Being Productive or at least trying to be...

This month's issue of Countryside magazine features a collection of several articles on homeschooling and homesteading with children in tow. I actually laughed out loud while reading one of these articles, so I thought I would share. This lady Kristie writes " Avoid comparing yourself to the Jones'- This is still an area I struggle with the most. My challenge is to avoid comparing myself with the "COUNTRYSIDE Jones'" or the "blogging world Jones'." When I read about a mom who homeschools her 10children, grows and preserves all her own food, milks goats daily, runs a craft business on the side, cooks amazing dinners (which she manages to blog about), and spends time each day doing craft projects with her children- from a solar and wind power home which she built herself- I'm tempted to think "what am I doing wrong?" We had scrambled eggs for dinner (again), the kids watched too many videos today (again) while I mowed the grass, and the only thing growing in a big section of my garden is red pigweed. What am I doing wrong?"
Anyways, I got a good chuckle out of it. She goes on to explain that one thing she is doing wrong is comparing herself to others and she comes to realize that each family situation is different. I don't really find that I spend a lot of time or energy comparing myself to others, but I do find myself wondering how other people can get so much more accomplished in a day than I can. We are all working with the same number of hours...so, what makes other people more productive? If there are any productive people out there reading this post then please offer your insight:) Most days I just feel lucky if I get the bare essentials accomplished...taking a shower, feeding my kids 3 healthy meals, washing the dishes and folding this giant, perpetual pile of laundry.



Everyday Elijah reads to me out of the McGuffey Readers (which I absolutely adore for their pictures, poetry, and moral stories). Well, the other day Elijah read a story called The Money Amy Didn't Earn and it reminded me of myself. It starts out, "Amy was a dear little girl, but she was too apt to waste time in getting ready to do her tasks, instead of doing them at once as she ought." Amy doesn't come from a wealthy family and one day the town storekeeper asks her if she would like to earn money picking berries- he offers her 13 cents a quart for all she can pick. She was very excited about earning some money so she runs home to get her basket with the intention of returning immediately to pick berries; however, when she arrives home she becomes curious about how much money she would earn if she picks 5 quarts. She sits down to do the math and allows herself to become distracted by wondering how much money she would earn if she picked 10 quarts, then a dozen, then 50, then 100, then 200 and by the time she was done doing all these sums it was time to eat dinner. After dinner she rushes to get to the berry patch only to discover that some boys had already come and picked it over. She hardly finds enough for 1 quart worth. The moral of the story is "one doer is worth a hundred dreamers".
I am so much like poor Amy! I spend so much of my time making elaborate lists and schedules- dreaming of being organized; and the ironic thing is that all my planning actually ends up hindering my productivity. I don't mind being a dreamer, but what is the point of a dream or a plan if it never gets put into action? Sally Clarkson's advice for when you are feeling overwhelmed with your house or homeschool is: stop complaining, stop trying to come up with a perfect system, stop feeling sorry for yourself and just DO something. This is good, simple advice, right? If you want something done, just do it. However, if you have a perfectionistic, type A personality like mine, then this is easier said than done. But we all have to start somewhere...and if you are like me, you just need to start:)