Space Summary
The Twitter Space Fall Homemaking, Part 2: Talking about time management. ️ hosted by mtnhousewife. In the 'Fall Homemaking, Part 2: Talking about time management' space, participants delved into valuable insights on balancing family, faith, and household responsibilities. Emphasizing the importance of prioritization, self-care, and community support, the discussion highlighted the significance of mindfulness, goal-setting, and continuous learning in creating a harmonious home environment. By incorporating Christian principles and wisdom, homemakers are encouraged to cultivate a nurturing atmosphere and promote unity within their families. The space provided practical guidance for efficient time management and personal growth, fostering a lifestyle centered on positivity and well-being.
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Space Statistics
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Questions
Q: How can prioritizing tasks help in managing time effectively?
A: Prioritizing tasks allows for the completion of essential activities first, ensuring productivity and efficiency.
Q: Why is delegation important in maintaining a balanced workload at home?
A: Delegation enables individuals to share responsibilities, preventing burnout and promoting a harmonious household.
Q: What role does self-care play in enhancing homemaking routines?
A: Self-care activities help individuals rejuvenate and maintain well-being, essential for managing daily tasks effectively.
Q: How can spiritual practices influence daily homemaking tasks?
A: Incorporating spiritual practices provides guidance, strength, and a sense of purpose in everyday activities.
Q: Why is community support valuable in the context of homemaking?
A: Community support offers encouragement, shared experiences, and a sense of belonging, enhancing the homemaking journey.
Q: What benefits does mindfulness bring to everyday homemaking activities?
A: Mindfulness promotes awareness, gratitude, and a deeper appreciation for the beauty in daily routines.
Q: Why are setting realistic goals important for homemakers?
A: Realistic goals help maintain motivation, focus, and a clear direction towards achieving long-term aspirations.
Q: How can consistent routines impact daily homemaking tasks?
A: Consistent routines streamline activities, reduce stress, and create a sense of structure in daily life.
Q: Why is continuous learning essential for homemakers?
A: Continuous learning fosters adaptability, growth, and the development of new skills to navigate evolving challenges.
Q: In what way does creating a nurturing environment benefit homemakers?
A: A nurturing environment promotes positivity, unity, and emotional well-being within the home, enhancing the overall homemaking experience.
Highlights
Time: 00:05:12
Prioritizing Tasks for Efficiency Understanding the importance of prioritization in time management for homemakers.
Time: 00:15:40
Embracing Self-Care in Homemaking Exploring the significance of self-care practices in maintaining well-being amidst daily responsibilities.
Time: 00:25:17
Incorporating Faith in Daily Routines Discussing the role of spirituality and faith-based activities in guiding homemakers.
Time: 00:35:29
Building a Supportive Homemaking Community The benefits of community support and shared experiences in the homemaking journey.
Time: 00:45:50
Mindfulness and Gratitude in Household Activities Promoting mindfulness and gratitude to find joy in the simple tasks of homemaking.
Time: 00:55:02
Setting Realistic Goals for Long-Term Success The impact of setting achievable goals on motivation and fulfillment in homemaking.
Time: 01:05:17
Creating Consistent Routines for Efficiency Establishing consistent routines and schedules to streamline daily activities and minimize stress.
Time: 01:15:22
Embracing Continuous Learning in Homemaking The value of continuous learning and personal growth in adapting to changing circumstances.
Time: 01:25:40
Promoting a Nurturing Home Environment How nurturing and loving surroundings within the home enhance the overall homemaking experience.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize tasks based on importance and urgency to manage time effectively.
- Delegate responsibilities within the household to ensure a balanced workload.
- Incorporate moments of self-care and personal reflection to rejuvenate and maintain well-being.
- Integrate spiritual practices and faith-based activities into daily routines for guidance and strength.
- Cultivate a supportive community of like-minded individuals to share experiences and offer encouragement.
- Practice mindfulness and gratitude to appreciate the beauty in everyday homemaking activities.
- Set realistic goals and intentions to stay motivated and focused on long-term aspirations.
- Establish consistent routines and schedules to streamline daily tasks and minimize stress.
- Embrace the concept of continuous learning and growth to adapt to evolving circumstances and challenges.
- Foster a nurturing and loving environment within the home to promote positivity and unity among family members.
Behind the Mic
Introduction to Housewife Radio
Hello and welcome to Housewife radio. This is Mountain housewife. My name is Amy and I am happy to be here with you. I am looking at my to do list, and I'm finishing that up. I'm going to take just a minute while to see if anyone else comes in. Okay. It looks like it's just me. I don't know if anyone's listening anonymously, but I'm going to go ahead and speak and hopefully some of you can listen to this at your own leisure. I'm going to give you more information on what I was talking about last week, which was making out a schedule for yourself so that you can accomplish more, and live more purposely and fulfill your duties as a housewife, a wife, a mother, homemaker, and whatever it is that you're putting your hand to. I believe that being intentional about time and knowing, understanding the greater meaning and purpose behind what you're doing and seeing the big picture is helpful to stay motivated.
