But Who’s Counting?

First of all, I have to bring you some sad news. My friend/October guest blogger, Lexie, had to say goodbye to her sweet dog, Niko, this month. Thinking of you, Lexie, and wishing you peace with your sad loss.

This month has been a challenge, but I really am grateful to this month’s resolution of not counting (the unimportant things) to keep life in perspective. One thing is for sure, I think this is a record low for blog posts during the month! (But who’s counting?)

This next month brings a new baby (Eek! I think we’re ready!) and with him, sleep deprivation. It seems obvious that the only goal I should have this upcoming month is to sleep as much as possible.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t get enough sleep- anyone else need to snooze away November with me?

Not Counting in October

First of all, I want to express how thankful I am for our guest blog posts this month- thank you,  Lexie! It was really nice to take a backseat and listen to someone else’s resolution and ideas- and I think Lexie did such a beautiful job. This blog is always available for more guest blogging, so let me know if you’re interested.
This week I started thinking about what I was going to do for my October resolution and my first thought was to do a resolution about eating out on a budget (since we are in the midst of remodeling our kitchen and have to eat out practically every meal)– and then yesterday happened. Yesterday was filled with several disappointments, which I knew would happen with these home projects, but it was hard for me to regain perspective.  I might blog a bit about some of the tools we’re using to eat out as inexpensively as I can, but I felt that I needed something more,  something deeper.

I remembered an article I read in an August 2011 of Real Simple about how the author counted things in life, sometimes obsessively, and often lost perspective along the way.  I completely related to the article, quantifying my world in ways that didn’t add to my happiness.   I’ve counted calories, numbers on the scale, minutes left until I’m late, hours of TV my daughter has watched, hours of TV I’ve watched, hours of sleep I missed, books I’ve planned to read (yes, I even spreadsheet for this!), minutes spent writing, months spent not writing, blog posts to write, blog posts to read, number of people reading this blog each day, money I’m owed, money wasted, years gone by.

I love routine.  I love being organized and putting things in order.  I love making spreadsheets.  I love keeping track of things.  However, this month I aim to embrace the chaos and stop counting the items on my to do list, the time left in my pregnancy, the days/weeks left on the remodeling project, the cost of eating out, the cost of each remodeling decision, etc.  Instead I’m going to try to remember the things that really count.

Does anyone else count things in unmeaningful ways (and care to join me in this resolution)? 3, 2,1…go!