It’s seldom about the words.

(Although, occasionally it is.)

The reason that I most frequently miss posting a blog on any given evening is (almost always) about time.

There is simply never enough of it.

Which, I know, is a silly thing to say.

We all have the same amount of time.
There’s twenty-four hours in everyone’s day.
We can’t make time, but we can arrange time.
Time keeps on slipping, slipping into the future.
Time makes memories of us all.
There’s always enough time to do what matters most.
You make time for what matters.

And so on.

When I wrote this confessions post last week, it started off as mainly just a funny post.  And you guys shared The Funniest Things with me on Facebook.  Goodness, I have laughed at your lists and your chatter between the comments.

It has stayed a funny list.  But, Sarah shared some confessions that really had me wanting to high five her over in Alaska.  She talked about how she has this list of things she’d like to accomplish each day – shower, pray, read God’s word, dress her children, get dressed herself, keep a tidy house, wash her face at night – you know, kind of normal stuff but stuff that, if we all are remembering clearly from motherhood, particularly the years of young children – is actually a highly demanding list after all.

My children are bigger now, of course.  They dress themselves (mostly) and they help with chores around the house and I can shower without fearing for their safety (although, for the love, they STILL interrupt my showers with inane questions), but this “basic” list of to-do’s feeling never accomplished still feels the same.

It seems as if, on any given day, I cannot possibly serve THREE healthy meals at the table and shower and spend any alone time and teach school and maintain a writing “career” and write a blog post and clean the house and manage all the drive-here drive-there that five children require.

And, in fact, most days I cannot do all these things on the same day.

Something always has to give.

Usually, I find that it is sleep that I sacrifice.  I just give that one right up.  It’s been a steady struggle to sleep well for the past two years anyway, so it seems like an easy place to skimp.  But I know I am paying a price for my lack of rest and my lack of hours spent with my eyes closed.

I’ve decided to try to do better in that one area.  Just to attempt to go to bed at a reasonable (for me) time.  To leave the phone in the other room and to go to bed with a novel and lie in my bed at the proper time.  

But if I am to do that, some things will occasionally not get accomplished.  One day that might be the shower.  Some days it might be the healthy meals.  (Cereal Sundaes anyone?)  And some days – it’s probably going to be these blog posts.

So, if you are the worrying type, and you don’t see a post from me on some certain Monday or Thursday or whenever, let’s just assume I made a grown up decision to go to sleep on time instead.

And, it’s probably safe to assume, that it was a hard choice for me actually.  I like nights better than mornings.  I like writing better than sleeping.

Cheers to the new year and to doing hard things – even when the hard things seem like normal things that look like everyone else is accomplishing with ease.  So, cheers to doing our own hard things.

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