I'm so busy I could eat a horse (I don't know what that means)
The thought just crossed my mind that this naptime is going by so slowly and I must have a ton of time left to get things done.
Then I looked up at the clock and realized Erin's already been asleep for an hour and a half. Le sigh. In the first year or so of her life, naptime, for me, was time entirely spent reading books, watching movies, and all around laziness. My mind and body needed that at the time.
What have my mind and body been doing for the past hour and a half?
Well, I'll tell you what, the first thing I did was put on one of my yoga playlists because I knew I'd need all the zen. I finished putting the groceries away (see, I ran by the house and threw the groceries on the counter, put the refrigerated and frozen things away, then ran back to the truck so we could get to play group at a relatively decent time, and then when I pulled back into the driveway after play group, Mike texted me at that moment about meeting him for a lunch date, so we went and did that, p.s. Chickfila was a mad house, and we rolled into the house about 20 minutes after naptime should've started and that's the story of why I finished putting the groceries away) (that's also the story of me putting "This is Halloween" on repeat on the way home, and singing loudly with it, in an attempt to keep Erin from falling asleep before she got in her bed)(it worked), then I emptied the dishwasher (and subsequently the sink) and started a load of laundry. Is this getting boring to read yet? Then I looked at the table and my scriptures and journal were giving me one of those pursed lips looks, like they were saying "we've been sitting next to this empty box of cereal all day and you haven't opened us yet" and so I was like FINE! But before I read I was like "oh wait, I just remembered this thing I need to ask about girl's camp for next year" so I sent a text to my camp director, and then I thought about 5 more things for girl's camp next year and started a list on my fridge of things for girl's camp next year.
Girl's camp next year.
I just wanted to type it one more time.
THEN I read my scriptures (phew), and then I was like "hey, let's think about things for girl's camp next year" (okay, one more), and when I pulled out my laptop I was like "Oh yeah it's payday I should probably pay bills" so I did that and the remaining balance in our checking account didn't make me want to cry as much as it usually does. So I have that going for me.
And now I'm sitting here, with about five million other things I should be doing, but I decided to write a blog post instead.
Three cheers for being an adult.
Do other people suffer from "If you give a mouse a cookie" syndrome? You start one thing, and get distracted by twenty other things, and you finally get around to finishing the first thing maybe a week later?
I serve with the teenage girls at church, right? And they are busy; they're so much busier than I was when I was their age, but also I want to hug each of them and be like 'DO ALL OF THE FUN THINGS NOW WHILE YOU HAVE TIME TO DO THEM WHENEVER YOU WANT BECAUSE YOU'LL BECOME AN ADULT SOONER RATHER THAN LATER AND WITH ADULT FREE TIME COMES GUILT IF YOU DON'T DO THINGS THAT NEED TO GET DONE.'
Right?
I hate that. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. We get so busy. We get so many things going on in our lives. Family work, occupational work, church work, community work, whatever else work. And so we beat ourselves up if we're not tackling five things at once, even if it's to the detriment of ourselves and those we care about.
(I suspect we're missing the forest for the trees, here.)
I can't tell you how many times I'm practically pushing Erin out the door because I'm in such a hurry, and then I get frustrated when she wants to stop and look at acorn treasures or rock treasures or an awesome stick that she found (she calls things she finds on the ground treasures. How adorable is that? How villainous am I for not stopping every time to look at them? Okay, villainous is harsh, but still. TREASURES).
I'm literally not stopping to smell the roses!
Is this post frantic? It feels a little frantic. It's probably because I have all of this built up angst about busy-ness and how much I hate it but feel obligated to be it. THIS IS CONFLICTING. Yes, I want to have things to do. No, I don't want it to consume my life. I don't feel any better about myself, or more accomplished as a human being when my life is going a million miles an hour and the to-do list is 10 feet long. And we shouldn't! Those things don't make us better people!!
