Adjusting expectations

Countdown to school...... Ughhh....

Am I the only one that feels this way?

I know many have gone back to school, because I have had the whoops and hollers from the happy parents.

Though I love the routine, I would be lying if I didn't say that the schedules (or harried schedules) are starting to stress me out.  As of now, I'm not sure I have a good game plan for the upcoming year. 

(does that surprise you?)

My goal this summer was to get organized and get my life back.  But instead, I spent every day enjoying the freedom as much as possible.  I haven't had this much (stress free) fun with my kids in years. 

At the beginning of the summer Aspen loaded up on dance classes.  At first I was stressed; but when I realized I had made myself available for just that reason - so much stress fell off my shoulders.

It felt so good.

Now that school is gearing up, I'm starting to put 'those' glasses on.  As I went into the girls' room this morning, I started looking around at all the disorganization, and realized I didn't do what I set out to do this summer and this is where is bites me.

I'm not a planner.  I'm a dreamer.

It sounds nice, I know.  But there are repercussions to being a dreamer.  But then again when you look at it, there are repercussions to everything.

Last night I was at my girlfriends house for a party.  She has the cutest house, EVER!  She has a dutch door (one of the doors that open top or bottom that you would likely find in the country).  Her house is decorated model style; cute, quaint and very homey.  Every detail is in place.

As we prepared for the party, I could see that 'every detail in its place' was very important to her.    I had to pry her away from the crackers to go sit down and enjoy her guests.  When we sat down to eat, we joked about her 'simple' salad, which had a few different types of lettuce, scallions, goat cheese, tomatoes sunflower seeds and a Champagne Pear Vinaigrette dressing tossed in.  We had a lot of fun!

It's because she is like this that her house is as beautiful as it is.  But what I wanted for her to do was just relax and let the party happen.  Her level of stress was higher than mine would be.

But then again, my house is in such a state of disarray that I just don't invite people over (except my very close friends who will love me no matter what!).

So there you have the two extremes.

My lack of stressing causes me disorganization and her level causes her house to be lovely!!!  (I'm not kidding, when I saw her daughters room, I had to hold back from jumping on the bed just to mess it up just a little).

I would like to find something in the middle.   Let's call it 'Clarity'.
I have millions of great ideas squished in between mud.

This year my goal is to ..........wait for it.........

Get by

I'm going to start with low expectations and go from there.  That way, if I succeed in my low expectations, I can add another and feel successful.  Let's call it reverse therapy!

I think I will feel way better checking things off the list like, "Wake up". 

It's easy to feel like a failure.  Let's have some fun with this figure out how to feel like a winner!!!

Happy Sunday!