well, since I've got time as a SAHM. In order to complete these things I need to get up earlier, which means I need to go to bed earlier, which has been it's OWN challenge, but I've really enjoyed my newfound productivity! We already had a morning routine (maybe "goal" is a better word...) to read scriptures at breakfast, and getting up early, getting dressed, and being on top of it has really helped that goal reach "routine" status. Who knew routine would be the standard of excellence? ANYWAY.
The point of this tangent is that the challenge has accidentally helped me fulfill my perfect day! A weekly goal was to go to the gym more than once, so today I made it to the gym! While I was there I drank plenty of water, then made it a priority to eat good fruits and veggies since, hey, I went to the gym, I might as well act like it. I made yummy homemade meals for every meal (well, lunch was leftovers, but they were homemade! and yummy!), and during breakfast we read our scriptures. After breakfast and the gym I put myself together with hair, makeup, and nice clothes. The weather was beautiful so I pushed my kids on the swing in our backyard. During the day and evening I took time here and there to read books with my kids; no hour-long read-a-thons, but still plenty of reading and couch-snuggeling was done. While kids were playing I tackled a chores: dishes, laundry, and moved all our living room furniture (couches, tables, even the piano!) to vacuum INCREDIBLY thoroughly - I KILLED housework today! (Laundry is a bit of an exaggeration, though, I've taken to doing a load a day instead of designating one laundry day where I am swimming through baskets of dirty clothes. Considering how GREAT my laundry is these days, I don't mind being in it every day!) The kids went to bed on time without much fuss so I have lots of time this evening for scrapbooking and down time with Joe (probably to watch some Walking Dead).
I've tried numerous times to create a "perfect day," and here one came at me without me giving it too much extra time or thought. For that, THANK YOU PINTEREST for directing me to ladies who motivate me, and THANK YOU MOTIVATIONAL LADY (aka Crystal Paine) for creating a 4-week challenge that has really helped me grow. Even Joe stopped today and said, "You have really been better about housework." I waited to see if he would dig himself into a hole with that beginning, but he didn't. "You weren't terrible before or anything, but I've noticed how on top of the laundry and dishes you've been. That's awesome." Yay!
Now I'll stop yammering and post pictures of the kids. Amelia was over and they were playing babies and pajamas, I thought it was too cute that Eli was in on the action, too (I really love it when Patrick's not around! Eli's a different kind of kid)
