The Organized Heart | Writing and Living

Archive - The Organized Heart RSS Feed

The Organized Heart and the Gospel

April 27, 2012 in The Organized Heart with 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago at Together for the Gospel, I sat down with Aaron Armstrong of Blogging Theologically to discuss The Organized Heart and the Gospel. Here’s the video.

Unimportant but related facts:

My family assures me I really sound like that. I’m not convinced.

Aaron suggested it was the contrast between his Canadian accent and my Midwestern one. That was kind of him, but he doesn’t sound as Canadian as some other people I know. (I’m looking at you Kim. And Neil. And Tim. Eh?)

Aaron’s done a few interviews now. I probably have the longest outtake reel so far. (I may or may not have gotten the giggles towards the end.)

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

In Which I Go to Traffic Court

March 21, 2012 in Just for fun, The Organized Heart with 8 Comments

Last month, I got a ticket because my license plates expired. Alert readers will remember that this happened to me last year. I am a slow learner.

When the policeman pulled me over (half a block from my son’s school–it was delightful), my surprised comment was, “Wow, I can’t believe they’re expired already. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long since I renewed them.”

Yes. Because when you renew them late, that expiration date comes up even faster. And I know it may make you feel helpful to remind me that they mail you a card a couple of months before they expire, but there is something about that little postcard that renders me unable to remember its existence. I cannot explain it.

Here’s the thing. If one has difficulty paying online because the ticket number is illegible, and one puts it aside to call during business hours, and then one forgets all about it. Well. It can end up being stressful.

Because yesterday evening (fifteen minutes after city hall closed) it hit me that my court date for said ticket was TODAY. And then on the helpful information sheet it says, “If you wish to plead guilty and pay the fine, you must do so by the day before your court date. (emphasis theirs)

Now, the rational side of me says that this just means I have to appear before the judge before I pay. The imaginative side of me says that they are going to throw the book at me.

Mrs. Eastin, you were supposed to pay this yesterday. Now you’ve wasted our time. May God have mercy on your soul.

I was home alone when I realized this. By the time my husband got home with the kids I was, um, upset. I told my husband of my forgetfulness. He read the paper. Then we had one of those interesting times in a marriage when we were using the same words but meaning entirely different things.

You see, his response was, “Well, to avoid trouble, I would call this number first thing tomorrow morning.”

Now, his definition of “trouble” is having to sit through a long, boring session of traffic court. My definition of “trouble” is getting hauled off in handcuffs. I may have teared up a little until he figured out how worried I was.

Once he quit laughing, though, he offered incredibly supportive reassurances. Such as: “Well, they probably won’t let us bring the dogs up to the jail to visit you, but maybe we could bring them by when you’re picking up trash by the side of the highway.” And, “You’ve been saying you would like to work out more. I’m sure the chain gang will offer quite a bit of cardio.” That sort of thing.

So today I showed up for traffic court. I was the first one there, and one of the few that actually dressed up. The judge smiled at me. I paid my fine. I am no longer a fugitive from justice.

And let me add that I am SO THANKFUL that I managed to remember this before my court date. Because if I would have thought of this after the date had passed? I might not have survived. It says right on the paper they will issue a warrant for your arrest if you fail to show. But Todd assures me they generally don’t storm your house with the swat team if you forget to pay a fine for a non-moving violation. He’s probably right, but I hope to never find out.

And of course, the irony here is that I’ve written a book on staying organized, but yet I can’t seem to get my act together. It’s a good thing I don’t believe in karma, because then I’d be afraid to do anything. Humility is often best learned through humiliation.

It’s like I always say: Sometimes the punchlines just write themselves.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Fun happenings this week

January 13, 2012 in The Organized Heart with 0 Comments

I can’t believe I didn’t mention this (I did on Twitter and Facebook, but not here), but earlier this week I did an interview with Domestic Kingdom.

And today, I wrote the guest post for the True Woman blog: Planner or Free Spirit?

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Women of God Interview

November 1, 2011 in The Organized Heart with 0 Comments

The Organized Heart, along with an interview with moi, is featured in this month’s issue of Women of God magazine. You can read the article here.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Fixing Our Flaws

October 14, 2011 in Mercy of God, The Organized Heart with 1 Comment

Have you ever prayed for someone to change? Have you ever gone to the Lord with a list of someone’s “personality flaws” and asked God to fix them?

