I am an “all-or-nothing” kind of gal.  I come from a long line of “all-or-nothing” people.  I have seen the successes and the major failures of this personality type in just my own life.  We like to call ourselves perfectionists.  It has a nice positive ring to it.  Others may say we have a mild case of OCD which doesn’t have quite the upbeat spin.  What does it all come down to?  I think is boils down to balance.

You can see this nature quite easily if you follow my blog.  I will post almost everyday for a couple weeks and then you may see nothing from me for a month.  Notice the date on the last blog post.  I am two parts into a twelve part series highlighting the Paleo Summit.  This meant listening and taking notes on twelve 1hr presentations and then preparing a post about the highlights with my opinions seamlessly woven in.  Oh and I was going to do it all in twelve days.  You see, I decide that I am going to blog consistently and then blog/research at the expense of everything else.  Then finally, it all comes to a head and I am behind on so many other things that blogging has to take a back seat.  Being the “perfectionist” that I am, I wouldn’t want to blog about just anything.  I want my posts to be about big topics and have award winning writing.  That means throwing myself in all the way.  It is all or nothing.  (By the way, you will notice that this approach has not won me any awards.  It has only caused me to burn out every other month for the last two years.)

I have always chalked this up to poor time management and that is part of it.   I took a step back and looked at many aspects of my life and found that this isn’t just happening in my blog world. It is happening just about everywhere.  I have found that what I truly lack is balance in my life.

This lack of balance rears its ugly head in many areas.  I’ll touch on a few today and a few tomorrow.  Then I am going to open it up to all of you as I post about how to begin to find balance.  (I am doing it again.  Just so you know this was not a staged example.  I was editing and noticed.  Do you see that I just offered up a three part post on balance in three days?  Ugh.  I have so much information in my head that I want to share.  How do I make it all happen and stay sane at the same time?)

#1 Cleaning.  I might put off cleaning the bathroom because when I decide to do it, I feel l must clean out, organize, and purge all the cupboards and drawers.  In my mind if I am only going to get it done every so often, I better get it all the way done.  There is no just wipe the counters down to stay on top of things.  Same goes for the dusting (got to move everything and organize as I go), kids rooms (have to organize the closets, clean out dressers, and have fun with them while doing it), changing sheets (all 6 beds need to be washed all at the same time), etc..  Now don’t get me wrong, I keep a pretty clean house but at what expense?  Do we have to eat out because I lost 2 hours to my bathroom?  Good thing I only have one.

#2 Homeschooling.  I want to have a full on, amazing program pulled together each and every day.  No workbooks or out of the box stuff.  I want a creative program that I create.  The kids and I will have fun all day everyday while learning great things about God’s world.  Did I mention that I have a toddler and a baby right now!?!  How am I supposed to make that program a reality when I am so busy trying to keep everything else pulled together.  But in my mind, I let myself think that if I just take today off then I can get ahead for tomorrow.  But everything else is behind or something else comes up and I don’t have anything for tomorrow.  But if I take that day off, I can get ahead for the next day.  Do you see a pattern here?  Praise the Lord I am getting better at this one.  On days when I am not on top of it, I tell the kids to pull out their math, writing, and Awana.  These are things they can do on their own without tons of planning.  It keeps us from falling behind.

#3 Bible reading.  (This is a hard one to write.  You see I also have issues with pride but that is a whole other post.  And telling people about my failings to get in the Word is hard.  However, I can’t help others or myself without complete honesty.  So here it goes.)  My goal is to be spending time with the Lord everyday.  But even here I find myself in the all-or-nothing realm.  I might decide to start getting up at 6:00 everyday or that I need to read through the Bible in 90 days.  Are those great goals?  Yes but not for me.  But I can’t sustain 6:00am everyday.  I get tired and cranky.  Have you heard the phrase, “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!”  That is a pretty true statement in our house.  Or I am just adding Bible reading to my list of things to get done.  It takes about an hour a day to read the Bible in 90 days.  I did a great job for about 3 weeks.  Of course during this time, I wan’t getting breakfast for my family, we were starting school stuff late and sometimes not at all because we had places to be, and I begin to dread my time in the Word.  One morning, I skip my reading.  The day goes so much better because I’m not trying to cram my Bible in.  What happens next?  I just stop reading my Bible for awhile.  I burn out.  Well isn’t that just the enemy getting his way?  I can’t let that happen so I have to let go of the big plan without letting go of my time in the Word.  This cycle has happened over and over throughout my life.

Exercise (tomorrow)

Eating (tomorrow)

So I find that my life is spent playing catchup and burn out because of my lack of balance/perfectionism.  The good news, the Lord is working with me on this.  Just the fact that I am more keenly aware of this is helping already.  Most notably in my Bible reading.  The Lord showed me that I always seem to have time to check my email and Facebook in the morning before going about my day.  What about taking that time and giving it to Him instead?  Email and Facebook can wait until later in the day but my relationship with the Lord needs to come first.  I am happy to say that my phone now stays on the counter while I enjoy my coffee.  My Bible has become my coffee companion.  What a great change!!!  And guess what, it isn’t an all-or-nothing type thing.  I read and pray for the time I have and the Lord meets me there.  Whether it be 10 min and 1 chapter or 1 hour and 10 chapters.  He meets me and I am all the better for it.

