One Bite at a Time

Welcome to my blog. I am so glad you've found me! As I sit down to write this I realize it is crazy I am just beginning to blog. My love for writing began when I was in about 3^rd or 4^th grade. In 4^th grade I won a writing competition and KNEW I wanted to be a writer. Throughout high school I kept a book of poetry and short stories I’d written, which I still have. I've actually started two books. Yet here I am in my 30’s just now starting my first blog. To continue the irony, I began this blog without telling my husband. We recently had a heart to heart about me feeling lost, he said I want to see you writing. Anything. Start a blog, write a book, anything. Does the man know me or what? So here we go!

I thought it would be appropriate for this initial post to tell you a little about me and my life. First and most important piece of information about me is I have ADHD through osmosis. Yes, you read that correct. Nearly every male born into my family has ADHD. My father, grandfather, nephew, even my youngest little boy is showing mild signs. But let’s talk about the two MOST important people … my two very competitive brothers. No sister’s, no mild mannered brothers that just like to hang out. No, I was blessed with two younger brothers whose minds literally run a million miles an hour, are extremely athletic and always keeping me on my toes. I grew up in a world immersed with people who go Mach 7 with their hair on fire and if you want to play, you better keep up. I do not have ADHD, but I learned very early how to keep pace with them.  In our home do not quit when you are tired, you quit when you are done, even if you are up till 3 a.m. finishing that report, you push through. There is no quit in my brothers (or my dad) so quitting anything for me feels like the world’s biggest sin.

Therefore I’m the girl who goes all in with everything I do. I always take on more and more because I believe I can do it all. But this leaves me standing in the grocery store, with two mis-matched shoes, wondering if I fed the fish and realizing I only shaved one arm pit because I got distracted by the four other things I needed to get accomplished before I left the house. Running late for a meeting, knowing I need to go faster, try harder, leaner, meaner, gotta-eat-cleaner, fasterstrongerTOUGHER AND DON’T FORGET TO

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Breathe….

As I was saying, when I take on a project I jump in head first. Recently I decided to clean out our storage unit. In other words … reorganize. I know the word makes my dad shutter with fear to this day. REORGANIZING.. That was for you Dad… Because when it came time to clean my room as I kid, I didn't want to just clean it, I wanted to REORGANIZE it! J Obviously it wasn't organized properly to begin with because it got messy so I needed to rearrange everything. My process for doing this was to take everything I own, put it one giant pile in the center of my room so I could “reorganize” with the intention this would only take a few hours. Usually two weeks later I would finally finish my task. Sorry dad. My husband will tell you I am still the same way. So when I decided, on a whim, it was time to clean out our storage unit, I should have thought back to my childhood days of reorganizing. 8 SUV trips and one giant truck load later it was cleaned out. The dilemma? The stuff was then sitting in my living room in giant piles. We looked like we lived in an episode of Hoarders. A week later I was finally pulling my house back together.

 In the midst of the chaos I began to feel so overwhelmed, wondering how I got in this situation. Then it hit me. I started wondering why did I have to take this entire project on… at once? There was no deadline, no urgency to get everything done immediately. Most normal people would have picked up a box here and there, slowly gone through things and avoided the complete chaos my life was for a week. But in my world of faster, stronger, and never quitting until a project it done, I automatically assume everything needs to be done NOW, at once.

It reminded me of an old saying I never understood “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I always thought was a ridiculous statement. First, who eats elephants? Gross. And second, no one’s mouth is that big to eat it at once. We all eat one bite at a time. But a few days ago as I was reflecting on my habit of tackling huge projects like a linebacker tackling a rookie it hit me. I just need to take things …

One bite at a time.

Welcome to my blog and my world.