We celebrated the Bug's 5th birthday yesterday.
Five.
I could write a long lamenting post over that. But I won't.
I really miss blogging more consistently. I've struggled with it this year. And here's the ugly truth about that.
Ready for this?
I don't have the energy that I used to.
I hate even typing that because well, it sounds old. But it's the truth.
I've always been a high energy person, and so I get really frustrated when my body does not cooperate with what I want to do. Dan has always said that I'm like a toddler...I go, go, go until I just crash and can't go anymore. And I'm still like that. The crashing part just comes a little earlier, a little harder and takes a little longer to recover from. :)
So now that Kaitlin's party is over, I've crashed. Unfortunately, my house (oh, my house!) has suffered greatly during the party prep and I think will require nearly nonstop attention to get it back in order this week.
I'm hoping to fit some more blogging in as well and try to make an attempt at getting caught up.
Life is just so busy right now. And I don't say that in a way that to imply that I'm any busier than any of my friends with kids (and jobs!) as well. We are all busy. We all have different demands on our time that makes free time a precious commodity. Not to mention, I am by nature a busy person. If I had no commitments whatsoever, I'd be busy.
I think what I struggle a bit with right now is that my busy~ness is not flexible. It's not as much by my own choice but dictated a bit by school schedules, OT, and just different needs of our family right now. But I also know this is a season that will pass. So I'm just trying to meet those needs so that the time spent will hopefully bear fruit and we can pass through and enjoy being busy in a different way.
But in the midst of it all, I'm trying to prioritize my time better. (Hence the lack of blogging....)
And I'm trying to be less hurried. I was inspired by our pastor one day last year when he challenged us to "ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our life." I've thought a lot about that and I think it has such merit. (I listed this goal in my last post).
Hurry creates frustration. Impatience. And Yelling. (I loathe yelling). It also creates a giant mess as things are dropped on the run. Thrown in a pile. Or worse, in a bag. People don't feel valued when you're always in a hurry and never have time to really connect. I forget things when I'm always in a hurry. My mind feels scattered.
So while I know I'll always be busy, I'm trying to eliminate hurry whenever possible.
I'm trying to....
Start getting ready to leave for things earlier.
Lowering my expectations as to what can realistically be done in a day.
Prioritizing my time better and doing what HAS to be done first.
Getting rid of "stuff" so I can be more efficient the the time that I have.
Not multitask as much and focus more.
Adopt a "lean and mean" mentality ~ doing less, but doing it well.
Take the time to plan my week out on Sundays so that I can anticipate what needs to be done earlier.
Not over schedule. (This is probably the thing that helps the most and I've noticed has a huge impact on the frustration level in our home).
My house is a wreck right now because I took on too much for Kaitlin's party. (I always get carried away even with the best intentions not to...but oh, it's such fun!) But at the end, I was in a huge hurry to pull it all together and so things were thrown in closets, in the laundry room....in our room. It's now a mess to sort out (after all of my organizing work!) And I think this is where this post could transition to one on simplifying....Another challenge of mine!
I'm writing about this here to have some accountability. I'm not expecting to never be rushed or hurried. Things happen. And really, it's a little bit of life with kids. (You only have so much control over the pace that they move!) But it's one of the areas that I hope to improve at this year.
And if I'm not going to end up in a hurry this morning, I have to stop writing this post and get ready for church! :)
