A funny woman in my office responded to my usual “How are you?” inquiry with, “So much sh*t. Not enough shovels.” And I laughed. I love her and her country-isms. This might be my favorite.

Last week, I was scrambling to get work done so I could get out of town. I got it done. I left. I had a great time. And now I’m back to being incredibly busy again. It’s all good stuff, so I don’t mean to suggest in any way that I’m rolling in sh*t. I’m not. I love all the things I’m getting to do right now. But I do feel like I’m bordering on not having enough shovels.

I need a helping hand. My mom helps me quite a lot. While I was in Iowa this weekend, she took my car in to the shop so that I wouldn’t have to miss work to do that when I got back. A couple of weeks ago, she took my kids to the vet for me. She also does a good bit of grocery shopping and cooking for me. But there are some things I need to do for myself. I need to do my own training. I need to organize the piles of paper that cover my kitchen table and counter. I need to clean off my dining table that has become the repository for writing work, cards and gifts from Dave, the stacks of CDs that still need to be loaded onto my computer, and various other projects. I need to sort through my closet and get rid of my too-big clothes so that I can see what I own again. There are not major deadlines associated with this work, except the training given my June Ironman, but the work is massive and looms over me. I need to get it done somehow and soon.

I have a shortage of shovels at the moment. Or at least I thought I did. Then I realized that I have had plenty of time to catch up on episodes of General Hospital and Nashville these last few days. I’ve had plenty of time to play Bejeweled Blitz every night this week. I have had all kinds of time to catch up on things I missed being off of Facebook for a month.

The truth is that I need to get over this notion that I’m too busy. I’m not too busy. I’m just not making the best use of the time that I have. That’s not a shovel shortage problem. That’s a shoveler problem. My shoveler and I need to have a heart-to-heart.