Balance

I'm an 'all-or-nothing' type of gal. Always have been....most likely always will be. In some cases, it serves me well. I can be seriously productive when I need to.

But mostly, it just leads to burn-out. So my biggest personal challenge is balance (and focus, but that's a whole other post). Trying to fit everything into my life in a meaningful way,  while not spreading myself so thin that I'm completely frazzled, is a constant struggle.


Has anyone written a tutorial for this?  That would be handy!


A few months ago I truly found myself with one too many things on my plate.
Nothing urgent. All perfectly normal and things I was happy to do.
Nothing 'over-the-top' stressful. Nothing I could actually point to and say,  "that's it!  That's the thing that has to go"

Just.....stuff.
Baseball, football, umpires, holidays, classrooms, homework, cookies, parties..... stuff.


And then.....this happened.

Not a tornado, not an entire house full of water, but enough.

I'm also a big believer in 'Everything Happens For A Reason'.
And I love that analogy of God first throwing a pebble, 
then a rock, 
then a brick.


In the interest of not having a brick wall fall down around my family's lives  in order for me to get the point that I needed to take a step back,  I took a break.

Okay, fine.
The contractors who fixed my house forced me to take a break  by wrapping my entire kitchen in saran wrap.

But still....point taken.

So in true 'all-or-nothing' Lizy B style, I switched to 'nothing'.
No Facebook. No blogging. No Google+. No baking. (well, a little)
Nothing.

And then.....
 I stripped the wallpaper out of the bathroom. Ripped out the bathroom cabinet and all the fixtures. Painted a moroccan tile stencil on the walls. Had the floors in the house replaced. Purged the house of a whole bunch of c***. Went to a fabulous wedding. Went to Vegas with Sisters-in-law and BFF's. Planned team parties for the kids. Made portrait collages for coaches gifts. Watched my oldest become a middle-schooler. Dunked my umpire husband in a dunk tank. Planned a summer vacation.

Yeah, I know. I stink at relaxing.

Although I did the couch potato thing too!
I became a master at Candy Crush, Bubble Mania AND Dragon Story! I'm all caught up on the Housewives and their nastiness! I got all teary when Candace won American Idol.
But now, I'm back, and I'm going to try to maintain a little balance.
I'll try to blog twice a week. I'll keep up with the social media...but also try not to get too entangled.
If I disappear for a bit over the summer, I haven't gone anywhere. I'm at the pool with the munchkins, or watching the sunset with my honey.
I'll always be back!
Big Kiss! Thanks for still being here!!!
(bring on the cookies!)