Needing some changes in my life: challenge ahead.

Since getting married, pregnant and having a baby all within a year of each other isn't enough change in my life, I've realized there are some other changes that need to take place in my life as well. HA! Good luck, you might say. And right you may be, however, this is a true statement in my life. I am tired of living the disorganized, cluttered, frustrating, broke, tired life I live! I feel like I do, do, do but never get anything done and get even more behind in everything! It's frustrating! To add to the difficulty of living the life I would like to live, I now have a newborn baby to take care of. Just so we're straight on something: I'm NOT complaining about having my beautiful baby girl. I love her to pieces and am thrilled to have her. The fact of the matter is, once the baby is here, your schedule revolves around her eating and sleeping and pooping, and for us lately, crying...for no apparent reason. 

So here are some things I'm going to be working on over the next several weeks, or better, months. Yes, it will probably take months to make all the changes I want to make. Here is my list, some are in order of importance but it probably won't really follow that order because I'm pretty scatter-brained right now:

• Have my quiet/devotional time everyday - not just randomly. I'm starting a women's Bible study at my church that will be meeting on a weekly basis and I'm hoping this will jump-start me in this category. If this part of your life is being taken care of, I really do believe that the rest falls in place much easier.
• Begin cooking more and eating out less. This one I am very excited about because a great friend and co-worker of mine, Sabrina, referred me to Dave Ramsey's website (he is AWESOME) where he has a link to e-mealz which is a meal-planning program. You pay $5 a month to have a 5 meal menu emailed to you with an exact grocery list for easy shopping. What's best is that these 5 meals are guaranteed to only cost you $35-$40 if you follow the shopping list and buy the store brand stuff on as much as you can. This week will be my first week using this. I will expound on this a little more on another post because I really think this is a great system for first time moms, busy wives, families who are on a tight budget or anyone who wants to start cooking more and doesn't know exactly how to start that. I'll include a link to it on my exclusive post as well. We had chicken-nacho soup today and it was SUPER easy and delicious.
• Get on track with my bills!!! I feel like I'm always 10 steps behind on paying my bills. There are some that I never forget to pay and am always on time with (rent, and anything that I have automatic payments set up for). But the rest, I will completely forget about and then only remember on the day it's due or several days later. Then there is the whole issue of random bills popping up every month that weren't set in our "budget"; if you can even call what we have a budget. I'm also going to post more about this later. I am so frustrated with our bills and how unorganized I've been with keeping track of them. I have to come up with a better system...and a better budget. 
• Open a savings account for vacation planning and for Brooklyn's future.  I really want to have a set amount of money set aside for a good family vacation next summer. Waylon and I really need one and have not been able to take one. Our honeymoon wasn't even that relaxing because it was so short (due to not having anything saved up for it) and so busy. We want to go to Destin, FL next year and be able to spend 7 days and 6 nights. We need to start saving now. I also want to start setting money aside for Brooklyn's future. I want to have some money for her first car, college, wedding...etc. I don't want to be unprepared for those times in her life. This doesn't mean that I don't want her to work for these things; I just want us as her parents to be able to help her out.
• De-clutter my house! This task is the one that I think would take months to do. I mean, seriously...this house has some big time clutter and its going to take some major time and effort to get this done. Still, it's a goal I'm setting for myself. We are going to make a list of things we can sell on Craig's List. One of those things will be my wedding dress. It's sad to think of selling it, however, it's just taking a lot of space up in my parent's spare closet and that's a good chunk of change I could use to pay of some debt. There's a lot more I would like to say on this point, however, it may take a whole post of it's own to really delve into. 
• Put more time into my Mary Kay business. This is one of those things that is totally something I got into for some extra cash and for the benefits (50% discount is hard to beat for great skin care and cosmetics). I really enjoy the work itself, even if I do feel very shy about doing my presentation. I want to hold more skin care parties and sell more product and help more women feel good about themselves and how they look. I know that for me, if I don't feel like I look good on the outside, it affects how I feel on the inside and I think a lot of women feel this way. So it's my goal to start giving at least 1 facial or party a week! It sounds overwhelming to me right now with everything going on in my life, but I know I can do it and I have several steps to help me move in that direction. I also have so many women in my unit who are super encouraging and helpful.
• Develop a better relationship with my husband. I know this one sounds kind of weird - especially when we're talking about setting goals. But I think it's legitimate and I think that you have to make relationships a priority and put effort and set goals for what you want in those relationships. This doesn't mean I'm going to treat my relationship with Waylon like a science experiment and poke it and prod it like a lab rat! I just want to purposefully do things to grow more intimate with him and show him more love and kindness. I started a devotional a while back called "The Power of a Praying Wife" and I never finished it. So my first goal in this area will be to read through that book and finish it and begin praying for my husband on a daily basis. He needs it. He's working basically full-time and going to school full-time and is a new father. He has a lot of pressure right now. He also is very active in our church. These are all things he wants to do but I want him to be able to do them to his fullest and really be the best God wants him to be. 
• Identify the things in my life that are robbing me of the best God has for my life and get rid of them! I am a firm believer that good things can get in the way of our lives and living God's will. Just because they are good things, doesn't mean we are meant to do them or that we should fill our lives with them. Sometimes they get in the way of the better things we could be doing that God would rather us do. I feel like I have a lot of that in my life. A lot of "white noise" filling my mind and my hours that it's keeping me from doing what God would rather me do. I know one MAJOR time-killer for me is my computer. (how ironic that I am writing about it now. ) I can sit down and spend countless minutes to hours on here browsing through posts on Baby Center, checking my Facebook and reading everyone and their brother's blogs...when there are dishes to wash, clothes to fold, papers to put away, food to cook and not to mention a baby to bond with and love and spend time with. I have so many things I like to do so I spread myself thin trying to do them all and I only partially do them and then everything is done half-heartedly. I need to discern which things are things God wants me to be a part of and spend my time with and get rid of whatever else doesn't fall into that category - even if it is a good thing. This part will be hard and will require a lot of prayer. I want to get to the point where everything I do has a purpose and falls under God's will for me. I want to be one of those people who don't waste their precious time on just good things but put the hours into what is best! God only wants the best for us and we should strive for that as well!
• Read more. This one is plain and simple. I love to read and I haven't given myself enough time to do it or been faithful to the books I've begun.
• Exercise! I want to be healthy, fit and thin! I need to get my butt off the couch and get to doing some sweat-inducing stuff! I'm not supposed to really exercise yet since I'm still recovering from my c-section, however, a brisk walk everyday can't hurt me to get things started. I also need to start drinking water on a regular basis again. When I was pregnant and working I was doing GREAT at drinking all the water I was supposed to. Now, I have no structure in my day so I'm slacking on the water-drinking and I've gone back to bad eating habits. So here's to eating healthy and working out!

So there you have my list. I know it's long. I know it's ambitious. I know it's going to be difficult and frustrating, BUT I feel that it's what I need right now. My life needs a makeover and these next three weeks are going to be pivotal for me to get started before I go back to work. I know if I wait until then to get started implementing these changes, I will give up right away. Last week was a hard week, working and coming home and taking care of the baby and trying to get to sleep at a decent hour so I wouldn't be a zombie the next day.

If anyone wants to join me in any of these quests, let me know and we can keep each other accountable! I know I need someone to keep me accountable and I'm willing to help someone else out as well. 

Onward we go! Or at least I go...