My mom is not one of those moms who makes you a cup of tea, sits down with you, shares a story from her past, and then imparts great wisdom to you in your time of need.
Most of her childhood stories end with some variation of “that’s just the way it was,” or “and then I dealt with it and it was fine.” And I’m fairly sure that there is no tea in her house.
However, she occasionally says things that just work. I like to think she developed these little gems because she was blessed with the challenge of parenting me, and I’m fairly sure she would agree with that. My brother was just a test run, God’s way of saying parenting isn’t that hard, why not have another? And much like a runner who breezes through a 5K and thinks, that was kind of easy, I’m going to go for the half-marathon next, my mom was presented with an exponentially more challenging task when kid numero dos came along. Not only was I often overwhelming, but I was often overwhelmed. Rather than scream or leave the room in frustration when she would see me floundering under the weight of the ridiculous number of tasks I had taken on or the infinite number of ideas in my decidedly ADD brain, she would say this:
You can’t do everything. But do something.
She didn’t sit down and make a to-do list with me, color coding it with pretty gel pens on personalized stationery. In fact, I’m fairly sure she hasn’t written on any paper other than a prescription pad in the last thirty-five years. She didn’t make a reward chart or wave pom poms in the air. This is not a woman who cheers. She just stated the obvious. You just can’t do it all, at least not right now. But sitting and doing nothing will get you nowhere. Choose something. One thing. And just do it. Take that, Nike.
So why am I telling you this and what is with the nesting dolls in the upper left hand corner?
And am I the only one who is a little creeped out by nesting dolls?
Ever since I returned from Tanzania my brain has been overwhelmed with thoughts and ideas ranging from the desire to single-handedly save the world to the thought that maybe I should stop blogging, walk away from my business, buy a puppy, and homeschool my children. When it came to writing, those thoughts looked like nesting dolls. I would open one up and prepare to write, only inside that idea was another idea. And another. And another. And another. And I became paralyzed. I have managed to continue to tick the boxes on my work to-do list, keeping up with client emails and calls, hosting twitter parties, paying bloggers to do what they love, even writing a presentation and speaking at a conference. But when it came to blogging I somehow forgot…
You can’t write everything. But write something.
I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I just went a week without writing or even posting some of my favorite content from the past four years. I haven’t written a Mamavation Monday post in over a month…maybe more? It’s been a couple of weeks since I shared Wordless Wednesday pictures and two weeks ago I posted my last Friday Featured Giveaway post, deciding to move away from weekly giveaways and only occasionally post a contest if it’s something that really sounds like fun for you guys.
It is time for a change.
I have so much to say. And I love to write. So I’m writing this, and it is something, and the rest of those ideas stacked up in my mind….well, we’ll see.