Determining How You Should Spend Your Time as a Homemaker

on July 1, 2014 by Jami Balmet 0 comments

This summer I’m being intentional about gaining control of my home and saying goodbye to living in survival mode! One very important step in doing this, is creating a personal priorities list which we developed yesterday. Today, we are going to take that list, and break it down further to really hone in on what activities and things we should be doing each week, and throughout the day.

Determining how you should spend your time as a homemaker

Welcome to the next part of our online book study of Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. It’s not too late to jump in and join the fun! You can read the introduction and see the full schedule of topics for the next 10 weeks. Or jump in with today’s discussion!

This week we kick off chapter 2 of Say Goodbye to Survival Mode (I highly encourage you to get a copy of this book, but you can still follow along without it). Now we are going to really get into the practical parts of the book. If you haven’t developed your personal priorities list yet, go back and do that before moving on to today’s challenge.

What Is Best for Your Family?

In developing our own personal proprieties list, it was important to remember that my list won’t look like your list, and your list won’t look like your sister’s list, your neighbor’s list, or your best friend’s list. Keep that in mind today we we break down our priorities further into bite sized pieces – don’t try to shape a life that you think you should have or try to be someone else. Be honest with yourself and determine what is best for your family, not someone elses.

This can be really hard to determine. So make sure that you wrangle your husband into this too. Jot down your priorities and thoughts, and get your husband’s perspective. He might have some really good insight into what you can realistically accomplish in a day, a week, or a year. But be open to listen to what he has to really say.

Basically, we are going to take take our large over-arching life priorities, and break them down into actionable, daily pieces. For example, if you want to have a strong, vibrant relationship with God then what are the daily and weekly things that you need to do to make that happen. I.e. Bible study time every day, reading Gospel-Centered books, prayer by myself, prayer with my husband, ect.

Here’s my personal priorities list (go back here to create your own and then come back to break it down). I’ve broken it down further into small, bite-sized pieces so that I can really get a grasp on what I need to make priorities each day.

Please note: I’m sharing my priorities with you so you can see a framework of how to do this yourself! Really think through YOUR priories and what is important to you and your family.

Click here to learn how to develop a list of your best things for this season of life!

1) Always maintain a strong, deep, and vibrant relationship with the Lord

My relationship with God is my number one priority. I am a Christ-follower first and this effects all areas and decisions in my life. I will nurture my relationship with the Lord with daily Bible study time that needs to be my #1 priority in the morning. I will also read one chapter of a Gospel-Centered book each day and focus on prayer throughout the day. Regularly attend church and serve during Sunday school teaching children’s church with my husband. Meet with our home group twice a month.

2) Purposefully and passionately pursue my husband

After God, my husband comes next. I want to always make sure he feels like my best friend and my biggest earthly priority (even when my physical attention has to be on crying babies or dirty diapers). Spend 10 focused minutes with him when he first get’s home from work. Go out on a date twice a month. Read one chapter of our book together before bed every night. Take the time to work through arguments and disagreements. Never go to bed angry.

3) Pursue Christ-Centered Parenting

As my twins approach their second birthday, I feel like parenting is only really just beginning. I want to make sure that I am diligently teaching and modeling Christ to my kids. I want to instill in them strong self-discipline. In addition to growing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, I want to spend quality time with them each day. I will spend at least 30 minutes on the ground playing with them. We will read them stories each night before bed and pray together before we put them down. As they get older, spend 15 minutes of one on one talking time with each child each day.

4) Craft a healthy home for my family

Crafting a natural home is very important to me. I need to take care of myself so that I have the stamina and the energy to care for a busy household and serve the Lord. I want to weekly encourage my husband, my kids as they get older, and myself to always be active and exercising. I cook almost all of our food from scratch, 3 meals a day. Continue taking baby steps to switch out harmful chemicals, toxins, and products from our home and convert to more natural options. Continually be nurturing my homemaking skills so that I can craft a healthy home for my family.

5) Write and manage my blog

While my blog has become an important source of income for my family, it is first and foremost a ministry to women. I will be disciplined in posting 3 – 5 times a week on my blog as well as interacting with my community on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. I will constantly re-evaluate my content to make sure that I am providing Gospel-Centered content as well as helpful homemaking articles. I will daily seek God’s direction for my blog and be sensitive to his leading.

If you are having trouble coming up with daily tasks, make sure that you are really focusing on what your family needs. I love this quote from the book:

Have you spent too much time trying to be domestic, artistic, creative, organized, or poetic as your best friend or sister instead of appreciating and focusing on your natural gifts? How does it make you feel when you can’t measure up to someone else’s innate abilities? What are some of your talents that you can start using instead of trying to mimic someone else’s? Write down your answers, and use them to help you get and stay focused on your God-given gifts and talents”. – Crystal Paine, pg 30.

Next, we are going to take these bite-sized tasks that are important to us, and actually create a daily and weekly schedule for doing them! Join us on Thursday for crafting our daily schedules.

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