Friday, April 19, 2013

Stress and Sanity

It's been a trying week. One might say it's been insanely, crazy busy.

All that I've wanted to do is run and breakfast with friends and read and nap. But what I've HAD to do is inconvenient, non-fun things like WORK. And I've found that my desire to do all the fun stuff increases exponentially as my level of work-franticness increases.

This week my level of work-franticness was at an all time high. There was lots of stuff that had to be cut out and sent to the machinist by the end of Wednesday. I'd known that this week was going to be bad for a while but I hadn't factored in the possibility of having a husband with only one functional arm. I'd relied on having a fully functional spouse that could take over the daily hiccups like dinner and folding the washing and walking the dog. But because of the angle grinder incident, what I had was a couple of other jobs on my plate.

"You think YOU have it tough. Try wearing a bucket on your head"

So I had to do what I hate having to do - ask people to help. The boys were good about doing what they could around their commitments. Josh took stuff up to the hospital. Luke picked Iven up when he was discharged. Sam did some extra stuff around the house. Mum took Iven to his therapy appointment on Wednesday.

This all took the load off but I still had more work than I'd banked on. And I was feeling stressed like I wasn't getting it right. I should have been the one to pick him up, to sit with him before surgery and be there when he woke up, to bring him home and make sure he was being looked after and take him back to his appointments. But my insightful youngest son gave me permission to ask for help and to lean on family and I really appreciated being allowed to rescind some of the responsibility.

That's the problem with running your own business. There is no one else to take the reins when the s@!t hits the fan. And you're left in the position when you have to decide who to let down - family or clients. Luckily family was able to cover me but I can foresee times when it'll be the client that loses out.

The stress must have been a bit obvious to those who know me best. Coach Chris has rung every day to check on things. And by checking on things I mean he's checking to see that I haven't done anything untoward to my husband. And by untoward I mean mariticide. I don't know why he'd think I'd do anything violent to my husband. Just because I talk about it and write about it doesn't mean that I'd actually follow through. Planning murder is much less messy than following through with one. And I had enough to do this week without having to come up with the perfect murder, commit it and then make sure that there was absolutely no evidence that could point to me.

Coach Chris was also so concerned about my husband and the chance that he might be neglected that he offered to give him a bell so I could be summoned whenever he felt need of food, drink or amusement. I graciously declined his offer and when he insisted that it was a good idea I became a lot less gracious. Apparently 'where the sun doesn't shine' can be taken quite personally and all I'd really intended was burial by canine in the back yard.

So what did I do to manage the stress, you ask? I did what I always do. I ran away from it. Literally. And it felt so good that I didn't want to stop yesterday. So I stretched it out as long as I could justify and still get everything done that had to get done.

Sanity restored.


14 comments:

  1. I wish I were closer so I could help you run away from it all....er I mean so I could help out. Thank heavens you have running!

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  2. I hera ya'. Working on a huge project and two more papers, all due by Tuesday. Running is a great way to de-stress and take a break from it all.

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  3. oh now I feel really guilty for your stress levels :( But you know I can sympathise with the 'owning your own business' thing. Thanks for everything Char - and thanks also to Iven and the boys for being so wonderful - but please, ban Iven from nasty power tools!

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  4. I hope this next week is much calmer in every way for you - yea for running!
    Hope your husband is doing OK - never fun to have a sick/injured husband.

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  5. Hope Iven's injury is not too painful - it looked awful. Your Coach is very caring, about your husband at least. Thank goodness Iven didn't get a bell...

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  6. A run is like a cuppa tea to some ... it can fix anything (besides a running related injury of course, then you really do need tea!).
    Why does Toby have the cone of shame? did I miss something?

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  7. Nothing better than a stress reliever run. The feeling after any run for that matter is so good. Have a great weekend!

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  8. Isn't it amazing what a good run can do? It may only be temporary...but for a little while you can truly get away from it all. Hope your stress factor is reducing!! Hang in there!

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  9. It's so annoying when work gets in the way of doing things you love...

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  10. So glad you can run to destress!

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  11. I'm glad you're busy, but I'm sorry your life is so hectic right now. It is nice that you have family to rely on - please don't feel guilty. I am always grateful when a family member feels comfortable enough to call on me for help. It feels like an affirmation of life. It's all good :)

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  12. Oh... you have so much on your plate but well done on asking for help. I hate doing it as well. It always feels like such a big deal to us (those who hate asking) but those we ask rarely seem to find it a burden.

    Glad you've got your running though.

    Hang in there!

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  13. I often find that work gets in the way of my normal life. And it's interesting to read your comments about running your own business, I've had so many ideas for my own business over the years, but have always shied away because of just what you said, it seemed like at the end of the day it would all come down to me. And I didn't want that pressure. So prop's to you for doing it. It takes a lot of courage and heart.

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  14. Your post gave me the opportunity to learn another english word: it's "maraticide". Maybe from Latin maritus "married". In Italian the word "marito" means husband.
    But you are already busy enough: How can you do violent things to your husband?
    You made me laugh :) Anyway, I Hope he is doing OK.

    Running is the best therapy considering your stress levels.

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