I have a really busy week going on right now. We just got back from camping, which means unpacking and washing a ridiculous amount of stuff (it rained the whole time). While I’m cleaning up from the camping trip, I’m also preparing to leave again on Sunday. Chloe and I are going to be away at a Kids Camp for a week where I’ll be heading up the crafts and helping with activities. Unpacking from one trip to pack for another. Normal for some of you, completely insane for a person that must be prepared for absolutely every scenario, like me.
What’s a girl to do? I have a LOT of things to get done over the next few days and I need to find a way to do what I need and not be a frazzled mess to my family. To be honest, it’s a real challenge. I can be ready and have everything perfect when I leave – house spotless, cupboards stocked for hubby and almost everything else I own packed for me and Chloe. It would come at a cost though – stress and chaos in my home. Is it really worth it? I don’t think so.
The first logical thing to do is prioritize, right? I make a list of everything that needs to get done with the most important things at the top. Usually, this works well for me. I’m motivated to get through the items at the top of my list to try and tackle the less-urgent to-do’s, feeling more energized each time I cross a new item off the list. You notice I said that usually works for me.
Then there are weeks like I’m having right now – crazy weeks. There are too many things to fit into my waking hours and I’m too grouchy of a person to sacrifice my sleeping hours. I prioritize the best I can but I’m just overwhelmed with the number of things that have to be done along side all of the usual things that fill my days. I work and work and everything still seems to be in upheaval. I don’t feel like I’m making any progress. So here’s what I did – my moment of brilliance and clarity in the whirlwind I like to call my home – I decided what things I’m NOT going to do.
I crossed off:
- Keep my house picked up. While my house remains messy for a better part of the day, carpeted with things like naked Barbies, plastic dinosaurs and mounds of laundry, I usually pick it up every afternoon so that each night I go to bed with a somewhat-picked-up house. Not this week.
- Sew a messenger bag. I know this sounds weird but I’ve really been wanting to sew a cool, new bag for myself to carry my new netbook in – I even have all the materials for the project. It’s not happening this week though.
- Make crowd-pleasing meals. I ordinarily try to make a few meals a week that I know my hubby and/or daughter will drool over. These meals frequently take more time or energy. Not this week. We had bacon, eggs and home fries tonight.
- Stock pantry. This wasn’t actually on my list. This is more of a “wish I could do this for you honey” task. Truth is though, he’s great at grocery shopping – yes, on a budget – and also great at cooking his own meals. So he’s actually the one to cross this off my list. *MWAH*
- Writing extra blog posts. I don’t have the time to spare to write double the amount of posts for next week while I’m away, so I’m not going to. I’m going to republish a few posts from 6 months ago when only 8 of you were reading them (you know who you are – you guys are awesome
) Hopefully all of my new readers will enjoy them and we can get a little conversation going. Back when my blog was a couple months old my site crashed and I lost all comments on my early posts, so let’s generate some new ones! - Keep up with Twitter and my Reader. Sorry, you probably won’t catch more than a glimpse of me on Twitter and I probably won’t read your posts until next week, forgive me? I’ll get to them, just not this week.
- Line-drying clothes. Go ahead. Think I’m terrible. So far I don’t feel bad because it’s been raining every day anyway. Ordinarily I try to plan my laundry so that I do most of it on days that are dry and breezy. Not this week though. I’ll hang out towels or sheets but all of our clothes are jumping right in the dryer this week.
Crossing off a few items with no intention whatsoever of doing them – was freeing. Instead of not being able to get to these tasks and feeling guilty about all of the things I didn’t accomplish, I chose not to do them, freeing myself to focus on my newly-shortened list – which is still long but for some reason, feels a lot more do-able. I’ve given myself permission to cheat this week – no, it’s not a new lifestyle, not at all but it is helping me take a breath and get done what I need to and that feels good.
Why I do what I do ~ I videoed Chloe sitting at the piano and playing while singing songs she made up. It was really adorable. I loaded it on the computer and let her watch it. She immediately hopped off my lap when it was over and ran over to the piano. “I want another movie Mommy.” I recorded for 8 more mintutes while she did things like smile at the camera, take reflective pauses and purposefully not finish songs so I’d keep recording, assuring me, “I’m almost done.”
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Wow! When I woke up this morning I was kinda in a panic, realizing I had so much more to do than I’d scheduled. Then, my time alone w/Jesus was cut short by an early rising little boy. But my time is in HIS hands. He knows what I can handle.
Reading this blog entry reminded me to smile, chill and do ONLY what needs to be done!
…. THANKS! So good!
Happy, properly-productive week!
hugs!