There are some words that the boys have learned from me and I’m not terribly thrilled about it. You know the kind…the four-letter type that, when repeated in front of your in-laws, cause much embarrassment and mea culpas.
But there are some bad words I hope the boys never learn from me.
I should…
I’m supposed to…
I ought to…
I’ve been “shoulding” all over myself lately, to the point of being stressed to the breaking point. There is no reason my to-do list should start at 25+ every day. There is no reason I should (there’s that word again) feel so guilty about doing fun things because my to-do list still has 8 things on it. There is no reason why I should (bad word, BAD!) still be working at 10 pm, not get everything done, and lie awake at night because I can’t relax.
So I’m shaving down the to-do list. There are things on there that don’t need to be. I don’t want my boys learning that life is just working hard and working harder, in the hope that when it’s all done (which it never is), you can go do something fun. Put a fork in me, I’m done.
Today I’ll do what I have to (pay bills, that sort of thing), but then I’m digging in the dirt (fall landscaping and winter prep), playing in my scrapbook room, and going to A’s school’s Fall Festival tonight.
Enough is enough.
It’s about time you decided to “slow down” and smell the roses (or dirt, in your case today)! As I have been finding out, the older you get, the faster time flies, and the more you feel you have to do in the short time you have left! But that is not the way it should be! My advice to you (from this “old lady”) is to enjoy each day to its fullest, and try to limit your “have to do’s”. As busy as our lives are, today we just “goofed off”. Walked to the farmers market, the bookstore, the library, had lunch with your sib and sibette, and just walked home from having coffee down the street. Simple things but oh so important. Tonight we’re going to a birthday party for an 81 year old man who drives (yes, at 81, and probably shouldn’t be) a red Cadillac convertible. He knows the secret of life, huh?
I hope you enjoyed today as much as we did.
Me
Very wise words indeed! You’re going to teach me how to cut down my to do list, right?!?