Zina Harrington, creator of Let's Lasso the Moon, wrote the article "How to Lead an Unbusy Life When Scheduling Gets in the Way" for her site to inspire parents to slow down and declutter their lives. She designed this site with the desire to bring parents together and encourage them to: build strong and joyful relationships with their kids, find simple ways to connect with their families, encourage healthy and independent life-skills, foster a sense of adventure, maintain mindsets and prevent the feeling of being overwhelmed, and slow down and see the beauty in their everyday lives. In this article, Harrington poses the question, "Can you be un-busy when your life is filled with concerts, tournaments, lessons, practices and every other activity our children must attend?" A "busy" lifestyle is obtained when you lose sight of the value in the tasks and obligations you are scheduling. Watching your child participate in a sport or hobby that they love is a rewarding experience...but so is socializing, working out, date night, and unfortunately for most people, there is a job somewhere in there too. So, how do lead an "un-busy" life when your family's scheduling is everything but that. Luckily, Harrington outlines some tips in her article, the first one being to force yourself to have a "reality check." Try not to force your child into doing an activity that they are not really passionate about. "Remember the end-goal is to discover passions your kids can take with them the rest of their lives, not merely filling gaps of downtime." Next, you need to maximize your down time. If you plan correctly, you may be able to find some gaps in your schedules that allow time for running errands, one-on-one time, exercising, finishing a work project, paying a work bill, or doing absolutely nothing at all if that's what you need as well. It is also to important to enjoy this phase of life and live it to the best of your abilities; it's not always going to be busy season. Also, avoid the desire to strive to perfection; that is not possible. "Pick and choose your priorities and know that perfectionism is not the end goal, but a happy a family is." Try your best to schedule family time in between all the chaos. "While it sounds counterintuitive, when you’re in the season of busy kids, a great way to ensure you are still connecting is by scheduling time together every week." This will fill that void inside your brain telling you that you are missing some connection and serve to give you peace amongst the craziness. Lastly, try and be present in all the moments that you are given. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." Harrington closes with the idea that being "unbusy" does not mean that you are doing less, it instead means that you are doing more of what you actually love with the time you have.
