I’ve always thought the coolest superpower to have would be flight. Invisibility was second on my list. These days, however, I want a different sort of power. I want to be known as …
Efficiency Girl!
Although I might be past the “girl” mark at this point in my life. Efficiency Woman? Definitely no. Wait, I know!
Madam Efficiency!
I would love to have the ability to get everything done in a day. Write, sew clothes for the kids, cook meals, clean the house, wash laundry AND put it away, teach school, and then have a little time left over for reading at the end of the day.
Ha. Ha, ha, ha.
You know that feeling when there’s so much on your plate you get paralyzed with pressure and end up doing none of it and just wasting time on Twitter and Pinterest instead? (Please tell me that’s not just me.) That’s almost every day around here. And we haven’t even started outside lessons yet. Gracie’s skating lessons start in just a couple of weeks, Joy’s ballet a few weeks after that, and we’re hoping to do piano lessons for Joy after the New Year, too.
Meanwhile, the dry laundry has been hanging on a rack in my living room for almost a week. My niece’s quilt stares at me constantly from across the room whenever I sit down, asking WHY it isn’t finished and in the mail to that sweet baby girl yet. And I haven’t been out of the apartment or talked to another human being besides my family (and the internet) since Sunday.
People sometimes ask me how I do it all, and I never know how to answer, because I am the farthest person in the world from doing it all. I don’t even do half. Maybe a quarter, on a good day.
Carl tells me that it is possible to be organized and keep to a schedule to get done what needs doing, and certainly that works for him, Mr I’m Going To Seminary Full Time And Working 20 Hours A Week And Still Have Time For Occasionally Talking To Other People. But somehow, even when I make a schedule and try to follow it, life turns it upside down and I end up getting more frustrated and stressed because I can’t get it all done.
So yeah. any radioactive spiders out there or fancy gamma rays that want to turn me into Madam Efficiency, who manages to make the best use of all her time, every day?
Bring it on.
Umm, YES, I know that feeling. Except I don’t do Pinterest and Twitter, but Facebook and excessive emailing. So, no, definitely not just you.
And that question “How do you do it all?” My answer usually is “I don’t.” When my kids were about the age yours are now, I used to have a sign on my fridge: “When All Else Fails, Lower Your Standards!” The thing is that creative people like you (and me) need head space to process. You can’t “organize” creative minds and hearts, that’s not how they work. You’ve got a huge lot of issues to process right now; that takes time and energy. All superheroes need time to recharge, back in their secret lair. Madam Efficiency is no exception.
That’s it! I need a Bat-cave.
And an Alfred. I might just settle for Alfred.
I think I’ve been using “I just can’t do it all!” as my excuse for not writing as much as I’d like to, lately. When I think of people who I envy because they SEEM to do it all– people like you, and Shannon Hale, and anyone else who manages to write prolifically while raising small children– I’ve thought of it as “How do they DO it all?” in my head and out loud even though you’ve all ADMITTED you can’t and DON’T do it all, but the truth is it’s really you’re not afraid to write like I am. I use “I have too much to do!” (and then I don’t do it) as my excuse so I don’t have to face the blank page, or whatever might come out of the depths ON to the blank page, or whatever my psychological block is that’s keeping me from writing anything more than a journal and some blog comments…! Lots to think about here.
Oh, I have that envy of Shannon Hale, too. Even though she too has stated loud and clear that she can’t and doesn’t even try to do it all. (Although honestly, I think having twins and writing books is pretty close to “doing it all” even without anything else added to the list.)