Things Undone and Non-Essentials

I finally finished my "pre-school" to do list this week. That's right, it's week 3 of school and this is just getting done.

I have had 6 meetings after school the past two weeks at schools all across the district, which have led to many 12+ hour days. (No pay raise and they're using all of my gas...Craziness...But, that's another topic for another day.)

Saturday, after sleeping in, I cleaned for several hours, ran, planned a sleep over for our middle school girls, and helped throw a 50th birthday party.

My to do list on Sunday was:
fold 6+ loads of laundry that had been chilling on the guest bed for well over a week
finish the loads of laundry that were in a heap on the bedroom floor
make a grocery list
go to the grocery store
go to Wal-Mart
go to Costco
finalize my lessons for the week
grade 2 assignments
record grades in my grade book for 3 assignments
prepare an independent study project for some students
go to Elevate (our weekly youth group) and
be in bed by 9. 

What did I do instead?

I took a deep breath...realized not all of that would get done nor did all of that have to get done on Sunday...

then I sat down in the recliner and read a book.

I'm slowly learning the wisdom and truth in this quote.

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." -Lin Yutang

Leaving things undone sometimes stresses me out more than trying to figure out how to get it all done. But, I realized this weekend, for my sanity and my husband's sanity, I had to let some things go...I had to recognize and acknowledge the non-essentials. I was making things essential that weren't and, as a result, was missing out on some awesome essentials like quality time with my family.

Life is crazy and busy as it is...no need for me to make it worse by stressing out over non-essentials.

So, I've left school several days this week with things undone...some days because I had to for a meeting and other days just because I was ready to go home.

I came home today, took a nap on the couch with my husband, had dinner with our neighbor downstairs, went on a walk, blogged, and read a book.

Some things are just more important than grading a stack of papers or checking email for the 1000th time.

Why is it so hard to learn this lesson?