Motivation at Home
And I know some people lose motivation when they're at home. You know, you don't have a boss standing over you. Many of our husbands are doing other things and working at their jobs. And we're there. We're here. And we have to be pretty much internally motivated, internally directed to get a lot of our tasks accomplished. So I think that, yeah. Thinking about what your, what do you want to get done in the day? What kind of attitude do you want to have? What kind of character qualities are you developing as you do your work? What virtues are you developing? These are things that can keep you motivated, keep you going towards the goal. And so what I intend to do today is just share more information on this topic and hopefully it will be a help to you.
Engagement and Review
Hi, Pacific. Nice to see you. I'm glad you're with me today. I hope you can hear me. I don't really know because I don't see any other listeners. So could you wave your hand if you could actually hear me? And this is working. The space is working, the audio's working because. Okay. Hi. Okay, great. I'm going to keep going just a bit. I'm expecting some people, at least one other person. But I'm just gonna review what I talked about last week. I don't know if you were here last week or if you listened to last week's space, but last week, yes, I did talk about something. I gave you some assignments, actually, some things I asked you to do to prepare for this week. And so I'll just go over that briefly before I get into the new content.
Last Week's Discussion
So we're talking about last week about scheduling, and I said that I would like for you to do a couple of things. And one of those things was to think about some questions. For example, why are you doing what you're doing? And what is the point of it all? Because I think anybody in any job sometimes gets up in the morning and wonders, what's the point of it all? So I think it's good to have written down somewhere or some way that you can remember what your larger purpose is and what, first of all, what the big picture is. What do you see life all about? What do you see? Earth, humanity, God, all of those things. A bigger picture. And then to think about how you fit into that and what you do is fitting into that.
Finding Your Purpose
And again, reviewing that, I think getting that mindset is very helpful. So I see. I'm just going to share how I do it. My understanding of the world is that the world is in a state of fallenness since the. And I'm going, I'm christian, so I'm going by the historical record in Genesis, that the world is in a state of fallenness and that God is restoring man to himself through Jesus Christ. And so the gospel and the restoration of mankind is what is. I see the big picture. And so I have that written down as the big picture now. I have to see how I fit into what I'm doing today fits into that overall picture.
Personal Calling and Purpose
I'm going to just stop and say hello, Mimi. Hello. And Tracy. Welcome. And it's just nice to see my friends here and thank you for coming by. And I'm reviewing what we talked about last week. So I asked you all to think about and I'd like for you to share, if you want to share. Okay. What you see is the big picture in the world and how you fit into it as part of your schedule. And that's what I want to have at the top of my schedule is the big picture is Christianity, Christ Jesus, restoring mankind to himself and restoring mankind to God. And that I, my part of that is to live as someone who is being restored to God, is to live a good and holy life.
Living Out Your Purpose
That's my main purpose in being here, is to shine the light of Christ by what I do and what I say and my attitudes and by my home and by my relationship with my husband and my family and the people around me. That is my purpose in life, is to glorify, and I think the Westminster catechism or something says something like this, like the whole point of life is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And that is the big picture for me. Now, another thing I wanted you to think about was your vocation. How so? If you. If your job here on earth is to glorify God, to live a good life, to live a holy life, and to glorify God and to enjoy God.
The Role of a Wife and Mother
And I'm not talking about just once a week on Sunday, but to enjoy him in every moment of life, in every day, to enjoy and glorify goddess. How are you going to do that? And my understanding through studying through the scriptures, especially the New Testament scriptures, is that I, as a married woman, I am called to be a wife and mother and keeper at home. That's to be my primary focus. And that's according to Titus two, three, where Paul instructs Titus to teach the church certain things. And the things that he's supposed to teach, to convey to actually to the older women, to teach the younger women was to love their husbands, love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good and obedient to their own husbands.
Scriptural Foundations
I hope I got that right. I'm doing it from memory. Okay. It's not just there. There are other places in the scripture. In one Timothy, chapter five, verses 14, again, Paul encourages Timothy to encourage, to command the younger, the widows who have been younger, who are younger, okay, to get married, to have children and keep the house. It's very straightforward. So this isn't something that I have to think a whole lot about, to be honest. It's very laid out, and I appreciate that. I know what my calling is. I know what my vocation is now.
Different Roles for Different Women
Is that for every single woman. No, I do think that older widows. Older widows, that in one Timothy, it does seem to indicate that there was a ministry for older women, older widows, and that they did things, you know, take care of the afflicted, wash the feet of the saints. You can go to one Timothy five and read that hospitality. And as I'm getting older, I'm trying to go in more to those things. I'm working on it. I still have what I call homemaking debt. And I've talked about this with y'all before. Homemaking debt, you have any? I got married pretty young and had children pretty young, and we started homeschooling and just doing all of that right off the bat, which is good, but we collected a lot of stuff, and I am still, and my mother recently passed away, so I've inherited all of her stuff.
Managing Homemaking Debt
And so I am really right now just trying to get the stuff out of a lot of it out of the house, sold. Organized, curated. I feel like I have a lot of homemaking debt. So what I'm sharing with you all are actually things that I'm learning and ways that I'm trying to order my life and make my life more effective, my time more effective and manage my time so that I can accomplish everything I would like to do in life. So hello, Kate and hello traditional. And it's nice to have you with us. Thank you for coming today.
