What's Working for Me

 I've seen this here and there and thought it would be a fun one to share.

1. A membership to the car wash. I've had this for over a year now and it's amazing. I will drive through just to wash at least 1-2 times a week. About every other week I'll also stop and vacuum out the car and through all the trash out. It's kept the car feeling SO MUCH CLEANER. We practically live in it, so this is so nice.

2. Listening to audiobooks on my headphones. Last year I read ONE HUNDRED BOOKS. And I'd say probably 75% of those were straight into my ears. I TOTALLY think that we all need to read with our eyes, but if you want to read ALL THE BOOKS, this is the way to do it.

3. Having a cleaning crew come every other week. Shew buddy. Here's the thing about having these ladies come in and clean my house - it requires that we REALLY pick it up every other week. I know that seems crazy, but it really keeps us a little more disciplined and I love it! I SO appreciate everything they do to scrub our house down!

4. Reworking my work life. As middle school took off for us a few years ago and James joined every single thing he could, my life suddenly became busier than ever. The crazy thing is that it made me less social than before, but kept me a lot more tied up. I've learned as a parent of pre-teens and teens that you spend about 90% of your time in a sitting-and-waiting state (see #2 above about all the books I listened to last year!). I've also learned that there's a lot more emotional need for pre-teens and teens than we had with toddlers and elementary students. Don't get me wrong, the baby years were physically demanding, but this is a whole new world of hormones and learning to be a person and all the challenges that go along with that. Over the past two years, I've found myself missing out on a WHOLE LOT of things that my family was involved in because of my job. And it's weird, because my job is just 3/4 time so I'm really only there when the boys are in school. BUT last year the school system readjusted the start times and I couldn't drop my kids off before I had to go to work so I wasn't ever able to take them to school, which has been a really happy part of my mothering. If anything occurred during 8-12, I really had a hard time leaving my work to go to it, because I felt sort of tied to the hours when we were open. Finally, after some adjustments at the church and a few things just falling exactly into place, I decided that where I needed to be was not where I was and on a leap of faith I resigned from my position way back in November of last year. I remained there through the end of May, let them hire my replacement, and helped her get her feet under her and then I've slowly faded into the background over the summer! I've been asked a LOT if I'm enjoyed my "retirement," and I really don't know yet because my summer is almost exactly the same (except right NOW in July I'd be driving the boys AND working at a desk a lot of the day). Come August, I'm sure it will feel a LOT different!

5. Listing out my goals. I am a list maker! I looooove to strike things off of a to-do list! Earlier this summer, I listed out a lot of goals for the summer (and if we're honest, it's always overkill) and I've been working on checking it off. I check it every day or every few days and slooooowly but surely I'm making strides toward completing it!

So that's what's working for me right now. What's working for you?