My biggest revelation yet……Little Revelations….Day 29

So, I took this challenge at the beginning of October.  “31 Days of…” and you fill in the blank.  It’s a challenge from the creator of Nesting Place, a blog I love to follow.  I was just trying, or wanting, to be more visible and trying to stretch myself, and teach myself a little more about blogging.

Yes, all of those things were accomplished…but maybe not the way I was expecting them to.  I was thinking more for my benefit and what I could learn.  But it I see that it taught me many other things I didn’t expect.

Yes, I was challenged.  I knew before I took the challenge I already had little space to add anything else to my calendar.  I had a full plate in my hands for the month of October.  It was a challenge to keep up with the challenge.  Most days, the only time I had to write was after the kids went to bed at 9:00 or 9:30pm.

Yes, I stretched myself.  I stretched myself pretty thin.  I was in charge of a big book fair at our school for several days, changing my blog before I went to the writing-blogging conference and once I finished counting to my goal of 1000…all of which happened to be within a week of each other.  Family birthdays and regular activities after school already on the calendar, homework,  packing and preparing to go out of town and writing for the 31 day challenge.

Yes, I taught myself something.  I did teach myself a little something about creating a blog, but I’ve learned even more that I took a bite too big to chew.  All along in the back of my head I knew I probably shouldn’t have taken the challenge…or I didn’t need to.

But I listened to mySELF  instead of my heart.

I could’ve gotten a few more hours of sleep, cooked more cookies with my daughter, listened more to my son’s details about what he learned at soccer practice.  I should’ve shut the lid of my laptop after the kids went to bed to have a real conversation with my husband.  I could’ve called a friend or family, I could’ve talked more with Jesus.

And then I got to this conference and I was excited to hear the challenger herself, The Nester, speak about her journey.  She shared real life stories of lessons learned from experience.  She said to know and write your purpose and why you’re blogging.  Know how much time you have to commit to it, and focus on what’s most important…you can’t do everything!

“The problem with doing everything is that you have no time for doing nothing.”

And I know it’s not a bad thing to set a goal and take a challenge to help you grow, become more skilled, more confident, but when it wears you tired and worn out and even pretty stressed, then maybe that wasn’t the best choice.

Well, I gave my confession out loud in person…to The Nester herself…and it made me feel better spitting out all that I was still trying to swallow.  We laughed and

So…I’m letting it go.  I made it to 29 days…just two short.  I’m going to take these two days and carve a pumpkin with my family and spend time with friends, make time to hush and process all I’ve absorbed over the past weekend…and I’m OK with that, now.

OK…I’ll be back November 2nd recharged and hope to “see you then”!