Ready for some randomness today?  I had a deep post all ready to go and today just doesn’t seem like the day for it.  We are getting ready to hit the pool today as the start to our long July 4th weekend.  So, I thought I’d give you some random links that I found interesting over the past couple days.  Have a great weekend!

Children’s Feet – Faith Filled Mom

Catalog Living - hilarious

How to organize the recipes you find online – I’m An Organizing Junkie

Coffee, the bane of my existence – My Blessed Life

The Creative Mama Photography Series is coming next week!

Adding fonts to your blog post – Gather Inspirit

Don’t Waste Time Online – Steady Mom

ENJOY!!!

Gather Inspirit is a website and community of Christian bloggers that was created forYOU!  Gather Inspirit has uplifting and inspirational articles, a forum to share ideas, a weekly internet TV show, interviews with bloggers like you and a weekly Bible study.  If you haven’t visited Gather Inspirit yet, click on over and join the community.  Look forward to seeing you there!

Let me tell you about at great party going on tonight, June 1st from 8-9pm EST.  You don’t even have to get dressed up or call a sitter! (unless you want to!!)  Gather Inspirit is throwing their very first Twitter party!!!  You will not want to miss this!

For those who aren’t familiar with Gather Inspirit, it is website focusing on encouraging and inspiring the Christian blogger.  The party tonight is an extension of that mission.  Join the Gather Inspirit team for an evening of faith, fun and prizes!  Here are the official details…

“First Things First: Get Inspired”

What: A Twitter Party – Gather InSpirit Style

When: Tuesday, June 1^st 8:00 – 9:00 pm EST

Where: TweetGrid (or hashtag #getinspired2)

And did I mention the awesome prizes we will have?? I can’t share the entire list with you just yet, but I can say there will be names like Serena Woods, Dayspring, and Max Lucado, just to name a very few!  So please join us for the hour! It will be a great time of fellowship and finding inspiration! Not a blogger? Does not matter! Join us anyway!  We promise you won’t be disappointed!

And if the thought of a Twitter party makes you a little anxious, you can visit Twitter Party Guide or Michelle’s post for a few helpful tips!

See you tonight!!!

You can follow me on Twitter anytime @OvercomingBusy

Dallas custom designed these bridal earrings for a friend

Since opening Dallas Designs, she has earned money for new ice skates, her own Christmas shopping and in February, she raised over $130 for St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  Her latest goal is to make enough money to go to church camp this summer.

To introduce you to Dallas Designs, Dallas has created these lovely wire work earrings just for Overcoming Busy Readers.

To win these lovelies, just follow the rules:

1. Visit Dallas Designs and tell me what is your favorite creation
2. Subscribe to Overcoming Busy via RSS feed or let me know that you are a subscriber.
3. Send a tweet about todays giveaway.  Include @OvercomingBusy in the message.

*Leave a separate comments for each entry

Contest will close Friday April30 at 7pm, so you can get  your earrings by Mother’s Day!!

Don’t forget jewelry makes great Mother’s Day gifts!!

*********CONTEST IS CLOSED*******************

Welcome to The Article Club!  This is the Overcoming Busy version of a book club.  I’m not asking you to carve out time to read 400 pages (that you may or may not like) then find the time to summarize it all for me in a sentence or two .  Once a week, I link to an article that I think the Overcoming Busy audience would find useful or at least interesting.  You read it.  We discuss it in the comments.  Easy!

This week’s article is Take a Break From Your Adventures (And Enjoy Life More) from the blog Aliventures.  The title caught my eye because the topic of taking a break has been on my mind for the past month or so.  And, around here, we always say we are on an adventure.

Several quotes from the article stood out to me.

“I’m more productive when I’m happy”

“You should never feel guilty about spending your time on something you genuinely want to do and enjoy doing.”

“When I focus too much on doing more and more, I find myself waking up in the morning with no sense of adventure.”

That last quote really sums up how I feel when I have too much on my plate.  When we were on our vacation a couple weeks ago, my hubby and I practically jumped out of bed in the morning ready for adventure.  We don’t do that when we are so far entrenched in the grind that we forget what adventure is.

