I hate telling myself no. It’s like when you were a kid and you swore as an adult you’d never tell yourself no. Remember when you wanted to skip school and go to an amusement park but your meaner than mean parents said NO? Like that.
FATIGUE: noun
weariness from bodily or mental exertion ~dictionary.com
Then adulting happened… and you really wanted to skip work and go to an amusement park with your kids (that you allowed to go… on a school break) and you had to tell yourself no. Ah life.
So it’s been a difficult decision realizing I have to tell myself no. No to what?
Well, quite a few things. I have quite a laundry list which I keep propped up in a place where I can see it every morning.
So I can realize all the stuff I can’t get to.
Not uplifting. Mr. Bluejeans was quietly watching me beat myself up trying to get all these things done but really just spinning my wheels because everything seemed to be a priority. I also don’t delegate. So he sat me down and said that we have to make a realistic list (Whaaa? several pages of notebook paper full of things to complete in a year isn’t realistic?) and then implement it.
I like it when he uses big words.
Of course I fought it at first, but really as I looked around – he was absolutely right. See, I envision the farm finished. Every time I look around I see what it will look like and am racing to the finish line. But 60 acres for one full time person (moi) and a part time person (my daughter Sammi) is a lot of work and in the end he was right. I needed to focus on a few things and then when they were finished add something else.
Ya know what happened? I felt relieved. Didn’t expect that since I didn’t realize I was overworking myself. Yes, I still have a full plate and blogging is the biggest part of my day. I know, hard to believe but you have to understand that all those folks out there sharing their lives with you have really made a commitment of the heart. It takes hours to film, edit, photograph and then after a hard days work, try to be informative and witty. I appreciate each and every one of these folks that sparked my interest so many years ago and lead me down this path of sharing and wanting to learn from and help others.
So we took a weed whacker and here’s the smaller more manageable list:
- Create more homesteading videos
- Finish staining farmhouse
- Change garden plan from enlarging to creating better soil for enlargement next year (see video below)
- Roof guinea coop and side donkey corral
- Water, water, water (still waiting for lab results)
- Plant seedlings and don’t kick self over difficult learning curve on this one
So to any of you suffering from Long List Syndrome, if I can back off, you can too. Homesteading is wonderful. Hard work BUT wonderful. I forgot to step back and enjoy the beauty of all the accomplishments we HAVE made. So here’s my reminder to you:
Relax and Enjoy.
Here’s a little more about the change in the scope of our garden this year:
Here’s that raised bed video I mentioned: click here
Now go toss that long list into the closest fire pit, sit down, grab a marshmallow, toast it and enjoy what you have accomplished. Fire pits make everything better!
Have you suffered from Homestead Fatigue? How did you fix it?
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