FTSF – Time Enough for Important Things
I am a fairly cranky person.
You know that character in Steel Magnolias – Ouiser? I’m her.
Given that, you might think this post would come easily.
Wrong.
I sat for an hour last night trying to figure out what would work for this post and came up totally blank. It’s not because I’m some saint who has no pet peeves – believe me, I have plenty.
Although I do want to note here that since getting involved with the Ten Things of Thankful community each weekend and the 1000 Voices Speak for Compassion project, I find myself much less annoyed by things than has been true in the past. And the things that do annoy me are fairly trivial. I have a handful of major topics that get me riled up, make no mistake. I like to think this shift is a sign of my growth as a person. Little things don’t irritate me to the large scale degree that they used to.
I’ve mellowed.
But today, it came to me. I know the thing right now that really grinds my gears. It’s that I can not seem to find enough hours in the day to do all the things I need and want to do.
There are floors to be swept, laundry to be done, paperwork to file, and so many more things to be done. And I want to play games and make things with my Daughter, too. I want to stomp in puddles and read with her. I want to go on dates and watch movies with my Husband. I want to take walks and watch the sun set while I drink a glass of iced tea on a summer evening.
It just makes me irritable when I can’t find a way to fit the ten pounds of stuff into the five pound bag of my day. It works with my purse…why not my whole life?
For years, I’ve been working on trying to get myself what I call the Wednesday-and-a-Half. I figure if I could get an entire day to myself that happens while everyone else is asleep between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, I’d be on top of all the things.
I haven’t figured out how to make it happen yet.
So in the meantime, I will just have to soldier along being mellow about the fact that I am not going to get it all done. Probably ever.
And I’m OK with that. My paperwork will probably never be filed appropriately and there will always be laundry in a pile somewhere. One of the cats is going to leave a vomit giftie somewhere so I’ll need to clean the floor.
But I’ll have wet rain boots from stomping in puddles and I’ll have read hundreds of stories with my Daughter. I’ll think of how fast she’s growing up as she skips ahead of us when we take a walk after dinner. I’ll sip my iced tea and watch her draw sidewalk chalk rainbows as the summer sun goes down. I’ll go on dates with my Husband. We’ll watch movies together and I’ll holler at him for falling asleep and snoring before we’re even halfway through.
There will probably never be enough hours in a day to finish every little thing. And if I can’t finish everything, I will be satisfied that at least I’ve accomplished the most important things.
Your turn: What really grinds your gears? Are you easily bothered? Or are you able to take things as they come? Do you consider yourself mellow?
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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post, where writers and bloggers get together and link up their pieces to a particular theme – a sentence that they finish in one way or another. This week’s sentence is “You wanna know what really grinds my gears?”
To find out more about what grinds our gears, visit our lovely host, Kristi of Finding Ninee, or our co-hosts, Michelle of Crumpets and Bollocks and Anna of Fitfunner.
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Ahhhhhhh beautiful priorities. And no, I’m not mellow 😉
Thank you. And no, you’re not. 😉
You know I had a good one. The act of painting over light switch plates. Drives me positively bonkers. But I didn’t get around to writing the post. Because there’s never enough time. On the other hand, it’s birthday week, and that’s where my attention should be anyway.
Absolutely you should be immersed in birthday week. Those days come and go so quickly…the light switch plates will always be there waiting. I hope you all had a wonderful birthday and a lovely party! Love the pictures – that purple icing is beautiful!
Oh Lisa, this is just so beautiful!! I am feeling so stretched right now, I think I am going to POP like a rubber band and this helped… it spoke to me. THANK YOU!!!
Choosing my priorities… trying to let go of others… SO HARD.
WOOHOO! I’m so glad this was in the right place for you, Chris. That makes me feel SO happy. You are welcome, my friend.
Prioritizing is difficult. Very difficult, yes. It’s tempting to believe we can do every single thing, but that is unrealistic. Life is about choices. We make them and then we live with them. I do think that’s easier said than done, of course. Some days there is a part of me that wants to be SuperMom and do everything and do it perfectly. Other days, the other part tells me to get a grip and stop stressing.
I just – less than an hour ago – said that I feel like I’m failing at everything recently. I need to get rid of a bunch of kiddie items on Craig’s List, I need to do some IRL work, I need to write… sigh. Your post is beautiful and a perfect reminder of what’s really important – spending time with our kiddos. They really do grow up so so fast.
Part of what drove me to write it was what we chatted about the other night regarding old age and our kids’ words. Remember? It was part of it. 😉
Everything we have to do is important, each in the right time. But that part about the kids growing up so fast is one we can’t control so we need to grab that while we can. The dirty floors will still be dirty tomorrow. (Especially around here.)
Right there with you! There are not enough hours in the day and now they’ve gone and taken away another one from us. Man alive! Look at the time. It’s Sunday 11:07 and I’ve been sitting here for the last hour happily reading FTSF posts. And commenting on other folks’ blogs. Why can’t it be 8:07? I’ve got laundry to do, a dog to walk, a body to be exercised, a house to vacuum, a garden to weed, a friend to visit, a … nevermind about a blog to write. And don’t even get me started on my children. 19 and 21? Excuse me? How’d that happen?
Oh MAN I hate this spring Daylight Savings thing! Like I need to lose an hour, right? I quite enjoy the one in the fall where we gain an hour, though. Yesssss!
I have piles of things to do this afternoon, but in five minutes Zilla and I have a date to curl up together and watch a movie. After she goes to bed tonight, I will finish reading the FTSF posts and the TToT posts and do all the other things that mommies do when the children are asleep!
I’m trying to figure out how my baby is nearing 7, never mind 19 and 21!
I become irrationally enraged by driving. I don’t know what it is, but I get psychotically pissed off even though I tell myself it’s so stupid. I don’t flip people the bird or give them dirty looks either. That’s the worst part. I just curse and yell like a crazy person and then stew in my own anger. Lol. Work makes me like that too quite a bit so yes, I’m probably in route to an early 40’s heart attack. That’ll probably piss me off pretty well too.
Driving is so frustrating! The thing that gets me most upset driving is looking at the guy next to me who is about to swerve into my lane and seeing that he’s dialing his stupid phone!
Jeez! the number of hours are never ever enough…I hear ya!
I land up putting things for the weekend, and whoosh goes away that weekend, and Sunday evening I sit anxious with my list on which things to attack 🙁
Hope your weekend was a restful one!
xoxo
Ruchira, this is a pretty accurate picture. My weekend was fun and restful and overall wonderful. And now, on Sunday night…I’m trying to figure out how to cram a few more things in and/or just decide to get up and start tackling in the morning. Tough call…
YES!!! Not having enough time in the day can make me so stressed out. And the worst part of it for me is that I don’t recognize what is happening in the moment. I find myself rushing around with the kids, and trying to get everything done at work and and home, and wind up being totally clueless about why I’m so cranky. Every now and again, someone will remind me to take a breath and enjoy the beauty that is around me. Just like you’ve been able to do with with your family. Wonderful!!
That’s pretty much how it happens, Anna! I don’t always remember to do it this way; it is something I work on all the time. But I definitely feel like I’m much better at it. And somehow, the rest starts to fall into place just a little bit better. Not sure why, but I”m not going to argue!
I shared this on my Suburban Sh*t Show Facebook page. I hope you don’t mind.
Well thanks, Nicole!