Inviting Interaction
Thank you, friends for being here. As I said, if you have anything to share, please let me know. I'll add you. As a speaker, I'm very open to comments. I love your comments. So please share those if you can and would like to. Okay. So to deal with the chaos that I have found myself in, I am working out a little schedule of how to actually spend some time every day on organizing my stuff and cleaning out my stuff and simplifying my life. And this is what I've come up with. This is what I'm sharing with you. All I hope to have in a book pretty soon.
Clarifying My Vocation
So my vocation is very clear. Virtues, that's another thing that I have written down. And I think there are seven virtues that I've, I'm focusing on, and that is to be someone who loves. Who loves my husband and loves my children. And I've had to think about that quite a bit. You know, I always thought I was a good wife, a good mother, but it's been good for me to go back and revisit this. What does it mean to love? And how do we show love and care and concern to these people that are closest to us?
Defining Love in Relationships
To be a husband lover, a child lover, discreet. What does that mean? Like I said last week, these are words that if you're just following the mainstream culture, and even in many of our churches, we don't hear about a lot of these ideas and concepts and virtues anymore. But what does it mean to be discreet? What does it mean to be chaste? What does it mean to be a keeper at home? A domestic woman? This is a virtue. These are virtues. Child lover, husband lover, discreet.
The Importance of Obedience
Chaste keepers at home, good. Obedient to her own husband. That's something you really don't hear about much anymore. Obedience, no one wants. That's not a popular thing, especially in the United States. We liked our independence. We liked our agency. We like to think that we are our own boss. But really, in the scriptures, it teaches us, the women to be submissive to their own husbands, then. So, purpose, virtues, those seven virtues. And I am, as I said, I'm working on books that I'm working on kind of going into each one of those virtues and talking about what goes along with those.
Understanding Virtues
How do you achieve that virtue? What are some things that go along with that? I have broken it down into several areas that I think, you know, I'm going to talk about that later. Areas of responsibility. But I think it's good to write down what your essential responsibilities are. But before I get into that, I'm going to go back to another thing I asked you to do, which was to time to track your time. And I just wonder, I see a couple of people here that were here, Tracy, I don't know if you were able to do that, to just.
Tracking Your Time
I just asked you to log. Log your time out and see what those small things that you do every day, those responsibilities are those things that you do every day and just write them down and also notate how long it takes you to do each thing. So this morning, I've been doing this. I don't do this all the time. I will do this about, you know, for a week, maybe once or twice a year. But it really opens your eyes to how you're spending your time. And if you're actually spending your time on your stated priorities and virtues and responsibilities and, you know, you have to be really honest with yourself.
Honesty in Time Management
You can't just, like, fake it. There's no point in doing it if you're going to fake it. Oh, yes.
Baking and Time Management
I spent 2 hours baking every day when you're. If you were actually watching Netflix. So I think it's a good way to, if you're not a really time. I know not everybody deals with this. Okay. Some people are better than others with time, but I tend to lose track of time. And so this is good for me. I always forget how to do this, but. Okay, Tracy, I'm trying. Always get. I don't know why I'm not getting, Tracy. Here, let me try it again. Oh, all right, Tracy, you can now speak, if you will. Turn on your mic. Yep.
Living in a Small Space
Hey, yeah, I was thinking about this, and I started trying to do this last week, and then it's quickly, life, just change it. So first off, we live in a tiny house, which is, the main house is 399ft. So my cleaning routine takes about, you know, ten minutes. Oh, wow. Well, it doesn't. I mean, you know, there's not much to clean, literally, so. But I talked to my husband about, I mean, I can have my own priorities, and I. And I do, of course, but I, I asked him what he would want my priorities to be, since we. We just moved in, like, eight months ago to this house.
Preparing for the Future
So, you know, but his is really just making sure we are, prepared for what things may come. So my little list I was making of things I do rapidly turned into me setting all of that aside, and I've been canning a bunch of stuff. So, you know, so my days were literally just spent canning all day and getting foods, you know, in the dehydrator and things like that, and getting our house set up. So if we lost power, if we lost, you know, water or lost whatever, how would we sustain? And so he pretty much tasks me with finding resources for our house. So that's pretty much how I spend my days right now.
Shifting Responsibilities
Right now, I'm cooking him lunch, but other than that, he is busy working. He works from home, and so me being able to do this is a significant help to him. He doesn't have to spend all that time on the computer searching all these things down so I can look them up and find the things and then tell him what I found. And then he makes the decision how to move forward, and I can order or do whatever I need to do. So that's really the priority. I mean, obviously, other than spending time in the word and, you know, those kind of things.
Life Changes and Family Dynamics
But just my daily tasks are really spent on what his priorities are at this point. But I'm 60. Our children aren't home. You know, that's just where our life is at this point, I guess. Thank you for sharing that, Tracy. I'm 62. I'm also 60. What's your birthday? July 25. Okay, well, I'm a little bit older than you are. She's fabulous. On February 22. Okay, nice. George Washington's birthday. You can remember that like that? That's the old. That's the old one. They used to celebrate.
Celebrating Elizabeth's Birthday
Now it's just president's day. But it used to be an actual George Washington's birthday. My mom used to make me a cherry birthday cake. But, yeah, I love what you share, and I'll just add to that. When I have been, you know, everybody is going to be different. I do think the seven things I mentioned, the seven virtues that I just mentioned from Titus, two. That that's applicable to everybody. Right? But, you know, the way the things that you prioritize, the responsibilities that go along with each. Each one of those, and the way you prioritize them is going to be different for different people and different with different husbands.
