the balancing act

This post is on balancing.
Balancing all the many things in our lives.
Everything takes time. Everything should have it's own time. And we all have many, many things going on.

If things get out of balance, then something can get neglected or deleted completely from our daily schedule, which can mean a great disaster depending on what it is.

Every home and family is special and unique. Each one of us has something different going on from the next, either different needs, or different interests and so on. Some of us live in in the country with animals and gardens, some on big farms and ranches with lots of work to do, and others in town with only a tiny yard to tend. Some of us have large families, and some only a couple children. Some of us have just little children, some have teens only, and others have both teens and littles.
So that means every home has it's own set of things to balance. Their own set of priorities.
Some things of course will take longer than others. But just the same I feel everything needs a right balance.

This is our basic balance of things at our house.


School of course takes the most time in a day, at least 4 to 6 hr.s ( less for only a preschooler or K student)
Music practice takes from 15 to 30 min.
Family devotions take 15 to 30 min. or longer either once or twice a day.
Night time stories and bed time prayers, 15 to 25 min.
Dishes and after meal clean up probably 25 to 20 min.
Meal preparation, 30 min. to and hr. or more, each meal.
Extra reading practice , about 15 min.
Laundry, though it is not always done daily can take an hour or more.
A craft, maybe 30min. to an hr.
Odd chores around the house ( sweeping, vacuuming, picking-up, ect..), anywhere from 5 to 25 min.
Sports and other outside-the-home activities-- at this point we don't do any thing at all in that area.
Of course there is free time, fun reading time, game time, time for writing letters, and so on.
My kids are not using the computer for anything yet so there is no time slot for them for that. As for my self i try to keep it to a very moderate time for my blogging, e-mailing, and face book. ( blogging is done about weekly)
Time for animal chores -- though all my parents have is chickens, so that only takes a few mintues.
Summer time of course brings a whole new schedule, no school. But then comes gardening, and out door work . And various other out- door activities. Around here at my Dad and Moms there is great abundance for the kids to do.

Everything has it's right balance of time in our home, and our days run smoothly. Not to hectic, yet full , well rounded, and interesting. What we don't get done one day, we make up for the next.
The things that i make sure is concrete in every day is devotion time, and night time stories & prayers for my kids. NOTHING gets in the way of that!!

Something i would never care to balance into my day is a 1 or 2 hr. movie. Hardly nothing else takes that long in my day ( expect for school of course) ,so why should something useless like that take up so much time.
If a movie would only take 15 to say 30 min. max, as long as most of the other things in our day, then i may not mind so much. We maybe would even fit that in to our week at least once. ( providing it was good and wholesome)

Dear moms i urge you not to try to cram to much in your days and lives. Life can just get way too hectic and out of of balance if we try to do to much. And you know what, God does not expect that of us. In fact if you analyze most of things we try to do, i bet most of them will fall under the list of things that God does not expect of us, require of us, nor even want us to do.

And another thing God wants us to have our rest. I don't believe he wants or expects us to stay up way late at night trying to cram in more things in a day, or to have to rise ridiculously early to get a jump on the day.
Also He has blessed us with a weekly rest day. The day he created at the beginning of time, the Sabbath day. A day to put all work and other actives aside. A day to just rest and worship. He knew we needed this one day of rest each week, so He made it just for us. How very special is that! So take advantage of it, and use it just for that: rest, relaxation, enjoying your family, worshiping together. You will be blessed for it!

Well i will bring this to a close. I feel somehow that it is a bit jumbled and maybe even a bit incomplete, and am sorry if it is. I had great things on my mind i wanted to share, but then when it comes to writing it down, i fear i do not do to well.
But i hope you have found it a blessing and encouragement just the same.
Remember i love your comments!

Until next time,
In Him, Mae