Transitions

If you read my post about kitchens and creative flow – this is the rest of the story – hope you enjoy…

I am writing this post from the airport – waiting for my flight to Minneapolis. The gate next to me is crowded with passengers waiting to board an overbooked flight to NYC. There are passengers with smiles on their faces, others frantically texting on their smartphones and others in animated conversation with airline personnel.

The airport is an interesting place to watch people. Just about everyone here is in transition – going,  coming, moving along. There’s ebb and flow as gates fill with passengers, move to their plane and then empty again. It’s a process, a constant cycle.

I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions lately. What do you do when where you are now isn’t quite where you want to be with your Creative Flow?

The reality is that life happens. Things change. Your organizational creative flow may not be what you think it SHOULD be – and yet as you continue in the transition of getting there you might feel like you are getting nowhere…

When you feel pain in the process. When things don’t work the way you think they should work. When no matter what you do it’s not getting better. Take a step back and evaluate.

As many of you know we are in the process of building a home. My life is in transition right now in so many different ways…A big part of this transition is living in a 1200 square foot town home with three floors. This place is so tiny that it pushes quite a few kinks into our life flow:

• Our family vehicle is too long for the garage.
• My washer holds about a third of the laundry it did before – using lots more soap and time to get things done.
• Seven of us share three tiny bedrooms – two of the three bedrooms are smaller than 10×10.
• The living room is so tiny that it can’t even hold seating enough for all of us to sit down and watch TV together.
• Two bathrooms means the seven of us really have to schedule things right to get ready in the mornings.

Yet we’ve found ways to adapt to all of these kinks. We park in front. I just schedule more time for laundry and try to be happy about how quickly I can fold the loads since they are so much smaller than before.

Being so close together all the time has really pushed us to become creative and get closer as a family. Last night as I walked pass the 10×8 bedroom on the main floor I glanced inside to see all five kids in one bedroom reading, playing Legos, laughing and giggling and just enjoying each other.

However, there’s one place that absolutely is driving us crazy – the kitchen. Troy and I both love to cook & bake. There’s something to be said about having everything in its place and a place for everything. There are spices, containers, fridge space, prep bowls and more.

Our current kitchen is so tiny you really can’t fit two people in the kitchen working together. Even with most our kitchen items packed away in storage, our cabinets are overflowing. With our large family, the kitchen is truly the heart of the home – it’s where FLOW matters and it’s driving us crazy!

So what to do? Take a step back. Realize we are in transition – readjust, evaluate, make meals that require less tools, ingredients and prep time. Evaluate how long this is going to last to see if major changes are needed…

Just four more weeks of this and we will be in our home.  This is a transition where the end is in sight – we’ve already made it 13+ weeks – we can do this!

I’ve given up on the expectation that everything will be like I usually like it. There’s no way things can look mostly organized and clean all the time with as many people and things we have going on here. So I’m readjusting my expectations – eating out a little more and allowing a few more convenience items to find their way into my freezer.

If there’s one positive thing about flow – it’s that it is always moving somewhere – and I know that the wait won’t be that long before we can find creative flow in the kitchen again. Taking a step back to reevaluate helps me remember this is just a season of transition.

What life transitions are changing your creative flow lately? It could be a project, illness, a new baby, or even a new job. Give yourself the creative freedom to take a step back and readjust your expectations – I promise you won’t regret it.

Cheers,

Kayla