Making Your Home Sing Monday

If you read my post on Saturday, you understand that I've been feeling frayed at the edges these days. Honestly, I think committing to add exercise every single solitary day was the straw that broke this camel's back. However, since I'm unwilling to give up this commitment, I have to get back to basics in other areas of my life. One way I'm doing this is to jump back on the Making Your Home Sing Monday bandwagon. Nan at Momstheword hosts this each week as a reminder to us all that our choices and attitude will determine the mood of our homes for the day and the week. Obviously, I need this these days.

Look, chaos is always at the edge of our lives and it is my firm belief that only through presence, our presence, that we can keep it at bay and keep our homes tranquil. I shoot for tranquil every day and some days are far better than others. When chaos is seeming to reign, however, and I find myself reacting instead of being proactive, I know it is "time to clean my room". What does this mean? It was something my mom used to help me learn that I was in control of my life. Whenever things would be feeling crazy and out of control, my mom would tell me, "go clean your room, you'll feel better". Of course, I'd grumble and moan and complain, but I'd do it and, darn it, she was right. I always felt better. No, I didn't save my parent's marriage and I didn't get that 16 year old boy to fall in love with me immediately, nor did I get perfect skin and a flat stomach, but I felt more able to cope with my reality when my environment was in order. It is just that simple. So fast forward 30 years and I'm still using this lesson: When life feels like it is coming at your from too many directions, "clean your room".

Reacting doesn't help me live my priorities with any integrity. Reacting gives me built in excuses as to why things I say matter don't get done. I have to be proactive to make sure that I'm living my priorities rather than just paying lip service to them. If I treat my jobs as "oh, yeah, I meant to get to that" kinds of things, how can I expect my children to treat their jobs as important, as priorities?

What does "clean my room" mean these days? Well, here it is 8:30 on Sunday evening and I'm not scrambling to get the kids' syllabus for the week done. It is already done and printed. I'm not going to fly by the seat of my pants for our dinners this week, either, because our menu plan is done. Finally, I'm not going to feel badly about posting in the evenings because I'll be posting early in the game rather than late. Monday chore day? I've gotten a head start and my sheets are changed and already washed and dried and waiting patiently for me to fold them this evening. Valiant's book for the Adolescent Literature Seminar? Already on order at the library; so we'll get that within a day or so, giving him more than a week to read Grapes of Wrath.

So, for this week, we're planning ahead so that next Saturday, I won't be pulling my hair out and holding on for Sunday. We're living our priorities, meeting our commitments and making no excuses. This week our house will be singing Loverboy's Everybody's Working for the Weekend because we're going to be dialed in and on task. (Hey, what can I say? The 80s were my teenage and young adult years!)

So, head over to Momstheword to see what everyone else is doing as we all join in on Making Your Home Sing Monday.