Plugging Away

I tried guys. I really tried. I tried to squeeze in a Mental Health Monday post but the gods would not allow it. Yesterday had more tasks and responsibilities than it did time and energy. So I took the pressure off and said

“fuck it. I’ll try again tomorrow.”

And now it’s tomorrow and I still have too much to do and not enough time. Or energy. So maybe this is life now. Which then felt like it fit in with what I sent out in my newsletter this past weekend so I thought,

“why work hard when you can work smart”

Oh and side note, that was a cliche because it’s a theme in this newsletter and they are running rampant in this post. You’ll see.

Today’s re-run is a little unconventional. Meaning I’m sharing my newsletter words with you and if you want to get words like these in your inbox on a monthly-ish basis then you should subscribe to said newsletter.

Also if you are subscribed to said newsletter and didn’t see it in your inbox, Google is super rude and marks me as spam so check there.

And those are the only shameless plugs I’m gonna insert today. Oh other than the plugs scattered cleverly throughout this post.

Without further ado…

Well, it’s not April 1 but I think that the first-ish of April is close enough to getting my first of the month-ish newsletter delivered into all y’alls inboxes…right?

I mean we have low standards around here for a reason and to be honest, I just keep lowering the already lowered bar until the amount of pressure I feel is practically at a zero. That’s how I like to roll. On a no pressure kind of scale. Perhaps that’s why I’m also not on a widely read kind of scale but who’s to say.

That was a lot of verbiage to say, er, nothing.

Anyway. March was a whirlwind and I think that I am just now fully recovered from my son’s surgery.

That’s right.

My son recovered faster as the patient than I did as the caretaker. I have been working tirelessly and seeming endlessly to catch up on all the housework, work-work, and maintaining mental health work. I have spent a lot of time resting and by that I mean sleeping whenever I wasn’t forced to be in an upright position by other adulting requirements.

As you may or may not have seen in this blog post, we took a family vacation and let me tell you that a vacation with kids is not a vacation for grown-ups. My kids and myself have verrrrry different ideas of what vacations look like.

They are pretty much go-go-go and try all the activities type vacationers and I’m more of a prop my feet up and just stare into space kind of vacation-er so I think I’m still in recovery post vacation. Jesus, if that isn’t the most obnoxious first world type problem then I don’t know what is.

Anyway.

We came back to a household full of strep throat which led to urgent care visits and pharmacy visits and all the extraneous type things that I already didn’t have the time, energy or mental capacity for.

But, now I’m back.

Ish.

And by that I mean that today I did a “Yoga for when you are stuck” practice and it must’ve helped me un-stick because I’m feeling more capable.

The last few weeks I’ve been on autopilot and that always makes me nervous because autopiloting through life has gotten me exactly no where. But here’s what I think I’m learning. Life is a roller coaster (yes I’m invoking a complete and utter cliche because while I’m more lively, my full creativity has yet to return). The point is life happens in phases.

We follow our routines, we get our shit done, we feel alive and productive and healthy and happy and then the other shit hits the fan and we fall off our wagons and find ourselves floating through space and time without our touch stones to ground us back in reality.

And those times can be nerve wracking when we think that is who we are now.

But it’s important to remember that when we are in the dips of life’s roller coasters that we will come back up to the high points. We will climb back on the horse (I just felt the need to use another non-creative cliche that adds absolutely no value). My ultimate point is, don’t lose hope. Even when you’ve lost motivation, or energy, or routine, there’s always hope. You’ll always find your way back up the mountain (I guess I had another cliche in me).

So from one just getting out of the valley to another…keep going. We’ll always find ourselves in the midst of chaos but it’s important to remember that we deserve to find ourselves in the midst of chaos.