So...I'm making progress

We are doing this great program in Relief Society for Enrichment called "The University of Celestial Arts." It is awesome! There is a theme every month and we are supposed to work on a goal or two each month to help us improve in that area. At the end of the year we will get a degree based on how many goals we accomplished over the year. For example, this month is "Time Management." Some of the options are to make a to-do list most days, or go to bed earlier & wake up earlier (yea right), etc....you get the idea.

I chose two goals 1.) complete two projects this month and 2.) schedule in 1 hour of uninterupted kid time each day (I made this goal up because I DESPERATELY need to work on this). It's going great so far. I have completed my two unfinished projects (wahoo!).

First project, I organized my recipes. I got a recipe "box" for mother's day abot 2 years ago and still hadn't compiled all of my recipes. Now I have! Yay!

Second project, I completed the girls baby books. Again, these projects have been unfinished for years. I had pretty much finished First Daughter's, but there were a few pages that I hadn't actually put into the book. Second Daughter's, on the other hand, was only about half finished. Now they are both finished and I don't feel overwhelmed thinking about starting the third when Third Daughter comes. Phew! I have decided on only doing baby books, because the thought of keeping up scrapbooks for the rest of my children's lives absolutely overwhelms me. As you can see, it has taken me almost 4 years to just complete a book containing the first few months of First Daughter's life. Can you imagine how long it would take me to document her entire life?!! I'm not even going to think about it. I think I might start hyperventilating. Baby books are where I'm drawing the line.

The schedulied uninterupted kid time is going well too. I will blog about this when the month is over because until then, the goal isn't officially complete. Let's just say it is doing great things for our family.

There was one goal option in the booklet that was screaming at me to do. It pretty much said to eliminate a time-consuming activity that I could do without. Hello....I KNOW I watch way too much TV. Most of my nights, after kids go to bed, consist of me lying on the couch watching shows on the DVR (another love/hate relationship going on there). I know there are many other ways I could be spending my time that are a way better use of time, but I am just not ready to give that one up. By the end of the day, lying on the couch and watching TV is pretty much all I can handle. Again, I KNOW I should just go to bed, but if I did that I would really feel like I was a mom 24/7. I need some time to unwind and do something brainless and effortless for a while. And in some strange way it helps me feel like I'm still connected to the world (even though it's a completely false, unrealistic, not-really-connected-to-the-world, kind of world. Whatever...). Someday, though, I hope to watch less TV.

The good news, however, is that I am making progress. I officially have given up one of the shows that I have faithfully been watching. One Tree Hill has been eliminated from my scheduled recordings on my DVR {sniff * sniff}. I have been semi-secretly having a love affair with this high school drama for years now, but have decided it is time to grow up and let it go. Like I said, I am making progress. (Even if the decision was based mostly on the fact that too many shows were recording at the same time on Monday nights and I had to prioritize. I know...I'm pathetic...)