As Mr travels overseas regularly, I am often left to manage house, children and daily life by myself. One of the stories of me ‘managing’ that has been retold ad nauseam is the day I flooded the bath.
I was sitting outside eating dinner with the girls, and so I decided to run the bath for them for when they were finished. Mr calls from overseas, I sit on the back patio and have a chat, the girls have a chat, we clean up dinner, I head inside and … water!
From the laundry, covering the floorboards down the hall, creeping into the carpet on the girls bedrooms and making a valiant effort to get to all the electronics in Mr’s study. I called my dad (my hero) and after emptying the linen cupboard of all the towels we own to soak up the mess, I manage to get the girls to bed.
That’s the thing about capacity, when you reach it, you need to turn off the tap, or there is overflow. And that can make all sorts of mess that can affect other people and take a while to clean up.
I have reached capacity lately, and could see it coming, so I “turned off the tap” so to speak, before I ended up with a very messy overflow. I have deliberately slowed down, pulled back, and focused inward.
When I am in the middle of organising events, children, and the house, I can get very bogged down in the boring serious stuff of life. And that gets reflected in my creative output too. My writing becomes internal, and serious. The food I am cooking for my family becomes same-old-same-old. My conversations are focused on the difficult and the serious. And while there is nothing wrong with any of this, on occasion, there needs to be balance. And that I didn’t have.
So the focus for me of recent days has been rediscovering the fun.
How has that looked? I have been reading mindless happy books and watching mindless happy shows; making any sort of sweet dessert that has chocolate in it; taking time to cook new interesting and challenging recipes; finding new music that I love; booking some pampering like a haircut; and catching up with friends who make me laugh.
I still have boring serious everyday stuff that I need to do, but it is now in perspective. It isn’t the stuff that dominates my days. It is a part of my life, but not my whole life.
How are you travelling? Maybe you are stuck in the serious side of life too, maybe you have reached capacity and just need a break. What do you need to do to find the fun and regain perspective?
Me, I’m signing off to make another chocolate dessert!
It is amazing what a little bit of fun (and chocolate) can do.
Jodie
I LOVED this piece of your life, as shared by you! Turn off the tap! Brilliant.