The Ginormous List...

Um, guys? Why have none of you come over to my house and kicked my booty into writing a blog post? Don't you know that my self-discipline is nil?!
*sigh*

So it's summer. And I'm exhausted.
Wait, what?! How is that even possible? I'm not teaching at Cragin Academy (home school) and I took the summer off from piano lessons. I should be having ALL THE FREE TIME!!! I should be getting ALL THE THINGS DONE!!!
Except I don't and I'm not.

You guys: my summer plans were to get all the purging, cleaning, organizing, planning, remodeling, and sleeping done that I didn't get done during the school year. We are entering into our second month of summer break and I feel like I am 1/100th of the way through my "Ginormous List of All the Things To Do This Summer."
And sleeping? Well, just look at the time when I actually get this posted...

But you know what? There's no one looking over my shoulder telling me that I need to be doing more. There is no one monitoring my "Ginormous List of All the Things To Do This Summer." There is no one telling me that I'm not good enough because I can't get it all done.
Except me. I am telling myself all of those things. I do it every day, summer break or not. I am my own worst critic/boss/enemy.

So it is once again time for that look in the mirror when I tell myself that I am good enough and try to turn my perspective around 180 degrees.

Because here's the truth about this summer so far. I have started CrossFit again AND gymnastics (because nothing says I'm looking forward to turning 40 by trying to defy it!) I have found another way to share my crafty-ness with the world! Or at least with the community of women in Ripon. I have intentionally scheduled down time at the pool while eating cheese and crackers because cheese is a minimum weekly necessity in my life. I have taken my kids on day trips. I have loved (almost) every moment of my son's baseball season (with the exception of some of the adults who struggle to keep their words kind at the games. I am told this is a part of life in sports. I don't like this part of life in sports.) I have involved my kids in their passions. I have had some much needed improvements done around this house (can you say "Good-bye flat white paint that collects every child's fingerprints?!"). I have actually cleaned and organized 3 rooms and a closet. And I have made new friends because I just can't help myself: I like people.

And I have kept my family fed and in cleanish clothing and alive and even if that is all I did, that would be enough because that is the most important part of my life, outside of God: my family.

So BOOM! Things have been accomplished! I just had to stop looking at what I haven't done and look back at what I have done. That backwards perspective is imperative to me moving forward.

Some mornings I wake up with the to do list running through my brain.
Who am I kidding?!
EVERY morning I wake up with the to do list running through my brain and most mornings it is so daunting to me that I don't even feel like taking that first step out of bed. But every morning I get up and do things. Sometimes the things are awesome: like planting a garden and sometimes the things are not: like grocery shopping. (I dislike grocery shopping almost as much as I dislike cleaning the shower which is an immense dislike.) But at the end of the day I can look back and see that things got done. Not EVERY thing, but many things.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is "Lay off me, Kathy! I'm doing a pretty decent job of getting stuff done!"

Give yourself a break, friend. And come on over for some intentional cheese eating time. (Yes, it changed from "down time by the pool..." to strictly "cheese-eating." Priorities, people. Priorities.) And then you can mark that off your "Ginormous List of All the Things To Do This Summer."

Unless "Eat Cheese" is on your To Do List, you should throw that list away.
(Except for my dairy-free friends. In which case, substitute your favorite non-dairy food in every time you see the word "cheese").

KC