running behind

Catholic Mothers Online is going to kick me out pretty soon if I don't get my act together enough to post at least once a month!

But, that's pretty much my scene these days: running behind and trying to catch up! I'm sure it's a combination of weather, low affect, grief, and growing belly that are some of my biggest challenges to productivity and effectiveness these days.

On the plus side, about 90% of the garden is planted. Today I spent a lot of time reading to my boys, and we actually ate a supper that involved some cooking and it was even eaten at the dining room table with everyone present.

I feel like I'm getting to the point where it is time to minimize expectations in order to 1-be realistic (and eliminate the negative everything that accomodates not measuring up to my made-up ideals) and 2- be able to actually recognize having accomplished the simple things as successes. It is my brain and my habit of list making (and the addiction to crossing things off the list) that causes the resistance when I get to this stage.

I'm thinking that a more prayerful approach to our days (again) would help a lot. BUT, admittedly, since we got done with the lessons for Kindergarten our Rule pretty much fell to the wayside since so much of our day was built around them. I haven't really liked the resulting aimlessness of our mornings that has developed since then.

So one of the things that has been on my to-do list for the last several weeks has been to develop a lesson-free/summer-time Rule to guide our days. I'm bumping it up a few notches. Do you have any suggestions to help me along?