Do you find yourself like most moms today, so busy and driven that your life seems to be snowballing towards a crash? Most of us either work at home, or outside the home, or maybe even both. On top of that we have housework, laundry, meals to prepare, and dishes to wash. In addition, there is the awesome responsibility of raising good kids. We teach, train, help with homework, take them to ball games, music, and dance lessons. Oh, how could I forget - time with husbands, too!

Several years ago, I found myself very much caught up in the busyness of all this. My family and I needed more order in our lives, but couldn't seem to accomplish it. So I decided that I would write out a list of goals that were truly important to the welfare - spiritual, physical, and emotional - of my family. This enabled me to set up priorities, and it gave my children more of the structure they needed at home.

This was the list of goals for my home:

1. A calm, structured household.
2. A place of warmth, love, and kindness.
3. A "reasonably" clean, neat house.
4. Good, nutritious meals at regular times.
5. Regular schedules and routines for homework and chores.
6. Regular bedtimes. This is a hard one. We are all night owls!
7. Daily reading together, when my children were young.
8. A time of family prayer and Bible reading before bed.

I can't say that we have always achieved all these goals. Sometimes the meals and bedtimes still get a little off schedule, or the laundry piles up. Yet an orderly home can result in an orderly life, making the whole family healthier, happier, and more productive

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Credits: Inez Haythorn