The Happiest Mom Challenge: Have a Plan

How did your month of "taking the easy way out" go?  I know for me I actually found it pretty liberating.  Here are some of the ways that I took the easy way out this month:

• I scaled back my advent calendar. I had all of these high hopes of sewing an advent calendar with little pockets to hold strips of paper for an activity to do every day.  And then I decided that was too much work and decided to just make little envelopes out of wrapping paper and wrote on the inside of them.  SO much easier.
• I decided to only tackle a chore or two a day.  Every time I have these high hopes of cleaning the entire house at once, I just end up disappointed.  As long as the laundry, dishes, and perhaps another task for the day are accomplished, then I think I'm doing pretty well!
• I finally started planning leftovers into our meal schedule. For the past few months, I've been making our meal calendar with a new meal (and usually a brand new recipe) every day.  And then it started to become a burden to get the leftovers gone. So, I just started making a little bit extra food for our meal and actually plan on having it be supper again the next day.  The variety has gone downhill a bit but our fridge (and my sanity) is thanking me.
• I gave up and made flip charts with all of the words for the songs in our Primary program. I had been working like crazy to help the children memorize the songs really well.  But on the day of, I realized they still weren't quite there yet. I figured it was more important that the parents could hear the words and that the kids felt confident than it was to show off their memorization skills.
• I chose "Have a Plan" for this month's The Happiest Mom challenge. 

You see, Brennan and I have just started working through Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.  And well, if there's anything that needs a plan, it's finances.  We've been working pretty hard for the past couple weeks and so I decided that I'd might as well make it my challenge for this month--have a plan.

I'm a dreamer. I frequently think about how I want things to turn out--my kids, my body, my marriage, my finances, how I spend my time, etc.  But getting those dreams to happen requires planning and, more importantly, follow-through.  I would even say that I'm an "okay" planner.  Follow through...not so much.  I've discovered that what I really need to have a plan, and a good plan at that, is one that works well for me.   That's where this whole Dave Ramsey thing came in.  A friend lent us the book, it made sense, and it had a plan, right there, for me, that I know works. Ah-ha!

Obviously "have a plan" doesn't just pertain to finances.  Here are some of the other areas of "have a plan" that I'm hoping to adopt more firmly into my life this month.

• compile and use a family binder
• work through some of my "craft debt"
• find a way to make daily scripture study and daily exercise a more consistent part of my life
• get me, and Hyrum, onto a more consistent daily routine

Will you join me on my adventure?  Do you have plans, or are you in need of a plan?  What are some of the areas of "have a plan" that you want to work on this month?

Happy planning!