It’s important to know your limits.

There are times when I wonder if I have taken on too much. This year I have taken on two challenges, to post photos every day and to exercise every day for 100 days. And it was fine, when it was all new and it was a Shiny New Year and we were feeling optimistic. But today, we got up and it was MONDAY, and it was BACK TO WORK, and the holidays were over. And reality sets in.

Whoa. How do we fit everything we want to do into our schedule?

I had the luxury of having BDH home for the last 3 days — coincidentally, the only days where I have added both these new things to my routine. And it was easy, because I had him to help out. The other reason it was easy was because we SAT ON OUR ARSES FOR 3 DAYS and just vegged out. So we sort of neglected things in the everyday maintenance of the house department.

But this morning, I got up and realized — I have a lot to get done.

There is a pile of laundry that would make the Prussian Army proud. Dishes need to be done. I have to make a pot of soup. I want to clear a path through the boxes of baby clothes and folded laundry in my bedroom so I can, you know, SEE THE FLOOR. And let’s not forget, I have a blog or several that I really should update each day, or at least, as frequently as I can. And then, there are things to do during the rest of the week, like get out and get groceries, and sort through Stinkerbelle’s wardrobe and put away the stuff that is too small, and do whatever paid work comes my way, and start swimming lessons again, and have play dates. And that doesn’t even get into whatever bits of housework that crop up. On the face of it, it can be a lot.

Add to this some daily exercise and photographs, and suddenly one’s head starts to spin. I begin to wonder, “Am I over-planning my days, here?” Realistically, though, I think it’s just a matter of sitting down and re-thinking the way I do things. I have to adjust my schedule, and make sure I know my limits about what can be done in a day.

The biggest job of all, though, is chasing after That Baby, who is QUITE busy of late. There is much running and marching and dancing to be done in a day, not to mention making sure toys are strewn about every square foot of floor space as often as possible. There are dance parties to be had. There are loud, raucous games of Foyer Soccer to be played. And there is SO MUCH TO LEARN.

Stinkerbelle is also learning her limits. We are trying to teach her these limits, like not to open cupboards and drawers that she should not get into, and not to play on the stairs, and not to open and close doors willy-nilly and with great force. And teaching her these things is a full time job. For if you are not at it all the time, you turn around and she has gotten into a cupboard and dragged out a pyrex bowl and smashed it on the tile. Or she has climbed the stairs to the second floor while you are sitting at the kitchen table. Or she has hit herself in the face with a door that unexpectedly rebounded.

Something tells me that I am not the only one who still has work to do about what her limits are.

So yeah — that’s REALLY my full time job right now. And everything else I want to do is kind of fit in around it.

But we’ll get there. We just need to re-think the way we do things in the course of the day, and let things go if need be. It’s a good exercise, because the demands of this job change from moment to moment sometimes. And you can cry and moan and rush around like a chicken with its head cut off and hit yourself in the face with doors… or you can just go with the flow and try to learn some reasonable limits.

I expect rushing will still be done and faces will still meet doors from time to time. But I also have hopes that a lot of good stuff will get done too.