I don’t know about you but sometimes life in general seems frantic and that has an effect on the family. My husband is a big fan of Patrick Lencioni and I have read a few of his books in the past year as well. He is well known in the business and leadership world and writes great books. I normally don’t read books about business or leadership because honestly I think many of them are boring but his books are engaging, helpful and a fast read. He writes in fables and I have thoroughly enjoyed them. The latest book I read of Lencioni’s was The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family. It helps  you make a family plan that is good for two to six months at a time. It helps you define who you are as a family and what makes you unique and what your goals are for the near future. Because we were getting ready to enter into a crazy time of life where we are planning for a move, support raising, and preparing to start a new ministry it was a great time to put this into action. It has helped us to stay focused, say yes to the things that will move us ahead and say no when it doesn’t fall in line with our 6 month goal. It sounds so boring when I type it out but it’s such a helpful thing to do and it was a great read. I highly recommend it to everyone, single, married or a family with lots of kids.

I have a love hate relationship with exercise. I’m sure no one else can relate to that at all. Especially as a mom finding time to fit exercise in is a real challenge. Another bummer is that I’m thinner when I don’t exercise so that’s not a real motivator either. Who needs muscle anyway? However, I’ve come to the conclusion that the benefits outweigh the negatives in many ways: it keeps my heart healthy, I feel better about myself, I have more energy, it keeps me sane emotionally, it helps my back and all the arthritis pain that I have (I know I’m old), and most of all I need to be taking care of my body to honor the Lord and set a good example for my daughter. Did you know that our children’s generation is the first one that is not expected to outlive their parents because of such unhealthy life practices? I don’t want to be a part of that terrible statistic. So, I exercise and try to teach Jenna that it’s important.

So what do I do for exercise? I would love to swim laps every day but I don’t have time for that. I don’t have time or money for a gym membership either so this is what I do. I go to a yoga class once a week which is lovely. It’s the one time a week that I get 90 minutes of uninterrupted exercise with real live adults in the room. So wonderful. The other days I do yoga videos at home and alternate it with The 30 Day Shred with Jillian. My favorite line in the Shred is “I want you to feel like you’re going to die!” And many times I do. It’s fantastic and it works. Here are the two videos I use. The best thing is that they are 20 minute workouts which is all I can do most days and works when you have small children who have many needs to attend to.

So what do you other moms do? I always love new ideas. I’d love it if you would share. And I don’t share this to brag that I work out. I’m inconsistent and need to be way better about it. There are definitely seasons that come with this area of my life. I just like to share the wealth as we like to say on the MSU staff team.

P.S. Even my husband enjoys the Shred and I’m sure he’ll appreciate me sharing this detail  🙂