Feeling like I'm neglecting everything...

**MomToTwoBoys** · 02-02-2009, 01:13 AM

I'm not, though! That's the thing! Am I taking on too much?

It's possible.

YDS has surgery on Thursday, so house preparation for when he's out of surgery is in effect. My inlaws are also coming in Wednesday night to help out. I have to dust EVERYTHING in the house because any dust can irritate the operation site, so yeah...dusting and all that (and I have horrible indoor allergies, plus no allergy medication). I get into dusting and realize that hey, I need to sweep the floors. I sweep the floors and notice there's stuff to put away. I put the laundry in the hamper and realize I need to do laundry. I toss a load in the washer, check the load in the dryer, and then go back to putting away the rest of the stuff. I toss the toys in the playroom, realize that it needs to be picked up in there too. I get to picking up and notice that I need to vacuum. I go to vacuum the playroom, start to put the vacuum away and see that the other half of the basement needs the cardboard boxes flattened...

This is seriously how my day has been for the last three days! I can't get a break!

Not to mention that along with all of this, there is the book. What I thought was a finished first edit has turned into the following:

Outline all of the chapters
Rearrange subsections in a logical order
Write in another chapter or two (because I completely forgot some)
Create all pertinent tables and reference charts for the last section
Clarify each paragraph and summarize every paragraph
Write a synopsis
Totally rewrite one chapter because while I didn't forget about the chapter, it didn't have everything I wanted in it

AHHHHHHHH!

(At this point, I want to pull my hair out!)

So I decide that the book can wait until Monday. I'll work on it when the kids are both at school. I get a three-hour block of time, so it's all good, right?

I wake up yesterday and there's fluid drainage in my left ear. This is not the ear I've had the infections in before. I wake up this morning and my left eye is all swollen! I find out that it's swollen due to a blemish underneath my eyebrow, but it seriously looks like someone socked me in the eye last night when I was sleeping.

I decide that tomorrow, on the day I was going to start on the book again, I need to go to the store! If the ear is still bad, I'm getting that looked at. I guarantee you that the doctor will just tell me it's allergies and prescribe me something that makes me unable to wake up the next day on time (which has happened before).

The house isn't completely dirty, but I've been getting those cleaning spurts lately. It's aggrevating, at the very least anyways. I cleaned both boys' bedrooms tonight and tomorrow, I have the bathrooms and the bedroom to do. Pretty easy, eh? Not really. I also need to go through every closet and not only dust, but clean out from underneath the beds and wash the things I'm putting into long-term storage that's going back under the bed (those nifty plastic heavy duty storage bags with the zippers and rope handles that cost like $5 a piece).

So while I've been busier than a night walker, I feel like I'm completely neglecting everything. I can't catch a break and I just want to pull the covers over my head...

**AdamantEve** · 02-02-2009, 03:55 AM

Hope you can slow yourself down. Hang in there... one thing at a time.

**Jskell911** · 02-02-2009, 05:51 AM

Wow. I went through that before my big surgery last year. It's almost like a "nesting" thing isn't it?

Well, it's ok to make sure everything is super clean, you need a little break in between chores for yourself.

**NewLeaf** · 02-02-2009, 06:45 AM

I do the same thing, and then I get exhausted and end up tired the next day.
Flylady used to work well for me. I still do the morning routine faithfully and fall back on her for big cleanings and holiday organization. I really would be doing myself a favor if I revisited her site and got back into it.
Good luck getting ready and be kind to yourself-your family needs a happy mom.

**Momto2Boyz** · 02-02-2009, 06:51 AM

That's rough! It sounds like you just have a ton of stuff going on right now, and hopefully, after the surgery things will slow down a bit!

Don't beat yourself up about. Get the house only as clean as you need it to be for safety after surgery, and don't worry about anything else. If you don't have an editor currently waiting for a finished draft of the book, push it off and just work on it little bits at a time for the next week, get your ear looked at today if you need to and just get done what you have to and not do EVERY LITTLE THING, that comes up that you THINK needs to be done!

Good luck, I hope all goes well with the surgery and the family visit. Try to slow down as much as you can! (I know...way easier said than done!)

**MomToTwoBoys** · 02-02-2009, 10:14 AM

Thanks everyone.

I decided to put the book on hold for a week. It'll give me some time to recuperate and get my head on straight. The eye was still swollen when I woke up, but not like it was yesterday. That'll be ok. The ear thing, yeah, I'm getting that definitely checked out today. It was still bugging me.

I woke up at 5:30 after having this nightmare about Air Force One being blown up...

weird.

But I did do a ton of soul searching as I was getting coffee done and ODS off to school:

The book is a hobby. Hobbies can wait. The house is clean enough. I can get my ear looked at today, pick up some groceries on my way back, and then clean the bathrooms and master bedroom of just the basics. Laundry will take me five minutes to put in the wash, unload, fold and put away.

I need to learn to take things a day at a time. I have this hardcore habit of getting ahead of myself and trying to do everything at once. That's got to change.

**Michelle** · 02-02-2009, 10:24 AM

:wow:, and I thought I had a lot going on!

I hope your ear feels better soon and that you can get things done to a level where you're comfortable. It sounds like you have a great plan in place now.