Happy May Day!
So, you may have noticed it has been, well, 5 months since my last post. In fact, I only posted for 4 days. Started off great, didn't I? In case you couldn't tell, my January goals and any months thereafter have not been very successful. I have still been procrastinating, spending money, eating out too much, etc, etc, etc...and, not posting here. I am still trying to figure out how to organize and balance my life.
But hooray, school is done! I have turned in the last assignment for my Bachelor degree and the burden of school has been lifted from off my mind. I do, however, have a "To Do" list a mile long of projects that I haven't started or only half-way started in the last 5 years, not to mention I have been ignoring my housework for the last several months (or years!) as well. I started to get a little stressed about that. Mostly the messy-house-that-looks-like-a-tornado-came-through thing. Both hubby and I had the day off today and I warned him last night that today we were going to spend some time cleaning the kitchen. And I had every intention of getting up and spending the whole day cleaning.
However, a tender mercy came along last night. A friend posted on Facebook a blog article from a blog called Hands Free Mama. I had never heard of this blog before. This wonderful mother Rachel talks about a movement she has created, through inspiration from her daughter, called "Hands Free." The idea is that you notice the little moments where you should put down the laundry, or the computer, or whatever is distracting you and focus your attention on the important moment at hand; focusing on spending time with family versus doing busy things.
I started thinking a little bit about how little time I spend with my husband. We have both been in school and working the whole 5 years we have been married. We often work opposite work schedules and there have been many times where I have seen him for 5 minutes in a 36 hour period as I climb into bed and he gets out. Even when we are both home we are occupied with homework or doing our own thing on the computer or tv. We often have "conversations" where one person is talking while the other person is flipping through their phone. We rarely give each other our full attention. That is probably one reason the past 5 years have gone by in a blur.
So today I decided to make my time more purposeful. Plans were to drop hubby's car off to be repaired and then come home and clean. But we were both a little tired so we made brunch together, watched our meal time tv show, and then decided to go look around the mall. We walked and we talked. And we were leisurely. There was no rush, no hurry. I knew the dishes would still be waiting for us when we got home. We spent time together and it was wonderful. And although we used up the time that we should have been cleaning and then hubby had to work on homework in the afternoon, I was okay working on the kitchen by myself. And I wasn't worried about getting it all clean today, even though there is little time in the next week to clean because of our busy work schedules. I even came home from a meeting and I played video games with my hubby. He wishes I played video games with him more often. It is important to him, and he is important to me, so I showed him that by playing video games with him.
And I noticed something else, too. Because I didn't fuss earlier about him not cleaning the kitchen with me, and was willing to do something he wanted to do (video games), he did a load of dishes for me, like I asked him to (while I was driving home), without so much complaining. There was more love, more patience, less complaining and less yelling in our home today. All because we spent more time with each other. And it was so wonderful.
Today is May Day. A time for renewal, a time for a fresh start. And I am taking it. I am trying to be more "hands free", more devoted to spending more time with my hubby and less time with Facebook, more relaxed and less stressed. Let's see where this life takes me...
Craftnanigans & Snazzysauce
So, you may have noticed it has been, well, 5 months since my last post. In fact, I only posted for 4 days. Started off great, didn't I? In case you couldn't tell, my January goals and any months thereafter have not been very successful. I have still been procrastinating, spending money, eating out too much, etc, etc, etc...and, not posting here. I am still trying to figure out how to organize and balance my life.
But hooray, school is done! I have turned in the last assignment for my Bachelor degree and the burden of school has been lifted from off my mind. I do, however, have a "To Do" list a mile long of projects that I haven't started or only half-way started in the last 5 years, not to mention I have been ignoring my housework for the last several months (or years!) as well. I started to get a little stressed about that. Mostly the messy-house-that-looks-like-a-tornado-came-through thing. Both hubby and I had the day off today and I warned him last night that today we were going to spend some time cleaning the kitchen. And I had every intention of getting up and spending the whole day cleaning.
However, a tender mercy came along last night. A friend posted on Facebook a blog article from a blog called Hands Free Mama. I had never heard of this blog before. This wonderful mother Rachel talks about a movement she has created, through inspiration from her daughter, called "Hands Free." The idea is that you notice the little moments where you should put down the laundry, or the computer, or whatever is distracting you and focus your attention on the important moment at hand; focusing on spending time with family versus doing busy things.
I started thinking a little bit about how little time I spend with my husband. We have both been in school and working the whole 5 years we have been married. We often work opposite work schedules and there have been many times where I have seen him for 5 minutes in a 36 hour period as I climb into bed and he gets out. Even when we are both home we are occupied with homework or doing our own thing on the computer or tv. We often have "conversations" where one person is talking while the other person is flipping through their phone. We rarely give each other our full attention. That is probably one reason the past 5 years have gone by in a blur.
So today I decided to make my time more purposeful. Plans were to drop hubby's car off to be repaired and then come home and clean. But we were both a little tired so we made brunch together, watched our meal time tv show, and then decided to go look around the mall. We walked and we talked. And we were leisurely. There was no rush, no hurry. I knew the dishes would still be waiting for us when we got home. We spent time together and it was wonderful. And although we used up the time that we should have been cleaning and then hubby had to work on homework in the afternoon, I was okay working on the kitchen by myself. And I wasn't worried about getting it all clean today, even though there is little time in the next week to clean because of our busy work schedules. I even came home from a meeting and I played video games with my hubby. He wishes I played video games with him more often. It is important to him, and he is important to me, so I showed him that by playing video games with him.
And I noticed something else, too. Because I didn't fuss earlier about him not cleaning the kitchen with me, and was willing to do something he wanted to do (video games), he did a load of dishes for me, like I asked him to (while I was driving home), without so much complaining. There was more love, more patience, less complaining and less yelling in our home today. All because we spent more time with each other. And it was so wonderful.
Today is May Day. A time for renewal, a time for a fresh start. And I am taking it. I am trying to be more "hands free", more devoted to spending more time with my hubby and less time with Facebook, more relaxed and less stressed. Let's see where this life takes me...
Craftnanigans & Snazzysauce
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