The last year and a half of my life has been crazy busy. I’ve gone back to work full-time, after six years at home, my husband has changed jobs (from a super flexible job to a less flexible one) and on and on. It’s been hectic – way more hectic than I am comfortable with – so I’ve spent a lot of energy being ticked off at how busy we are. How messy our house now is. How I no longer have time for tennis or 90 minute gym sessions. How things have changed.
But my husband does not see it quite the same way as I do. He acknowledges that yes, we are busier than we were and having the younger kids in after-school care has brought some interesting challenges our way (like squeezing dinner, homework, playtime, baths, laundry, breathing, etc. into a 2.5 hour time slot each evening), but that’s ok. He likes his job (this is good), he likes the kids (this is also good) and this is where we are right now so we can make the best of it.
In other words, he’s not freaking out because the baseboards have not been disinfected recently.
Sounds so simple, and as much as it drives me completely nuts for him to be so calm about the chaos that is our lives, perhaps he’s right.
Perhaps life is not so awful, perhaps it simply does not matter if every item on my hyped-up Must Get Done List actually gets done. Maybe it really is ok to sit on the couch now and then and oh, I don’t know, rest?
So today, in between time on the couch and time on my super-comfy lounge chair in the backyard, I’m going to do a GTD-style weekly review and empty my head of all the nonsense that’s floating around in there telling me I’m so busy and think about what really even needs to be done. I have fallen out of the habit of doing my weekly reviews, even though I know it’s the one thing I can do that makes me feel like I don’t have so much to do. Make me feel just a little less insane.
I have one urgent errand to run today though. Must go pick up our Girl Scout cookies. Because if you’re going to lounge around all day, Thin Mints are a must.
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Update: I had the wrong week. Our GS cookies won’t be ready until Thursday of this coming week. And I thought I was late picking them up. Duh!
Ha! I walked by the Girl Scouts yesterday. Actually I snuck out the other door they weren’t hovering at. How much are the cookies this year? I know my dad will buy one or two for us.
As for the housecleaning …. I’m one of those people who rest before cleaning. I always remembered my mom stressing about that when I was little and she would then stress us out. I never wanted that for our house. So we (or rather I) abide by Cleaning and scrubbing can wait ’till tomorrow, for babies grow up, much to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep. Basically there are many better things to do than clean a house.
After writing that yesterday, I realized something. So I’m back to say that I’m sure your house of 6 is quite different than my house of 3. Hopefully I didn’t sound high and mighty — was not my intention.
I love reading what you write! Your thoughts truly resonate with me, and I appreciate that you take the time to put them down.