Wednesday, April 18, 2012

#WIPlash Wednesdays- Spring Broke Me

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Spring Break is over. :( I had a really wonderful visit with my family and friends but as always, the visit never lasts long enough. Usually the time away gives my brain and body a break from the daily routine we have during the school year. This time, I find I've come back with a lot of things weighing on my mind- Blog scheduling, promo'ing, and all sorts of other things that need my attention.
The plans changed on Saturday, as my husband was going to drive up after work, stay the night at my parents' and we'd head back on Sunday morning, but then he found out he'd probably have to work Mon-Fri rather than his regular Wed-Sat due to a small inventory they've planned at the warehouse for this coming weekend. Fly in the ointment.
Considering we needed to restock the cabinets with food, grocery shopping needed to be done, as well as getting the yard mowed in case the weather didn't permit me to take care of it during the day while he was at work. So we headed home Saturday evening, much to our daughter's dismay because she still wanted more time with Grandma and Pop-Pop and she was NOT happy that we had to leave early.
Sunday we tackled the grocery shopping and the yard, got the kids ready for heading back to school after a week without a regular bedtime and days away from books and homework. It's time to knuckle down and knock out the rest of the school year. Less than a month now, I do believe.
So, anyway...Monday I balanced up the checkbook, put bills out in the mail, kids on the bus, laundry into dryer and started another load, ate a bowl of cereal, unpacked my laptop and then collapsed on the bed and took a nap with the Miz until 10 AM.
Then I spent the rest of the day finishing laundry, playing catch up on email, scheduling blog posts (I've fallen so far behind) so I have "unwritten" blogs lined up in the drafts where I can easily see the titles of what kind of posts I have coming up and give myself time to think about what I'll even write. I also spent some time out of doors snapping all these great photos of my roses and irises that are in bloom at the moment.
Tuesday was spent doing more of the same, when I'd really rather have been writing. Yes, what good is WIPlash Wednesdays if I write nothing? Honestly, these writing spurts are driving me insane. There seriously are not enough hours in the day for me to accomplish all the things I want to or need to and sometimes I feel like I'm just barely keeping up. When will the world slow down so I can catch up?
I need focus and a schedule and it needs to include writing. Most of what I spend my time doing focuses around social networking and building those skills and getting the word out, etc. Monday night I lay in bed, wide away for an hour before my busy brain would let me nod off to dream land, just because everyone else in the house was asleep and I felt obligated to go to bed when they did. Unfortunately, I wasted that hour staring into the darkness, with only the black and gray shadows illuminating the room, vague blocky images taunting me that I should have gotten up and used that time wisely.
I need to listen to myself more and stop letting all the outside interference create static so that I can't hear what I need to.

How do you find balance?
Is there such a thing?
What do you do when life gets out of control and you need to slow things down?
Do you take a step back to breath?
Share with me what helps you.

3 comments:

Hallee Bridgeman said...

I'm struggling to find balance. I'm swinging toward a scheduled "work" time, and spending specific days doing social media and specific days writing.

There's no way, with three kids (two of them home with me) to make my computer time long enough to do both during the day -- there are simply not enough free hours in my day.

Taryn Raye said...

Thanks for stopping by Hallee. I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling with that balance thing. There really aren't enough hours, ever! ;)

Kelly's Mom said...

I feel your pain. Same boat here. I'm still struggling to schedule writing time and promotion time, in addition to my teaching job and the wife/mom stuff. But I'm getting there... and I'm learning to make every moment writing REALLY count... even if it's just 15 minutes!