Do I Have To? Awww!

This is the absolute last thing I want to do, but I think I'm going to have to do it.

I'm going to have to forcibly remove myself from the internet for at least the next few days. Well, okay, not Lizzie's Home - no, you can't get rid of me that easily - but Lizzie herself.

Things are dire indeed on the study front. I have about 21 days, more or less, to fire off 11 assignments. I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet, but for it to work, I'm going to have to at least try to enforce a break from bloggityville. And let go of my perfectionism. But that's a whole other post.

Let me just list the effect my inability to time-manage myself is actually having on my life:

* I'm snappy.

* In a fit of vast stupidity on my part, I managed to get myself involved in TWO major 'help in the classroom' projects at the kids' school. One involves a relatively significant TIME investment on my part. Oh, and it includes a deadline. Cause I just loooooove those. You may be wondering why on earth I put my hand up given my current schedule. Well, I don't often get the chance to hang out in the classroom and help, and especially not with Boofah's class. Ordinarily, I'd jump at the chance (and obviously did) to help out, I just wish it hadn't popped up as an option THIS month.

* Hubs and I are going out tomorrow night for a work function. We have a babysitter (qualified respite worker given Master J's issues) arriving at 6pm. The house presently looks like, well....not 'company ready'. No sirree, not by a long shot. Which means I'll have to carve (chip, chisel, SLEDGEHAMMER) out some time tomorrow afternoon to tidy up about the place. I won't go overboard (won't have time to!) but I will have to make it presentable.

* The house in general has been sorely neglected. Now I'm beginning to understand what my fave blogs talk about when they mention 'devotion to the home'. In that I'm not. I look around and start making mental lists of all the stuff I'm not doing, don't have time to do, wish I could do. It's making me feel guilty! So I have to pretend I can't see the mess. I'm doing the bare (and I mean bare) minimum to keep the house running. There are piles of stuff everywhere.

* Though I'm still walking, I'm finding it harder and harder as I get closer to my deadline to carve out the hour I usually take for my daily walk. That's a whole extra hour for study right? And yet I'm so terribly loathe to give that up because it took such a big effort to set the habit in stone to begin with.

* Diet is horrible. I'm surviving on snackfood. Sugar is a snackfood, right? :P

* I haven't properly meal planned in weeks.

* I'm exhausted all the time and due to the necessity of quiet study time, I often don't get to crack the books until after 9pm. I go to bed late because I have so much to do in that window when the kids aren't underfoot, don't get enough sleep, and wake up even more tired.

* I'm going to have to go on a serious body/soul/intellect/home/health detox come mid-July. Not the so-called-trendy herbal voodoo juice detox (I'm so not a fan of anything that forces me to skip meals in favour of a pill and a meal replacement shake) but a complete life overhaul. Scheduling obviously needs to be a priority. And so is planning meals and eating better. And going to bed at a reasonable hour. And wiping the toothpaste off the bathroom mirror...

BIG SIGH.

I also need to seriously contemplate how I spend my time in general. For example, I like my TV shows. And even though I've given up probably HALF what I used to watch, I still regularly watch several shows (see sidebar on the left). Which takes up precious primetime (ie, after 8:30pm when the kids are in bed) study blocks. Which is beyond stupid. I want to really sit down and prioritise absolutely everything in my life at the moment. This is sort of tied in with the Great Big Cryptic Clue I talked about earlier in the week (no, no more clues, though if my eyeballs weren't hanging out of my head right now I probably would elaborate). The important thing is, I have my priorities so out of whack right now it is ridiculous. I'm suffering more frequent headaches (I get them anyway, but stress certainly doesn't help).

Oh, and the internet. The internet is both a source of wonder and awe and of major, total procrastination, LOL. I get lost in a maze of links all the time. Just today I noticed Rocks In My Dryer has a 'Craftiness' page with tons of talented, crafty bloggityville ladies just screaming for a visit from me. So....two hours later...

I KNOW. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY IT !!!

I'm not on a proper blog break - but I will have to severely limit how much time I update at least for the next week. Maybe a post every two or three days instead of two or three per day, LOL. And keep an eye on the 'assignment tally' in the left sidebar. As the number drops, the closer I am to sanity.

Trust me, it will hurt me far more than it hurts you!

Cheers,
Lizzie