The Role of a Wife
And that last one, you obey it to your own husband. Your own husband. And so you have to sit, ask, talk to him. You know, ideally, you do this on a regular basis. You know what? Because things do change. And I do remember when I was particularly overwhelmed as a young mother. And were homeschooling, and we had a big house. I mean, it was a big old house. I have shared it on here before. It was. It was huge. And one thing about old houses is you kind of don't see the dust and the dirt too bad.
Maintaining a Positive Home Environment
So that's actually kind of a perk of being in an old house. Now I'm in a new house. I feel like I see everything. But it was, you know, it required some maintenance. And I also. My children were interested in athletics, and they wanted. Hi s nice to have you. My children were interested in athletics. They wanted to do activities. One thing that was really nice was that we live right next to the ball field, so at that time, you could kind of let your kids go to practice and stuff and be on their own a little bit. So they would just go to their practices.
Balancing Family and Responsibilities
I didn't have to drive them, but I did go to their games. And we're homeschooling. Just. There was a lot involved in church activities, too, at that time, and teaching classes at church. So it was a very busy time. So I wrote a list of all. I did this. I kind of time tracked. Okay. And I gave that to my husband. I asked him, and I kind of put it into categories of, you know, like housework, homeschooling, helping the kids with their. Their activities, and, you know, time to go do things on the weekends as a family, and just kind of listed all of those things that were doing.
Seeking Feedback from Spouse
And I asked him if he would prioritize them for me. So I tried to make it easy for him. You know, don't have to think up anything, but I just kind of listed what I was already doing, and I wanted to know what he thought was more important than other things. Maybe I was spending too much time, you know, with church, volunteer activities. Maybe I was spending too much time on housework. You know, what did he think? And, you know, he gave me his feedback. He gave me his honest feedback. And it really helped, you know, it really helped me to see that what he valued and thought was important.
What it Means to Be a Helper
And I do think that's what it means to be a helper. A help meet to your husband is to help him with what he needs help with. So. And everybody's different, as I said. So you have to pay attention to your husband, pay attention to the needs of your family and do those things. I think it really helps when the husband is willing to get involved. I think as women, we tend to prioritize things maybe a little differently, you know, but, you know, that having a good home environment that the husband is comfortable and happy in, I think, is the priority.
Understanding Different Perspectives
Where maybe the decorating of the house is not the, you know, that may be a love of women, which, because we love that kind of stuff, I guess, is more important. But, you know, just getting his input. He may not care that there is, you know, a basket full of clothes in the bedroom not quite done or whatever. You know, he may be more interested in, you know, just, you know, having that meal ready when he's home. And then, you know, his view of the aesthetics may not be the same or his, you know, it's just really interesting.
Importance of Communication in Prioritization
If you just ask your husband, it can often be very surprising what they view as important and as compared to what we do. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I know that my husband is not. It's not a huge bother to him if his socks are on the floor or, you know, his clothes are laying out on the chair, something he's not. He doesn't like to stop and take time to. He thinks it's time efficient to just leave the socks there because he might want to wear them again. And there they are.
Finding Balance in Housekeeping
They're going to be right there. Yeah, I don't. I'm not anal about that sort of thing. I'm not saying that if you're a really good housekeeper that you're anal. I'm not saying that I admire people that are, but I don't. I don't stay on top of him about, like, keeping things neat. And I let him kind of do it the way he wants to do it, however, I'm going to say. I'm trying to say. But on the other hand, when I do some of these things and he.
Mutual Growth in Housekeeping
He's become, as I've become, a better housekeeper. He's really appreciating that more and finding what a pleasure it is to have a clutter free floor, a clutter free bedroom and that sort of thing. And he appreciates more, and I've actually seen him doing more kind of picking up after himself, even. I've never asked him to do it, but he, you know, is doing more of that. As I'm getting better, I can see that he's getting better, too, at that, which is interesting.
Appreciating Small Gestures
And, you know, he. He notices things, like a bouquet of flowers or little touches around the house, and he. He'll say something to me about it, which brings me a lot of happiness, you know, when you feel appreciated, right? Yeah, it brings you a lot of happiness. So. Yeah. And I also say, too, I think I have been in a couple of different seasons of life. So I have four children, and actually, well, one passed away four years ago, but I have so three, but when they were younger, you know, there's so much time spent on the children trying to keep the house and all of that.
Adapting to Life's Challenges
And then my husband got sick, and he had brain cancer. So he was sick for two and a half years before he passed away. So I went from this very full household, very busy, to then having a whole lot of help, friends, you know, that would take the kids, make sure they got to school and stuff out of town for his treatments or he was in the hospital or whatever the case may be, and then to a single mother of four, and then my kids were still, you know, relatively young, so my ability to live, Titus, two changed as these different seasons happened, and, you know, so it really was the focus on the whole family to then just me sitting down with my children and go, okay, we have to do this together.
Teaching Children Life Skills
And then, you know, so it taught them skills as well. So I found it important to make sure that they could, you know, need be. They can make their own sandwich for lunch that day if they needed to until we all got adjusted to our new reality, you know, so it has just been a very interesting transition. And now I'm remarried. I was married four years ago, and so now, you know, I have this very incredible godly husband and so thankful for him, but, you know, so now this is just yet another season, so I do.
