Busy vs. Productive

bus·y/ˈbizē/

Adjective:	Having a great deal to do.
Verb:	Keep occupied: "she busied herself with her new home".
Synonyms:	adjective. occupied - engaged - active verb. occupy     pro·duc·tive/prəˈdəktiv/ Adjective: Producing or able to produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities. Relating to or engaged in the production of goods, crops, or other commodities. Synonyms: fruitful - fecund - fertile - prolific - generative

Here I thought I was going to make a point about how my aim in these next 28 days was not to stay busy, but to get things done But the definitions really bother me! My desire is not to fill my day with meaningless tasks just to say "I was so busy today", but to go to bed each day knowing I had a productive day. That I got done what needed to be done. And if that means I spent time comforting crying children, playing with a two year old who needed a little extra attention, or lounging around listening to my first grader read; I did things that NEEDED to be done. Granted, I'd like to be able to say I did all those things and still went to bed with dishes done, floors swept and vacuumed, and a good conversation had with my man. But I"m not trying to just stay "busy".
Dave and I used to live in a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere (it took 3 hours just to get to a walmart!). Shops closed down by 5 each night... some were "modern" and would stay open on the weekends all the way until 7pm! We were bored out of our gourdes! We had Zech, who was only a year old. But we were bored. The house stayed clean (I only had ONE child then!), Dave worked, came home and we sat around. We took walks, but the town was very small. We'd seen it all. But somehow, everyone in the town spoke about how "busy" they were. They were always stating how they wished there were more hours in a day, they were always too busy to get things done. Dave and I didn't understand. WHAT WERE THEY DOING!!!??? And could they share some with us bored folk! Maybe it was that we came from a big city to a small town. Maybe it was because we came from a larger church with more programs, maybe it was that we had gone from being just the two of us, to having a newborn, to then living in a small town with a pretty independent one year old. But we felt these people were just busybodies (Good people, just good busy body people!). I don't want the "busy" life, I want the productive life...
However, the definitions do me no good! I don't want "a great deal to do".. I mean, I already have that!
I don't want to just "occupy" my time... but then again, I don't think I want to "produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities." either! So I shall adopt my own definition from the synonyms given for each...
Fruitful. I want to be fruitful. I want to teach my children, I want their knowledge to multiply, their joy to increase.
Engaged: I want to be engaged in life. Not just stressing about having a clean house!
Fertile: NO! I've been too fertile, hence the craziness in my home! HAHA! Just kidding. But I DO want this to be a home that is fertile for spiritual growth.

Today I read:
http://stress.about.com/od/stressmanagementtools/a/organized.htm

• A cluttered home can subtly drain you of energy
• It’s important to notice and eliminate patterns of stressors so that your stress response isn’t constantly triggered.

These two nuggets that I gained from the article go hand in hand... a messy cluttered home is my major source of stress! A messy kitchen will stick in my mind even when I'm away from home! So I will be working on a cleaning routine to keep this from creeping up... then I can keep my way open to being Fruitful, Engaged, and Fertile (but not THAT kind of fertile... PLEASE, GOD!)