Although Monday mornings are generally dreaded and not looked forward to by many, I happen to love Mondays!  That's because I carve them out to be what I want it to be.  My Monday's are rather sacred, actually, and I am very careful about planning them.

Our home is a very busy one.  Just because of the number of children, guests that stay with us, running a family business, and a farm, it seems often like there is never a boring minute.  It might be one of the kids orthodontist, dental, or doctor appointment, meetings that I need to attend concerning the development company, meals I need to cook, a house to maintain, and even employees on the farm that I maintain payroll records for and delegate jobs that need to be done, things are always busy around here. 

On our weekends, we usually have guests with us, and on Sunday, we either invite our church to meet here in our living room, or we go there, which means traveling about an 1 1/2 away  (another blog about this arrangement needed), so when Monday comes, it's usually preceed by a very busy weekend.  So I have carved out Monday's to be my own personal "me" day.  I have my house cleaned either on Thursay or Friday, I try to maintain it over the weekend, and on Sunday night I get everyone to pitch in a little bit so that when I wake up on Monday, I am not faced with a weekend hurricase of a mess.  I want to celebrate Monday with no housework. 

I like to read and write.  Reading, I can do almost anywhere.  I can read fast and comprehend, so I usually have about a dozen books sitting around that I am reading in the same time frame.  For example, my husband tells me that were going to a meeting, I grab one of these unread books, and if I have any waiting time, before or after the appointments, I use this as reading time.  I grab little snitchets of time all over the place just to read a few pages while waiting for something else to happen.  I rarely ever sit down in one time frame, at home, and just read a book.  When this happens, it's a rare moment. 

Writing, on the other hand, which is something I also like to do, in fact, equally, I find it hard to just grab snitchets of time.  Writing, for me, takes a little bit of solitude, and lots of unhurried time.  So I try to set aside Monday morning for my writing time, either in a journal, writing a book report, or even this blog.  Over the years I have found writing as a valuable outlet for myself.  I am basically a very quiet person, it's often not easy for me to convey verbally what I am thinking or feeling, but if I take the time to put it on paper, I find a release for my thoughts and emotions that others might in the same way find an outlet by talking verbally to another person. 

My husband is the extrovert and he thrives on the company of others.    He needs people to energize him.  For me, it's just the opposite.  I love my family, but I also seem to have a need for a certain amount of solitude.  If I don't get this, I can feel myself becoming unraveled.  That's why I have to start my mornings early...I need this solitude time with Him in prayer and if I don't get this, after a few days, I am not doing well.  I crave my quiet time with Him in the morning.  I might pray from about 4:30 a.m. until 6, then read and study Scripture until I hear people getting up.  From that point on, I am sharing my time and myself with my family by helping my husband get to work, making breakfast for the kids, and the entire day's schedule that is a filling up of everyone's needs and a pouring out of myself.   

Monday's are a day that I take for myself to fill with my own personal needs for writing, and other things I don't generally have time for.    After my husband has left for work, I write about my weekend, some special event or thought, or even write a book report. I let the kids do what ever they want at this time so I can just be at peace to do my writing.  Computer games, cartoons, for several hours on a Monday morning, this is allowed.  When I quit writing, off the t.v. , off the computers.   Time to get outside and play.

I diligintly preserve these Monday's.  I rarely make an appointment on a Monday...dental, ortho, personal needs, doctor.  If I am scheduling an appointment for a future date, Monday's are off limits, it's not even considered a scheduling date.  I have farm help, and I don't want to have to delegate or deal with any people outside of my own kids.  I never have them work on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, unless for a rare circumstance.  After writing, I may want to sit outside in the sun, drink a soda pop, and read a chapter or two in a book that I have been enjoying.   

I use Monday's for planning out the week.  What are my priorities for the week?  I try to plan a general guideline for meals, make a grocery list, write out appts, delegate jobs on paper to the kids of jobs that need to be done this week, and projects I hope to get to.  

 I like to do a lot of uninterrupted thinking and journaling these thoughts.  Take for example this Monday.  Over the weekend, and early this morning while having my devotions, I had several ideas for the coming school year.  I hope to write these out today and by writing, perhaps have a more focused vision of what now seems just a little bit on the hazy side. 

Often, on a Monday afternoon, I might mow one of the pastures with either the John Deere tractor or the X-Mark. Being outside smelling the fresh air, feeling the sunshine, no kids asking for anything, my thoughts are especially uninterupted.  I love this time of solitude.

When my first two children were young and I sent them to school, I did this same thing, except it wasn't a Monday, it was Friday.  I worked various part-time jobs at the time, but I never worked on Friday.  As part of preserving this day for myself, I told no-one that I wouldn't be going to work this day.  At this time in our life, my husband was a work-a-holic, and rarely home himself.  I figured if I spelled it out for him in black and white that I wouldn't be working this Friday, he would fill it up with things that needed to be done and misc stuff he didn't have time to get to.  If I told my girlfriends that I wouldn't be at work that day, they would want to go shopping with me.  So, I told no-one.  I worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday, after I drove the kids to school and dropped them off, I'd come back to the house and plan my personal day.  This was my day for solitude and for filling up my own bucket with things I felt a personal need or enjoyment for.

When I started homeschooling, this personal day dropped off the planet earth.  At that time, I couldn't visualize anything but "school at home", minus the school building, teachers and other kids, but everything else, from when school should start, when school should end, what books we should teach from.  Monday to Friday were school days.  Retrospect, I think that was a mistake.  I think that one day off is important for a mom of many children (or even few), a mom that is devoting the rest of her child raising years to teaching them and being with them 24/7.  I suffered many years of burn-out, and maybe that could have been avoided had I taken this one day to think, journal, write, plan, and enjoy.