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<\/a><\/div>\nBut I’m bogged down by the unfinished, the overwhelming, the physical and mental clutter surrounding me. It’s time to make a plan to manage these things. Life is always going to be chaos — such is life with kids, blended families, and an insane ex. I cannot prevent things from being overturned again and again in front of and underneath me. All I can do is find some peace in my life so that when bad stuff goes down I have a store of energy I can draw from. <\/p>\n
So I’ve decided to make a list of the things that are costing me energy\/giving me grief. These are the things that run through my mind at least once a day and I think, “yeah, I should do something about that.”<\/p>\n
So… where to start? <\/p>\n
I figure my life has three major categories that make me anxious: school, family, and housework. Each of these has subcategories and of course there’s plenty of overlap. If I can feel caught up (or ahead even) in one area it spills into the others and I feel good. Of course, if I put “me” up there as a category it might help me feel good more often. (:wink:) But then that’s never been my strong point. One goal of this exercise is to figure out where the self care is going to fit in.<\/p>\n
So looking at each category there are things that have needed doing for a long time and things that require attention on a regular basis. <\/p>\n
School:<\/p>\n
- \n
- papers for school – 6 this semester that I need to do<\/li>\n
- a research topic for this semester’s directed study<\/li>\n
- figure out what the heck I’m going to do after the MA<\/li>\n
- small things related to my major research project<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If I can get all these things done I’ll feel much better about where I sit in terms of school work. It actually doesn’t look so bad now.<\/p>\n
Family:
\nI’m actually feeling pretty good about this today. It’s birthday time and I’m keeping up pretty well with that. One kid had a great party two weeks ago and another one is coming up in two weeks. Trick-or-treating last night went well and I think we might be through with daughter bombshells for the moment. Rob is good and we seem to have settled down from the move. We’ve got some routines going and things are getting a bit easier. That said, there are still things that should be better organized:<\/p>\n- \n
- a plan to make school mornings easier<\/li>\n
- sharing responsibilities<\/li>\n
- time for doing fun things in the community like hikes in the park or trips to the pool<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
No really clear answers pop out on these. Hmmm. At least now I know what I need to think about.<\/p>\n
Housework:
\nThis is where I’m overwhelmed. There are so many loose ends from the move. Construction isn’t done yet. Stuff from my house is in a big pile in the middle of the basement. The kids need help organizing their rooms. Our bedroom is full of boxes of stuff. My office space is disorganized. Rob’s office space is brimming and he still has lots of his stuff spread out around the house.<\/p>\n
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