Daily Stay-At-Home-Mom Schedule

Lately I've been really frazzled. Ever since Emma turned 1, she decided to completely change the daily routine we comfortably had for months. It's taken me a while to get back into a good groove, though there are some days where I feel nothing gets accomplished on time - or at all. That being said, here is how our new daily schedule looks like (that I will try my best to maintain):

8:30 a.m. - Emma wakes up. We have breakfast.

9 a.m. - We get ready for the day. This includes bath time, brushing our hair and teeth, getting dressed, etc.

10 a.m. - I clean up the apartment as best as I can while Emma follows me around and "helps" (aka, throws a bunch of things back onto the floor).

10:30 a.m. - Story time and sing-a-long time. Emma loves when I read and sing to her! It's also snack time.

11:30 a.m. - I prep lunch while Emma plays (whether it's structured or self-led).

12 p.m. - Phil comes home for lunch.

1 p.m. - Nap time (hopefully). Emma tries to fight taking naps as much as possible, so this period of time is really iffy. But, when she does fall asleep, I have some me time where I can go through my emails, pay bills, set up necessary appointments, read, etc.

3 p.m. - Phil comes home from work for the day. This is when I go to the gym in my apartment complex and work out while Emma gets some quality time with her daddy.

4 p.m. - Snack time. We just chill as a family (Netflix may or may not be involved) and catch up on how our day went.

6:30 p.m. - Dinner time. Phil is usually in charge of it - yay!

7 p.m. - Phil relaxes and Emma plays while I tidy up (by doing the dishes or finishing up the laundry for the day). On Mondays, this is when we have Family Home Evening. Otherwise, we use this time to play games, watch a show, relax, etc.

9:30 p.m. - Emma has never been one to go to bed early like everyone else her age. She hangs out with us as we read scriptures, have family prayer, and get ready for bed.

10 p.m. - Lights out!

Hopefully, I'm doing things right at this point. I'm trying my best! What does your daily schedule with your child(ren) look like?

Improving Sabbath Day Observance

About a month ago, the bishop in my ward talked about how church leaders were counseled in recent leadership training meetings to encourage members to improve keeping the Sabbath day holy. One way our ward has striven to do this is to have a child in Primary stand before the congregation with their arms folded before Sacrament begins. They act as an example of what reverence should look like for those walking in and a reminder that we want to invite the Spirit into our day.

For those who want to hear more about this announcement, you can find it here.  

Personally, this was a bit of a wake-up call. Though I know better than to shop on Sunday or go out and spend money for other entertainment purposes, typically when we get home from church, we act like it’s any other day. Phil plays his video games, I browse the Internet, and Emma plays with her toys. We’re together, but we’re not together. We’re all doing our own thing and not really thinking about anyone else. That’s not exactly Christ-like.

Sunday should be all about the family and service, and I realized that I wasn’t focusing on that. So, I looked up ways on how to keep the Sabbath day holy. I found this awesome list of suggestions here. 

Some suggestions from the list include:

• Going home/visiting teaching
• Reading church magazines (Ensign, New Era, Friend, etc.)
• Planning the next FHE lesson
• Skyping with family who live far away
• Visiting the temple grounds with your family
• Having the ward missionaries over or writing to a missionary
• Watching a church video together (Meet The Mormons is on Netflix now!)
• Updating the family blog
• Making a meal for the sick or elderly

To make more time to be with loved ones, make a crockpot or freezer meal so you’re not spending so much time in the kitchen, and get all the cleaning done on Saturday - or wait until Monday - so you’re not distracted with a messy home. It’s going to be an adjustment, but we’re slowly working on it. I know this will improve our relationship with our Heavenly Father, as well as with family and friends.

How do you observe the Sabbath Day?

    

New Year Resolutions 2015

It's a new year, which means kicking things off with a clean slate! I, for one, am terrible when it comes to keeping new year resolutions, but I do enjoy writing them down anyway! I had such a good year last year - with moving to the Sacramento area, celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary, and having my first child - and I hope that this year will be even better.

While I don't have any huge goals I want to accomplish this year, there are so many little tweaks I would like to adjust in my life to become a better person in general. And I think sharing these little tweaks of mine can help keep me accountable for them. So without further ado:

Becky's 2015 New Year Resolutions

• Marriage - Our marriage is pretty wonderful, actually. But, with Emma in our lives now, the focus has constantly been on her and barely on each other. I would like to make it more balanced this year, and I am going to do that by following the love calendars by the Dating Divas! It's so easy - once a day you just do or say one kind thing for your spouse. And on Fridays, you go on dates - whether it's out and about or free at home. I love how they have these daily suggestions for a full year! I think it will do wonders for our relationship!

(I know this is from last year, but it still applies! Find more at www.datingdivas.com.)

• Finances - Last year, we successfully met our goal to stop using credit cards. But, we still have a long way to go. We are still in a lot of debt, we have no savings, and some of our bills are going up, so we need to review our budget and see what we can change or cut. Thankfully, we have a couple of resources that will be so helpful in achieving these goals. Have you heard of Dave Ramsey, the financial guru? Apparently, he is amazing and his advice really works! So we are going to be following the plan below:

 Another resource we have found are the finances calculators on www.providentliving.org. (There are 15 different ones!) According to this calculator even if we stuck to paying the minimum each month, then snowballed the payments (after paying off one debt, put the payment you would have used on said debt on top of the payment of the next debt), we would be completely debt free in less than 5 years - and that is including Phil's student loans. After we have paid off all our debt, if we put the money we were using towards the debt into a savings account every month, we would have enough money for a down payment on a house after another 5 years. And, boy, am I ready to settle down in a house! Obviously, this resolution isn't going to be completed in one year, but the plan is to at least set up the emergency fund and pay off one (if not two) credit cards.

• Church - We currently live in an amazing ward and, for the most part, are very involved. But, there is so much that we can improve on. A big one for me is going visiting teaching. I had only done it once last year. Being a full tithe payer is another (need to work it in our budget a lot better). I would also like to be more active in volunteering in the ward - whether it's to read a scripture aloud in Sunday School, pray in Relief Society, or make dinner for the missionaries. There is always something more I can contribute in the ward. And, of course, I can always improve at home too. Such as having Family Home Evening every week (even if it isn't on a Monday night!), and having daily scripture reading and prayer with Phil.

Suggestions on how to the accomplish the above goals are appreciated - and I hope that the listed resources will help you out too! But, enough about me, though - What are YOUR New Year resolutions???