A Paradigm Shift - Part 1

Interestingly enough, I've recently been challenged to rethink a couple of ideas I simply assumed to be true. First, I read Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters. I requested it on PaperBackSwap ages ago and so can't even remember the life events that precipitated me thinking I needed the book. In any case, when it arrived I rolled my eyes at the sub-title, "How to Do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed." Uh...yeah...right. Another book that promises the moon. I've an entire bookshelf lined with those books, so what's one more for the collection? Seriously, if the books on my shelves delivered all that I thought they would, I'd be the perfect wife, have an immaculate house, the laundry would always be caught up, perfectly well behaved children who all achieve National Merit Scholar status would live in my house, in addition to me being thin and svelte. So, why not read this one too. Really, it can't hurt to read it and...well...I'm a sucker for that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so I starting plotting when I could squeeze it into my schedule.

In a moment of weakness over spring break, I took the younger girls to the beach (not my fav place to share with 3 million people) and thought I'd zoom through the short book before relegating it to the bookshelf....or the most drastic fate at book can meet at our house - that of being re-swapped at PBS.com. Beach weather was perfect and I devoured the book.

Not only is it NOT getting re-swapped just yet, I'm actually implementing many ideas from the book and am only on tip 2 of the 5 suggested for "finding more time". What ARE tip one and two that I have faithfully implemented you ask? Well...let's just say it involves an alarm clock and copious amounts of caffeine (at least initially). Yep...that's right. I'm getting up early...me...the night owl who relishes every moment of stillness after all the kids are in bed is getting up at 5am (or 5:30am depending on how early I can get in bed) and having a quiet time with the Lord. It's amazing really. After so many years of KNOWING my best hours of sleep come between 4am and 7am, this is a real paradigm shift.

My second challenge has come from my dear friend over at Pleasing to You who has just completed a series entitled Anti-Balance with this cute little tag line, "living lopsided and loving it". Hop on over and check it out. In my next few posts, I'll share more about my new routine...both the up side and the down side...as well as some thoughts on "lopsided living".