Embracing New Roles
I am thrilled, actually, to have a husband to go to get his input and to be able to serve him again, because I had not been able to do that for quite a few years. So, you know, it's just whatever season you're in to adapt that to being the best godly titus to woman you can possibly be, even if your circumstances keep changing on you. Yeah. And that kind of goes back to attitude, you know, having a positive attitude instead of thinking, I can't do that.
Finding Inspiration in Role Models
Well, you know, I love Martha Stewart, but, you know, we all know Martha is just in another league, but instead of saying, well, you know, I hate Martha Stewart because, yeah, she doesn't have any children. She's got all this time. And she's got servants and she's, you know, got, you know, employees. I think, you know, try to be inspired by what she does without holding myself to her same level of standards. You know, we see so many people now. We have so much available to us on YouTube and podcasts, so much homemaking help and people that blog and vlog about what they're doing and how they do things.
The Impact of Social Media on Homemaking
And, you know, it would be very easy to get discouraged.
Community Comparisons
And, you know, I look around at other women in my community, and I think, you know, it's easy to get jealous and think, well, they have this. They have that, you know, instead of trying to be inspired by what people are doing with their lives. And so, yeah, you just can't get into a perfectionistic. You have to go with the season. And when your children are babies, you do what you can and you do what's most important, and you don't worry about some of. Some of the other things that maybe are not quite so important, like, you know, fixing gourmet meals or having a bouquet of flowers on the table every day. You know, you just.
Time Tracking and Awareness
You focus on the basics. So that's kind of why I think for time tracking, which I'm really pushing on y'all is good for, because you can see what you're doing, what's important, and then more, even more importantly, you can see how long everything takes. And that's something I really wanted you to do. The more I'm aware of how long it takes me to do something, the more I can fit things in, you know, like where I might not think of it, I think, okay, so I've got ten minutes right now. I know that in ten minutes, I can go through a few drawers in my bedroom and straighten them up and clean them out and declutter. Declutter them. So if I get a spare ten minutes here or there, maybe I'm waiting for the water to boil or something or the coffee to brew.
Utilizing Spare Time
I can. I know that in ten minutes, I can get something this accomplished. Or, you know, I've. I've knitted beautiful garments in just spare moments. When I'm sitting around talking to my family members, I'll pick up my knitting needles. And, you know, I may not knit something every month, but I can knit a blanket or a sweater or something every season. Usually I can get something nice made, or you can call somebody, write a card if you like to send cards or letters or. Or call lonely people that would like to have encouragement. Different. Some of these extra things that you want to do. And even the basics, if you know how long they take. For example, you know, it takes me five minutes to start laundry.
Maximizing Small Tasks
So, you know, I can almost always find five minutes in my morning to start a load of laundry. And, you know, by the end of the day, if I stick with it, you know, I've done a lot of laundry, even when it's a busy day. So what I had, what I've done is I've gone through every, like I said, every so often, I do this. I don't, I don't do it all the time because it would be exhausting and a little over the top to do this all the time. But, you know, you can use just like, a legal pad. And like this morning, I wrote, okay, I'm going to tell you all, I'm going to be completely honest. I overslept this morning because I woke up, I went to bed a little bit late.
Unexpected Delays
I got caught up in going through. I found my great grand. My great grandmother. Yeah, my great grandmother. I found in my mother's stuff. I found my great grandmother's box, a little box of old pictures that my great grandmother had kept, and my mother had inherited them and just stashed them in her attic. And I found them, and I found all these family members that I didn't know anything about before. And I was texting my aunt to find out who they were and different things and, you know, kind of fell down the rabbit a little bit, ended up going to bed late. And then I got up late this morning. So I really didn't actually even start my day till about 720, which is, I usually start about 630.
Building Extra Time
But because I know, because I've paid attention to my time before, I know that I need to build in extra time in my day for stuff like this. I need to build about an hour of what I call margin time for stuff that comes up. Maybe I oversleep. Maybe I need to take a nap. Maybe somebody calls and needs help. Maybe I make a big mess to clean it up or somebody else makes a big mess. You know, there's always going to be something that happens. And if you've got every moment of your day packed with stuff, then you're going to get frustrated. I think it's very frustrating. We have so much packed into a day.
Importance of Margin
So that's another thing that I do, is try to build in what I call margin. And I actually read a book a few years ago. Well, many years ago, I'm ashamed to say, but many years ago, called margin. And it was about the lifestyles of Americans and how we pack. We try to see how much we can pack into a day. And the person that wrote this book actually went overseas and lived in another country, a more non western kind of country. And, you know, they said the thing that struck them the most is how relaxed and easygoing people were in those countries because they didn't have every single moment of the day packed with activities or stuff to do.
Tending to the Important
They had margin so they could take time to be with people. They could take time to, you know, not just always tending to the urgent, you know, but also tending to the more important things in life. So, you know, the urgent. We're always, as women, we're usually going to take care of the urgent. If our kid falls down and, you know, hurts their knee, we're going to go pick them up and help them. We're not going to say, oh, I don't have time for that, you know, we're going to go comfort the child or whoever in our life who needs help or comfort. We're usually going to go do that. Those are urgent things.
