Part 1: Seminary and Babies
Part 2: Seminary and Babies
Part 3: Ways for "Making Time Matter" During Seminary
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During seminary, my time was spent in 3 main ways:
1. I took care of my children.
2. I focused on school.
3. I dug into relationships with friends, family, and church members.
Today's post is a list of confessions. Today I will tell you all the things I did not do during our three and a half years of seminary.
I Did Not:
1. Worry about Money: Between multiple scholarships, tuition was almost entirely taken care of. Also, Mark had savings which meant that neither he nor I had to work full-time. We lived frugally, but we did not stress about money.
2. Cook: Mark took care of this. He's wonderful. My brain could not handle it all. Around year three, I began to meal plan, but the execution was still in Mark's domain.
3. Do Laundry: That's not entirely true. I'm pretty sure I did at least three loads of laundry in those three and a half years. Haha, three times y'all. My husband is a rock star!
4. Exercise Often: I went through spurts, but nothing consistent.
5. Clean Deeply: We picked up most days, but there was not much scrubbing going on. Unless my mother-in-law came to town. Then I'd clean.
6. Keep Samara Everyday: For the last two years, a sweet woman from church kept Julia once a week for me, so that I could either study with one less child or attend class. Amazing!
7. Take Samara on Exciting Adventures: We went on four fun mommy dates total: once to an indoor swim park, once to an indoor play gym, and twice to the Charlotte children's museum. During the week, there were no play groups, no library story time, nothing. We'd go to parks and play outside a lot, but I was not creative or willing to leave the house much.
8. Learn Every Single Point Exactly Perfectly: I did my best to do my best. But at the end of the day, I was a mom. Sometimes schoolwork got neglected. I could not be a perfectionist, and that was ok.
Takeaways for You to Make Time at Home Matter:
This post highlights the concept of priorities. You are able to accomplish that which is important to you. It is clear that I prioritized school over housework. I justified doing so, because I understood that seminary occurred only for a season.
I have friends (moms) who prioritize running, baking bread, and cooking. Others volunteer, knit, and throw parties. The extra time they have in their days, they put towards things they care about.
My hope with this series is not to say, "Look how freakin' awesome I am." Rather, it's to encourage you to think through what it is you care about, and then to try and help you figure out ways to direct well-spent time towards it.
One of the most important ways to do this is to prioritize!
Lesson Learned: Prioritizing means that not everything gets the same amount of attention. Something always has to give.
Finish the Series with Part 5: Reflections on My Children's Experience with Seminary
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