Some days I feel like I have absolutely no idea of what I’m doing or what I’m supposed to be doing. Do you ever feel like that?
When I left my full-time-working-outside-the-home job in December, all form of daily structure went with it.
Structure that I crave. And truth be told…NEED. I’m like a fish flailing about on a dry dock without structure.
After many months of trying to figure out my “new normal”, I now know two things: on Mondays I do the laundry and I water the plants. Seriously, only two things have actually fallen into place so far. Some days I feel like that’s so ridiculous…like I should have so much more figured out by now – 7 months into this ‘newness’. But so many other days, I have to fly by the seat of my pants because #homerenovations + #summertime + #kids. And being a structure-loving sort of gal, too much structure makes me completely unable to adjust to changes, and be happy about them {let’s just be REAL, sometimes curve balls thrown at me make me a grumpy momma}.
You can get these beautiful little basket planters here.
On the other hand, not enough structure means I wander about, jumping from one thing to the next, never really accomplishing anything.
You know that feeling of starting something, but then getting half-way or almost done and then something else takes your attention, and then that thing you started and almost finished…just waits? That’s how my laundry used to be. I would start a few loads, get them going…do a little folding and then they’d never get put away or that last load would just sit in the dryer and we all know how that ends up. They were never fully dried or that load was all the shorts and cute tops and dresses for the kids and now they’re all wrinkled…Which means you now have to get out the iron {or just let your kids run around in wrinkled clothes…, seriously no judgement here ‘cuz #beentheredonethat}. Bless it all. So on Mondays, ALL the laundry gets done. The sheets, the towels, the cute dresses and shorts, all of it.
They get washed and dried, folded AND put away and I feel like a boss-babe when it all gets done. Five loads today alone. That’s the average each week…sometimes a load or two more depending on how many wardrobe changes Reynolds went thru the previous week {what is that about, anyway?!}. Also, if we’ve been at the pool or lake and towels/swimsuits need to be refreshed. But on average I’m around 5 each Monday. Sometimes I start a load Sunday night so that I’m half a load in once Monday morning rolls around. But usually by 3pm I’ve got it all completed and I can enjoy the afternoon with Eliza Jane and her gymnastics and then whatever else comes my way.
And then I water the plants. I have a lot of indoor plants because they make me happy. My mom had a green thumb as did her daddy. My mom had some of the most beautiful African Violets you’d ever seen. She was a master at keeping them not just alive but also happy. My dad also has a green thumb as did his parents, with their ‘garden’ at the back of their property and my Nama’s beautifully manicured lawn… So with the green thumb running rampant in my family, I feel as though I need lots of plants. And because it’s so hot outside, one doesn’t have time or energy to be sweating all day long, so I need indoor plants.
Just so y’all know, unlike my mom, I don’t ‘do’ African Violets. They’re too temperamental for me {I’m temperamental enough for myself, I don’t need a plant to test me}, instead I have Spider Plants that a sweet man at church gave my kids a couple of years ago and they’re so pretty – we have one in each of their rooms as well as one that sits on my dining room table. I also have a Fiddle Fig because they were all the rage when I was pregnant with Eliza Jane…and now that plant is a happy, window-loving tree that sits in our living room! I also have a gorgeous Peace Lily that was sent to my family when my mom passed away almost three years ago. It sat in my office until I came home and now it has a sweet little spot on the opposite end of the couch from the Fiddle Fig. A quick note about Peace Lilies is that they like water more than once a week – their weeping leaves will show you :) I also have an Asparagus Fern because I had a co-worker once that had a Rabbit Foot Fern that was so cute and unique and when trying to remember what she had, I purchased the wrong thing! I have a few other plants but the last I’ll share with you is my Thanksgiving Cactus. Given to me many years ago from my mom, it was my first indoor plant – and it started as a cutting from one she had. Mine has grown large enough now, that it’s been split into two different plants – one sits in our guest bedroom, and the other in our living room on top of the buffet I inherited from my grandparents.
It may not sound like much to you {or maybe it does?}, just doing laundry and watering some silly plants. But when I was working outside the home, it took everything I had to get the laundry done each week and not feel like I was completely failing my family. Or that I was using every bit of our weekend family time to do the laundry. And my poor plants were barely making it.
To see my plants thriving, and the lack of clothes piled up on the chest at the end of our bed is proof to me that things are good. That the structure is as it should be, and I feel accomplished…at least at the end of each Monday…the rest of the week could be debated. ;)
So this Monday as I finish up my laundry, because I had a few curve balls thrown at me today…I’ll leave you with a quick thought from my Birthday Card book: ‘You’ve done much. But there’s still much more to do.’
Psalm 71:9 says Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
Until next time friends…
