A Catch-Up Post

I thought a catch-up post was in order since it has been almost two months since I posted anything.

There hasn’t been anything especially interesting or exciting going on.  We’ve just been busy, mostly with work.  We’ve been stuck in a rut of not leaving work on time/taking work home with us (sometimes the whole “do more with less” gets really out of control), which hasn’t left time for much else. 

Most of this year has been that way, and it has felt like we’re stuck in a cycle of just trying to make it through the week only to arrive at the weekend exhausted and behind on all of the life stuff that got put off during the week.  When that happens, we seem to spend the entire weekend trying to catch up and getting ready for the next week of work. 

We both struggle a little bit with setting boundaries, so that’s something we’re making a real effort to work on.  We’re also trying to work on better time management.  I think better time management will follow if we get better at boundaries.  You can’t really manage time that you’ve allowed others to take control of. 

Hopefully, this means we’ll have a little more time for things we enjoy, which for me includes writing blog posts and visiting your blogs.

We both still have a long way to go when it comes to setting boundaries with work and leaving on time.  Hopefully, we’ll see some improvements soon.

We did finally make a plan and stick to it for this past weekend, though, and it was wonderful.  We bought tickets in advance for a Saturday afternoon showing of The Little Mermaid.  It’s one of my absolute favorite Disney cartoons, and I really wanted to see the live-action movie. 

It was so good!  It was just different enough from the cartoon not to be predictable but stayed true enough to the cartoon to be familiar.  There were some new songs that were great.  And I absolutely loved Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. 

In other catch-up news, I took a CPR class.  I took a compressions-only class years ago but never a full CPR class.  I had the chance to take one with Nick, so I went for it.  I’m always nervous in medical settings, so going through the class with Nick made me feel a lot better about it.  I did a lot better than I expected to with chest compressions, and I learned how to use a bag valve mask.  I still hope I never, ever have to do CPR on a person, but at least I know I can. 

It was neat to take the class with Nick, too, because even though he wasn’t teaching it (he’s not a CPR instructor, but has plenty of CPR experience after spending over 20 years in the fire department), he was helping people who were struggling during the practice and practicals.  It was neat to watch him teach other people and, in some cases, just help people find the confidence to do it. 

So, what about you?  What have you been up to for the past couple of months?  Are you good at maintaining a good work/life balance?  How do you do it?  Have you seen the new version of The Little Mermaid? 

My Day of Freedom

I did get my day of freedom yesterday.  I didn’t go anywhere.  I didn’t even talk to or see anyone other than my husband.  I didn’t go on Facebook, and I completely ignored the phone.  It was wonderful.  I may have to do it more often.  I was able to get quite a bit accomplished too; not as much as I would have liked, but definitely enough to call it a good day.

I cleaned out and organized the refrigerator.  This always makes me happy and makes me feel like a success in the kitchen, so that was excellent.  

I caught up most of the laundry, including putting it away (that’s always the really hard part for me for some reason), and some of the ironing.  I am beginning to think that the cats pull clean clothes from the closets and dressers and toss them in the hamper while we’re gone.  I think it’s possible; our cats can behave very badly sometimes, and we seem to generate an exorbitant amount of laundry for just two people.  

I submitted a poem to an online publication.  I had been meaning to do this for about two months, but between procrastination and a fear of rejection I just hadn’t gotten around to it.  It’s submitted now.  It will be about three months before I hear anything back from them, so now that it’s done I’m trying not to think much about it.  Yes, I am aware of the fact that if I’d submitted it when I first decided to I’d only have about another month to wait before hearing from them.  Live and learn.

Continuing on the writing front, I organized my partially written posts into folders within my folder on the desk top, and named them appropriately.  I will be happier because I can find things now, and my husband will be happier because they’re organized and not all over the desktop.  (He has this theory that you shouldn’t save everything to the desktop and that that’s what folders are for.)  I also worked on a few posts for later on, though not quite as many as I had hoped.  

I also scrubbed the kitchen floor; the on your hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water kind of scrubbing, instead of using a mop or Swiffer.  I haven’t done this in a while, and let me just say that almost every inch of my body is screaming “WHY???  WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?” today.  But the floor looks really, really good.  

The floor scrubbing was good too because, being a mindless activity that kept my hands busy, it gave me time to think about some things.  As I mentioned Tuesday, I’ve been edgy and snappish lately, so I spent the time trying to figure out some solutions.  I concluded that at least part of the trouble is that I’ve lapsed into a very disorganized state.  I am happiest when I know what I’m making for dinner every (or at least most) night for the week, when my work clothes are laid out the night before, and when things are just generally well-organized and planned.  This hasn’t been happening lately.  I’m not entirely sure why, but I suspect it’s due to a combination of poor time management and a general lack of organization.

I found some great articles on organization with some tips and ideas that I plan to try, and I’m working on a plan for getting some things organized.  I’ll probably be writing more about that later.  

The time management part is harder.  I seem to have a pattern of saying yes to everything I’m asked to do or participate in, getting burned out that way, and then saying no to everything.  I’m still working on a solution for this one.  Most of the things I commit to seem important at the time, so I’m having a hard time figuring out what to say no to.  How do you prioritize?  Do you have a daily/weekly/monthly limit for things you’ll commit to?  Do you have any suggestions at all for better time management?

I also came to the realization that I spend (okay, waste) a lot of time every week on Facebook and talking on the phone.  I realize that not all phone conversations are a waste of time, and there are definitely people that I need and want to talk to.  I need to stop answering my phone any and every time it rings and staying on the phone until the other person needs to go.  I plan to start utilizing voicemail and prioritizing whether or not a call needs to be returned immediately, based on the voicemail and what I’m currently trying to accomplish.  And I think I’m going to start setting serious limits for my time on Facebook.  I’m also considering whittling down my friends list.  Have any of you tried this, or had success in limiting phone and Facbook time?

I hope you all had a safe, wonderful, and happy Fourth of July.