Balance has been weighing on my mind a lot lately. The word, the concept, the idea – we are actually supposed to have balance in our lives, somehow, but I have no idea how to do that…I have two kids, a business that I, gratefully get to do from home, two dogs, a classroom that I help manage (I’m room mom for one of my daughters classes) and as summer is rapidly approaching, taking away the precious hours I have at home alone when my girls are at school, I’m starting to panic…a little.
I want to write more, it’s been way too many weeks since I wrote a blog post! I try to sneak in 15 minutes here and there during the week (which really gets nothing accomplished) and by the time the weekend hits I’m ready to play outside and have fun with the kiddos. I’m writing this at 7:00am as I hear my littles running toward me ready for breakfast and bear hugs. I’ll be back…
I want to read more, after the kids are down for the night, after the laundry is folded and put away, the dogs have a full water bowl, the dishwasher is humming, it’s about 9:30 and I have finally just sat down for the day. I get ready for bed and try to get in a few chapters before I drop the book and pass out.
I want to exercise more (a lot more), 5:00-5:30 comes pretty fast and when my husbands alarm goes off, I tried to squeeze in just a few more minutes while he’s in the shower. I tell myself “get up you lazy girl – go work off that baby belly!” But my blankets are just too warm and cozy for that nonsense. So I reason with myself that, “I’ll do it this afternoon” well you probably know how that goes…I could join a gym, but I’m not a “gym” person and I wish I had the budget for a yoga class more than once a week.
I want to sleep more, hence the 5am battle and nighttime book ritual.
I want to play with the girls more, mommy play a game with us, mommy come outside with us, mommy push me on the swing…the requests never end and I want to do them all but working from home puts restraints on this. I do get those few precious hours while they are at school, but there is always a need for more and things come up throughout the day that I need to tend to – emails, phone messages, meetings that got changed, parts picked up, yada yada yada. Those moments that I stop and sit and play princess, the phone rings. It’s a vicious circle that my sweet munchkins have learned to tolerate to the best of their 6 and 3 year old abilities (yes, my E just turned 6 last week!!).
I want to throw the ball for the dogs more, or play tug with their rope. I get those cute puppy dog eyes from both of them with a ball in their mouth as they nudge my leg at the desk. A scratch on the ear sometimes will suffice, but sometimes they are persistent and I’ll give in for just a few minutes.
I want to have more date nights with the hubs, have a real conversation about things other than work, without a kid or phone ringing interruption, in a place other than our dining room, eating a meal that I didn’t have to cook or have to clean up after, with a lovely bottle of wine or cold beer. Doesn’t that sound great?!
I could go on and on. My question to you is, how does one do all of these things in the mere 24 hours that we are given each day?! I mean, 6-8 of those hours we spend sleeping, 8-10 of those hours are spent working in one form or another (real work, housework, farm work – whatever your case may be). I see people do it all the time and I am in awe of them (Chip and Joanna Gaines are my heroes). I have read articles about “self care” and “taking time” but I still don’t get it. There are days, yes, that things seem to slow down and I find myself actually enjoying a hot cup of coffee still at 10am (thanks in part to my Yeti cup) or moments that I will just put down the laptop, ignore the phone and jump rope and chalk up the driveway with my girls. Those are the best moments and it’s my responsibility to take more of them and it weighs on my mind constantly – all these things do.
I’m interested in your thoughts on this balance thing…how do you achieve it, what do you do?
-Katie
Kindness & Cursing 