Accountability

From my journal this morning:

The new year presents itself as a time to reflect on priorities, in particular how I use my TIME.  Unfortunately I find myself living in the tyranny of the urgent.  I want to live purposeful, intentional - without regret!

How shall I go about this?

First I must go to bed early.  In order to get out of bed early.  Where is my discipline and self control?  (Admittedly, Baby waking in the night for several weeks causes one to be a bit groggy in the morning.)  I want to spend some quiet moments to start my day in God's word.

I must meal plan.  I need a rotation of meals.  I can't make a new meal every night.  I want to do more monthly cooking/freezing.  I'm trying to squeeze too much into my day - meal prep, etc.

Exercise - ugh.  I don't do it.  I need to.  How can I squeeze it in?

Homeschooling - I would like to be more intentional, plan better.

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Then I began to pray.  Asking the Lord - how can I do these things?  Not just make a list but actually get them done?

Then answer: ACCOUNTABILITY.

It used to be --oh, about 15 years ago in college-- I had some incredible self-control and discipline as to how I used my time.  It was just that.  MY time.  No one else was depending on me for anything.

Not to make excuses, but the fact is even if I had incredible self control, sometimes life just gets in the way.  I can *plan* to get up early by going to bed at a decent hour - only to be awake with a baby in the middle of the night.  But there are things I can change.

So the accountability...the idea I feel like the Lord gave me was to call a few friends.  Ask them to meet with me every other week.  We would share our plan of action, specifically in the areas of:

1. time with the Lord
2. meal planning
3. homeschool ideas

After calling everyone on the phone to explain my hair-brained idea, this is the follow up email I sent:


Hi friends -
it was good to talk with you all today.  Thank you for being so encouraging - and it sounds like you could use the accountability as well.

Just to recap:

Who
Me
LD.?
H B
E L ?
MH
TS ?

Why we'd meet:
For accountability in the areas of
1. time with the Lord (going to bed, for me!)
2. meal planning
3. homeschool planning

What to discuss:
Bring your schedules, calendar, projected meal plans, homeschool ideas, etc. for 2 weeks.  We will start the time with "show and tell" - i.e. show me your plans.  This is the most important piece of the puzzle.  Please come prepared.  :)

When:
Every other week.

Melissa made the suggestion for Wednesday nights - for those of us who go to RCC, we'd meet the alternate night the men meet.  The men meet this week, so we will start next Wednesday, Jan. 19.
Tamara suggested that we have a definite start and end time.  I'm suggesting 8-9:30pm.  I will kick you out of my house.  I need my sleep.  Let's meet six times (which would put us at the end of March) then re-evaluate then if we need to continue.

Where:
Either my house, a coffee shop, or one of your houses (only if you wanted to host...no pressure).  Once we move, we will have all kinds of space!!

OK, I think that's it.
Nothing is set in stone.
We'll tweak it as we go.

Julie
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So, I share all this to hopefully encourage another mom.  If you are struggling in the area of time management ask a friend to come along with you.

I'm excited!