Balancing the Urgent and Important
But then they're also, and they're important things, too, but they're also important things that aren't urgent, that if we don't pay attention to our time, we won't do. Like, you know, paying attention to maybe older people that might or we might not think of normally. It may be in our church or in our community or maybe cleaning out those attics or, you know, going through and making, cleaning a window or making a bouquet of flowers. Some things that actually add a lot of value to our lives that are important but are not urgent. So if we're not paying attention our time, lots of times it'll be always pulling our hair out and trying to just do, just take care of what's on fire, putting out fires, as they say.
The Risk of Burnout
And over time, I think that tends to burn people out, y'all. Like, if you just constantly feel like, you know, you're behind, you're running behind, you're not getting anything accomplished, you're not being appreciated those things, you're not really making any progress, you feel like you're going to burn out and become demotivated, like I said, which can be a real problem for us as housewives, homemakers, because, like I said, we don't have, there's not, I mean, let's be honest, there's not. A lot of people are not standing over us all the time telling us what a great job we're doing a lot of this has. The rewards have to be intrinsic, and we have to think about what we're doing, and so.
Serving God in Daily Life
And the importance of it and enjoy God. While we're going along to enjoy God and enjoy his presence and realize that we are serving God, we are ultimately serving God. Even if our family and society doesn't appreciate what we're doing, God does. God is with us, and God sees us, and he knows that we're serving him. And so I think that's the main thing. So I think. What else was I going to say? I have some notes here. Okay, so a couple. I was just going to give you a little short list. So I think the number one thing we have to do, and this is what time tracking helps with, is slow down and just start paying attention to the little things we do every day.
Appreciating the Little Things
And if you try the time tracking, you can do that. And after you do something like, I just finished making a bed. Yes, I know I make my beds in the middle of the day. Okay, but you finish making a bed, stop and appreciate it. Stop and appreciate that. Don't just go run to the next thing you know. Stop and appreciate it. Oh, that's a nice bed. It looks really nice, and I'm looking forward to getting into it, you know, later tonight with my husband, and that's gonna be really nice. Thank you, God, for letting me do that. So if you just stop and just take satisfaction in those small things and to take it one step at a time, sometimes we get overwhelmed thinking about all the things we have to do today.
Taking Baby Steps
I often do that if I have a lot. And so we need to remember to take things. Baby steps, one step at a time. Just follow your list, follow what you're doing. Appreciate every step of the way. And isn't that what God did when you think about Genesis, back to Genesis again, you know, he could have just snapped his fingers and brought the world into existence all at once, but he didn't. He took it one day at a time and one step at a time, and then he'd stop and reflect and say, it is good, it's good. I like that. You know, so as homemakers, as people that are creating a home, we can be like God and stop and appreciate and take things in steps and not try to do everything all at once.
Aligning Goals with Purpose
The second thing I would say is to think about, again, to think about your goals and your overall purpose, and again, you can write out some goals. Tracy said. Tracy knows where her goal is. She said is to be prepared. So she's going to. I suppose that's, I don't know if you're the person, Tracy, that likes to write down stuff, but I would make a whole list of stuff I wanted to do along that line. Oh, yes. I have a very long list and not enough hours in a day. Yeah. Just remember to take it, you know, don't let it overwhelm you and take it one step at a time, one thing at a time.
Responding to Challenges
That's a lot, you know, you're getting when you're a prepper. There's a lot to that. You know, it's interesting, too, and this really kind of lit a bit of a fire under me today is just because my sister actually lives in Florida, so just went through that hurricane, and she texted me this morning with pictures and she's okay. But the water was 4ft in her house, and so her house is ruined, and so is her car. So she's kind of stuck there now. And I know she was not prepared for this.
Being Prepared in Hard Times
So, you know, that I'm afraid it's probably very much. A lot of people right now are going through this, and my heart just really breaks for these people. But, you know, to do what you can in the season of if God gives you the ability to do it just so you can survive for just a few days if you needed to, you know, it just, it's important to be able to do that and not have to rely on other people who also may not be prepared. So it's just, it's a good thing to think about. And like I said, it kind of really lit a fire under me this morning. Some of these things I've been putting off, I'm like, nope, doing them today.
Finding Peace of Mind
Okay. So I'm gonna get that taken care of and just peace of mind when that stuff. And that's the same thing. Even just your time management of your day, when you have a list, you can get through it, even if it's not everything, but you have, I love to write down things, so to be able to cross something off and look at that list at the end of the day and like, oh, I was productive, even though it may not have necessarily felt like it, but my work shows me that I was. Yeah, and that's motivating. Yeah, that's motivating to me, too.
Identifying Focus Areas
And so, like you said, like, with the prepping. So that's something you decided. That's your, that's going to be a focus. And I think that would, that's very titus, too. I mean, that goes under homemaking, but also goodness. I mean, you're contributing something to your home that's very good. You know, having was in proverbs 31. She smiles at the future or something like that. You know, she. She is the kind of woman that is prepared.
