U is for Utopia

I try not to, but sometimes I complain about the things I have to do each day.

There's a lot of this:


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and even more of this:



Image courtesy of Sanja Gjenero, rgbstock.com


I feel like I'm always doing this:

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and I need to start doing way more of this:

Image courtesy of Sanja Gjenero, rgbstock.com

I feel like I spend all day doing this:

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and sometimes I'm even "lucky" enough to get to do this:

Image courtesy of Sanja Gjenero, rgbstock.com

On any given day, there may be dishes stacked high in the sink and endless piles of laundry waiting to be washed, dried, and folded. My kids may be fighting in the living room, and I may be standing ankle-deep in water from an overflowing washing machine. The spaghetti may be boiling over, the phone may be ringing, and I may be wishing I could take a nap. Anything can happen, and anything usually does. Yet even though I sometimes grumble and complain about how I rarely get the time to do the things I want to do each day, one fact remains true: My life is exactly the way I want it--this family, this house, these not-always-functional appliances, and these unpredictable, crazy, beautiful days. I wouldn't have things any other way.

This is my Utopia.



What's your Utopia?

Embracing the moments

I wake up each morning with the best of intentions. I'll work on my novel before the kids get up, I'll say to myself. And I'll clean the kitchen and sweep the downstairs rooms and call my sister, too. But these are just lies, apparently, because I undoubtedly finish only one or two tasks, sometimes ones that aren't even on my "Good Intentions" list. Today, however, my goal is to forget everything but writing. Dirty dishes and laundry be damned. This morning, I'm going to do what I love to do: I'm going to write.

I wrote this exercise early this morning, and I'm happy to say that I did write, although I had a hard time ignoring the dirty dishes waiting for me in the sink. (Lucky for me, they were still there when I finished writing...) I didn't do much work on my WIP for the rest of the day, however, as I instead ended up doing bits and pieces of other things around the house, accomplishing a lot but nothing that would really be noticeable to anyone else (i.e. my husband). But this morning's writing session was peaceful and productive, and I hope to make early-morning work on my novel more of a habit on the days when the kids sleep in and the laundry pile graciously declines to beckon to me.