I spend every Sunday scouring my calendar looking for all time I need to get everything done. It's in my nature to plan, but with my focus this year being on intention, I have found myself spending even more time tearing apart my schedule searching for every spare minute.

Being a mom, a wife, a business woman, a church volunteer, a runner, and not to mention a short order cook, plus a friend, a sister, now a self-acclaimed writer, an event coordinator, and even a counselor at times, it gets a little hard to fit it all in week after week. I think we all have that struggle. How do we make it all happen?

It's amazing what a little intention can do. It can take you a long way. Below are all the things I attempt to cram into a week:

• Church: 1 hour of attending, 4 hours of serving 
•  Kid Time: At least 1 activity with each kid where I get to spend time with only that child 
•  Dinner: a home cooked meal at least 4 times a week
• Scentsy: a team update, a director update, 2 conference calls from corporate, sales, recruiting, 1 lunch a week with downline, team meeting plans, and on and on, etc...
• Physical Health: running at least 3 days a week
• Spanish class, gymnastics, gymboree, and ballet with the kids each week
• Laundry! (which I only do on Mondays!)
• Bible Study: 3 hours of meeting and 5 nights of homework 
• Date Night with my hubby: We plan at least 2 evenings (just the 2 of us!) per month
• Me Time!: Yes! I plan bubble baths and time to read! 

 So it often seems quite impossible. That's the list I start with, and I find ways to make it all fit somehow.

The most interesting thing is that before I had my "Finding Time Sundays," I would go into the week completely clueless as to what needed to get done. I knew I had a lot to do, I just had no idea when I was going to do it!

Now I make it intentional. Every week. I know when I wake up every day exactly what needs to get done.

I know it's not a brand new idea, to plan out your week. I'm just saying you should try it. I know it seems like work, but it actually makes your week so much easier!

It's interesting to me that we can ALWAYS find the time to do the things we really want to do, but very rarely can we find the time for the things we need to do or the things we should be doing. 

You can find the time. I have no doubt. Happy planning!

Until there's more...
Allison

Move

 I don't know if God ever speaks to you, but lately (since I've been open to listening), He has been speaking to me. And no, I don't hear the audible voice of God. But I do hear Him, and once you've heard Him, you know what it sounds like. A few years ago, I would have thought anyone who said they heard God speak was crazy. And now, here I am, stating that God is speaking to me.

The one thing He says over and over....MOVE.

Move on, move up, move over, move into the promises that I have for your life. 

There were lots of things about my life He wanted me to move. One of those things was the all consuming fear I used to have (key words "used to have") of my kids being sick and me not being able to take care of them. It was irrational fear that I often let over take my life and my spirit.

Very slowly, He taught me more and more about Himself and about the ways the devil creeps into our lives and attacks us very deliberately and stealthily. I found myself looking for ways to escape that fear. I never knew that through Faith, I could overcome fear, and through faith I could tell something to move (like the devil) and it would move! 

And oh how He has tested me. While Brian was on a 3 week hunting trip with one of our dear friends in Colorado, I was faced with my biggest fear....a puking child. And in those first moments of utter and irrational fear, I found myself in tears. And suddenly I was asking myself, "What are you so afraid of!?" And I realized that all the time I had spent worrying (literally every time they would nap, I would listen to the monitors waiting for one of them to get sick), all that time, was completely pointless. The devil had played me. 

And then I found myself very slowly moving towards freedom. Asking myself over and over again, so what? What are you so afraid of? 


I just came back from a trip to California to see one of my great friends. We met through Scentsy, and instantly formed a great relationship. At lunch one day, I noticed she was wearing a necklace that said "I am not afraid," and I remember thinking, "that is so cool." She gave me the business card of the girl who made the jewelry, and when I came home I looked up the website. Turns out that the back of that necklace says, "I was born to do this." 

I am not afraid. I was born to do this. 

What a power statement. It occurred to me that I didn't have anything to fear. And whatever I'm facing at the moment, I was literally born to do!

So last week progressed and I found myself faced with a lot of mountains. Addy got sick; I've been stressed about our retreat; taxes are around the corner...you name it, the devil attacked me on it, and yesterday, I found myself so overcome with worry that there was no intention at all in my day. I was just trying to go from one worry to the other and work it all out in my mind. 


I then I started asking myself, "what are you afraid of?" And I kept answering myself, "I am not afraid! I was born to do this!" It was God's way of telling me to move those mountains. To rebuke fear and live in freedom. 


Many people looking from the outside, in would say that we are living in God's promise for our lives. And I will say that our life is great. We have things we never thought we would have and have opportunities to do things we never thought we would be able to do. Plus, we have been able to meet so many great people through Scentsy that we now call our good friends and even think of some of them as family. 

And yet, I know there is more. I know He wants me to keep moving. To keep challenging myself and growing stronger in all areas of my life. 


And what a wonderful feeling it is to MOVE.  


Until there's more...
Allison