I Don't Do Everything

I wake up to a kitchen full of dirty dishes because we ran out of room in the dishwasher last night.  Drummer was up during the night, so Ryan thoughtfully let me sleep a bit longer and got the school girls off.  I decide that maybe I should shower before I tackle dinner and breakfast dishes.  I return to the kitchen where Clover has somehow managed to start the dishwasher.  Full of clean dishes.  Sigh.  I can't put away a bunch of wet dishes, so instead of drying them all by hand, I run a "short" cycle while I begin the laundry.  Good for me, I think, getting the laundry done early in the day so we're not waiting to switch it instead of going to bed at night.  Then I discover some strawberries I left out because there was no room in the fridge.  Oh, yeah, forgot about those.  Seriously?  They can mold that fast? as I pick up the dripping red container, trying not to drip along the trip to the garbage can.  I tackle the rest of the kitchen as I wait for the dishwasher to finish drying.

I finally get the entire kitchen cleaned plus some random things around the house.  It's already time to pick up the girls from school.  Maybe I can squeeze in some sewing while they're working on homework.  Oh, yeah, the laundry.  I have Divine bring in the load from the dryer.  

What...the....why.....is......there......red........crayon........on............EVERYTHING!?!?  Another Sigh.  Can the sewing. I spend the next hour spot treating all the crayon, cleaning out the dryer, and learning that a red crayon in the dryer is not the end of the world.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, How do you do everything?  A picture is worth a thousand words.  I should have taken a picture of my pink dryer and my speckled clothes, too, but you get the point.  Nobody does everything.  You should see my Sewing Studio when I'm in the middle of several projects.  My "tricks"?

➊ Ryan.  He is the most amazingly involved father.  While my mom was here she witnessed Ryan coming into the kitchen one Saturday saying, "Let's go through the kids' clothes and start a bucket of Oxy Clean to soak the stained ones."  She turned to me and said, "I would have died if Kurt said that!", and he was plenty involved. I am blessed to have married such a supportive man.

➋ Motivation and Speed.  I can work really fast when I am motivated. I will tell myself, Once I get the ______ cleaned, I will give myself an hour of sewing while Drummer is sleeping.  Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.  Clover will usually come in the studio while I'm in there and play with the little kitchen, cooking me fancy dishes.  Sewing is a gift I've been given, and I've been doing it since I was little, so I can usually whip things out pretty quickly...once I finally have the time!  The problem is, once I get into a project, I have a hard time stopping ;)

➌ Passion.  Sewing is what I love, so I make time for it.  I am constantly thinking about projects I want to do, so the planning is usually mostly finished before I sit down to start a project.  I also have kids who enjoy being home.  I know a lot of kids (and adults) who can't stand to be home all the time.  I enjoy it.  The weekends I rarely do any sewing because we're out and about as a family or doing something together on Saturday and attend church on Sunday.

There are plenty of days I feel like I get absolutely nothing done, and I snap at everyone, but the great thing is we all get to start with a blank slate the next day.  Unless it's covered with dirty dishes, that is.