I didn't drop off the face of the earth...

...I promise! Don't you hate it when you follow someone's blog and all of a sudden, after they post on a regular basis, the blogger just falls off the face of the earth and doesn't write anything for months!?!? Well, I stopped blogging for several months, but it has been because I really, really, just haven't had a lot of time. Shortly after my last post, my family went on a 10 day vacation, and shortly after I came home, I started babysitting again. I keep a sweet little girl who is a little bit older than Bethany. Miss E is very sweet, very obedient and easy to get along with. Shortly after Miss E came along, I added two more kiddos to the bunch that I babysit. Mr. J and Mr. J's brother, also Mr. J, added much delight to our spring and summer. One of the boys is 3 and the other is 7. Josiah has loved having the 7 year old around. Seven year old Mr. J has taught Josiah a lot...including how to wrestle and physically fight with others...like the Incredible Hulk...yes, a great part of my summer was spent fussing at these two boys for being too hard and rough on each other. They, I have a little baby I keep every now and then, Mr. T. I have watched him on and off since he was born and now he is starting to toddle around and I am starting to keep him on a more consistent basis. The older Mr. J and Josiah have gone back to school, so I have Bethany plus three other little charges on a regular basis. Soon I will add another 5 year old and his baby sister, a 2 month old to the pack for three afternoons a week. Am I nuts? No, not really, just doing what it takes to be able to stay home with my kids and take care of them, my husband and my home. So, as you can see, I haven't had much time to spend on blogging. I have a purpose in blogging tonight. For the past couple of weeks, I have been convicted of what I consider to be a sin in my life, and that is mis-management of my time. Even though I say I don't have a lot of time, I always seem to find enough time to sit at the computer and spend time answering and writing emails, or sitting on facebook keeping up with friends and family, and basically just dilly-dallying in general. Along with this sitting at the computer and spending too much time on it and not enough time with my family, it seems like all the kids ever want to do is watch movies. We don't have cable TV, but the kids LOVE their movies. I used to only let them watch 30 minutes of movies a day while I worked on dinner, or did other things around the house, but that 30 minutes has morphed into another incredibly terrible waste of time for my kids and the kids I babysit. So, I have been thinking about what I am going to do about this. I think things have been slipping all about me because of this habit I have of spending too much time on the computer. Dinner keeps getting later and later, laundry mountains get higher and higher, and other things just take a second seat, and that is not the way it should be and not the way I want things. So, here is what I am going to do, starting tomorrow. This is NO TV WEEK and NO COMPUTER WEEK in our house [except for Daddy...he can make his own decisions in this area]. Instead of spending time on the computer or in front of the TV, I have made a huge list [a separate one for me and one for the kids] of things we can do. My idea is that when the kids ask me if they can watch a movie, I will remind them this is NO TV week and that we need to find something else to do with our time. I have folded up about 50 different little pieces of paper and on each slip is something we can do instead of wasting time. Some of the kids activities include: ~Sing Silly Songs ~Play with Play-do ~Write a letter to Granny ~Make birthday or holiday cards ~Look for bugs ~Play Simon Says ~Play Mother May I And, these are just a few of the things we will be doing instead of TV this week. Here are a few of the things mommy has been procrastinating over and things I will be doing instead of time on the computer: ~Spend 15 minutes ironing ~Scrub outside of kitchen cabinets ~Read a book for 15 minutes ~Call a family member ~Take church list and pray over church members ~Clean out arts/crafts/preschool cabinet ~Clean out silverware drawer ~Sit down and work on crochet project for 15mins And these are just a few! I came up with 102 different activities for me to choose from. Anytime I find myself gravitating towards the computer and telling myself it would be for just a minute, instead I am going to draw out a folded piece of paper and do what the paper says instead. Now, the only exception I will make to this is that when the kids go to bed at night, if I need some time on the computer, I will take it. Other than that, I will not have any personal time on the computer while the kids are awake. I am pretty excited about this adventure. I am actually hoping that we last longer than a week. I will let you know how it goes. How do YOU manage your time wisely? I would love your helpful hints and advice!