"The Day I Stopped Saying 'Hurry Up'"

My cousin posted an article on Facebook last night.
The Day I Stopped Saying 'Hurry Up'

It could not have hit me in the forehead any more head on.

The first paragraph sucked me right in.

When you're living a distracted life, every minute must be accounted for. You feel like you must be checking something off the list, staring at a screen, or rushing off to the next destination. And no matter how many ways you divide your time and attention, no matter how many duties you try and multi-task, there's never enough time in a day to ever catch up.

Dead on.
After my post yesterday, I could have sworn this article was written for me.

The story about the little girl, the message, the lesson. I loved it from top to bottom.
It really inspired me. And made me think.
And confirmed I need to make an effort to change some things.

While my problems are more associated with the organization of my life and less with rushing my child, the part about lists, multitasking, rushing through life and never catching up couldn't be more true.

The last line really got me.

I will not say, "We don't have time for this." Because that is basically saying, "We don't have time to live."

Ya know, it's funny how certain things happen at just the right time. This article, popping up in my news feed on a day I was feeling so frenzied and exhausted with my lengthy list of to dos.

Just last week, Brian and I argued (yes, we argue) about balancing time at work and time with family.
Do we do a decent job of balancing? Well, yes. 
But could we do better? Of course.

We really struggle during the week and simply can't find something that works for us. And our baby is almost two years old. I swore we would have it figured out by now, but we don't.

Getting home close to 6:00 makes for a hungry toddler and those two hours every night for five days straight are really, really tough.

Monday through Friday, and that two hour nightly routine brings out the worst in all three of us.

I hate it.

And I realized it last Friday when something spoke to me.
Something in my head told me to be spontaneous.
Leave work right now, go run an errand for myself, pick up Carson early and go to the pool.
Make time to relax. Time to be spontaneous. Enjoy time with your family.

It's pretty uncharacteristic of Brian and I to leave work early on a whim.
And that's the part we argued about. He needed to work, I wanted him to leave to join us.

I prayed that night for guidance. Help with finding ways to slow down, finding ways to make more quality time, and help with controlling my feelings of getting things done.

This life of chaos is our new normal, at least for now. And although it's messy a lot of the time, it's extremely beautiful. To put it simply, I just need to learn to let go every now and then. BOOM. Just let go.

While some of my personal characteristics and imperfections will never change, I can find ways to be more spontaneous, carefree and stop being so critical of perfecting every single thing in my life.

I want my family to enjoy the best parts about me. Not the frenzied, over-analyzing part that makes me want to hide sometimes.

...things taste sweeter and love comes easier when you stop rushing through life.

Find time this weekend to be spontaneous my friends. Happy Friday.

 TOP | beer during bath + stinker face | Good Company antique store | enjoying the new play set

MIDDLE | peek-a-boo | floatin' and relaxin' | so proud. meanwhile, mom is hyperventilating

BOTTOM | the fish light switch covers win | pool time | toddler in adult shoes + the best dog ever