I have.

But are we always right to do so?

More than ten years ago, I met a woman for the first time. One thing I remember about that first meeting is how startled I was by her directness. Nothing she asked was wrong, per se, but she was more plain-spoken than I would ever be.

If you would have asked me then what God needed to do to change her, I would have had a ready answer: he needed to make her quieter and more reserved. In other words, he needed to make her more like me.

A decade has now passed. We’ve both grown, we’ve both been through trials, and the Holy Spirit has been working on us both. My friend is still direct, but I appreciate her directness. I admire her ability to look unflinchingly at a situation and see the problem. But her words are now more loving and edifying and less harsh.

And while I’ve still got far to go, I’m less afraid of acknowledging problems. I no longer scramble to keep the peace at all costs, even at the expense of the truth.

In other words, we’ve both changed — but we’ve both remained the same. God uses both of us in different ways. He’s taken the personalities we were born with and redeemed them. We’re both works in progress, and our personalities will continue to give us problems as long as we walk this earth, but we’ve both come so far, and for that I am thankful.

I’m so glad God didn’t change my friend. Both of our personalities have their places in the church body.

Perhaps instead of going to God with our lists of things we want him to “fix” about the people in our lives, we should go to him and pray that they grow in godliness. Instead of praying that they start to act more like us, we should pray that we all act more like Christ.

God can take any personality flaw and redeem it for his glory. Procrastination can become thoughtfulness, perfectionism a quest for excellence, shyness to gentleness, directness to strength.

And all for the glory of God.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

In Which I Talk on the Radio

October 12, 2011 in The Organized Heart with 0 Comments

Way back in March, I was interviewed on Pilgrim Radio. I had a hard time getting the audio file on here, despite the fact that I was able to embed audio files way back when I was blogging on Blogger. Then I had computer problems, then I forgot. I may have mentioned that I sometimes procrastinate.

Whenever I heard call-in interviews before, I pictured the author reclining on a chaise lounge wearing a satin dress and heels. Maybe that’s true for others, but I was in my bedroom next to a pile of unfolded laundry. I also had the family sick bucket nearby, in case my nerves got the best of me.

Just keeping it real. I have mentioned that I have issues with intercoms. I was nervous about the radio for the same reason.

Anyway, here it is:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Beware of the List

October 7, 2011 in The Organized Heart with 9 Comments

From The Organized Heart:

Every how-to book on home organization seems to bring in a checklist at some point. It appears that people who are naturally organized love to make lists and check them twice. My computer-programmer husband thinks the most of the world’s problems can be solved with the right flow chart. My mother finds crossing things off her to-do list so satisfying that if she completes a task that’s not on her list, she writes it down just so she can cross it off.

The above quote almost didn’t make it into the book. Not because I didn’t think it was important, but because I was worried that it would be misunderstood. I’m pretty sure readers got my drift (because you all are really smart): Lists are a tool, not a master.

I am, for the most part, a non-list person surrounded by list people. It’s easy to think that list people are organized because they make lists. I wanted to point out that lists appeal to people whose brains work a certain way, and those people tend to be naturally organized.

So the person in chaos might look at her friend Jane and think: Jane is organized. Jane makes a to-do list every morning. If I make a to-do list, I will be organized, too.

Perhaps. Todd swears that he often gets things done at work just because he’s tired of seeing it on his list. Me? Not so. I can rationalize all manner of procrastination. If I’ve put off mopping the kitchen floor even though it looks nasty, writing “mop floor” on a piece of paper isn’t going to make it happen any sooner. If it works for you, though, use your list in the best of health.

And then there is the perfectionist, who gets so caught up in getting her list just so, that she doesn’t get anything done. I can be that way, too — searching for just the right pretty paper and pen for my list, when the back of an envelope will work fine. But that is often a stall tactic, akin to, I don’t know…spending the morning searching one’s books for a quote you can’t quite remember (and you need for no other reason than to satisfy your curiosity) when you really should be cleaning out the refrigerator.

Just to throw out an example. Something I came up with off the top of my head. Ahem.

