Overwhelmed....

It's already March?!

I can't believe time is moving so quickly....I don't know if it's the week I was sick, the fun we've been having with birthdays or what, but these past 2 months have just flown by!

There is SO MUCH to do in March that it's hard to wrap my mind around it.....  Start with regular life (shift work and all that entails) and homeschool, but add in preparing my husband and son for their first foreign mission trip the end of this month, hopefully at least 2 visits with the boy we are hoping to adopt, building a chicken coop (YES, we are hoping to get some chickens!), cleaning out the bonus room and figuring out what to do with it, painting and switching the kids rooms in preparation for a new brother's arrival, getting the garden up and running, and getting ideas for the upcoming homeschool year.

I am also working with a few new friends to support the wives in our husbands' department.  This is very interesting for me, as I fought against this lifestyle for so long.  But now I realize that I can use my experiences of what kind of wife NOT to be to encourage young wives in their marriages.

I realize that VERY soon I will have to make some changes in my schedule.....

• Getting up earlier (I don't get up too early now, so please don't be thinking I'm going to be up before the crack of dawn!) will give me more time in my day to get things done.  

• Taking some time to read some good books (I'm in the middle of 3 books right now- "Sue Patrick's Workbox System", "I Love a Cop" and "Authentic Spiritual Mentoring"- yes, a WIDE variety being read at the SAME time!) will help me to keep my focus on the various areas I am involved in. 

• Continuing with my women's Bible study on Proverbs 31 as well as my daily Bible reading will help me to remember to get my strength from God because I CAN'T do this on my own!

• Taking time for relationships- with my husband (date nights!), with my kids (even though we spend a LOT of time together, we still need to spend that time deliberately), with my friends (this is actually hard for me, not being a people person) and with my family (road trip? Maybe I can talk a certain sister into that?) is going to be so important.

I have been finding that putting my thoughts on "paper" (online paper, that is) helps me to be accountable.  I will soon blog about more specific plans for my schedule changes so that I can have a chance to actually DO what I say instead of just saying it to myself every day and failing at it again and again!