Each week seems to come and go like a fast engine train lately.  It’s Sunday night and then all of a sudden, it’s Sunday night again.  Last weekend I sat down with my husband and I said, “That’s it, we’re organizing our lives. No more craziness at home. No more last-minute-things. We’re planning. We’re scheduling. We’re going to stick with this.”  As every mom and dad knows, life really goes by fast. With work and home life, it’s one thing. When you layer in the lives of the kids, it’s even more nutty. For us – Swim team. Baseball practice. Summer reading. Volunteering. Camp. And vacation.

But I’ll tell you what, this week I stuck to my guns and I started a new leaf.

I learned a few things about myself this week, just sticking to my guns and really tuning into my life:

1. The power of a TO DO list still trumps all. Every single day this week I drafted a TO DO list. From little things like “calling my mom to babysit on August 11th” to “Blog posts due.” I LOVED being able to cross things off my list. There was something so powerful and saying, “Yup… did it.”

2. I started giving the kids chores. I figure, you know  what – they’re 6, 7, 8 and 9… they can certainly vacuum and out away laundry. I learned very quickly that not only can they do it, they actually don’t mind helping out at all, especially when they realize they’re helping me. I was shocked nobody asked for money or anything in return, this might change as we go… but I enjoyed the help and won’t go back.

3. I need to go to bed earlier. I went to bed around 9:30PM twice this week and I felt like a new woman in the morning. I get ALL my work done at night, so it’s nice to have that quiet time… but my body needs rest and I learned I need to give it what it needs.

4. My husband really is my bestest friend. I had a couple of things happen this week where I just needed that someone and he just really is that someone for me. He’s ALWAYS in my corner and ALWAYS has my back. I love him to the moon and back for that. I learned we all need that partner at home.

5. I learned saying “NO” feels good. There were a couple of things this week that I just couldn’t manage and do, and saying “NO” is something I don’t often do, but I’ll tell you what – it FEELS GREAT when you don’t want to do something and you just confirm it with a simple, “NO.”

6. I learned that taking the train to NYC (though it’s pricy) is ALWAYS easier than driving.

7. Putting yourself out there is something you’ll never, ever regret. I put myself out there in a HUGE way this week. I mean, like… something I’ve dreamt of my whole life big… I don’t know if anything will come from it, but I did it. I realized that even at the age of 36 years old… dreams and goals are still as important as they were when I was 20.

8. My son Ben went with my parents to Boston yesterday, he got sick while he was away with them. My mom called me and said, “He’s such a big boy. He didn’t cry once. He just was so strong about it.” As soon as he locked eyes with me when he pulled up, he started sobbing. I learned that even though he’s a “big” boy, he’s ALWAYS my baby.

Well… this was just one week.

I wonder what next week will bring.

It’s pretty cool when you become tuned into things just what you learn.