Busy-ness

by Kristi Van Dyk in


Throughout the past year, as I've been working at home and full time mothering, I've really felt like I made a great decision. I am 100% here for Kayleigh, well, 90% when I'm not in meetings or coaching, and that has been fantastic. Another side benefit to that is that my stress levels have managed, for the most part, to stay relatively low. Sure we have busy days and things that come up, but I don't find myself frantically running from place to place, task to task all of the time. At first it was spooky and I always felt like I was forgetting something. Then, it became incredible as I caught up on all the rest my body lacked. Finally, it was enjoyable to fill the time with things I always wanted to make time for. I was able to spend an hour each morning in Bible study and prayer; I could blog; I could EXERCISE at a reasonable hour (not 5:00 a.m. or 8:00 p.m.!). I could do laundry during the day instead of the hours from 7:00 - 11:00 p.m. on Sundays. Somehow, though, despite that bliss, the busy-ness has managed to creep back into my life all over again. I'm shocked at how unaware to its prowl I was. I never saw it coming until I feel those moments of breathlessness, of panic, when you realize that all of a sudden your commitments have overtaken your time again. When I share this shock and awe with family, friends of mine or former colleagues they simply shake their head as if to say, "Its you, Kristi; It's in your being." But I don't think it has to be ... I think I let it be ... And after I get through this season (basically chaos from now until ohhh August ...), I'm going to make a concentrated effort to change that ... Perhaps I'll develop a system of determining what to say yes to, how to approach each decision so that it's adequately evaluated based on its importance and its potential to send me back to the panic state. ...

Well, it's 7:54, Kayleigh has been calling my name for the past 25 minutes, and it would appear that going BACK to sleep is not on her agenda (despite the fact I KNOW she's over tired). We're going to make the most of our morning with breakfast, a few more loads of laundry, a quick trip to Meijers, wrapping baby shower gifts/birthday presents, and having a snack all before she hits her 11:00 nap time ... wish me luck ... and let's hope little baby boy decides he's going to nap through most of it :) ...

Here's a little fun to smile at on YOUR busy days ... Kayleigh loves her Daddy's new toy. Any surprises there??

[caption id="attachment_147" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Kayleigh learns about Toy Story from Daddy's iPad."][/caption]