Overwhelmed

When I was working full time, on some afternoons when my desk was loaded down with work, I would daydream about what it would be like to be home full time.  Of course the operative word here is "dream."  It was a dream to believe that the house would always be clutter free and clean, the cookie jar would be full, laundry would always be kept up, the yard would look immaculate from the time I would be able to spend weeding and planting and oh yeah, all the household projects would be caught up including the painting of the entire house inside and outside. 

Today I sit at my diningroom table and I am laughing at my naiveté.  I am able to keep up on some household chores but the one that I thought would be the most evident would be a clutter free and always clean home.  It would work if no one lived in the house, but since we do I have come to compromise.  Perhaps it is because many people believe that when you are home full time that your house should always be in order.  Yeah right. 

My house looks much better since I have been home, not perfect but better, and I can keep up on most projects but I am struggling with the seasonal work that needs to be done.  So it is time for a couple of afternoons of planning.  There is something about taking a calendar and marking down the projects that need to be done and setting time aside to get them done. 

Sometimes part of being overwhelmed is just poor planning.  Everything always looks better on paper and on a calendar.  There is just something about taking the time to face what has to be done and making the time to get it done.  Many of the projects are ones that my DH needs to do such as making pickets to replace some rotted pickets on our fence.  There are many that I can do and I just need to sit down and plan.

Life is balancing many different things - home, family, friends, church and so on.  I try to find a balance when I work on projects.  If I am facing something that I have to get done, but don't necessarily like to do such as painting the exterior of the house, I try to balance it off with something I like to do.  I may spend a couple days painting and then have a full day to sew which is something I love to do.

My motivation is that I want our home to look nice from the inside and the outside.  So for a few afternoons I will be calendaring projects feeling better knowing that I have a plan to get things done.  Some will be pushed off to next year as there are only so many hours in the days and so many days in the spring and summer to work on outside projects. 

I'm feeling less overwhelmed already.