I write.  Have always loved the process.  I NEED to write and am never totally happy if I am not working on some story or other writing on a daily basis.  Trouble is I distract easily and tend to put other responsibilities ahead of my need to write every day.

Distractions are a problem for any mother. I have a vocation to mother my children as well as to write.  It is a struggle to figure out how to do this properly.  I spent this past year frustrated because if I set aside time to write I felt guilty of neglecting the parenting aspects of my vocation. If I felt guilty then I sacrificed my writing to spend that time with children and washing dishes and ended up feeling unsettled because I needed to write too.

Realizing that I was allowing responsibilities to take over,  I broke the problem down.  First, I needed a HABIT for writing every day.  Sounds so easy, but in practice it is much more difficult to achieve when you have allowed others to dictate your time too much.  The habit of writing each day needed to be established in the minds and hearts of all members of this family.  I needed to carve that out and keep it solidly carved, no exceptions!  Even on a day when everything comes apart and it is little crisis after little crisis I needed to keep the habit in place.

To form this habit of daily writing, no matter the distractions, and without totally freaking out when I am interrupted for the dozenth time, I am working to write REGULARLY.   Writing regularly but worrying less about what. By doing my blog daily, I am slowly building a habit.

This habit has certain characteristics. First, it is daily. Second, it is being done in the midst of distractions. Third, it is a means for me to learn to manage the frustration that comes with interruptions. Fourth, it reminds me daily that I also need to improve my daily habit of prayer.

Funny how that happens.  I find a habit I need to develop, and while working on that one I am reminded quite strongly that there are other habits I need to improve on or develop. I pray daily, but without a lot of structure.  So now I sit here writing about this habit and noticing that there is a need to improve the daily prayer too.

Virtues are habits.  I think the diligence and perseverance for writing is improving and so it becomes obvious that there are other areas of my life where I need to apply these two virtues.  Amazing, and all because I recognized that my writing isn’t going to go where it needs to go unless I first get the habit of DAILY writing and that habit must have the flexibility built into it where it can fit into the over-all vocation which includes kids, hubby, housework and a mixed bag of other activities.