Refreshed and Focused

It has been a week since my last post. Last week I posted about feeling a little overwhelmed. Hey, it can happen to the best of us. I had just come home from hearing a speaker talk about organizing and though it was great to hear, it sent me into a panic! So I gave myself a week to sort through my emotions and figure out what was causing all that anxiety (could it be the stuffed to the gills closet with no idea what's inside???).

I realized that I needed a system, but a system that would not make me feel like screaming and burning my house down to avoid dealing with the hidden clutter. Some systems out there are obviously made by an extremely organized person and therefore can be suffocating to a semi organized person, like myself. My house is very clean, but it takes work! And all that cleaning leaves very little time for the word of the day....ORGANIZING.

After hearing the speaker I sought my husbands advice, which he so happily gave me if it meant he could divert my attention elsewhere so I didn't obsess on my distress. Apparently I do this?! Anyway he said simply, "take from it what you can and if you can't take anything from it, oh well. Let it go". My hubby is pretty genius when it comes to simplifying the otherwise bewildering predicaments I find myself in. That could also be because I have a rare talent of complicating the otherwise lucid situations.

So following his sound words I decided to think about the things that were said during the presentation and apply what really would work for me. I did channel a few organizing bursts and took advantage of the energy that came from them. Which made for a very productive day I must say.

Then I logged on to the organizing/cleaning mecca, marthastewart.com and found some pre-made checklists for cleaning and organizing. God bless that woman, that's all I have to say about her. So I printed out the checklists. Laminated them so that I can use a dry erase to check off what I've done. Hung them on my bulletin board. I am ready to rock! At least I have something to guide me since there are days where I feel like I have cleaned the same room (toy room/living room) about a dozen times. Oh wait....I have!

But I am excited to keep the energy up and to tackle what I can and when I can. All of this definitely comes second to playing with my son, of course. So I know it will be a learning process and might be a life changing process as well. I figure if I can at least feel like I know whats in my closet/cellar/under the bed, then that's progress. Right?!.... Right!!

Life Overwhelming

Is it just me or can life sometimes get a little overwhelming. It seems just when you get one thing accomplished the universe reminds you that you should be doing more, having less, organizing better, you get the picture. I have this running list in the back of mind constantly reminding me of all the things I want to get done, eventually. This list I think for the most part is a good thing for a person to have, it keeps you on track. But at the same time this list can begin to stalk me. As if it isn't hard enough being a wife, a mom, a daughter, sister, friend, homemaker, etc., then you have this nagging in the back of your mind that somehow all that is not good enough. I begin to set these unrealistic expectations. I make comments to myself and others that I am not doing this well enough or I want to get better at this, or clean this more and so on.

I was thinking about all this today simultaneously reading to my son (miss multi tasker). I was reading a book of nursery rhymes when I happened on one called "A Wise Old Owl". I read the words, "A wise old owl lived in an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard. Why aren't we all like that wise old bird?" Instantly it resonated with me. I realized that this list in the back of my head is nothing more than overwhelming chatter, by me to me.

I stopped instantly and said a prayer to God to help me silence these demands I put on myself and I thanked him for all that I am blessed with. Because truly all I have is all I need. Yes the daily chores of life will always be there and honestly for the most part I take joy in doing them and feel pride when I've accomplished my daily To Do list. But it is important for me to silence that self chatter about all the future things needing tended to. They will get done. All I am doing in the present by constantly reminding myself is speaking more and hearing less.

So I am making it a priority to breath deeper, and stop trying to do so much so that the things I am doing mean more.

Thank you, you wise old bird.