Help
With Your Rule
Making the Best Use of the Summer for My Rule
Dear Holly,
School is over now for my family and I was wondering what hints you might have to help me use the summer to make my rule better? What can I do to make the next school year run more smoothly?
Labels: About a Rule of Life
posted by Holly at 2:39 PM
1 Comments:
Good question.
First, it is time to relax and get out of the stress of your regular schooling. Perhaps a time away for a week in vacation will help you put the year behind you and move on with the future. Make sure you get out in the sun, in nature, and have a more free summer schedule so you can truly re-create.
Next then, I'd move into a thorough purge of my home. Go through every room, remove ALL things that you don't need - have a throw away pile, a give away pile and a store away pile - and totally clean it over the summer. I usually prefer to take a month and just go at it. Also, keep in mind Christian aeseticism which requires that we not have an excess of possessions, but focus on simplicity, balance and "less".
As you go, have a notebook handy to begin to record all your projects and needs and purchase needs as you come upon them while cleaning. I might have a list of things I want to make, like curtains for a room or a bedspread. I might have a list of things to purchase, like storage boxes or a picture for the wall, or clothing needs for the kids. And I also write down things I want to do, things I want to change, or any other idea which comes into my head.
Also, record in each room what chores you want to see done daily and weekly.
Then, have a yard sale, and take the remaining things to a local charity. Using your pages, write out chore charts and have you and the children practice them over the summer so they become second nature. Focusing on keeping the home clean over the summer trains them and you to have real time for school in the fall while having already practiced keeping the home clean.
Make a To-Do list of projects which really should be done now - and set to work on these over the summer. Check them off as you complete them - write down even the littlest things, and check them - it will boost your morale to see so much accomplished.
As you go along with this, begin to set aside at least 3 prayer periods a day. Make your sacramental-life choices a habit - daily Mass or confession bi-weekly. Determine the time for your spiritual reading and practice your faithfulness to this.
Focus on the second P. Work on recipes over the summer that meet the real nutritional needs of your family, as opposed to whim-based junk food eating. Get a regular schedule going for your aerobic training and your strength training. Join a local gym if you can, or, if you are shy, start out with Curves - a special women's gym I found very helpful to break back into the exercise circuit.
Attend to your husband. Give him time and 'practice' giving him time.
If you can get your home de-junked, and your first 3 Ps worked on, you will have much more time in the fall to concentrate on your 4th P - the children - and the responsibilities which come with school, and the return to work, in whatever for this takes.
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