Not so LAZY Hazy Days of Summer

Busy-ness is something I enjoy, sometimes even thrive on. But as we lived in a different culture, one that took life at a slower pace, I learned to appreciate not filling every minute of my day with some activity and taking time to sit and enjoy the people and places around me. When we returned to America that was something we wanted to keep as a part of our family, taking time to enjoy life and refusing to get caught-up in the crazy busy-ness of our own culture.

Well, I think we've gotten caught-up. It seems like every time I turn around there is something new to do. I'm not sure where this flurry of activity sprang from that sent me from Jan 1. to now the middle of July in the blink of an eye, but something got me here. And the hard part about it is that we aren't just creating random things to do for ourselves (we aren't in sports leagues, book clubs, dinner clubs, or anything else), we're doing things we enjoy, spending time with people we love, and investing in those people and in ministry. But why does it have to equal a crazy schedule?

What have we been doing? Once a week we each have meetings with friends from church, so we scheduled them on the same night so we could be together the other nights. It seems at least once a month I have to work late for an event. And because of where we live and the people we know about once a month a friend comes in to town that we haven't seen in years, or won't likely see in years, so we have to hang out with them. We've had a few speaking engagements, I had a work conference in the spring, we picked-up a little extra money by working proms a few weekends. My brother got married and I got pregnant so new events are necessary for each of these. And none of this includes, me working 40 hours a week, CDK working part-time and going to school full-time, or any necessary activity required to live (i.e. eat, sleep, etc.).

I'm just thinking there has to be more in life than following my calendar around. We want to teach our child that activity doesn't equal success and definitely not Godliness or more spirituality. But how do we do that when it seems like we can't stop doing things ourselves? How do you keep a check on your busy-ness? Or, do you?