Mondays might be my most favourite day of the week. We usually have no plans for Mondays other than to delve into a fresh week of school and begin making our way through weekly chores and projects. As an introvert, I’m typically relieved to have a social break after the weekend. I also find that my energy for getting things accomplished is at its zenith on Mondays, so I like to get meal prep and bigger chores done early in the week. I don’t know about any other moms out there, but I tend to feel pretty wiped out by Friday afternoon, and am rarely the finest version of myself at that point in the week!
On this bright, blue-sky Monday morning, I was rather pleased about the day’s progress as I turned on my gas stove’s third burner and began boiling water for that night’s dinner. Veggies for mine and Will’s lunches were sautéing in one pan while bone broth was simmering in the stock pot. Travis was playing outside, burning off some energy, before I sat down with him for his schoolwork. Lauren and Natalie were already making their way through math and piano practice. There was a hum to our hive that felt purposeful and positive.
As I basked in the glow of a morning going strong, about to lower almost five pounds of chopped Yukon gold potatoes into a pot of boiling water, a sharp CRACK jolted me out of my reverie, and a simultaneous spray of shattered glass from along the back of the stovetop was sent flying into the potato water, across the range, and onto the kitchen floor. My efficient morning had been eradicated in an instant.
I sighed deeply as I switched off all three burners on the now crystalline-covered stovetop, shooed curious kids away from the blast site, and began sweeping up the debris. In spite of feeling utterly deflated, I was grateful that no glass had found its way into my eyes or skin. My middle child assessed the situation with the pragmatic reminder that, “At least we don’t have anywhere to be today.”
“Quite right,” I agreed. If today had been a busy day, I would have had far less capacity to handle the hiccup with grace. I might have let my irritation with this fiasco affect my interactions with the kids in a negative manner. Instead, as I slowly began to clean up, I realized that this interruption was essentially another reminder to slow down and plan for more days like this one: days with enough margin for plans to go awry, schedules to shift, and for me to pivot.
So, how do I go about scheduling my days with maximum margin? It comes down to a simple question I can ask myself as often as I need to:
“What ACTUALLY NEEDS to get done?”
While I’m becoming better at assessing how much I can realistically get done in a specific period of time, I still have to regularly reassess my list of to-dos and weed out the things that can truly just wait.
When I consider what needs to get done versus what I would like to accomplish, it’s much easier to give myself permission to slow down and carve out space for life to ebb and flow.
In the long run, my responses to how I handle the unexpected hiccups and hardships will matter far more than what I accomplished on a day-to-day basis. How I treat others (and that’s not to say I’ve always done that well – far from it!) is always going to outlast whatever I achieve. When I pare down all my reasons for wanting to slow down more, the ones that matter most are these: to love God and love others as best I can.
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