Prepared for the Future
She's a busy and diligent housewife. She's working, doing things, and she's prepared for the future. And so if you have the time, you know, you can. You can start doing more long term prepping and. But if it were me, I would probably, and I've always been a bit of a prepper, but I would start. But if I were just starting out, I would start out by making out menus for a week, maybe things I could make, and then having that food in my house for a week, I'd have enough food to keep us alive for a week.
Basic Prepping Strategies
But, you know, you may think, well, that's not that big a deal, but lots of people don't have that. They don't even have a week's worth of food. So I would make sure that I had pot, you know, things in my pantry, pasta and rice, and I'd have some meat in the refrigerator for a week. I'd have enough. And so that way, you know, and then you can start to build into two weeks, into three weeks and things like that. And another thing I'm going to say about prepping, something I've learned from, I don't know if you all ever watch Whipper will.
Practical Tips from Experienced Preppers
Whipper will holler. Whipper will holler. But she's on YouTube and she's a prepper. And she says, make sure that you. When you buy stuff like food for your house and the stuff that you actually eat, and, like, don't buy these horrible freeze dried things. I don't know. This is just what she says. She says she buys stuff that she actually likes to eat. Oh, yeah. That's very important. You know, you can get a fantastic deal at the store on, you know, oysters, but if no one in your family eats those, then, oh, well, you.
Reflections on Y2K Supplies
Know, you're gonna be stuck with. Yeah, I remember when y two k. You remember y two k? Oh, yes. Well, we bought all the. We bought like, huge things of beans and. Oh, rice. I don't know. We finally ended up throwing it out because we just didn't eat that much. We couldn't eat that much. So I think it's just. Yeah, so she buys, the lady on Wickerboro Hollow, she just buys, when she finds something on sale that she likes that will keep a while, you know, no matter what. Maybe it's those, you know, Cajun rice mixes. We like those. She buys several of them. Or if you find sausages or something like that, something kind of meat that keeps a while and it's on sale, buy several of them and then you can build up slowly your stock like that, you know.
Cooking and Meal Preparation Efficiency
And also when you're talking about time management, you know, if you're trying to do, say, for example, you know, build up some sort of food stock or whatever, like if you're making like, spaghetti or baked spaghetti or something like that, then make two and freeze one. If you're already in the process of doing it's pretty easy to just double it and then put one away and then you've already prepared your future self. Well, thank you for having this meal. It could even be like a time that maybe you're sick and you just cannot get in there and cook or whatever, but you still have good meals ready to go that you had prepared in the past. You know, it doesn't have to be some catastrophic situation. Could just be season of life and you just, you know, can't get into that kitchen or whatever the case may be. But, you know, if you're already cooking, if you can think forward enough, it doesn't really take much longer, honestly.
Managing Home Inventory
And so that's just going to help with your time management as you've done that and now you've helped yourself in the future, too. Yes, ma'am. And one more. One more tip along that line is I keep a list, and I have a house. House notebook. Okay. And so I keep a list in there of everything I have in my freezer because my freezer is kind of a dark, you know, like a black hole. Freezers are so badly set up, you know, you can't tell what's in there. So I keep a list of prepared foods. Like, if I have spaghetti sauce made, I'll list that. And also different kinds of meat that I pick up on sale. Like, if I have a roasted ground beef. Right. And then you don't waste food that way. Yeah. Nothing to eat.
Establishing Essential Routines
Well, actually we do, you know, I. Just forgot about it or whatever. huh. And that way, you know, like when I meal plan, I try to meal plan once a week. And so I'll look at that. That's the first thing I look at is see what I've got in my freezer and what I can use. And then. Yeah, so that's all good points. So think about your goals. Right now, my big thing is getting my house in order and, you know, getting a cleaning schedule where I can get every. I do all the cleaning myself. So getting a cleaning schedule and a decluttering schedule where I can simplify our home and make it beautiful and keep it up. And Tracy's working on prepping. You may have an infant, small children, so you may need some routines that help you with that.
Understanding and Prioritizing Responsibilities
Now, a third thing I would say is make a list of your essential responsibilities and how long everything takes. So I read a book back last winter. It was called essentialism. I recommend it. And again, it's written to Americans. It's first world problems, right? Who have more time and stuff, and they're having to make choices between things. And so he teaches you how to understand what's really important and what to focus on. So, you know, he says, you know, you need to think about it and write down what are the essential things, what are the most important things, and you might want to write this down. And that is, you know, what I've tried to do now. Areas, categories of homekeeping is one of my big things.
Integrating Responsibility and Self-Care
So my categories, when I sit down and play every week, I think about what has to be done as far as meals, my house, laundry, what do I need to do to be there for my husband and support him, what, you know, what makes him feel loved and what helps him. And my children. My children are older now, so they don't need as much care, but I still want to pay attention to them. And also self care things. And mine are very basic, like getting enough sleep, exercising. If I can knit or crochet every day and read, I'm usually happy and spiritual. Of course, that's very important, the church attendance, reading and devotional time on our own. And then there's every kind of everything else.
Focusing on Essential Duties
So after I get those essential things taken care of, then if I have time, then I can do other things. And I found that just taking care of most of those essential things takes most of my time. So I don't do a lot of things outside of my home, even though I'm older. I hope, like I said, I hope to someday be more of a charitable person who helps other people and takes food to other people. But right now, I'm just trying to get my own house in order and not neglect my family. So that's my goal, is to someday be, you know, more and to write a book. That's another kind of outside goal I have. But right now, I'm just doing it.
