This morning I woke up feeling pretty dang good. My kids and I had made quite a bit of progress around our home yesterday cleaning up and posting things up on eBay. I also had a good morning PiYo class and a good evening free fit club as well yesterday. So I woke up with this burst of energy today.
It is summertime and my kiddos get extra visits with dad this time of the year. So this morning I spent time with them double checking their suitcases making sure there were full day outfits and night gear, as well as underwear, toothbrushes, yada yada -you get the idea! I mean I could do this for them, but I take it as a parental responsibility to teach them life skills on how to pack a suitcase. We have had a few struggles with that lately. So, we get it done and all loaded in the car just to run back in for a few more forgotten things of course.. then we get on the road. We drive 45 minutes to meet their dad halfway so I try to have some quality time chatting with them en route. Shoot I live for this time of the year, every week I get a few extra days kid free in the summer! Some weeks they truly drive me nuts and I really look forward to them going to dads! No matter what though, I always miss them and it's almost a little too quiet for me...
When I returned home today after sending the kids away, I was thinking optimistically about all the things I could do without them slowing me down! I rolled up my sleeves and started digging around our disaster area of a home still after a move last year. I was a little frustrated looking at the kids rooms and seeing not even basic things picked up like I repeatedly had been asking them to when we've been home. I actually sent a text to dad asking him to let our son know I will be cleaning his room & that if we wants me not to invade the privacy of his room again, he will need to keep it clean. My 10 year old son is at an age where he is really starting to value his privacy (I don't want to know!) At any rate it is helping motivate him somewhat to take better care of his things. My daughter on the other hand is 7 & an open book, she hates to be alone I think. She does not care about privacy too much and would love some help in her room. Hers might be the worst in the house right now. So I got a lot done just picking up, my son's room looks 10 times better. I stepped out into the rest of the house though and had this realization slap me in the face that I still have 2,002 things to do around here. I started feeling some anxiety and overwhelmed with it just looking around at all. There is never enough time in a day!! Oh my gosh, & now it's already 7:30 at night? Where did the damn day go?! Ooof, so in order to put it in perspective for myself- I reflect back on everything I did today. Was I productive enough or as much as I could be the time given? Well let's see I...
-unpacked/repacked kids suitcases
-grabbed quick breakfasts for the go
-cleaned my son's room
-worked on my schedule
-a few loads of laundry
-shipped a couple packages
-received a couple packages
-checked email
-responded or initiated to messages
-social media posts
-worked on like page & website
-started a shopping list
Does not seem like so much, but my was it all so time-consuming! You know what I still have not done today? My workout! I have a mountain of socks needing to be matched driving me nuts, and a sink full of dishes that I need to do before I go to sleep. There is still soooo sooo much I want to do before this day is done! I'm always thinking about trying to be more grateful and less greedy though. I am only one woman though, and there's only so much I can do in one day. I have to appreciate the little accomplishments along the way.. because they do add up! I know it's so easy to feel overwhelmed with some things in life. We can feel like even those small steps in the direction of our goals might be insignificant or won't add up enough to really make the difference. We have to keep trying, letting it overwhelm us does no good. If we fail to try, we are just rolling over and letting it consume us, we are accepting defeat. I don't know about you, but I'm just not that type of gal!
So it is now already 8:30 pm as I am finishing up this blog post, the day is about done. I have been needing to keep up with this blog better as well, I have no rhyme or reason yet to it. I just know that I have to do it. This is my light duty day of the week, so it's as good a day as any. I think I may well still have time to squeeze in a 20-30 minute workout here at home because I am worth it. Then I may make a little trip to the store and after come home for a hot shower or long soak. I have to step away and have that "qt for me". A little bit of this, a little bit of that, the work will always be there.
To try & keep this short and sweet, I believe this is what they had in mind when somebody coined the phrase "embrace the chaos". What kind of chaos are you juggling, or how are you getting a handle on it?
