How do you do it all??...

... is a question I have been asked lately when conversation turns to the book coming out. 

And the real, honest, gut wrenching answer is:  I don't.

This post is simply just to keep it real.  As things have been coming to a head with the books and seminars, I have felt more and more like a chicken with my head cut off... running around in a zillion different directions, trying desperately to catch the (too) many things that I find slipping through my fingers (like missing 2 out of the 4 soccer sessions that we signed my 6 year old up for months ago, and I told myself after missing the first week that we HAD to get him to the 2nd week for sure... and then didn't think about it again until the morning after the 2nd session...).

Or yesterday getting a call from 3 year olds preschool teacher... informing me that Joshy had bitten another child... and this was the third such phone call I had received from her within the past 2 weeks.  And then in trying to do a pow wow session on the phone of what we could do to stop this, she said she would send home some articles for me to read about ways to get over the biting... like giving more attention to the child...

... She said some other things too, but I didn't get past that first part. 
It hit me
and hit me hard. 
In my rush to get these "outside" projects done,
I have been neglecting my "inside" projects. 
My most important projects: 
my own children.

I have been trying so hard to get these books done that, more often than I care to admit, I have been more of a 'body' in the home, making sure the children stayed alive throughout the day.  But (as humiliating as this is to admit), not really doing a whole lot more.  Except feeling guilty for it.

Oh yes, that's one thing that I have excelled at through everything.
The guilt.
Guilt for not meeting a deadline on the book,
Or for not preparing enough for the seminars.
And then guilt for not sitting on the floor for 3 hours playing candyland with my kids.
Or for not taking them on nature walks to pick variations of wild flowers and then come back, press and preserve the flowers for their own personal scrapbooks.
Yep, Guilt is one thing I can do.

So, no, I don't do it all.

... And I don't think anyone can.
In our quest to be the perfect mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter, homemaker, book writer, stick figure drawer, etc etc etc (the list could be endless!)...

We can't do it all.

And shouldn't do it all.

I think the trick is finding what we can do

And letting go of the rest.

So, perhaps the question we should be asking each other is: 
How do you not do it all?
In other words... how do you prioritize and pick what you will do?
Or more importantly, how do you pick and choose what you will let go...
without holding on to the guilt of letting it go??

Just keeping it real :)