I don’t think I answered the question in the title but over time I hope to.  Because I need them to co-exist.  The Lord made me the perfectionist that I am but I also know that He desires my life to have order and balance.  He is doing a work in my life right now and I for one am excited to see how it turns out.

Is this something that you deal with?  Have you found any tips on the above items that you can share?  Are there any other facets of life that you find your perfectionism rearing its head and balance is needed?  I want to glean wisdom and questions from all of you as I prepare my coming posts?

Hey there. Check out my new buttons. On your right. Next to the pencils. My amazing husband spent an evening working to make my theme work with my desired buttons. Now if you want to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via your RSS reader, just click the button. Actually even if you don’t want to, will you do it anyway? Pretend you like me. Just for giggles. It will make me feel good.

I have a new Facebook page and I really want to see you all there. I’m going to be sharing some awesome stuff.

Lastly, do you see the little Facebook like button right under the title of this post? You can just click on that and it will allow you to easily share my posts with your friends. You should totally do that now. I’ll wait.

Are you done yet? I hope so. You don’t want to make me feel bad do you!?! Just kidding. Love you all and just wanted to get the word out that it is easier to follow me then ever before. Thanks Than.

I am excited to announce that I have been invited to be a contributor for the Nourished Living Network. Can you believe they want little ole me!?! My blog is a place that I just share who I am, good, bad, and ugly. I mean seriously did you see my last two posts. There is nothing but honesty happening in this place. And they still like me:) I received the best encouragement from KerryAnn, founder of NLN and Cooking Traditional Foods. She said, “It isn’t how many times you fall off the wagon, it’s how many times you get up, brush yourself off, and try again.” Thanks KerryAnn. How can I not be excited to get to know these women!?!

What is the Nourished Living Network you ask? Here is a description of the NLN. “We’re real and traditional food bloggers focusing on nutrient-dense, nourishing foods. We’re dedicated to real food recipes that follow the teachings of Dr. Weston A. Price in his book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” We also love to blog about natural family living and natural health.”

You may wonder how a Paleo eating family fits into a traditional food blog network. That is easy. A Paleo diet is still comprised of only real foods. We eat real, nutrient-dense, and nourishing foods. This group of bloggers is all about feeding our bodies the best food possible for optimal health. For me right now, that is Paleo/Primal. And did you see the part about natural family living and natural health? I like to blog about those things too. They are near and dear to my heart.

See we fit perfectly and besides, I agree with Dr. Price, if choosing dairy, raw is best. (I do love me some fresh from the cow cream. Yum. I just wish it loved me back.) Also if I chose to eat grains or legumes, I feel the best way to eat them is to follow traditional methods of soaking and fermenting. Mark Sisson of The Primal Blueprint has written multiple articles about raw milk and traditionally prepared grains. Speaking of fermenting, I am so excited to try adding more fermented foods in our diet and I know just the group of blogs I am going to read for advice.

I would love to encourage you to visit the sites of all my fellow contributors. If I am missing for a few days, it is because I am going to be lost amongst their amazing posts. Enjoy!!!

Don’t forget to like the Nourished Living Network on Facebook!!!

KerryAnn Foster @ Cooking Traditional Foods
Adrienne Urban @ Whole New Mom
Amanda Rose @ Traditional Foods
Barbara Hoyer @ A Life In Balance
Dawn Thies @ Cultured Mama
Debbie Plaistowe @ Easy Natural Food
Donna Schwenk @ Cultured Food Life
Emily Michele @ Butter Believer
Emma Abrahams @ Craving Fresh
Jana Christian @ Write On, Jana!
Jennifer Voss @ Dishrag Diaries
Jessica Espinoza @ Delicious Obsessions
Jill Winger @ The Prairie Homestead
Kelly Smith @ The Nourishing Home
Lea Harris @ Nourishing Treasures
Lydia Shatney @ Divine Health
Melanie Hoffman @ Pickle Me, Too
Millie Copper @ Real Food For Less Money
Patty Lacoss-Arnold @ Loving Our Guts
Starlene Stewart @ GAPS Diet Journey
Wardeh Harmon @ GNOWFGLINS

So today I have my awesome niece (related by awesomeness, not blood) here helping with my kids so I can get all sorts of computer work done. A lot of that work is blogging. I have all sorts of fantastic posts floating around in my head. I think of them at night when I lie in bed and really whenever my mind wanders.

But since my foray into not eating clean, my mind is not what it was. I cannot focus. Instead of getting any good posts written, I am wandering around sites and singing Zumba songs in my head. It is bad. I don’t know any of the words to the songs and I envision myself doing the moves perfectly in my mind. When I sing out loud and do the moves live, I look like a total dork so today I sit and do it all in my head.

And then the most awesome thing I have done today is put on blue socks. I normally wear white socks but today I went with the new blue ones. They are bright blue and I keep seeing them when I put my feet on the desk and mentally Zumba.

So that leads me to this…
Do my feet look bigger in blue socks?!?  And do big blue feet help with mental Zumba moves?