Things out of order
Today I did no business tasks. Instead I spent all day cleaning house, being with kids, cooking meals, planning ways to spend less money, and sewing. These things used to take up all of my time and attention. Lately they’ve only occupied a small fraction. Today I got an up close look at the results of this neglect. Nothing is disastrous, but I can see where I need to be doing better. I’m already planning goals for next year. I’ll make better ones if I look carefully at the things around here that need to be fixed.
Upcoming on this holiday season I was stressed and busy. I planned and orchestrated the necessary holiday chores right along with the business chores. The holiday was another thing to get done. So I accumulated gifts for the kids to give to one another. I then let the kids “go shopping” in the piles of stuff for their siblings. This accomplished the task of putting presents under the tree. Unfortunately it completely failed to teach the kids anything about giving. If you ask Link, Gleek, or Patches what they are giving to others, they can’t remember. They have no emotional connection to what they are giving. The point of Christmas is giving. In my hurry to put gifts under the tree most conveniently, I’ve robbed my children of the heart of the holiday. I’ve robbed them of the chance to hold a gift that they have carefully planned and watch someone else open it with delight. (Kiki is the exception to this. She selected and purchased all of her gifts with her own money and time.) It is too late to fix this Christmas. I think it will still turn out okay, but I want to make sure I do better with this. We have a year’s worth of birthdays coming. This time I will focus my organization energies on assisting my children to plan rather than on acquiring and planning for them.
I spent most of yesterday cleaning and mopping the kitchen. I realized as I wiped down chairs that I was cleaning up pumpkin spatter left over from Halloween. Today I assisted my children in cleaning their rooms. Among the bag of garbage I hauled out were piles of Halloween candy wrappers. I am dismayed that I’ve paid so little attention to cleanliness for almost two months. I am dismayed that at the end of two full days of cleaning there is still so much work to do. I am frightened to think what I’ll discover when I start scouring the bathrooms. I’ve been letting other things slide into the time that is supposed to be devoted to caring for my house. Rather than letting my time and attention be slurped into unnecessary internet surfing, I need to spend them on cleaning and requiring the kids to clean. Today was a much happier day because my kids had two extra rooms with play space in them.
Today I pulled out my big Tightwad Gazette book. Reading it helps me get back into the mindset of making my pennies stretch. I’ve spent the last two months focused on helping to bring in money. I’ll do that some more in the next months. But I’ve been neglecting efforts to make the money last. We have enough to get us through the next book release, but I’d much rather arrive at the next book release with money to spare. I want to pay down our debt on the house. If we can eliminate all the debt, we’ll have so much more freedom. I want to reach a point where I can loan large sums of money to people in need. I want to be able to do it on short notice and not care if I ever get the money back. I can’t count the number of times this year where I knew people in need and wished I had money to spare.
I need to put scripture study back into my days. I need to make my prayers less perfunctory. When I take the time to practice these things that I believe in, the rest of my life is far more balanced and happy. I need to share these things with my children as well, so that they can also benefit from the peace and focus it brings. A small investment of time in this area always makes a huge difference in how I feel about everything else.
The next three days have been declared business free. Hopefully by the end of them I’ll have rebalanced some of these things that have been out of order. Then perhaps I can pick up the business duties again with a better rhythm between the things I need to get done.