Thoughts and goals

I was thinking about the article I read for my last post and pondering on some of my own "idols" that get in the way of my being happy and serving my family better. I think that my own personal idols are mostly my television shows and idleness. I'm hoping the utter lack of motivation is mostly pregnancy related and will go away once we've established our lives with a new baby. But lately I will have one good day and then a whole string of really bad do nothing days. This bothers me a lot. I think that these two things - lack of motivation and my television watching are linked. If I can change my behavior and stop watching so much afternoon television and get past the "If I have to do anything productive right now I'm going to cry" hump I might do better.

Some things that have been hurting with my lack of motivation and extraneous television viewing:

• Chores are not getting done like they should be. My house is a mess.
• I get irritable with the kids.
• I'm not preschooling Samantha like I'd planned.
• I'm not getting the exercise I was hoping to.
• My head hurts most days and always starts with tension in my shoulders - probably due to my stressing out about the things I'm not getting done.
• There are house projects that I can get going but I don't have the time because I am always trying to catch up on chores that weren't getting done.
• I get irritable with Alan when he is too busy to help out too.
• Visiting teaching isn't getting done.
• I'm not serving my family like I should be.

Yeah, um, I am not doing well. I have been feeling lately like I've been drifting and not really getting anywhere. This is the reason why I started this blog in the first place.

So, some goals. If my morning is filled with things other than chores I really need to use my afternoon for chores. I need to pay attention to visiting teaching and most importantly to my family and how I can better serve them.

So I will NOT watch telelvision in the afternoon. That is the main thing. TV goes off for me between lunch and kids bedtime. (And I am not going to fill that time with a nap unless it is desperately needed.)
Instead :

• I'll do unfinished chores
• read to my girls
• do some preschooling
• work on other personal things that I want to do that are productive i.e. blog entries, finances, learning the guitar, craft/sewing projects etc.
• I'll make an effort to pick up some of the slack for Alan so he can spend time with us or help with a house project when he is home.
• I'll look for more ways to serve my family and not be so irritable with them.
• I'll find ways to work through my unmotivation and find something good to do.

One last thing. I think the thing that will help me the most is if I ask myself this question each day:

What can I do today that will best serve my family?

And then follow through with the answer.