Today is day 3 of Labor Day weekend and for the first time in months, I feel like I actually have a day off. Does it ever happen to you? It sounds quite funny coming from myself, as sometimes I feel like my whole life is one long day off.

 

Working from home, homeschooling my kids and being home for the majority of the week kind of instills this idea that my life is a vacation. Only today I suddenly realized that I need a day off of my days off.

 

I have noticed that I am in the “what else can I do” mode a lot more often than I realize. I am multitasking all the time. Working in the office while my oldest is working on his school at the desk right across from mine. Folding laundry while he is doing school at the dinner table (one of the commodities of homeschooling is that you can bring school with you). Cooking several meals at a time so I can freeze some for future crazy days, and sometimes video recording them for my youtube channel. Oh, snap, you didn’t know I have a YouTube channel? Well, here is the link: WonderCloset Warrior YouTube Channel.

 

What makes today different? Is it the fact that I took time for myself to do my nails and couldn’t do anything while waiting for them to dry? Is it taking the hubs truck to get the tires changed and being stuck a bit waiting for the call? Is it him fixing the bikes this morning?

 

I got to tell you summers get really hot here in Texas. We survive by visiting our neighborhood pool in the mornings and staying in air-conditioned space for the rest of the day. When the fall arrives we spend as much time outside as we can. I dig in my garden. We take bike rides. We go to parks… Rewind to bike rides. I don’t know what it is about the bikes. It’s either the bikes are shrinking or my boys are growing. Either way, the bikes needed adjustments and since the dear husband was home I asked him to do that right away.

 

He showed the boys how to use a wrench and adjust their seats. Then he told me I completely capable of doing it myself and I didn’t have to wait for him to do that.

 

You know what? He is right.

 

I am completely capable.

 

And I am sort of handy. I’ve been fixing lights, outlets, mowing and edging the lawn, I know how to use a drill and how to find a stud. If there is something I don’t know how to do yet, I can find a tutorial and figure out.

 

The question is, though, why would I want to do it all by myself?

 

Why would you want to do it all by yourself?

 

Why would anyone want to do it all by themselves?

 

The truth is that you don’t have to. Unless you live alone on an island. Which is probably not the case if you are reading this.

 

We get caught into the “I can do it myself” so much , that we cause ourselves loneliness and overwhelm.

 

We start to feel like nothing gets done right unless we do it. Nothing ever changes unless we apply our energy to it. As we apply the energy to get things going, the same energy of pushing is being applied  to the people closest to us. They may start feeling unneeded and unwanted. We all know and understand what happens to a relationship when one party constantly feels unneeded.

 

I believe every person has this urge to be needed and to be useful in the group they belong to. If they don’t feel that way they tend to flake off and join a different group.

 

I said,

“ I know I am totally capable of using the wrench and pumping bikes’ tires. But that puts me in a spot where if i can do everything I must do everything. And I feel like I am doing enough already and don’t need yet another thing on my plate. I am blessed with a handy husband who knows how to fix things and I will be asking you to do them.”

 

I do have a handy husband who has turned our garage into a woodworking shop. So if the garage door open and you would take a peek inside you would never in life think a professional organizer lives here. We have huge tools sitting in the middle and an unfinished project waiting for the hands to be placed on it. My dear husband is building a king size bed for us and he agreed to put pull out drawers underneath for me. It has been too hot to work there in the summer so… we are waiting. I may be getting a new bed by Thanksgiving, the drawers are already done. He wanted to organize it today for it to be ready to work, but I had my nails appointment.

 

I am trying the J..y nail wraps, and no, I am not going to be selling them. I just kind of got really curious when I saw people being able to keep them on for  weeks and sometimes all I want is a finished manicure. The truth is that I won’t do a manicure at a salon, I am never happy with the results. And paying $25 for something that is going  to chip off in two or three days just doesn’t make sense to me. So I went to see me neighbor who happens to be a consultant and I am trying them on. I’ll let you know how it goes, because if it works, it is a huge time saver to me.

 

This is how the wrench, the garage, and the nails come together this cloudy morning.

 

Be a blessing and let others be a blessing, too.

How do you deal with a do-it-all-myself attitude? Do you find it advantageous? What works best for you in your relationships?