I've been doing my best to keep up with it all. We'll have exactly one weekend to pick a house, so I've been doing a lot of online research. I need to hand over my volunteer breastfeeding group to the next Leaders, who aren't finished training yet, so I also have to help them prepare. Of course, there are schools to change and our own home to wrap up. And then there's the wrapping. I'm worried we'll be homeless on Christmas, or that my daughter's birthday will get lost in the shuffle. My own health and my son's, um, outspoken behaviour lately are both pushing me to try a new diet, which is a real challenge under the best of circumstances, but extra hard when you're trying to use up your pantry. Speaking of my health, I'm just starting to get big enough to bump into things I never used to, and the baby kicks back every time I do, so I'm getting kicked from both directions a lot. Fortunately, otherwise, all is going well.
I'm not complaining - really! I simply want to share with you that we all have crazy-busy times in our lives, and in our little family history, this is one of them. I hope you're somewhat impressed with all we're juggling like I am when I see working moms going to school or singles who work full-time, volunteer, travel and still have time for book groups every week. Everyone has her "productive period" - isn't that how they refer to artists?
Anyway, it's getting a bit overwhelming for me. So yesterday morning, I indulged. Yes, that's right, I went shopping. I'm not generally a shopper unless we need something, and then I bargain hunt. But yesterday I grabbed my allowance and spent it on ME. Shocking, I know. I went to Office Depot (or Office Max, or Staples - you know, an office supply store). I browsed organizational products. I got myself new pens and highlighters that I'm not going to share with the kids. I even found the perfect project planner.I still have my paper planner - and yes, I even broke down and ordered another year of FC refills. Hey, I DO hate their new business model but dammit nothing else fit in my expensive leather binder! And nothing else fit my planning style. We will never speak of my pathetic crawl back to them again. But this new planner, ah.... she is so beautiful. It's a simple spiral-bound notebook, but the pages are for individual projects. There's an area for brainstorming, one for notes, the subject/description, and a series of follow-ups to schedule. In the middle of all this, is a blank list for breaking the project into step-by-step tasks, which I can then schedule in my planner. It's like a whole book of goal-setting pages. It's allowed me to take all the crud driving me insane right now and put it on paper. From my kids' Halloween costumes to shopping for the best mortgage, each "worry" now has its own page and steps to take to get through it.
When my friend Rachel was in college, she wrote everything she had to finish around finals on an index card and taped them all around her door. As she finished each one, she tore the card down and shredded it until she walked out the clean door (with a brilliant GPA) at the end of the year. I hope to rip each page out as I finish each task, rip it to pieces with wild abandon, and walk through my new door (with money in my pocket) before the end of the year.
"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
— Michelangelo Buonarroti
$$$ Immediately after my purchase (naturally), this Office Depot $10 off $20 coupon was released! If you want to splurge the same way I did, you can until Nov. 16th - at 50% off! $$$
— Michelangelo Buonarroti
$$$ Immediately after my purchase (naturally), this Office Depot $10 off $20 coupon was released! If you want to splurge the same way I did, you can until Nov. 16th - at 50% off! $$$
