Mommy needs a time-out.

Ok, you guys, I've heard this come up in conversation among my friends a couple times recently so I'm guessing that a blog post on the topic won't be useful to just me. We'll see. 

Here's the deal. Day after day, I have to remind my children that they need to clean up their rooms, put their things away, work on their lessons, etc. before getting into their iThings. However, while mommy blogs away, facebooks, tweets, pins, and photographs and her room remains in disarray and the dirty clothes piles grow taller than the two-year-old. For the longest time, I thought "this is my outlet." We don't socialize much without our kids in tow, so I kind of wrote off these little visits to the interwebs as "me time" (I really dislike that term, btw). When my frustration increased about the pile of dishes or the load of clothes waiting to be folded, I remembered something. If it doesn't get done, it's because I'm not doing my job. That's right, I said my job. If I worked an 8-5 and let my projects fall behind, I'd get fired. So, why should homemaking be any different? My work needs to glorify God no matter where I am! Just because I don't punch a clock doesn't give me an excuse to slack. While God can most certainly be glorified by things of the interwebs (including time spent researching (aka pinning) homemaking ideas), it's often time wasted. So, with those thoughts, I've changed the way I do things around here.

I'm not an award-winning housekeeper by any means (in fact, it's one of those things I have prayed to have a better heart for!), but I try to set some limits for myself. I make sure my urgent tasks are done (obviously, laundry will never be done unless someone goes naked. The dishes will never all be sparkling and put away), but I make sure that we're pretty presentable at a moment's notice and the main things are finished before I get lost in the interwebs. Just like I have our Kindergardener trade 20 minutes of reading time for 30 minutes of screen time, I allow myself a Facebook break once XYZ (usually laundry and dishes) are done.

Even if you're a domestic misfit, like me, that doesn't excuse you from taking care of your home and your family before doing other things. I am one of the biggest mess-makers I know. I could write it off as a right-brainer thing; a left-hander thing; an only-child thing; a tired-mom thing, but all-in-all, it's a heart thing; it's a spiritual thing; it's a faith thing; it's an example to my children thing; it's a Titus 2 thing and a Proverbs 31 thing; it's a discipling thing. It's something I need to work on, pray about and will hopefully get better at. And, it's something that I must do to glorify God and to be a good example to my children. Even if I'm not good at it. It's important. So, go on and x-out of this screen and get to work. That's where I'm headed.

Proverbs 22:6 ~  Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

PS. This post is listed on the Time Warp Wife's Titus2sday blog link-up. Please head over to Darlene's site to check out all of the awesome blogs linked up today!