A friend texted me today wondering what to do when feeling overwhelmed as a wife, woman, mom etc.. and also how I managed with my whole household of kids. She is a very close friend, so I know she knows I really don't manage most of the time, but it's sweet that she added that to make me feel good.
I thought about this conundrum of feeling overwhelmed all the time and yet always ending up unprepared for what comes next. I reassured her that I am in the same boat, but also shared a few ideas that have helped me in the past. As I did this, a blog mini-series was born into my mind and I quickly threw down the clean laundry I was folding and rushed to the computer to get the thoughts out before they disappeared into the abyss that is my future. (In my mind I sang the new Frozen song, "Into the Unknown" as I wrote this line. I'm telling you so you're not alone.)
So without further ado I present to you the Nosy Nellie series (apologies to my cousin, I promise this doesn't refer to you, I just needed the alliteration because well...it's alliteration.) Each Nosy Nellie post will focus on something in my life that overwhelms me or something from your life that overwhelms you (if you write a note in my comments, and I read it, and I have anything to offer on the subject. So basically, we'll see how that works out.) Complete with unaltered photos, I'll allow you to be nosy and peak into my life (heck you can even see my medicine cabinet if you really want to) as I share brutally honest info on what works and what doesn't for me and my family of 5 kids, 2 extra adults and a zoo full of furry animals. I say brutally honest, because I have gotten some comments (and considered some blog posts) on how nothing phases me, or how easy I make things seem and other lovely things that people say that make me want to shake them physically back into reality. I do not have it all together, but I do have the ability to keep moving on with my life and to find the bright side. It's fun that it means I can sometimes bamboozle (fun word alert) my adoring public into thinking that means I've got it all together. Sorry men (and by men I mean my Dad, because he may be the only male who reads this blog) but this series will be rather mom world centric, although I'm open to hearing your male struggles as well.
Without further ado (there's been enough of that already) let's brainstorm together and get our whine on!
My first suggestion to my friend was to make a list of what feels so overwhelming. I find that this allows me to let some things go and chill out a bit and also allows me to make plans, that I won't follow through with, for the rest. I blame it on parenting, nothing works for more than a few months. After that your pesky kids catch on and then you've got to think of new ways to wade through the chaos.
Here's a recent list for me:
- kids bedroom floors are never picked up
- main floor of house is never clean enough for guests to come unexpectedly
- i hate cooking
- i hate putting away laundry
- if it wasn't for me all our animals would be dead
- the garage, just so much about the garage
- doctors appts
- the unending piles of paperwork
- finding time for me stuff
I'll give this a day or two to see if I get any facebook, texts, or comment responses of topics you'd all like to tackle. Depending on what I hear and how overwhelmed I feel :) we'll jump right in to what's going on. As promised, here's a first photo (it's altered though, because b&w seemed cooler in the moment) of my overwhelmed face and a pile of ridiculousness next to my computer that I haven't fixed for the past week.
Aloha Internet, I'm Baaaaaaaaack!
