Money Saving Mom®

Guest post from Rhoda

As summer approaches, I am thinking of my yearly “TV-Free Summer Pledge”.

As a high school literacy coach, I am blessed that I get to spend a lot of time with my own children, but there are days when I look at a sea of teenage faces and think, “Someone else is getting to hold and love and teach my children.” This sense of helplessness led to my yearly “TV-Free Summer Pledge”. I have nine weeks of mostly uninterrupted time with my very own children, and I do not want a minute squandered on cartoons.

Two summers ago when I first made this pledge, it was a disaster because while I had planned for what we would not do (no TV), I hadn’t given much thought to what we would do. So the TV was turned off, and I had two little faces looking at me like, “Entertain me! Entertain me!” I was overwhelmed — nothing seemed to hold their attention for more than five minutes and there was no plan.

Now I have a plan and since that first crazy summer, my promise of television-free summers is much easier to keep.

1. Make a schedule for your days.

This sounds a bit silly, doesn’t it? It’s summer. Kids and adults are supposed to be free to enjoy the sunshine, chlorinated water, and daily naps without worrying about a silly schedule.

Well, if your goal is a TV-free summer, then this free flow of time will inevitably suck you and your children back into the world of animated cartoon characters and commercials. With no structure, you won’t have a plan for what you or your children will be doing on Tuesday at 10 a.m., so when that day and time come and you don’t know what to do, you will turn on the tube.

To combat this, I have divided my day into 30-minute to 1.5-hour segments. The shorter segments are for learning activities like summer bridge workbook pages, multiplication flashcards, and art projects. The longer segments are for outside play, free play, and naps.

2. Have a list of free-play ideas.

I have made a list of go-to activities for when my son and daughter look at me like, “Entertain me!” This list has mostly free activities for them to do that require very little prep or supplies. The value here is having a ready resource for fun activities.

My list is very long but here are a few ideas:

• Run in a sprinkler.
• Play bean bag toss.
• Build a fort out of sheets.
• Draw with sidewalk chalk.
• Assemble a puzzle.

3. Visit your library.

Libraries have free access to books, videos, and other resources. More importantly, libraries have free air-conditioning!

My children love the story time offered by our library every Wednesday morning. We arrive a little early to choose books for the week and to get a good seat. The programs are educational and fun-filled. We usually go to the park for a picnic afterward.

4. Create a busy box or bag.

I have created a busy box for each of my two children. For my younger child who is four, I have a collection of busy bags and small toys such as a travel Magna Doodle and magnetic dolls. My older child is ten. In his busy box, there are word searches, puzzles, and coloring sheets.

This is another set of go-to activities for the kids to do; they are also portable and work well for long car trips or waiting rooms.

5. Be flexible.

While I must admit that we have never actually had a totally television-free summer, we have made great strides in limiting our time in front of the TV and in increasing our time spent together as a family. I try not to stress out, and I look at being television free like I look at working out.

Instead of focusing on the times I fell off the wagon, I think about all the time we spent together without TV in the background. Even if you only have TV-free summer mornings, it is still better than being plugged in all summer long.

Have you ever done a TV-Free week, month, summer, or year? How did it work for you? 

Rhoda has two children and teaches high school. She loves summer break because it gives her the chance to be a stay-at-home mom. She’s a fan of reading, thrift shops, spending less, living simply, and being creative.

Guest post from Jamie of FromHisPresence.com

About ten years ago, I was really struggling with managing my time.

My job required extra hours. I enjoyed going out with friends often, and I wanted to get involved at my new church, too! So I said “yes” to everything: concerts, movies, overtime, dinners, a Sunday School class, home visitation team, two weekly prayer meetings, and singing in the choir… all around the same time.

Needless to say, I took on too much. I was overwhelmed and stressed out. I was eating poorly and not exercising, and the stress was taking its toll.

Then one day, someone gave me the best time management advice I’ve ever received:

“Write down your life’s priorities, in order of importance. Then say no to everything that doesn’t support those priorities in that order.”

It sounded good, so I tried it out. This is the list of priorities I came up with for my life:

1. One-on-one time with God in prayer and personal study.
2. My health and my husband. (I wasn’t married yet, but I was thinking long-term and couldn’t choose between health and husband.) 🙂
3. My family.
4. My job.
5. Church work.
6. My social life.

When I drafted this list, I realized that my choices were way out of order. I was spending time on low priorities and neglecting high priorities. My life was topsy-turvy, and I hadn’t even realized it.

So I started changing things. For example, I stopped volunteering for things at church that I wasn’t gifted to do. It was hard to say “no” to enthusiastic recruiters, but it really helped my stress level. I also had to stop going out with friends so much, and I used that time to hit the gym after work instead.

Ten years later, I still use this same priority list to manage my time. I definitely don’t have it perfect, but I’m convinced that knowing my priorities has saved my sanity more than once.

Do you feel like I did? Are you overwhelmed, stressed out, and pulled in ten different directions at the same time? If so, making a list of your life priorities might really help you too. Here’s how:

1. Separate yourself from your current reality for a moment.

Priorities are partly driven by necessity, and partly by choice. Most of us are great at putting out fires — the necessities — but maybe not so good at choices. So, I encourage you to forget about the fires you have burning right now: the kids’ soccer, the grocery list, the laundry pile, etc. and instead, think about your ideal world instead.

2. Let yourself dream.

What does your ideal life look like? In your dream world, are you healthier? More social? An entrepreneur?

Then ask yourself this question: “If nothing in your life has changed in five years, would that be okay?”

If you said “no” to that question, then you’re ready to proceed to the next step:

3. Based on your ideal world, what do your priorities need to be?

Make a list of the various priorities in your life, and then list them in order of importance.

I really encourage you to write your list as deliberately as you can. Decide what your priorities will be, based on what you know is right for you and your family — not based on outside pressure, or on what other people think you should do.

Then…

4. Look at your schedule, and revise your calendar to match your new priorities.

This may be tough, but you can do it! Look closely at your time:

• Are you taking the kids to a different activity every day after school? If so, could you change that by having them pick just one sport or lesson each year?
• Are you watching a lot of TV? If so, could you turn the TV off a few hours each week, and make time for reading or exercise?
• Are you doing anything you’re not called to do just to please people? If so, consider letting them know that you’re sorry, but you just won’t be able to help anymore. 🙂 (And breathe a sigh of relief!)

Time management is challenging for everyone. But, if you will make a list of your life’s priorities, and set your calendar based on those priorities, you will find time and peace of mind that you never knew existed.

What are your priorities? What could you work on this week to move yourself closer to your dream life? 

Jamie Rohrbaugh is a wife, financial analyst, Sunday School teacher, musician, and unlikely worship leader from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her passion is to encourage and equip people to live powerful lives and to function in their gifts. She blogs at FromHisPresence.com about how to live ordinary life in God’s manifest presence.

photo source