Distractions

Good morning!  It’s 8:13 a.m. where I am and I already feel productive.  I decided I would treat myself for breakfast today and it was yummy!  Now, this isn’t a cooking blog by any means.  I don’t make my own recipes (at least not to share) and I don’t take the best photos of my food but it was so good and since I promised myself I would blog more often, this is what you are getting.  🙂

Anyway, I had frozen some homemade biscuits a while back and still had a few so I decided to cook one up this morning.  It’s a mostly whole wheat biscuit and I made a lovely gravy and scrambled egg to go with it.  Biscuits and gravy are my FAVORITE!!

Yum!  But this wasn’t even the beginning of my day!  I’ve been so productive this morning.  I woke up dark and early.  I needed to finish a sermon I’ve been writing and I’m discovering that I do my best writing at night or at least in the dark so…  Weird, huh?  I don’t know why that is but it is. Anyway, I finished the sermon, finished up some liturgy, talked with DD and my mom, took out the trash and here I am!

I love productive mornings.  They make me feel so accomplished.  I find myself so often distracted that little gets done but I’m working on it.  I’ve decided to make a commitment to myself to focus more, to not let myself get so distracted by things I don’t really even like or care about!

So where does my focus lie?

1. eating healthier and at home
2. exercise! at least 20 minutes a day but hopefully more
3. family – talking with them, writing them, loving them (this should probably move up but these are not written in any order.)
4. writing more
5. reading more

Family is a given and they are always my focus but I want to do more and do it with less distractions.

Eating and exercise are because my health is important – to me and to my family.  I’m a big fan of living a long healthy life… like, you know, forever!  I recently found out my cholesterol is high so I’m working to bring it down without going on medication that has too many side effects.  This does run in my family and so it’s hard, but I’m going to do it!

Reading more… I love to read.  I used to read all the time, but sometime, somewhere, it went to the wayside and I miss it.  I read a lot for sermon prep and Bible study but I need more reading for pleasure in my life so I’m working on it.  I need to make time for it.  Cut out a little Netflix and Hulu and Hallmark and read instead.  Let my imagination be worked more.  I’ve picked up a couple of poetry books and I really enjoy reading them when I only have a moment or two to spare and I’m currently reading a great non-fiction book but I need to find a good fiction novel to dive into.  It’ll help with the last one…

Writing.  I love writing.  I don’t always know what to say, which is why I’m often all over the place, but I love writing.  Right now, I’m searching to find my writing voice.  I’ve even signed up for a couple of writing courses.  We will see how it goes.  I’ve made a commitment to myself to write every day, something, anything, just write!  And let some of it, A LOT of it be for fun not just for work.  I write weekly sermons and devotions for work but I want to write for pleasure.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoy writing my sermons and devotions but sometimes, I admit they are a chore.  I know writing is hard and will feel like a chore but I want to be able to play more with my writing – have fun more!  Let the spirit guide me in work and play to create something I love and can share.

I think I need to add one more to my list…  Play.  I need to play more.  I need to schedule it into my life more.  It’s sad to think we have to schedule in fun but in this world of distractions it’s easy to think we are just going to read just that one blog post, or scroll through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on for just a second only to look up and find that we’ve wasted an hour or more and there is no time left in the day for the fun things we wanted to do.  So, yes, I need to schedule it in. Play more!  Go to the movies, go for walks, pull out a board game, even play with my food and create some healthy, yummy deliciousness!  Just do things for the enjoyment of doing them.  No agenda, just fun.

When the kids were home, it was a little easier to do this because they would pull me out of what I was distracted by and into reality, into the present.  Now, I have to make that decision.  I have to decide – I’m not going to waste my life, my hours and days on these little insignificant distractions.  I’m going to instead Live!  and Live well and healthy.

Wow, well, talk about being distracted!  This started out talking about my breakfast and we ended up here, but I’m glad we did.  Sometimes, I just have to start writing to see where I’m going.  And with that, my friends, I’m off to continue my day!