Well, here I am, doing my first blog entry. What an age we're in! Just put my son to bed. I have 20-40 minutes to myself. Talked on the phone with my Mary Kay director. Was challenged to make better use of my time. All stuff I know, but it's so easy not to live by.

What's my purpose? My mission in life is to express my Creator's love for people through the creativity and compassion he's given me. How does that get fleshed out? First of all, I have to start with my family. I need to use my creativity and compassion to care for my son and my husband. That includes the quality and quantiy of time we spend together, the atmosphere of our home, and the way we schedule our time. Then that circle expands to friends and family. How do we stay connected with them? Then comes our business pursuits. How we market ourselves and treat our clients are huge components of our business and definitely need creativity and compassion. How do I live so that these areas are intentionally receiving the attention they need? How do I feed my creativity and fuel my compassion?

I guess for the most part, it comes down to two different things: the source of my creativity and compassion (God) and the container for my creativity and compassion (me). How well am I spending time drawing from my Creator and how well am I taking care of myself? Right now, I'd say I'm not filling up very fast and there are big leaks...so basically I don't feel very full. Life seems rather chaotic and draining. The anchor points are my baby steps towards keeping my kitchen clean (a shiny sink and a clean table) and my attempts at picking up Jacob's toys every night. (Making the bed every morning got derailed at some point...must change that). Although these things seem rather petty, they are so important for me as my environment has huge impact on how I feel about life and how well I can function.

I think a big next step is to begin each week with a plan. I don't want to scare myself or Rod by trying to overplan everything just yet, but I know that will be a temptation. So, what is most important to plan out? What comes to mind, is to figure out which day I can have to myself i.e. when Rod will take Jacob. I'm just not sure that a whole day would fly. But it could be an errand day for Rod. And on my errand days, Rod could take more of a personal day. Hmm. Might be a plan.

Well, that's the way my mind goes today. It feels awfully strange that someone might read this. If you're a new mom, a random person, or self-employed (I am all of the above), maybe you will be inspired.