I feel so much better today. A lot of the pain I feel really depends on how baby B situates himself inside of me and yesterday he chose the most uncomfortable place possible. Today I physically feel like a different person, so I should manage to keep the venting to a minimum, unlike last night. Thanks for that by the way.

Last night, we had our 4th week of small groups at our church. Getting together each Wednesday night helps break up the week nicely and it always feels wonderful to see friends more often. I won’t deny the other perk of not having to cook either. 😉 My friend brought us all a delicious stew to enjoy last night. Perfect for a rainy, fall night.

As much as I do love small groups, I confess to feeling a bit ready for them to end. Not because I don’t like attending, but because I feel I have overcommitted myself by volunteering to lead the group. I will of course finish out the session strongly, but then will certainly take a step back until other things in life calm down.

Overextending our time, energy, and care in any area of life takes its toll. In ordering my schedule and priorities, I always take the same steps.

1. Look at the big obligations. For me, this is my family, my job, and my faith. My job right now is to mother Makenzie so, obviously, these two tie together. During the day I work on playing with her and nurturing her knowledge in different things. That is my focus. I also strive to make time each day to spend as a family and making personal time with my husband for our relationship as well. My faith? Well, let’s just say if it doesn’t make it into my day in some way, we have a problem. I begin to feel empty or overwhelmed almost immediately.

2. Look at my needs. I go crazy if I do not have time for myself to cultivate my interests every day. This is why I make time to blog and why I dedicate myself to getting in workouts regularly. Those are my things and they deserve priority.

3. Other regular commitments. Right now these include leading our Sunday class, leading our Wednesday night small group, tutoring, and general household needs, such as having food in the house and clean clothes.

4. Make time for fun. I make an effort to include enjoyable activities in my life, but I don’t let them become a responsibility.Today, for example, we are missing playgroup because I need time for my needs and that is higher on the list. Plus, I will see them tomorrow for M’s Halloween party.

5. The extras. This covers the things I would like to accomplish, but don’t need to pressure myself with. Things like the deeper household cleaning I would like to do, but the surface job usually happens. Things like reading the list of books I have on hold at the library, but aren’t my top enjoyment right now.

That’s my method for figuring out how to fit it all in. Sometimes, I push a little too much, but I always learn the balance that works for me in the process.

• Have you ever over-committed yourself?
• What ways do you figure out your schedule? Do you thrive on a busy or more laid-back schedule?
• Don’t forget to ASK ME ANYTHING for the November Q + A series!

Bloggers of the Day (chosen randomly from yesterday’s comments)

• The Fitness Dish – Laury is about 3 months pregnant and an extremely fit chick. She is inspiring and continues to share tons of great tips on fitness.
• Meals and Moves – Janetha comes up with great meal ideas and always has a challenging workout up her sleeve Plus, every post is so much fun!
• Living With Healthy Hunger – Dorry has such a great approach to health. She also has great travel stories, like her recent trip to Europe to get married.

You want to know what I look like right about now? Something a little like this…

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You know? The whole chicken running around with its head cut off thing? That’s me. Prepping for a kid’s birthday party is serious stuff, people. Especially when coupled in with an already busy schedule. It reminds me that sometimes it’s okay to say no.

You all know how much I enjoy getting in regular workouts. During pregnancy, I regularly get in 4-5 days per week. My weeks usually go something like this:

Sunday & Monday – Rest
Tuesday – Spinning
Wednesday – Group Power weights class
Thursday – Kickbox DVD
Friday – Yoga
Saturday – 1 hour quick paced walk with the family

I adjust that schedule accordingly for my schedule. For example, this week I did the Kickbox on Monday in order to have yesterday off to tutor. I still strive to fit in those workouts though because I know I feel my best when completing them. They help me relieve stress, are fun to me, and give me energy. I don’t like missing workouts. I also don’t care to lose my sanity either and some days something just has to give. Some times it’s okay to just say no to the workouts and refuse to stress or feel guilty over it.

During the week, I have two opportunities to get in workouts - in the morning after breakfast or in the afternoon shortly after Peter gets home from work. My schedule this week prevented those options. Yesterday I had play group in the morning, then a bunch to get caught up on before tutoring in the afternoon. Today, I have another scheduled visit with a friend during the day, then have to prep for little M’s birthday party all afternoon. This weekend, each day has a full schedule. Tomorrow M has her 2nd birthday party and then we will be going to the pumpkin patch and corn maze for the afternoon/evening. Sunday I will have church and another kiddo birthday.

I would prefer not to miss four days to work out in a row. I may still find time to get a short walk in with my family or do a 20-30 minute workout DVD, because even a little something still feels good.  I won’t force it though. One week off schedule won’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I have to remind myself of the big picture. I have worked out 4-5 days consistently this pregnancy, minus one week I was sick. The busier schedule goes along with preparing for a special event – my daughter’s second birthday. I shouldn’t diminish the worth of the everyday physical activity I will get playing with my daughter at the park with her friends and traipsing around all afternoon at the corn maze and pumpkin patch as part of our family tradition, like last year (below).

Life gets busy. Life is busy. Making time for fitness and eating well do hold great importance. We do need to keep them a priority in our lives in order to pursue health and find ways to fit them into our hectic schedules. However, I know one day or week off the top of my game doesn’t have to equal a screw-up or something to fret over. Been there, done that. Now, I choose to remember balance is healthy too. I still say yes to fitness and workouts the majority of the time.  So, sometimes its okay to say no too. Then, say yes to making cake balls into wands and play dates with friends.

• What ways does looking at the big picture help you not to stress over something? I try to remember it for everything – workouts, little daily annoyances that I won’t even remember in a month, my future and that God has an even better big picture than I know.
• For what things are you more willing to miss workouts?
• Something to do? Ask me anything for a Q&A series I hope to do in November. CLICK HERE