Valuing Your Efforts
I have time. So it's one of those kind of everything else things. So it's good to know what your most important things are. So you can know if you feel like you're not accomplishing, at least you know you're accomplishing the most important things if you have that written down. And think about it every week. I think attitudes are very important and cultivating an attitude of reverence for what you do. And this time, tracking hopefully will help with that. So slowing down and just being respectful of these small things and not just seeing them as something you just got to get through so you can do more important things.
Mindfulness and Positivity in Housekeeping
These are important things. These are the important things. And to have reverence for what we do and to be, I guess you'd say now, mindfulness being present in your work is very important. To be a godly housewife and also bringing cheerfulness and positivity to it is going to help as well. Instead of like, frowning and whining and complaining, you know, your mind is like, if you just let your mind go, that's going to be a place for all kinds of wickedness. You know, you got to, like, control your mind and think, you know, while you're doing these things, you got to think the positive benefits. And like I said, even if no one else is appreciating it, you're appreciating it.
Gratitude and Long-term Vision
God's appreciating it. And I think in the long run, your family does, too. Like proverbs 31 says, children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, he praises her. In the end, in the long term, there are so many benefits to focusing on your home responsibilities. So reverence, cheerfulness, gratitude. Just being thankful to have a home and to have these things to take care of and these people to take care of. You know, I know I've talked to widows. Sometimes I'll post about, you know, having a good attitude about housework and taking responsibility for it, and I'll have widows that will say, I just wish I had my husband to take care of.
Cultivating a Positive Home Atmosphere
I wish he was still here. I would never complain about anything he did if I could just still have him here. And you know, that gratitude and thankfulness. Thankfulness. You know, the people, if you've ever been through a natural disaster and lost your home, my mother's next door neighbors, their house just recently burned to the ground. They lost everything. I think they got the lady got her purse out, you know, but she lost everything in her home. So when we see that kind of brings in us some gratitude. And a better attitude, I think, and positivity. So that's the fifth thing, the 6th thing.
Utilizing Every Moment
Find the little minutes. Find the little minutes in the day when you can do things. I've talked about that. And then the next thing would be, remind yourself of God's presence always. You know, that's. That's one thing I really appreciate about being a homemaker, is that I can have some quiet and some stillness and not constantly be harassed, you know, but, and I can enjoy God's presence. Now, I know, you know, when you've got small children, lots of times it's not quiet, but, you know, you can find quiet times in your day and enjoy God's presence. And you can enjoy God's presence even in the midst of the craziness of a big family life.
Embracing the Joy of Family Life
You know, if you can't, if you make a point to do it, there's so much to appreciate with small children. I love my grandchildren to death, and they're just amazing to me. They're. The incredibleness of a child is just something to thank God for all the time. And then another thing would be to think about training others. Like Tracy said, training your children to do some of these things instead of seeing your children as being in the way, actually seeing them as somebody that you can train to help you with your work. But that, again, that takes slowing down and takes a lot of patience.
Empowering Children Through Responsibility
But, you know, a four year old, a three year old, they can learn to fold washcloths, fold laundry. They can sort laundry. There's a lot of things that a child can do. And as they get older, they can take care of a lot of things around the house. So I think seeing children, instead of, as an obstacle or something, that adds to our work, to see that is an opportunity and then finally organizing. And we haven't really talked about that. We've talked a little bit about that today. But in the future, would like to talk more about organize, you know, more organization, things that we can do to make our days easier and better and easier and to glorify God in our homes.
Future Aspirations for Home Management
So, like I said, in the future, I would like to share more things for keeping the home organized and clean and everybody in it happy and getting along and moving forward as a godly home. So somebody said on my timeline, I was asking them, what should I name? What should I name my book? And she said, godly, homemaker, blessed home. And I thought, that's really good. Godly, homemaker, blessed home. So as we pursue God in our vocation and in our daily work, we think about how our family is ultimately being blessed in that by having an example of a godly woman.
The Impact of a Godly Woman
What a great thing to grow up with a mother, you know, that's trying to be a godly person and trying to develop Christian virtues and live a good life. So in the end, it all matters. So, really, that's all I have for you today. It has been about an hour, so I guess we can go on with our duties. If there's any other comments or questions, I'd be happy to take them. I think I'm gonna. It's Friday, so I've gotten a lot of things behind me, but I am. I'm gonna go work on that. I'm gonna go work on the attic stuff, on those pictures and clippings, and somehow I've ended up with all my family clippings and old pictures.
A Reminder of Family History
I think everybody else was just like, we don't want them. You take them, Amy. I'm gonna work on that. And like Tracy said, I've got, like, a lot of stuff I can pull out of the refrigerator for dinner tonight. It's not going to be a hard dinner night. And go into the weekend and just try to enjoy the weekend. And I hope you all will, too. And bless you. And thank you, everybody, for being here. And thank you for being my friend. And I love you all.
Prayers for Family and Nation
And I do pray for you and your families and hope that you will be blessed in this fall season that we're going into in our country. I pray that our country will be blessed also with the leadership that God would have us to have. That he will do what's best for us in that area, and that he will have the glory. Thank you for coming, and I'll sign off now. Bye.
