Time for Reflection

     Lent has passed.  It seemed to come on slowly and then whoosh, it was here and Christ's death and resurrection were here.  I drank tea for the first time in ....forever.  Well, if truth be told I actually went to a party during this time and fixed a glass of tea out of habit and drank a sip and then realized it and poured it out.  Then one day I went to Chic fila and did the same thing.  This time.....I admit it....I finished the cup.  Yup, I did so I DID have tea during this time period (actually started on January 15), but it was not my intent.

     Now with regards to the family.  This didn't work so well.  I am still trying to decide how I could have done this differently.  How I could I motivate without nagging.  I put up signs and gently reminded.  I wrote it on the fridge and on the blackboard.  I sometimes made a "Pharisee worthy" show of what I was doing.  They really just ignored me.  The first 5 days went well.  Well, with regards to our goals, not memory verses. Colin is the only one who stuck that out for 8 days.  They all worked on clothing.  Then possessions came and Caroline and Colin did it and well, me, but that was it.  We had to rearrange certain goals due to things that were going on with our lives.  We realized we had put media during spring break and that wasn't fair (or was it?).  I mean really sacrifice is sacrifice, BUT I felt like maybe I shouldn't push too hard since this was MY conviction and not theirs.  The one that really flopped and I am most disappointed in is the encouragement of other people through notes.  I think this is so important and we have such a great thing with https://www.sendoutcards.com/storefront/locke/contact/ that makes it not only cheap, but easy and yet all of us failed!  What?  Why?  I don't know.  REAL letters can mean so much and yet we failed.  Just one card a day for 5 days.  Why was that so hard? All we had to do was go to the site, pick a card and send it!

    What I have learned is that YES I do a lot of things in a given day.  I have 6 children, but overall I am not as efficient as I need to be or as focused.  I know, I know....how focused can a mother of 6 be when 3 are little bitty?  Well, more focused than me.  I also feel lazy.  I put off big things.  I can do the laundry...almost. I can get dinner, most of the time.  I can keep the house slightly above chaos, but what about keeping school work graded timely.?  What about notes of encouragement for others?  Some things are well planned ahead and yet some are not.  Where is the balance? I am not beating myself up.  I am just really trying to see where I need to stretch.  Getting up earlier is a great need and I failed at that.  Man, I love to sleep!  Really love to sleep.  If I would just go to bed before midnight then I could make it up before 7, but that is just not happening.  My problem is that I LOVE to read and I find it hard to put that book down to go to sleep.  I go to bed, but then I read.  I used to read lots of blogs, but I seldom have time for that because I am reading things like "7" or just random books.  Not that reading "7" was wrong, but I needed more time to swallow it and I knew that. 

     I know all of us have areas that we are better at than others, for me, I need a better balance. I want to do more things ON PURPOSE and not sudden.  This has been a great lesson and has greatly changed things here in our house, but I want more, more for my Jesus, more for my family and more for others who need us to be there for them, some of those mere strangers.