Balancing It All & Feeling Balanced

Note: I had much of this post pre-drafted before hearing of the tragedy in Japan.  My thoughts and prayers are with everyone effected by the natural disaster.  The gravity and severity of the disaster further illustrates that what most of us deem as a “problems” usually mean very little in the great scheme of life and to keep life in perspective and in balance.

I have had such a busy week!  TGIF!  Working full time and being a parent is the hardest balancing act I’ve ever had but the show must go on.  And on it has.

Included in life’s balancing act the past 24 hours…

A great salad

With Homemade Creamy Honey Mustard Dressing

And a fresh batch of Sweet & Tangy Un-Chicken Salad

I got in a great workout.  20 minutes running outside in 72 F and sunny….

….and then came in and did 20 minutes of workout moves on my exercise ball and yoga mat.

It’s all about working smarter, not harder, and streamlining my workouts.  Being efficient at everything I do from cooking in batches so I have planned leftovers to working out at full-tilt for 40 minutes, but then being done so much quicker, works best for me.

Because I have this little girl to play with.  I’d rather be with her than lolly-gagging over a workout or starting from scratch with every single meal that we need to eat.   Having some leftovers on hand is key for me to balance it all.

I’m glad you enjoyed my Candy Friday post filled with enough candy recipes, chocolate, and sugar for a trip to the dentist.

Thanks for filling me in on what your favorite candy is and with some suggestions for candy you’d like to have me try to re-create at home.

Speaking of candy and sweets, how about snacks and dessert.

This one is not filled with sugar or chocolate.

No-Bake Flaxseed Cookies.  Skip the syrup and they are very portable, and fast & easy to make.

But this one is filled with sugar and chocolate.

No-Bake Vegan Fudge

 

Questions:

1. Weekend Plans?

Working, being with Scott and Skylar, working out, possibly meeting up with a friend, tackling life chores like cooking, cleaning, meal prep, laundry.   Nothing earth-shattering, but busy nonetheless!

2. Balancing Life.  Do you feel balanced?

I don’t think anyone would say, oh yes, I feel 100% balanced every day.

Some days I feel much more balanced than others.  The days I feel most balanced are the days when I have no crises to deal with, no unplanned fires that are burning, no unexpected snags.

Day to day ife is hard enough when it’s humming along well.  Throw in a snag, and my sense of balance goes out the window.  Until I fix or tend to the problem.

Snags could be anything from illness, to unexpected car repairs, to unplanned for traffic jams, to thinking I had enough fresh produce on hand but don’t and have to somehow squeeze in a grocery store trip, to Scott all of a sudden can’t watch Skylar, to someone sending me some nastiness in my email and having to not let that effect my headspace to Skylar having a hard day and I can’t just go at full steam because it’s just not that kind of day.   I could go on and on.  We all could!

Snags suck and can derail that sense of balance we all try so hard to achieve.

3. What do you do about snags and unexpected changes in plans as to not derail your overall sense of balance?

I take a deep breath, and remember this too shall pass.

I also remember that in a day, week, month, year(s), the crisis du jour will not matter.  Nor will I even remember it, likely.  So I remind myself not to stress about it too much.

I stop worrying, fretting, panicking, or complaining about the change in plans and just get down to handling business.

When the chips are down, the only thing I can do is action.  Inaction, wallowing, worrying, complaining is not going to help me or the situation.  Brainstorming, coming up with ways I am going to handle the problem,

4. Do you spend more or your time feeling in or out of balance?

I would not say I feel out of balance as much as I feel rushed.  I have more to do than hours in the day.  Rushing around can definitely contribute to me not feeling balanced.  And as much as I’d like to say, oh I’ll just slow down, nope.  The show must go on and that’s fine.   Just smile, breathe, get through it.  When I am 75 I will look back on my life in these moments and likely smile and feel proud that I was busy, I worked, I raised a child, I kept my household together, I wrote a blog, and it was great!  Even if it was a little hairy and rushed.

And with that, I am rushing off to an appointment.  

Have a great Friday night and weekend, everyone!