Is life crazy? Just remember: The Most Important Things in Life are NOT Things.

Monique Bucheger

Silly me—I honestly thought that this year would be the year that I could accomplish everything I wanted/needed to do since my youngest entered school full day. Most of all, I thought I could be an author between the hours of 8am and 3pm and have no guilt as I engaged in the business aspect of being an author: writing, editing, marketing, blogging, attending and helping with conferences, critiquing, exchanging with other authors, finding new readers, submitting to agents & publishers and a host of other things that are not glamorous … and yet are needed and expected.

Being a mom means an equally long list including the care and feeding (and doctoring, chauffeuring, disciplining, encouraging, etc) of our young ones. Multiply the number of kids and a mom’s duties increase exponentially—just trust me on this—I have 12 kids. When I had five kids (8 and under) I SWEAR to you I did 20 plus loads of laundry a week. The next year when our family added 2 more kids, that number jumped to 40 plus loads. Add in husbands, jobs, pets, friends, family, church, work, and social obligations and let’s just agree that all-in-all, daily life can get overwhelming.

And yet it still needs to be lived and handled—preferably calmly and efficiently –at least the majority of the time. I’m not here to judge or nag or make anyone feel bad.

I’m just here to say: I understand. It’s okay. Breathe. The most important things in life ... aren't things. ;) 

Sometimes, not perfect has to be good enough and almost perfect needs to be relished and cherished. Because at the end of the day if the house is immaculate and you are cranky and miserable as well as everyone else in your household, because you’ve screamed and nagged trying to get everyone to pitch in, the quality of life is poor.

I’ve got several deadlines looming—including filing my taxes and launching a book, and right now, I am not overly concerned that every piece of clothing is hung up or every cup or plate makes its way immediately to the kitchen sink. (Although with the rule about only eating in the dining room—this shouldn’t be an issue. L ) I am concerned that time spent getting the things done that I need to do is taking up a lot of time I should be spending with my kids.

So maybe this post is about giving myself permission to slack in some areas temporarily for the greater good.  J If so—feel free to join me. We can be PERFECTLY awesome another time. Today, I will settle for mostly awesome with good intentions. I have too much to do to juggle every ball equally. I just don’t want to drop the ball that let’s my kids know I love and care about them. The other balls will have to make adjustments until things ease up again.

Laugh lots, love much, write on! J