re-evaluate the plate

So my plate has been full. Not just full, but overflowing. As in there's no room for my buttered roll and it has to rest on top of my mashed potatoes which is super unfortunate because the gravy is going to get my roll soggy and ruin everything.

I need to make better choices before agreeing that everything looks delicious and letting my plate get out of control. I also need to stop being polite and taking food that others prepared out of guilt. Or filling my plate out of fear that someone is watching me take more starches than veggies.

Let me explain. 

Really, truly I believed in September that "back to school" and a daily routine would mean structure and time management and an organizational dream. I'd have a first grader and preschooler occupied while my napping baby allowed me to accomplish so very much here on the home front. My Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings were going to be efficient and productive and downright glorious.

Wrong.

Instead I spent my solo mornings torn between catching up on sleep or doing the household dailies while pushing away the guilt of other obligations for which I had raised my hand. All while staying up way past my bedtime at night to accomplish those extra-curricular activities. The metaphorical food on my plate kept appearing as fast as I could eat it. Some I had asked for, like that second helping of mashed potatoes complete with gravy, and some I had not, but politely ate anyways. Broccoli. 

Something had to give. Sadly, it became the things I enjoy most. Sewing, reading, writing. Namely, keeping up with this blog. Visiting with friends, connecting on the phone with my own family. Spending some quality time with God. Nice.

Thankfully, I have had the where-with-all to keep the camera clicking. Maybe not as much as I'd like, but moments have been captured. And I intend to make sure they are recorded in this place. Not so much for you the reader - are there any of you left? But for me and my family, for the journal of our lives that this place has become. For our personal record and reflection.

So the new year will bring some changes. Intentional no-thank-you's and selective yes-please's. Life will never stop being busy, but I can do a better job of slowing it down. And who knows, maybe I'll even get a chance to change out those dated profile pics of our family that run along the sidebar. Lofty goals, I tell you. Lofty goals.