FAIL!

I don't know if you have ever had one of these weeks, but last week I had one of those weeks where I seemed to get absolutely nothing of value done. It wasn't that I had so many things to do that I just didn't have time for everything-no, instead it was me wasting the precious time I had.

Here's an example. Rather than staying at home Friday afternoon to bake a birthday cake for my mom, I went over to Moline to have lunch with my husband and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. So on Saturday when we went to visit mom and dad, we had to stop in Muscatine and I had to make a run to Wal-Mart (who had no cakes to my liking) and then to HyVee after dropping my husband off at Menards. And let me tell you, Wal-Mart and HyVee are not the places you want to be on a Saturday.

One of the things I try to pray about daily is to be a good steward of my time each day. Well, I felt like I had a major FAIL by the end of the week. I cleaned my house, but not very well. I did the laundry, but not as much as I should have. I went shopping, but I spent too much $.

My Bible study lesson this morning was on the difference between repentance and remorse (comparing Peter and Judas and their respective betrayals). When answering the question on the difference between repentance and remorse, one of the things that I saw was that with remorse (particularly in Judas' case), there was no change that followed. Judas was sorry for what he did, but rather than confessing his sin and turning back to God, he went out and killed himself. He didn't change. He just gave up. He continued to walk away from God and took things into his own hands.

Peter, on the other hand, went out and wept bitterly. Although we don't see it right away, we know Peter will turn back to the Lord and become a powerful influence in spreading the gospel. There's a verse in Luke where Jesus even prays for Peter knowing of his impending denial, that his "faith would not fail," but that after he has turned back, that he would "strengthen (his) brothers."

I may be sorry about the way I spend my time, but am I really sorry enough to change? To bring it to God in confession and prayer? Sorry enough to ask him to help me change my ways?

In light of that, here is my attempt (after confession and prayer) to make the necessary changes to help me be a better steward of my time this week. Since I can be what I like to call a "ditzbrain" at times, it is a big help for me to make lists to help me remember all the things I need to get done. And its great to be able to check things off as finished. At work I used to make lists of things I needed to complete each week and check them off as I got them done-so why not do that at home?

You probably could care less about what's on my list this week, but I'm going to put it here anyway, if nothing else, to help hold me accountable. And for all of you that wonder what a housewife does with her time...:)

Monday:
-Run to Wal-Mart, get milk and cookie cutter to make Easter cookies!
-Do laundry
-Make cookies
-Supper: Sirloin steak and Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday:
-Kev off!
-Get Groceries, Walgreens, CVS
-Put together & send cousins Easter care packages
-Find gift for baby shower
-Work on Dad's Birthday Present (involves lots of spray painting!)
-Supper:
-Baby Shower

Wednesday:
-Finish painting brick in basement
-Supper: leftovers
-Church

Thursday:
-Clean house
-Dust
-Laundry
-Supper: Probably something on the grill

Friday:
-Kev off
-Date Night!

Saturday:
-Make Salsa for Sun

Sunday:
-Easter Breakfast
-Church
-Get together with family

Whew! Now if I can only manage to get all of those things done...