Starting off Right

What a great day. I had a huge project due with ScrapGirls that I had to finish up today and so I had this feeling that it would be a long stressful tiring day. I woke up at 4:30 to get going on, and ended up changing all my plans. I read this great post (specifically #6 – Neglecting Yourself) at Simple Mom. I have to say this is one of my top hands down FAVORITE blog series. Maybe it’s because I need it so badly. She’s redoing them again this week. I so needed the reminder. After reading it I sat and thought.. ok. I can spend the next 2 hours working on this assignment. Then I can go in and get started on the day. Or….. I can put first things first. So I turned of the computer, made sure I read my scriptures, hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes and took care of myself first, planning on getting in the shower before my kids woke up so that I was ready for the day. I had morning prayer asking for help on this huge project so it wouldn’t consume my day and energies. Then I turned the computer back on and worked for about 30 – 45 minutes. I made HUGE progress. I felt good about it, thinking that I would be ok if I left the rest till tonight. So I did. I didn’t turn the computer on again. I ended up having an amazing day getting so much accomplished.

I showered before the kids woke up, made breakfast, had family scripture study, cleaned the house, did 2 batches of laundry, 2 loads of dishes, made and canned mandarin sweet and sour sauce (more on this later), painted with the kids, cut out two shirts to sew and almost finished sewing one. I picked up Savannah from school, played at the school playground for a while, relaxed, read books, had dinner, had Family Home Evening and finished up the rest of my assignment tonight. At a decent hour even. I still have time to go in and spend some time with my husband and go to bed early! What a day! The ironic part? I always know that I’ll have days like this when I put certain things first. Myself – health, God – time for him. The best part of the day…. my wonderful husband, and his support in letting sign up for this online class. I heard about it three days ago, and it has been on my mind nonstop. Weird really. I’ve seen other classes that I’d love to take, but this one stuck. Stuck hard… to the point I emailed my husband at work to see if he’d be willing to let me use part of our super tight budget to take this class. He came home teasing me, telling me he wanted to see how persuasive I could be. I couldn’t get any words out. For some reason all I could do was start to cry. How do you explain something you feel deep inside but you don’t even understand why… an overwhelming feeling that I NEED to take this class. I really wanted him to say yes because the class sounded great. Somehow though it was more… maybe somebody bigger than myself was pushing me, with bigger plans and ideas than what I’ve been thinking of… but I knew if he said we probably couldn’t afford it I would have been devastated and I didn’t even know why. When he said you know you have the money… all I could do was cry again.One thing is for sure. This man thought to himself as I sat one night (when we were dating) in a car as I poured out my heart about my ambitions and dreams for my art, that he wanted to be that man to support me so I could do it. I can honestly say I never imagined or could imagine how amazing he has been in keeping that promise to me. He proved it again tonight.