We Do Too Much

You might be wondering where I've been for the past three weeks.  If you didn't notice, don't worry about it.  You've probably just been busy.  That's where I've been, too.  Caleb and I had two weeks straight where we had something going on every day (I held up until Tuesday of the first week, then gave up blogging).  The third week, we had a major event at the end of the week for which I prepped most of the week (I also was trying to recover from the previous two weeks).  And then yesterday, I cleaned my kitchen.  Yes, it took nearly all day, because I hadn't cleaned it in two weeks.  Slight exaggeration?  Hardly.  I washed dishes once in two weeks.  I know.  So much shame.  I wouldn't even let my mother in the house because I was so ashamed.  And I know some people have very judgmental mothers, but I do not. I figure my mom raised me and has seen my worst (stressful times in high school and college - my room would slowly leak out until it covered half the living room).  But this was awful, and not how I wanted my mom to remember me.

So today, my kitchen is slightly cleaner (I have Round 2 of the Mountain of Dishes to wash and there are fruit flies hovering around my sink, but still, it's cleaner than it was) and I tidied a bit around my living room, and I can think again.

And it's not okay to do that to myself ever again.  I know that sometimes life happens, but it's not okay for that to happen for three weeks.  Everything to which I committed myself was a good thing.  But good things for three weeks straight is too many things.  If I don't have the energy to even wipe down my toilet seat with a Clorox wipe, something is wrong.  Very wrong.

I think a lot of us do this.  Someone asks us to do something, and we're technically free that day, so we say yes.  We need to learn to say no sometimes.  We're really good at saying no when we already have something scheduled that day, because, really, that's our only option.  But when the day is free, but we were actually planning on relaxing that day?  We need to learn to say no.

I guess that's the good thing that came out of this last month.  I never want to go through this again.

So, I don't know when I'll be back. I want to write more and post about Christmas stuff and work on my 101 Things project (which, yes, I have hardly touched in the last month), but I'm also going to be practical.  This week is far less busy than the last three, so we'll see.

Love and A Clear Schedule,
Leah Joy