Think about this, go ahead and ask yourself, when was the last time you did something just to do it? Like, read a book that you want to read? Not for school, not for a book club, not because every bestseller list everywhere says you should? But just a book that caught your eye and you want to read it because you want to read it? Or when was the last time you woke up on a Saturday and looked at your family and said "let's blow this joint and go hike around a lake" or found a new place to eat tacos or SOMETHING??
Do you know what I mean?
I follow a guy on Facebook called Hank Smith. He's the motivational, amusing, uplifting kind of fellow. How do you end up in a line of work where you get paid to do that?? Anyway, he posted this earlier in the summer (I just realized I typed 'earlier in the summer' like it's still summer because oh my gosh it still is here but everywhere else people are actually having to dress warmer and leaves know how to change colors, meanwhile my AC is running right now) and I put it on my bathroom mirror upstairs (BATHROOM MIRRORS ARE USEFUL PLACES TO PUT THINGS, if you've kept up with my previous posts).
It's such a good, frequent reminder:
If I found myself facing death today, I'm almost certain my first thought would be: "I don't have time for this."
If I'm being serious, my first thought would definitely be, "I should've spent more time with my family."
We are fooling ourselves if we think we'll have more time for our loved ones in some future week, month, or year. It's the "future me" myth. "Future me" is going to have so much more time, "future me" is going to be healthy, "future me" is not going to waste so much time, "future me" is going to spend a lot of time with my family. The problem is that "future me" doesn't exist. "Future me" is a figment of my imagination that soothes the ache of poor choices today.
Being busy is easy. There will always be more to do. It is time to make time for those you love. Do it today. Do it right now.
Then I looked up at the clock and realized Erin's already been asleep for an hour and a half. Le sigh. In the first year or so of her life, naptime, for me, was time entirely spent reading books, watching movies, and all around laziness. My mind and body needed that at the time.
What have my mind and body been doing for the past hour and a half?
Well, I'll tell you what, the first thing I did was put on one of my yoga playlists because I knew I'd need all the zen. I finished putting the groceries away (see, I ran by the house and threw the groceries on the counter, put the refrigerated and frozen things away, then ran back to the truck so we could get to play group at a relatively decent time, and then when I pulled back into the driveway after play group, Mike texted me at that moment about meeting him for a lunch date, so we went and did that, p.s. Chickfila was a mad house, and we rolled into the house about 20 minutes after naptime should've started and that's the story of why I finished putting the groceries away) (that's also the story of me putting "This is Halloween" on repeat on the way home, and singing loudly with it, in an attempt to keep Erin from falling asleep before she got in her bed)(it worked), then I emptied the dishwasher (and subsequently the sink) and started a load of laundry. Is this getting boring to read yet? Then I looked at the table and my scriptures and journal were giving me one of those pursed lips looks, like they were saying "we've been sitting next to this empty box of cereal all day and you haven't opened us yet" and so I was like FINE! But before I read I was like "oh wait, I just remembered this thing I need to ask about girl's camp for next year" so I sent a text to my camp director, and then I thought about 5 more things for girl's camp next year and started a list on my fridge of things for girl's camp next year.
Girl's camp next year.
I just wanted to type it one more time.
THEN I read my scriptures (phew), and then I was like "hey, let's think about things for girl's camp next year" (okay, one more), and when I pulled out my laptop I was like "Oh yeah it's payday I should probably pay bills" so I did that and the remaining balance in our checking account didn't make me want to cry as much as it usually does. So I have that going for me.
And now I'm sitting here, with about five million other things I should be doing, but I decided to write a blog post instead.
Three cheers for being an adult.
Do other people suffer from "If you give a mouse a cookie" syndrome? You start one thing, and get distracted by twenty other things, and you finally get around to finishing the first thing maybe a week later?
I serve with the teenage girls at church, right? And they are busy; they're so much busier than I was when I was their age, but also I want to hug each of them and be like 'DO ALL OF THE FUN THINGS NOW WHILE YOU HAVE TIME TO DO THEM WHENEVER YOU WANT BECAUSE YOU'LL BECOME AN ADULT SOONER RATHER THAN LATER AND WITH ADULT FREE TIME COMES GUILT IF YOU DON'T DO THINGS THAT NEED TO GET DONE.'
