"Get -R- Done!" How?

Okay, I lead a pretty busy life.  I homeschool my three kids, pulling together my curriculum from a wide variety of material, which takes PLANNING.  I work up to three days a week outside the home, usually only for half days, but sometimes longer.  I teach Sunday School.  I teach a class at a homeschool co-op.  I am taking a distance education course in Small Engine Mechanics, which requires me to study about 1 hour a day five days a week.  I try to work out for about an hour and a half at least five days a week, and I have recently been convicted that I need to set time aside to quiet myself before God and read His word each day.

So how does this play out in real time?  How can I possibly get it done?

Well, this is what today looked like:

The alarm went off at 5:00 in the morning, but I hit the snooze button twice, so I got up at 5:30.  Then I had a mug of homemade chai, put a status on my church's Facebook page, and one on my own, and then went to my room to read the Bible and pray.  I got into what I was reading, and instead of just reading a chapter, I ended up reading seven chapters, this used up most of my time, so the actual time spent praying was kind of short.  Oh well, its more important for me to hear from God than for me to tell Him a bunch of things He already knows, simply inviting Him to be with me on my day and asking for His help to walk in obedience is probably all of the prayer I really need.  After this worked out on Wii Fit Plus for 41 minutes, 30 minutes of which was spent running in place on "Free Run".  Then I took a shower and made myself some oatmeal, and drank another mug of homemade chai.  I packed my lunch, put on my makeup, and did my hair. 

This all sounds like I was moving incredibly fast, but in reality, it was almost 10:00 before I left for work, and the only things I had accomplished was my quiet time, breakfast, workout, and getting ready for the day.  Fortunately, my husband got the kids to do their math lessons, and had them do their daily reading out loud, so there wouldn't be as much homeschool when I got home from work.

I started work at 10:20, and finished at 1:30.  It was a short day, only three hours.  I usually work around four hours at least.  It was 2:00 when I got home.  I was tired so I sat down at the computer to rest, and ended up wasting an hour.  Then, just as I was about to get started on the homeshooling, my oldest daughter reminded me that I needed to reinstall virus protection on her laptop, which had been reformatted after encountering some problems.  I had to get on the phone with Norton and have them help.  They took remote access of the computer and installed it, but I still had to sit at the desk with a phone to my ear for another thirty or forty minutes.  I also remembered I needed to back up my computer, so I started before I left the computer area.

Finally I started the younger kids on their Phonics lesson.  It took a long time, but its vital for my son that we don't skimp on this area.  He needs the review of all the information.  After Phonics, the kids were tired so I let them have a short break.  Then we did Learning Language Arts through Literature.  While the kids did their copy work, I studied my small engine repair course.  When they finished the copywork part of their lesson, I put my studies aside to help them with the rest.  Then when we finished their lesson, I let them take another break while I finished studying the section I was on.  When I finished it was around 8:00 at night, and we hadn't had dinner.  Fortunately my husband had started a soup in the crock pot before he left for work.  So we ate dinner, and I read to the kids from their History book and asked them questions about it while they ate.

After dinner, I studied a bit more.  When Lost came on I had  to watch it, the younger kids were sent into their room to watch kids shows and my older daughter and I watched Lost.  For the first half of the show I sat down and watched, and studied on commercials.  Then during the last half of the show I did Free Step on the Wii Fit Plus while I watched.  When Lost was done, put the kids to bed and did my daily exercises for bad knees.

Then I updated my weight loss blog with my daily exercise and calorie information.  And now, at 11:50 I am writing this, and tomorrow I will get up between 5:30 and 6:00, and start it all again.  Except that tomorrow, I also need to get the kids to Awana and my oldest to Youth Group!