And as I explained in the book, I do have a cleaning schedule of sorts. Yesterday was my day to mop the kitchen floor, but it didn’t get done as I got a little caught up in changing, breaking, and then patching up the blog. I’ll have to mop the floor today. Today is “change the sheets” day, too. It was supposed to be “repairman come and finish the drywall day,” but alas, it’s not dry enough yet.

I do have a list for this weekend, though. Want to see it? In no particular order:

~~Sleep in.~~ ~~We have nowhere to be in the morning, and oldest son could really use a day to catch up. I’m hoping I make it to 7:30 before waking up.~~ Dogs woke me up at 7:30.
Fix blog. The plainness is killing me. It’s taking all manner of self-control not to drop everything and make it pretty again. There. Not done, but much better.
Clean garage. It mostly invokes breaking down boxes, sweeping, and stacking. Done. Bigger job than I planned (aren’t they all?)
Paint shelf. This project that has dragged on since before I was even writing the book. Time to finish.
Clean office. Office is approaching “hot mess” status, but I can do this on a rainy day. It also involves much sorting of papers, a task I loathe.

That’s pretty ambitious (although the garage and the shelf really are smallish tasks). We’ll see how it goes. Feel free to ask me next time you see me.

So, how about you? Are you a list person? Why or why not?

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Apps that make me happy

September 26, 2011 in The Organized Heart with 2 Comments

When I wrote the book, it was important to me that I not turn it into a list of methods and tools that worked for me. I have read countless books on organization where the author wanted to sell you on her way of doing things. Since our lives are all so different, that doesn’t always work.

Having said all that, there are a lot of neat tools out there. So, this post is just to draw a few of them to your attention.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for the first one (Motivated Moms), so if you buy through my link I’ll get…something (a discount on next year’s planner perhaps? Don’t remember.) But I have no financial interest in the others. Nevermind. I couldn’t figure out my affiliate code. I have no financial interest in ANY of these products.

Ahem.

Motivated Moms chore planning system. It’s a simple concept — it breaks chores down and tells you what days to do them. (I wrote about it once here). I don’t generally do well with to-do lists, but this one doesn’t overwhelm me as much as most of them do. I used the paper one for a few years, but this year they developed an iPhone/iPod Touch app. Short of someone coming over and nagging me until I get things done (wouldn’t THAT be fun), this is the best I’ve found.

I first heard about the PrayerMate app from Tim Challies. A prayer app might sound kind of weird and unspiritual, but all this does is keep track of your list. If you’ve ever used notecards to keep track of prayer needs, this mimics that method. My favorite thing is that I can password protect it. I’m more consistent in praying for others if I can write all prayer requests in one notebook and carry it with me. That makes me nervous, though, because sometimes people tell me prayer requests that are confidential.

You can organize your prayer requests in different categories (family, friends, ministry needs), then list as many separate requests in each category that you wish. It was easy to customize.

Mealtime Makeover gives you a weekly menu and a shopping list. Lists are available for several different stores (and there’s an “any store” option if you prefer). I rarely follow it exactly, but the lists are set up to where you can see which items are for each meal, so you can cross it off if you wish. Some weeks are better than others, but this gives me a quick starting point for my grocery list.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Haven’t I been over this before?

September 23, 2011 in Mercy of God, Motherhood, The Organized Heart with 1 Comment

At the conference I spoke at this past weekend, the theme was “Viewing Our Struggles Through the Lens of the Gospel.” And though I spent a lot of time in the book of Habakkuk, it covered a lot of the same ground I covered in my book.

The Organized Heart was about a particular struggle: the struggle to live an organized life. I discussed how the struggle occurs because we place something else above the work we need to do.

The conference covered the same thing, except I didn’t speak specifically to disorganization, I spoke about struggles in general.

I’ve been tired lately. Why? Because now that my son has started public school, I have to get up 90 minutes earlier than I’m used to in order to see him off to the bus on time. I can fudge on too little sleep for awhile, but now it’s starting to catch up with me. I’m tired during the day and not as effective as I should be.

At risk of over-explaining and insulting your intelligence, there is no biblical principle as to what time one should go to sleep at night. But there are biblical principles about being a good steward of your time, taking care of your body, and being able to serve God and your family. Staying up too late affects each of these things.

