Enough of Too Much...

(This photo has nothing to do with my post, but I wanted to share it. This is our new couch -- a Christmas gift from my mom last year -- and some of our Christmas decor. I didn't share it on the blog, so here it is. We love our couch!)

Part of making my clearing is learning to delineate clearer boundaries for myself as to what is enough to give to someone and what is too much. Often for me, the "way too much" is the only thing that feels normal for me, when to others it's way overboard, even if they like what I've done. Others... well others will take the way-too-much and then ask for and expect it from that point on, until really, I have nothing left to give. This has popped up with my business, in my friendships and at work.

One way that I'm committing to giving LESS is online. I have a couple of places that I visit daily and where I am a somewhat established member of an online community, although I do know many of the people in both communities IRL (in real life). I've found that if someone asks for advice or help, I will go out of my way to make a long post with lists and links, trying to sincerely help with what they're asking about... usually without even an acknowledgement that I posted anything. Well, no more! I am done with doing that. It makes me feel awful when I dedicate 30 minutes or more crafting a thoughtful response and then... **crickets**. It may seem silly to you reading this, but right now, until I find a way to be less affected by that sort of thing and find the right boundary of what to share, I will not be doing that any longer.

In good news, with the help of my husband, I am working to create some boundaries IRL (hee). When I'm unsure as to what the average person would commit to or how they'd respond, I ask him and then respond more accordingly. It's led to more sleep and a bit less hurt for me, so I say, yay to that!

And in very sad news, I just found out my dear friend's father and grandmother were just diagnosed with cancer... within hours of each other. After participating in my mom's battle with cancer, I cannot imagine having two loved ones in that fight at the same time. On top of it all, my friend just gave birth to her second child... so in what should be a celebratory time all of this is happening. Please pray for Danielle, her dad and her grandmother, and her new baby, Elise.