Make your bed.

I read a blog last week that has really struck a chord.  I follow "The Bloggess" by Jenny Lawson.  While she uses much more profanity than I am comfortable with, her humor drives me to tears.  I have her book "Let's Pretend this Never Happened" which had me rolling in laughter on a quiet plane ride.  I find myself breaking into sudden, snorty laughter, out of the blue, just THINKING about things that I read in the book.  While Jenny is terribly funny, she is also very troubled with mental health issues which she is very open and candid about.  In the link above, she talks about how she struggles to feel like she accomplishes anything some days.  It is very easy to feel like you suffer by comparison to others.  I think we ALL feel that way sometimes.  As she mentioned in her blog, looking at other's lives can make us feel inadequate.  Other people get up and run at 6am, they have perfectly cleaned and organized homes, they do all the Pinterest meals and crafts - life looks perfect.  She mentioned that while she knows she has accomplished quite a bit in her life and career, she only feels like she has really DONE anything a few days a month.  Truth is, I think we all feel that way. 

My "To-Do" list gets carried over daily. Between dishes, laundry, work, kids, housecleaning, working out, projects like 'cleaning the garage' and other Pinterest  inspirations, I rarely feel accomplished.  Her blog made me re-think a few things.  I need to quit comparing myself to the perception I have of other's which makes me feel inadequate, and start celebrating the small accomplishments in my day.

Life is a balancing act.  You try to keep MANY plates spinning at once and maintain the appearance of having it all dialed-in but the truth is, we all have plates dropping left and right.  I constantly compare myself to others.  Other women have immaculate homes, perfectly landscaped yards without a weed to be found, their kids make their beds every day, they have frozen crock-pot meals stacked and labeled in their freezers, their closets and pantry's are organized and color coded, even their junk drawers are neatly organized.  My life is chaos.  By the time the last room in my house is finally cleaned the first one is a disaster again.  Every cupboard is booby-trapped with junk ready to spill out if you open it.  The weeds in my flower beds are knee high.  My husband "weeded" with Round-up so everything around our house is brown and dead.  My laundry smells musty because the wash has been sitting wet in the washer for 3 days.  I can NEVER seem to get caught up. 

Instead of feeling behind the 8 ball, I choose to celebrate the small accomplishments.  I made my bed today.  I make my bed every morning.  I make my bed and open the blinds in my windows.  This helps me feel like I have done SOMETHING.  Even if I don't get anything else accomplished today, I made my bed.  Something about just doing that makes me feel like I have my act together. There are days that I may not make my bed until 4 in the afternoon, but I still make it! At least it looks like I have done something today. (Truth be told I am scrambling to make it before my husband gets home as he already thinks my days include soap operas and bon bons).

What do you do to feel accomplished?  Someday I hope to set a bigger goal and really feel like my life had purpose, but for today my sense of accomplishment comes from just making my bed.