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Saturday, November 16, 2013

Perfecting the "polite pass"

We are making daily progress toward our move. Our strategy is to do a little packing everyday to do our best to avoid a crunch at the end. So far so good. We are trying to leave a lot of time to hang out with the people we love before we go. We want to be available to say "yes" when people ask to spend time with us.

This week, I said "yes" to three parties, grown up chats with several friends, and extra kids at my house every single day. I said "yes" to all those things and still accomplished packing and much phone calling with realtors, insurance agents, and banks. I was beginning to feel a little like what my friend, Andrea, described: my day was running me instead of me running my day.

So, I think my priorities are awesome and I wouldn't change them for anything. Making time for loved ones, being "THE" house where the kids want to BE, being able to say "yes" when a friend needs a favor, keeping life simple and low stress...all super, super important.

What I am finding is that during extreme times, sometimes all my top priorities come into conflict with one another and some decisions have to be made about what realistically can and cannot happen, while keeping in mind that I need to take care of myself as well somewhere in all of this.

I watched Hotel Transylvania with my kids recently. In the movie, Jonathan is offered a bagel with scream cheese, to which he replies "Polite pass, I am scream cheese intolerant". As a mostly food intolerant person, that gave me a giggle, but I also thought it wouldn't hurt for me to perfect the art of the "polite pass". This is a crazy busy time and I won't be able to do ALL the things I would want to do and still pull off this move.

My hope is that people continue to ask to spend time with us, that kids continue to want to be at our house, that people continue to ask me for favors AND that I continue to strive for a simple, low stress life during this busy moving/holiday season. I know I won't accomplish all of these things all the time. I hope that I can keep a clear head so that when those priorities are in conflict, I can make healthy decisions about what I can reasonably accomplish in a given week and practice the "polite pass" at appropriate times.

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