Lessons Learned/Reaffirmed

It's been a strange week.  In some aspects, I feel motivated and accomplished.  In others, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and still getting nowhere.  Mostly, several experiences from the week have served to reinforce lessons I thought I'd already learned.

I'll start with the good stuff.

Lesson--90% of will power is just making the effort to START a task.
This has been made more clear to me as I have {finally!} started working out again after just{?} having a baby.  It's been SO much easier than what I'd worked up in my mind to be dreading.
I've also been amazed at how many projects I've been able to complete in MUCH less time than my procrastinator's mind would have like me to believe, therefore talking myself out of even beginning.   

Lesson--It's important to spend time doing little things that may not seem to matter because they may matter to other people.  
It's SO hard for me to learn to let what I may think are important things at the moment slide and focus on what's truly important--my family.  We all seem more frazzled when I get wrapped up in cleaning/organizing/decorating/{fill-in-the-blank} projects while neglecting the simple things like going to the park, playing games, coloring, reading books, or just playing together.  My kids were nearly in heaven the other day when I decided to leave the kitchen a mess in favor of spending 30 minutes in the front yard, letting them help me water AND using the water hose on them!  Also, Kyle has asked to go out front to watch the builders work on the home that's going up across the street.  He's spent hours over the last few weeks watching it go from foundation to brick, being especially intrigued by the progress he misses while at school.  And these 2 had so much fun just laughing and singing with mom, while playing on the floor for a few precious moments.  These will be gone before long and there will ALWAYS be another load of laundry or another sink of dishes waiting.
   

Now for the lessons that have been harder to learn:

Lesson--I can't do everything, and it's OKAY.
It's SO hard to admit it, but I really can't juggle everything.  On days that I am up and ready and everyone's dressed, the laundry may be spilling over.  When the house is clean{ish}, the kids might be in pajamas until after lunch and I may not get a shower until their nap time.  I haven't been out to meet and greet the neighbors and get involved in the community.  There is still much more to do on the house.  I don't know too many people or have many friends to call and make plans with.  I haven't made time to work on developing some of my personal goals or catching up on family history, but IT'S OKAY.  I do what I can do and make baby steps and what needs to get done gets done.  And, if we have a frozen meal for dinner one night....SO. BE. IT.    

Lesson--You have to be ALL OVER people to get anything done these days!!!!
I've often heard that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease, and we are truly feeling that frustration.  It took several visits to the office, a handful of emails and phone calls to various people, and trips by even more to complete a list of warranty concerns for the house, but that was FINALLY wrapped up this week.  It was like pulling teeth to get someone to find the code to reprogram our front door or even get us the sink kit that should've been left in the house.  Also, the navigation advertised in the new car we bought OVER A MONTH AGO has never worked.  We went back and forth with the dealer and finally had to threaten to bring in a lawyer and the BBB in order to get it resolved.  Then, we had to find an authorized dealer to give us a quote and actually do the work.  THEY tried to give us the run around about how it was going to take longer than expected...blah, blah, blah, so when I told them to just put it all back together and forget about it, they *miraculously* solved the problem in a few hours!  These experiences have not done anything to restore my faith in people, but have let me practice being more assertive and knowing which questions to ask and what to watch out for future reference.  

Lesson--You only have so much time to teach children right from wrong before the world creeps in and tries to take over.

It only took a few months of Kyle being out in "the world," out among peers who may/may not have the same values that we do for me to hear inappropriate language from his lips.  He's FOUR AND A HALF!  Those years of talking about choosing the right and being a good example and not using ugly words and what would Jesus want you to do seemed to slip through my hands like seconds compared with how quickly and effectively peers' influences tried to take my baby away.  It's definitely a wake-up call to be even more vigilant in doing those things we know we should be doing.

Although I've enjoyed being able to step back and evaluate a few areas of my life, it's time to keep on trucking with the important things as well as those that just have to get done.