Monday, February 4, 2008

Confessions of A Christian Working Mom Part 3: Prioritizing and Balancing

Note: make sure you click on the link at the end of the post, for fun :)

Because time is so important as we strive to balance family (that includes marriage and parenting) and work, life seems to be a constant quest on making sure I am prioritizing correctly everyday.

For example, yesterday was Superbowl Sunday. In my mind, its a perfect day for me to do my chores while hubby watch the football with our friends. But when hubby asked if I would watch him and I said I wasn't planning on it, he said he'd really enjoy it if I watch it with him. Then I remember how Dr. Harley in his book "His Needs, Her Needs" mentioned that "recreational companionship" is among the top 5 needs of husbands."

And so I said, ok, I'll watch it with him. It would have been easier to watch it at home with him while I fold laundry at the same time, but we don't have cable in the house so we have to watch it with our friends on their house. And watching it with friends is actually so much better. And since we're watching it with friends, we also decided to do a potluck lunch so (sort of cook-out but not out because we're in watching :). And so most of the the day were spent enjoying the "recreational companionship" while the laundry, the dishes, the clutter wait in line at home, waiting to be on top of the priority to actually get done.

At the end of the day, after the Superbowl is over and we're back home, I again was confronted with another decision: do chores or exercise? You see one of my goals is to do regular exercise... I guess I could probably be jogging in place while washing the dishes (ha!) but really, I don't want to multi-task that way (can you imagine someone doing that?). And so "exercise" went on top of laundry in my priority that night. I hopped on the treadmill and exercised while "folding the laundry" wait in line.

After exercise, and shower, I was able to squeeze "washing the dishes" in the priority (on top of folding the laundry), then another decision making comes around 10 PM - sleep or blog? (folding laundry didn't make it to the list) I need sleep, I want to blog. Sleep won because I know that I'd be waking up at 4AM the next day therefore I can blog the next day.

Now it's morning and I'm blogging (forget folding the laundry). Another important priority question for today, Monday: go to work or stay at home? well... you know what will be on top of the priority today :(

And so again, "folding the laundry" has to wait....



RELATED POST: The Laundry

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Priorities are so hard!! I am constantly re-evaluating my to-do lists too.

BTW, stop by my blog when you get a chance. I gave you an award!!

Kathryn & John said...

Did you have fun with your husband? Do you feel better after exercising? Good. Then you made the right decisions.

Katrina said...

I think you did a good job choosing your priorities--people before things, always! (Besides, laundry will always be there, and it doesn't hurt anyone to have to rifle through the basket for clean clothes once in a while!)