Taking A Weekly Planning & Prayer Retreat

Towards the end of 2010, I had become really discouraged and frustrated.  I felt like everything was chaotic, my house was a mess, and I had no time to do what needed to be done.  At first, I felt like I was missing balance, which I still think is true to some degree.  However, I am a goal person.  I do good with to-do lists and check boxes.  It makes me feel accomplished.  I'm a list person.  I'm the type of person who has post-it notes everywhere on top of my to-do lists, but they are used to rank what needs to be done by topic or importance.  It helps me to plan.  Yeah, I'm that kind of person.  My roommates used to laugh at me because of it, but when my to-do list was complete (even if I added in everything I had done that was not on my list), I felt a sense of accomplishment.  When it isn't, though, there's frustration.

In my quest to find a way for me to deal with this perfection side of me, I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs.  She takes a weekly planning and prayer retreat.  I'm thinking of trying it.  I think if I can have some uninterrupted time just to plan my week and to gather my thoughts, then I'll be better.  I'll have a sense of what needs to be done, what's important, and what's better left until later....like when the kids are out of the house!  With the house about to hit the market in a little over a month, I think I might need it even more for fear that I go crazy with all that needs to be done and the constant cleaning (which makes me irritable because I clean the same spots so many times) that will be carried out. 

I'll be sure to let you know if this helps or not.  I'm looking forward to doing something that will help me return to some sense of normal.  I feel like I've been all out of sorts after throwing in a second child.  I just keep remembering what my nurse said while I was in labor....2 kicked her butt, so she figured why not go ahead and have 3 and 4!  Ironically, that's encouraging to me.