Right?
I hate that. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. We get so busy. We get so many things going on in our lives. Family work, occupational work, church work, community work, whatever else work. And so we beat ourselves up if we're not tackling five things at once, even if it's to the detriment of ourselves and those we care about.
(I suspect we're missing the forest for the trees, here.)
I can't tell you how many times I'm practically pushing Erin out the door because I'm in such a hurry, and then I get frustrated when she wants to stop and look at acorn treasures or rock treasures or an awesome stick that she found (she calls things she finds on the ground treasures. How adorable is that? How villainous am I for not stopping every time to look at them? Okay, villainous is harsh, but still. TREASURES).
I'm literally not stopping to smell the roses!
Is this post frantic? It feels a little frantic. It's probably because I have all of this built up angst about busy-ness and how much I hate it but feel obligated to be it. THIS IS CONFLICTING. Yes, I want to have things to do. No, I don't want it to consume my life. I don't feel any better about myself, or more accomplished as a human being when my life is going a million miles an hour and the to-do list is 10 feet long. And we shouldn't! Those things don't make us better people!!
Think about this, go ahead and ask yourself, when was the last time you did something just to do it? Like, read a book that you want to read? Not for school, not for a book club, not because every bestseller list everywhere says you should? But just a book that caught your eye and you want to read it because you want to read it? Or when was the last time you woke up on a Saturday and looked at your family and said "let's blow this joint and go hike around a lake" or found a new place to eat tacos or SOMETHING??
Do you know what I mean?
I follow a guy on Facebook called Hank Smith. He's the motivational, amusing, uplifting kind of fellow. How do you end up in a line of work where you get paid to do that?? Anyway, he posted this earlier in the summer (I just realized I typed 'earlier in the summer' like it's still summer because oh my gosh it still is here but everywhere else people are actually having to dress warmer and leaves know how to change colors, meanwhile my AC is running right now) and I put it on my bathroom mirror upstairs (BATHROOM MIRRORS ARE USEFUL PLACES TO PUT THINGS, if you've kept up with my previous posts).
It's such a good, frequent reminder:
If I found myself facing death today, I'm almost certain my first thought would be: "I don't have time for this."
If I'm being serious, my first thought would definitely be, "I should've spent more time with my family."
We are fooling ourselves if we think we'll have more time for our loved ones in some future week, month, or year. It's the "future me" myth. "Future me" is going to have so much more time, "future me" is going to be healthy, "future me" is not going to waste so much time, "future me" is going to spend a lot of time with my family. The problem is that "future me" doesn't exist. "Future me" is a figment of my imagination that soothes the ache of poor choices today.
Being busy is easy. There will always be more to do. It is time to make time for those you love. Do it today. Do it right now.
This isn't from anything in particular, just a random Facebook post he did (I believe in giving accurate credit where credit is due...so there you go).
This quote of his actually had a lot to do with my new mentality when it comes to my body (see THIS post). I got sick of telling myself I would be healthier in the future, or happier in the future, or a big list of other things in the future. I'M. DONE. WAITING.
Give "future me" a break sometime and let "present me" actually have some of the fun and experience you keep putting off. The meetings will work themselves out, the dishes and laundry will get put away (maybe a week later), and everything will be fine. Repeat that again, with me. Everyone use a big, loud voice now.
Everything will be fine!
Enjoy your life and the people you've been blessed with.
This quote of his actually had a lot to do with my new mentality when it comes to my body (see THIS post). I got sick of telling myself I would be healthier in the future, or happier in the future, or a big list of other things in the future. I'M. DONE. WAITING.
Give "future me" a break sometime and let "present me" actually have some of the fun and experience you keep putting off. The meetings will work themselves out, the dishes and laundry will get put away (maybe a week later), and everything will be fine. Repeat that again, with me. Everyone use a big, loud voice now.
Everything will be fine!
Enjoy your life and the people you've been blessed with.
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