Making Room for What Matters

CLEANING OUT BLOGLINES
This morning, I spent 10-20 minutes clearing out my bloglines. Bloglines is the way that I keep up with the blogs/websites I want to read, without having to remember to visit the actual site. One of the benefits of it is that I can save articles that I want to read until I have time later. Which brings me to this morning's cleaning session. I had over 100 articles that I'd skimmed for later review. So I needed to review them... and clear out the ones that I wasn't saving to highlight in a Show & Tell post at some future point.

THE SNOWBALLING DUSTBUNNIES
Sometimes, despite your best efforts at regular cleaning and tidying and sorting and disposing and washing and mopping and all the rest, you look around and notice that things just look lackluster. The cabinets look grubby, the windows are smudgy, the corners have dustbunnies, or whatever. The small things have snowballed, and it's time for a spring-cleaning, whether it's spring or not. That's where I'm at. And that's some of what I'm tackling today, and will be doing this week.

ASSESSING THE CLUTTER & MAKING ROOM IN MY LIFE
Over the course of time, we can get accustomed to "norms" that ought not be norms. It all starts innocently. This used to happen to me with Sudoku. It's an engaging, quick little game that challenges and is highly addictive-- and can eat up time like nobody's business. That's how the internet, blog-reading and blogging, is. It can be very challenging and good... but can also quickly eat through your time. Time that really SHOULD be spent elsewhere. I need to use all of this as a tool rather than letting it take over things (like my time and mental energy) that are better used elsewhere. One of the ways I'm hoping to control time online is through the free software RescueTime, as a means of accountability and self-control.

I have the privilege of being married to an incredible man who is also my best friend. I want to be a true helper to him... making our home a stable, restful launching point for life... which requires my attention and mental energy. It is a lie that keeping a home is mindless, nonsensical work. Significant effort and intentional contemplation is required to maintain a peaceful, efficient home for a growing family.

And my kids need my mental energy and focus, as well as my time... and it's not just that they need me, although they most certainly do. Selfishly, I don't want to miss these moments. I'm not overstating it when I say that I am now momma to four of the funniest, most interesting people I've ever met. So don't be surprised if I sometimes post more regularly and sometimes less so. I won't quit blogging, but I'm also not going to be ruled by it. It's still just a tool to help me process and thoughtfully consider life, and I don't want to be mastered by it. So that's some of where I'm at.

What things are mastering you? What things need to be cleaned out of your life? Are you facing the snowballing of dustbunnies in parts of your life?