Changes

So it's been awhile since I last wrote. Not racking up those points for journaling for my Model Mom challenge! Oh well. I've been busy. Busy working on organizing my life and my family. Not an easy task I assure you! To be honest, I'm still struggling. It all boils down to time management. Once I get that figured out I'll be fine. I think I'm almost there. Here's what's been going on:

1. Since Quinn wasn't participating in the dance portion of her Little Gym classes, I put her into an all gymnastics class. Our little Jazzy Bug is now a Funny Bug. Today was her first class. She LOVED it! And, as it turns out, we know several people in that class! My S.H.R.I.M.P. teammate moved her daughter into that class too. And Quinn's old buddy Gavin is in there so it was fun to catch up with his mom, Aimee.

2. Sydney is still a Beast at Little Gym but I've moved her into a day time class instead of an evening class.

1&2. As an added bonus, the girls have their classes back to back on the same day so we only have to drive to Little Gym ONCE a week. As a result we now have TWO evenings a week that we can spend together as a family!

3. In order to get our two evenings a week together I had to give up one stroller strides class (because the Little Gym classes are during that time) and I had to drop my PiYo class. As disappointed as I am in having to give those up, the rewards of spending time together as a family far out way it.

4. I'm establishing quality time while saving money:
- Wednesday mornings we'll go to Little Gym classes and then head over to Costco (since it's right there) and eat lunch for around $5 and then do our weekly shopping (so we'll save gas).
- Thursdays are Movie nights so after we hit the trail in the morning, we'll head to the library and get some books to read and a movie to watch that night as a family.

5. I saw on Oprah yesterday that a gal saved tons of money by unplugging her appliances and such when not in use. That got me thinking that we could certainly save money by doing that too AND help my impulse to get on the computer every 10 minutes instead of doing my chores. So, while I'm waiting for it to boot up and run the antivirus software, I'll get my chores done and get the girls their breakfast. By that time I should have an hour or so to do what I need to do on it and then it will be shut off and unplugged again. I'm also going to unplug the TV's and everything else that I can easily get to and see if my gas/electric bill goes down or not.

6. I'm going to follow my control journal that I've adapted from Fly Lady! It works! I know that my mood is always in sinc with how my house looks. Right now my house is in chaos. And so is my mood. When my house is in order, so is my mood. It's all tied together. In fact I recently skimmed an article about depression and housework from Realage.com.

Like I said before, I'm still working on my time management so that we get out the door on time and aren't rushing and stressing out. I need to learn when to STOP doing whatever I'm doing in order to do that. I refer back to the Fly Lady again and know that if I just set a timer and stop whatever I'm doing when it goes off, things will be good. So, on that note, I have 15 minutes left until I have to leave for work so I'm going to stop writing and get my dinner packed and the girls and myself ready to roll.