On Saturday morning, Johanna woke up ready to TALK. This is slightly hilarious because she’s always been my quiet child. She is definitely an introvert and keeps her thoughts close. But suddenly, we’re knocking on the door of 14 (I know, WHAT?!) and she’s got plenty to say.
In the midst of the word-storm, she said, “I got invited to a barbecue today, but it’s from 5-8 p.m. and that just sounds like a lot of social interaction, so I said I couldn’t come.” I high-fived her, because I can certainly understand the thought process behind that decision. “My friends also wanted to go to the football game last night, but I was tired and wanted to get home,” she added, and it occurred to me that my barely-teenager has already learned a lesson that I haven’t quite figured out even at 46: How to say no.
Hello from Oregon!
Here’s the thing: We often say yes when we want to say no. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, or everyone else is doing it so we feel like we should too, or it’s just easier to go along with whatever it is than not. But for our own sanity, we need to have boundaries. We need to be honest and give ourselves the gift of putting ourselves first.
And that, incidentally, is what’s going on at The Simple Year. We took too much on and are now figuring out where to go from here.
It certainly wasn’t planned. But it has been a good lesson.
We are still working on the anthology, although it’s been a slower process than we expected. We had plans of social media updates on a regular basis, but life got in the way. We had plans for choosing — or not choosing — another blogger by now, and that hasn’t happened either.
I know this isn’t going to be what everyone wants to hear, and it’s not necessarily what I want to write, either. But that is the reality. Issues have arisen that we didn’t foresee. We are slowly working through it.
Now that fall is here and the craziness of summer is past, we will be checking in on a more regular basis. Look for “Throw Back Thursdays” on the blog and Facebook, as well as posts to check in with what the five of us are up to. There may be a few book excerpts tossed in for good measure.
And thank you, everyone, for your continued support and understanding. “See” you Thursday.
Sometimes things take longer than planned. (I have my own book project so I understand completely.) Throwback Thursdays sound great, and this reader, at least, will be here when you are ready.
Thank you, Laurie — the funny thing about saying yes is that is often seems like a great idea at the time. It’s only afterwards you realize you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. 🙂 We’ll get there! I had a great time going through old posts to pick our Throw Back Thursdays — fun to revisit each year! One of my all-time favorite Kerry posts is slated for this Thursday.
Looking forward to reading it.