Got Sleep?

Happy June!

So far my routine has been going pretty well. I still haven't mailed back my forms to the psychologist. I keep forgetting to get stamps. ADD anyone? My plan is to do it tomorrow though.

Anyway, something I think most of us, especially women, whether ADD or not, struggle with is the whole life balance thing. I know the term work/life balance is thrown around a lot these days. But that's not all I'm talking about. That would be part of it, but I'm thinking about the big picture, the whole enchilada of spiritual life, family, leisure, health, self care, paid work, friendships, relatives, learning, volunteering, creativity, finances, and all those other parts of life that are important, but sometimes hard to make mesh together with everything else. Indoor time, outdoor time, rest, play, errands, staying home, cleaning, going out, church and other activities, appointments, yada yada yada.

And it really is all good stuff, but how am I supposed to get it all in? How often? How much time should be given to each area? Where's the manual? And yes, I know the Bible is our source of establishing mission and priorities, but I've never found a version that tells me whether I should stay in and clean my bathroom or go enjoy a perfect beach day with my kids or catch up on my reading or clean out my inbox. Other people (I'll call them normal organized ladies or NOL for short) seem to just know this. So when so many areas are in various states of disarray from complete chaos to just needing a few tweaks here and there, where do you even start??? It's enough to make an ADD girl go into frozen mode (think deer in headlights).

Well, I did a little googling about trying to juggle the multiple areas of life, and I read that sleep should be high up there on the priorities. It makes sense really. I mean, if you're constantly tired, you aren't going to do as well in your work, your relationships, your ability to learn, etc. And if you don't have energy, even the fun things won't be enjoyable. So, I decided to start with sleep. It's not that I'm constantly tired, but I didn't really have much of a sleep schedule. It's always been hard for me to go to bed at night and to get up in the morning. Maybe because it usually takes me a while to fall asleep, so I kind of get bored. Most weekday mornings I get up between 7 and 7:30 when Jim brings me the steaming mug of magical wake up drink that normal people call coffee. So I figured, it would be good for me to go to bed at 11. I might change that later if I decide to get up earlier, but for now, this works.

So, did that change my life and make every piece of the jigsaw all fit into exact, proper proportion to one another? HA! Not even close. But, it's one small change. I'm building my foundation before I start adding in the details. Eating that elephant one bite at a time. So, how about you? Exhaustion is NOT your friend. Got sleep?