Dirty Laundry, Doing Less, and Idiots' Guides
Not to air out my medical dirty laundry, but I have a mental condition that you may have heard of: I have ADHD. I haven’t been diagnosed by a doctor, but trust me: it’s obvious.
I fill my days with all the hundreds of things I want and need to do, trying to cram it all in, rushing around to keep the house together, letting dogs in and out and in and out and in and out, writing words for this very blog, with the hope of making other moms realize we’re all dealing with the same B.S., and that, yes, they are “doing it right,” whatever that means, and that it’s totally okay that their kids think their name is “Ja-Co-Li-Coo-Dammit!” because - by the end of the day, our brains are just piles of slop.
Thank goodness for tomorrow.
I’m attending the Texas Conference for Women again, where - for the third year in a row - I'll attend for my annual dose of Kristan: Get Your Shit Together, which will hopefully take hold this time.
The conference, which desperately needs to be spread over a few days, but is sadly crammed into only one day, is a gathering of brilliant women (but there are men there, too!) who create this incredible bustling energy of possibility, success, and all the other adjectives that make us feel warm and tingly inside.
There’s a whole slew of women I’d love to get a little piece of tomorrow, like Christine Carter, author of Raising Happiness, and her newest book, The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less.
Oh you know I’m all about accomplishing more, especially if it means doing less.
I am excited that I’ll get to interview Carla Birnberg, author of What You Can When You Can: Healthy Living on Your Terms, and creator of the podcast with the same name. She’s all about being realistic with health stuff (not just physical health, but mental and emotional, too) - fitting in what you can when you can, not being an obsessed freak about working out, eating celery, and being a perfect wife and mom.
She and I have been texting this morning to set up our meeting time, and I can already tell we’re going to have so much fun chatting tomorrow. She’s funny and engaging and my fingers are crossed she’ll be able to impart her wisdom in our few minutes together to help me pull myself together.
Not that I think I’m a loser or anything like that (I truly do not think that of myself, and I even had to reassure the checkout guy at Half Price Books recently when I bellied up to the counter to buy a stack of “___for Dummies” and “Idiots Guide to ___” books, and he said, “Wow, you must not think very highly of yourself,” to which I said, “I’m fine,” but he only gave me a sad little side-smile and a slight nod of his head, then watched me sullenly when I grabbed my bag of books and walked out of the store.)
It’s just that this time of year - around my birthday (which is this Wednesday, but you stop it right now and put your wallet away, silly) - I need a shot of gumption.
Each year, I do this little life evaluation thing in my head that goes something like this, "What have I done so far? What do I still want to do before 'it's all over'? What if I'm already halfway? Oh, sweet Jesus, what if I'm more than halfway?"
Then I freak out that I still have so much I want to do - so many bucket list items, so many lessons I still need to teach these kids of mine, who won't stand a chance in hell if I'm hit by a bus anytime soon.
I think Carla’s philosophy is going to fit perfectly with my lifestyle, and hopefully with yours, too. I’m grabbing my copy of What You Can When You Can today when I’m out and about.
You can get your copy right here. Let’s read it together! I'll share with you all the nuggets she rains down on me tomorrow, along with all the other goodness I learn at the conference.