This is a continual problem for me. I get frustrated when I hear the alarm go off, know that I haven’t slept enough and I’m starting the day already behind. Why am I back here again? How many times do I need to learn this lesson the hard way?

The steps to conquering it are the same as any other issue that comes up in life.

1. Confession and prayer. Always start there. We never conquer sin in our own power.

2. What’s the payoff? In other words, what is it that means so much to me that I’m willing to put it ahead of what I know I should be doing. In this case, it’s my solitude and the freedom to relax without any sort of deadline looming over me.

For instance, Todd and my oldest son have left, and the younger two are still sleeping, so I do have solitude right now. But I know in a few minutes I’ll have to get off the couch and get on with the day.

3. Remind myself what my purpose is. My purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. In this season of life, I primarily bring glory to God by serving my family. That should be my focus. With that in view, I need to seek God’s glory first and foremost, and trust that he will provide what I need in his timing.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

In Which I Drop the Ball in a Spectacular Way

August 25, 2011 in Just for fun, The Organized Heart, Uncategorized with 5 Comments

Author’s note: Don’t panic, Mom, this story has a happy ending.

Back in the first week of November, Todd and I took the kids to Disney World. It was a wonderful trip. But one day, while wandering around the Magic Kingdom, it occurred to me that my pharmacist license expired on October 31. Since November comes after October (it works this way everywhere — even The Happiest Place on Earth), that was kind of a problem.

I had, however, scored very well on the law portion of the pharmacy board exam all those many years ago, and I seemed to recall that I had a little grace period to renew before the state yanked my license, ripped it to pieces, and stomped on it. I’m not currently working as a pharmacist, either. If you’re working and your license expires, you get hauled off in handcuffs. (It may not be that drastic, but I’m sure Important Officials with Frowny Faces are involved.)

I decided I would take care of it when I got home, and put it out of my mind.

“Out of my mind” is exactly where it stayed for the next three months. I was in bed at the end of January, in that relaxed state one is in just before dropping off, when the thought came right back in my mind.

I was suddenly awake again. My mind was, um, racing with worst-case scenarios.

I thought I had a six month grace period, but what if it was only a three month grace period? Then I would have to take the board exams all over again. I can’t contemplate that for long without having to lie down with a cool washcloth on my forehead.

A midnight internet search showed that I actually had two years to renew, but still I worried. What if there was an exception? I spent the night imagining possible fine print that said the two-year grace period did not apply to dachshund owners, people shorter than five foot two, or those unable to twirl a baton.

I was only a little bit hysterical when I called the state office the next morning (even in my agitated state, I suspected that they wouldn’t appreciate midnight phone calls at home). I did have two years. I was okay. I had done nothing that couldn’t be fixed with paperwork and a late penalty. I did not have to face my husband or my parents (it’s a draw as to which encounter frightened me more) to tell them that I had been so busy writing a book on organization that I had lost my pharmacist license for the time being.

I have a long list of things that I have fouled up since the book came out. My license plates expired. I carried a check a check someone gave me around in my purse for months. Just this week I threw away a slew of papers from my son’s school (It seems I got the “throw-away” pile confused with the “keep” pile).

Everybody messes up sometimes. We all forget to turn in library books and video rentals by their due dates (at least I like to believe everybody does this). Is there anyone who hasn’t forgotten their lunch or their keys (or their phone) on occasion?

Failing to renew a professional license, however, is beyond the pale. Even Tammy Wynette managed to keep her beautician license current, just in case she had to return to fixing hair. I’m no Tammy Wynette, in lots of ways.

The fact that I’ve struggled so much with organization after having written a book called The Organized Heart is just too ironic. Sometimes the punch lines just write themselves.

I still maintain that karma, mojo, and Murphy’s Law don’t exist. Our lives are governed by a sovereign God. But should I ever write another book of nonfiction, I may be more careful in choosing the subject matter.

If it’s true that you will fail at the very skill you are trying to teach, here are some of the titles I’m considering:

How to Gain Weight

How to Remain Unable to Twirl a Baton Despite Growing Up With Sisters Who Can

How to Encounter Snakes on a Daily Basis

The possibilities are endless.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.