Leaning in: Back to School Edition

Tonight I Made Dinner…In The Microwave. Can’t Do it All.

Oh, hey. You’re still here? That’s awesome. I’m not sure I would have hung around as long as you have so thanks. You’re swell. I’ve had all these great things to write about here with all the madness in the news lately and of course the day to day madness of working in a church and living life in a family of five. I craft excellent posts in the car on my drive to work every morning. If only you could hear what I think in my head. You’d be wildly entertained.

Alas, there has been no real writing of any sort except the APA Style Guide kind. It’s been a little busy around here the last two weeks as we slammed head first into fall which translates into not just back to school but back to all that comes after school as well. I’ll admit I did nothing to make my life easier. Because I was determined to eek out every last second of summer, I did not fill out a single paper or color code even the smallest of calendars.

So, here we are back to racing and running and trying to connect when connection to anything other than the internet for online classes and gaming walk-throughs seems nearly impossible for anyone. And yet, I feel strangely calm. I’m not exaggerating when I say things are swirling around possibly more wildly than last year but I still refuse to let it break me. I’ve surrendered the idea of ever controlling it. I’m not just rolling with it. I can’t do everything well so every day I’m trying to do something well.

Today I’ll write a blog post. Yesterday, I stayed at work until nine at night to finish a project. This afternoon, I sat with all three kids while they did homework. Later, we’ll all sit down to dinner for possibly the only time all week. Each small win has been glorious and every night I lay my head mostly satisfied with a job well done.

Every day, something right.

There has been a lot of talk on the news about people getting so stressed out about making family dinner they don’t get any benefit from actually sitting and eating family dinner. Last year, we all had to hear, ad nauseam, about the magic of leaning in. In each case, we’re reminded that we can’t do it all, all the time, or we just might die trying. Any way you look at this, these are all pretty great problems to have, don’t you think? We have so many opportunities, such a rich, full life , that we have trouble balancing all the greatness. It seems a shame that I might ruin all of that by trying to hard to do it all.

That’s gonna be my life-motto this year: don’t ruin it all trying to do it all.

I’ll get it all done. Somedays I may even do it all right. No matter what, I’m going to enjoy my days even in the chaos. Because not everyone has that luxury and I’m going to stop taking it for granted that I do.