Oh boy, I don't even like my mother seeing my living room looking like this, and here I am posting it on the internet! Anyway, I'll be just a hair busy this weekend getting all this stuff sorted for a yard sale on Saturday.  Happy weekend, everyone!
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 As you may remember, I haven't been feeling too well lately. As a result, I have sort of fallen off the Anti-Procrastination bandwagon. I have been trying to just keep up with the basics around the house and haven't had enough energy to do anything extra. However, I have been feeling a tiny bit better, and I'm trying to ease myself back into the ballgame of completing my Anti-Procrastination tasks every day. I definitely haven't done anything big, but at least I've been doing something.  Â
So if I've been working on stuff, then why haven't you seen me posting my daily challenges here? Ummm….I have an excuse. You know, since I haven't been feeling well, I have had to take naps during the afternoons instead of blogging. After I went for a while without blogging, I just didn't know where to start to get back into it. So…I procrastinated. Waiting never helps things get any easier, though. So I'm here today just to get started.
Have you ever gotten out of a habit for some reason or another, and then never got back into it because you just didn't know where to start? Is there something right now that you need to just start, whether for the first time or something that you need to get back into?
Just start.
And hey, it won't hurt my feelings if you leave me a comment either. 🙂    Â
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Monday mornings normally dawn with my house in disarray, my eyelids heavy, and my kids grouchy. I love Sundays, but they can take a little bit of a toll on my house. My husband and I try to get up early enough to have breakfast together as a family, get ourselves and three little ones dressed for church, and leave early enough to make sure our responsibilities as Sunday School director and pianist respectively are taken care of. In our wake is normally a trail of pajamas, outfits that didn't work out, dirty breakfast dishes, and miscellaneous articles the kids got out behind our backs. We come home to a quick lunch, determined to straighten up before naptime, but end up crashing and leaving even more dishes to be done. After a short nap, we all get ready again for choir practice and evening service. After the service we usually spend time fellowshipping and/or practicing music. On our way home we often swing by the store to pick up bread or milk for the week. By the time we get home it's getting late and there are hungry mouths to feed, little clothes to change, and a mess that is still staring at me as I add yet more dishes to the pile. Any notions I may have had about cleaning up before bed are quickly fleeing as my eyelids struggle to remain open.
Monday arrives with my engine struggling to start, but I know I've got to get things under control as soon as possible.
So here's what I do.
I start in the easiest room, which is usually the bedroom. I set a timer for 5 minutes and start straightening up as fast as I can. I get the kids involved and send them on errands. “Go put this in the trash can. Hurry! Put this in the hamper. We have to get done before the timer dings!” They enjoy racing the timer, and it definitely helps me go faster too. By starting in the easiest room I get to see immediate progress which encourages me to keep at it. When the timer dings I move on to the next room. I spend five minutes in each room, and I am usually surprised to find that every room gets clean in that amount of time. The kitchen usually takes longer, but it doesn't bother me too much because the rest of the house is already clean by then!
In less than an hour my house goes from looking well nigh hopeless to completely clean! It's definitely an encouraging way to start off my week. When I try things any other way I end up discouraged and walking around in circles.  Â
So that's how Mondays usually start at my house.
How do you survive Mondays? Do you have any tips we should know about? Please, leave a comment!
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If you are my mother, I'm sorry, but you have to stop reading now unless you're reading this after Mother's Day.
For the rest of you, scroll down to see what my kids made their Grandmothers for Mother's Day!
These are handprint flowers that were so easy to make, but the kids had a blast! They got to use paint, markers, scissors, and glue! It doesn't get much better than that for a kid!
First I had them paint a popsicle stick with green paint. I love the little tongue sticking out!
He's really starting to get coordinated.
Then I traced their hands on construction paper, cut them out, and had them decorate them with markers.
I decided to lay down newspaper after the first couple minutes. I thought these were washable markers, but apparently they weren't. Thankfully a Magic Eraser took the stains off the table. The kids' hands still don't look too pretty, though!
When they were finished, we glued the hands to the popsicle sticks, then cut out some leaves and glued those on too. I hot glued magnets to the back and we were done.
I love the green lips!
We also printed off these questionnaires from The Crafting Chicks. I asked the kids the questions and they told me their answers. I had so much fun with this, and I know their grandmothers will love it. The answers were hilarious! They will absolutely love their ages and weights! Oh, and I found out that grandmothers secretly love to eat cupcakes!
Have you finished your Mother's Day projects yet? Did you make anything fun or buy anything special?
I haven't been posting a lot of new challenges lately. Honestly, I haven't really been doing any. I have about a bazillion shortish longish term goals that I'm chipping away at every day, so I'm counting any work I do on those as my Anti-Procrastination task for the day. I just haven't had time to work on any specific finishable task. I haven't really even had much time to sleep. I know this sounds like more excuses, but I promise it's not this time. In fact, I've been running on too little sleep long enough.
My Anti-Procrastination challenge for the day is to go take a nap! I've been concentrating so hard on getting these things done, plus running a household and taking care of three children, that I just need to stop and take a break.
Go do the same if you need to. Or maybe sitting down and reading blogs is your break. Either way, rest a while if you need to so you'll have more energy to get back up and get back at it!
I don't know if this post is even coherent; I'm just plumb tarred. (That would be “tired”, but my southern accent really comes out when I'm “tarred”.)
So that's all for now, folks. I'm outta here while the little ones are sleeping…or are at least in their bedrooms…not sure what they're actually doing…ignorance is bliss…for a while anyway.
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