Our days are made up of little decisions. One after another, we determine what we can live with and what we cannot. Some days, the “I can live with that” decisions catch up with us.
As a general rule, I need to wake up to a clean kitchen so I can start cooking breakfast at 6:30am. This means going to bed with a clean kitchen. THIS is where I struggle. I don’t WANT to do dishes when I’m ready to go to bed. So really this means doing dishes immediately after dinner. I’m sure there are many who do this every night. Bravo.
On one particular night, I was just plain exhausted, and I decided, “I can live with a messy kitchen tomorrow morning. Tonight, sleep wins.” Let’s be fair, sleep always wins for me.
So off to sleep I went, at 9pm, because I’m cool like that. Then I woke up to that same messy kitchen, cooked breakfast, and I was out the door at 7 to sub for an early class. Done working at 12:30, go get groceries, home at 2:15. I now have 30 minutes to unload groceries, put away the cold stuff, and eat lunch. The pantry items will have to stay out. I can live with that. Until I realized my kitchen looked like this:
Dirty dishes on the right, breakfast pans in the center, groceries on the left. Too bad, kitchen, I have to get in car pool line! And I was off.
As I took this picture, and reflected in the car about the fact that the mess would still be there when I got home, I decided I wasn’t mad or overwhelmed. The night before I needed to go to bed early. That morning I needed to leave at 7 for work. That afternoon I needed to get groceries. All of these things were valid. I chose to let the mess be less important, and it was. No stress, no worry.
I was willing to live with it, so I did.
I’m still learning to balance working part-time, and part of the balance is honestly deciding what I can live with. A messy kitchen in the morning? Nope. A crazy tornado kitchen that can wait until 4? Absolutely. If (when) you feel short on time, decide what you can live with, and shrug it off until you have more time. And breathe 