Doin' Just Beachy

Beaches are cool places. I just returned from the Gulf Coast after a few days of sun 'n sand. We stayed just steps away from the water. I read two books (Kristin Billerbeck's A Girl's Best Friend and Melanie Wells' The Soul Hunter), relaxed with the family, jumped in the water a few times, and ate a soft crab sandwich the one night we went out to dinner. I grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where we'd catch blue crabs and steam a picnic tableful for supper. Every time I eat a soft crab, the taste brings me back. Delicious!

I've managed to wade through the last of our laundry and I wonder where the time went. Only a few days, but I'm at the point of the summer now where I think of things in terms of Before Vacation and After Vacation. Would you believe school supplies are on sale already? Of course now the kids are old enough so that their schools don't hand out school supply lists. They have to wait until the first week of school and each teacher hands out their own lists.

What's with that? So we parents of junior high and high school students need to condense seven supply lists into one master list. Then we have to make sure the folders with brads don't end up going to the kid whose Science teacher requested folders without brads. And of course, by the time we end up getting the supply lists (first week of school), ALL the stores are out of said pocket folders. Last year, it was the one-subject spiral bound notebooks.. Do these teachers not get it? No teacher comments, either, thank you. My best friend is a teacher and she shares my sentiment about the rant.

I think I'll add some notebooks and folders to my list now, and gamble that the kids will need them in August (when they get their lists the first week of school).

I also think I need to go back to the beach...

Juggling

You'd think summer would be quiet...lazy...tranquil. A time for sleeping in more, swimming, enjoying time with friends. So where does time go, anyway?

Our Sunday night Bible fellowship has been studying a series called "You and Your Priorities" for the past year or so, and I'm the study leader. The last two Sundays in July, we'll be tackling the issue of time management in light of the Scriptures.

This has brought me back again to working on my own harried schedule. While I won't play the world's tiniest violin to gain sympathy, I'm still amazed and a bit frazzled at how cluttered my schedule becomes. I start putting out fires in different areas and not seeing any true progress in any of them.

What causes this? Is it simply a matter of me trying to fit too much in my schedule? Do I fall into patterns of laziness from becoming overtired? I'm seeking some answers. How can I teach what I have not yet learned? I don't expect to master the time management issue, but I'd sure like to get a better handle on it. Working 40+ hours a week. Church commitments/attendance. Hubby time. Family time. Friends time. Boring life activities (cleaning, grocery shopping, writing out bills). Writing time (which includes actual writing, book research, blog commitments, and writers' group commitments). Oh. Um. Sleeping, too. I'd love to pare some of these things down.

On a fun note, check out the new Kanner Lake blog, Scenes & Beans. Suspense author Brandilyn Collins has launched Scenes & Beans to prepare readers for her newest series set in Kanner Lake, Idaho (try finding it on a map!) and the first book, Violet Dawn. You can get a sneak peek at Violet Dawn here.