Busy, Busy, Busy

Really and truly I have every intention on Wednesday evenings to come home from church, get the kids to bed, and post a blog. Instead I have spreadsheets to update, a pretty difficult proposal to accomplish in 48 hours, and emails I didn’t answer that afternoon because they weren’t in the top forty of the ones I received that day. That’s what work has been like lately. Just when I think it might get quiet and I can accomplish the projects that aren’t time-sensitive, I get twenty emails in a half hour. And all of them need immediate attention.

 

I suppose it is that time of year. It seems like a spring thaw comes along and everyone suddenly remembers they need a sports field redone, a park and rec plan created, a new playground design, or general landscape architecture qualifications in hand for potential projects. The park and rec specialist I work with will tell you that a couple of warm days in a row equals her phone ringing off the hook because everyone suddenly remembers their town pool and that it needs an inspection immediately…even if they won’t open for three more months. Yet another symptom of spring fever, I suppose.

 

Not that I’m complaining too much. I’d much rather be drinking out of a fire hose than trying to drum up something with which to keep myself occupied. I don’t mind fifty emails in an hour except when they come five totally different topics and then I’m left to wonder if I followed up with all of them correctly. But weeks like that do eventually catch up with me as I work all afternoon and then turn around and work until eleven or midnight every night once the kids are asleep. Not to mention all the other things that pile up. Not terribly important things like school, or laundry, or feeding my family…but things that do need to be done. And, yes, for those who think I don’t: I do get overwhelmed at times. I think mostly it’s a symptom of my being overly-tired, but it does happen.

 

But I have been convicted recently that working myself into an early grave isn’t anymore healthy than being lazy. And I am trying to take moments to rest. Moments.And just a few. Baby steps.But I think there will be more. For as much Ellyson adds to my exhaustion, she also gives me pause to stop. For unlike her older siblings, I can’t allow her to run up and down the sidewalk by herself. And shelovesto walk up and down the sidewalk. Which means on warmer days I spend a lot of time doing nothing by that. She loves it. I can keep a close eye on the other two. It’s a time to pause in my life of busyness. And I rack up my quota of daily steps. A win-win all around!