What spoke to you in this article?  Do you agree with the author?  How do you take a break?  How often do you need breaks?  Daily?  Weekly?  Monthly?  Do you remember what breaks are?

I’m excited about this week’s Article Club link.  It comes from a new blog I just found thanks to Mandi at Organizing Your Way.  (Her Tumblr list has awesome resources for those of us trying to overcome busy)

This week’s post, Take a Break From Your Adventures (and Enjoy Life More), is from Aliventures blog.  I found the post very interesting and inspiring since this subject has been on my mind lately.  Go check it out and come back tomorrow to discuss your thoughts on the official Article Club post.

Don’t miss a thing on Overcoming Busy.  Subscribe here or follow on twitter @OvercomingBusy.

Couldn’t help but go with the Dr. Suess thing.  Anyway………..

Today, you can find me at:

The Creative Mama – Sometimes the best plans is no plan at all

Gather Inspirit – Let Your Light Shine

Ok…go…click away!!!

Welcome to Overcoming Busy!  The whole goal here is to help you get the “busy” out of your life, because life is too short to spend it on things that just don’t matter! Unorganized, stressed, over-scheduled?  It doesn’t have to be that way!  Overcoming Busy strives to give you the tools and motivation you need to bring the peace back into your life.

On most Monday’s, you will find a meal plan for the week and links to others.  Throughout the week, you can find guest posts, thoughts, ideas, tools, links and more to help you on your journey.  A new feature for Overcoming Busy is the Article Club that was just launched this past week.  Think of it as a book club for those of us who don’t need the pressure of completing an entire book on someone else’s time line!

Feel free to look around and join the conversations.

Oh…me?  I’m a wife of one wonderful, Godly man, mother to two phenomenal kids.  I homeschool my 8 year old daughter.  My 5 year old son goes to pre-school.  I write here at Overcoming Busy and at Gather Inspirit and The Creative Mama.

photo by aineetiny

I’m back from a great vacation and time with family. I have to admit that I was nervous going in. Six days with no internet or cell phone!! Yikes!! Well, I did it and lived to tell! Who knew I’d enjoy doing nothing but laying in a beach chair for three days straight?! I highly recommend it. I’ll give more details later. I just wanted to let you know that I’m alive and well. Just playing catch up today. Planning lots of great things for Overcoming Busy in the very near future!

My neighbor did something awesome yesterday.  She took the day off.  Not a sick day or a vacation day, really.  It was more like a mental health day.  Now, I can hear some of you “Big deal. People take days off all the time.  What so special about her day off?”  Well, her day was special because she’s a mom!  She doesn’t punch a time clock somewhere or even get a paycheck.  She is a stay-at-home mom with 4 kids.

When she told me she was going to take the day off, I thought “Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?”  But, then practicality set in and I said “How are you going to do that?  Are you going somewhere? Who’s watching the kids?”  This may be the most incredible part of all for some us…Her husband had a vacation day and stayed home with the kids!  And, from all accounts, they all survived just fine, Dad included.

So, what does a mom do on her day off?  My friend spent part of the day at home just enjoying her family, but without having to cook breakfast or change diapers or clean up anything.  (Amazing!) Then, she spent the afternoon doing a little shopping. (Without kids screaming they wanted to go home or crying because you won’t let them buy them whatever!)

This whole thing got me to thinking.  Why don’t mom’s get days off like everyone else?  Mom’s are on the job 24/7 with no vacation or sick days.  I think we need to negotiate a better contract!!  Is there a more mentally and physically demanding job out there?  Is there a more important job?  No way!  So, why don’t we take sometime for ourselves?

I think as mom’s we sometimes think we are in this alone and that no one else can do our jobs for us, not even for a day.  Some of us enjoy being the martyr.  Some of us are so stressed out we can’t think of a way to get relief.  First, we need to get over ourselves.  Second, we need to let our families know what we need.  If we are feeling stressed, I’m sure it is no surprise to them and most times they will be all for making momma sane again!!

Is it time for your mental health day?  Talk with your family and negotiate it.  Get your husband to stay with the kids.  Get a sitter.  Swap with another mom so you both can have a day off.  Mark it on the calendar and do it!

So, do you take a day off for being mom?  What would you do on your day off?