The last few weeks have been filled with the need to adapt. That picture is my daughter’s arm. I received a frantic call from my son that stated, “Mom, Addie fell off her rip stick and hurt her arm really bad!” While he is telling me this I can hear her sobbing in the background. After finding out where the kids were my husband and I hopped in the car to go and check on her.

The second I saw it I knew it was broken. For my fellow Harry Potter fans, it reminded me of Harry’s arm after Professor Lockhart tried to fix it and took out the bones instead.

I immediately jumped into problem solving mode. I can think straight in a moment of high stress. It is a strength of mine. I also had just finished my First Aid and CPR certification that morning so I felt really confident in what to do.

We immediately went to the emergency room. I knew my main job was to keep her from going into shock. We kept talking. I assured her she was going to be alright and I would take care of her.

After two attempts to reset the arm, we ended up in surgery the next day with a plate and five screws holding the bone together. We are grateful she is alright and were so lucky to have an amazing orthopedic surgeon walking us through the entire procedure.

While we were waiting in the emergency room we kept thinking about how terrible the timing was. Living in Minnesota we live for the summers. She had been out of school for one week and now we were facing a summer with limited mobility in her arm. It was time to start adapting.

Adaptability has been the name of the game lately. First of all, a few weeks ago I decided I needed to prioritize family and my work as a principal over the blog for a few weeks. When I decided to start the 52 Weeks of Wonder Challenge I made a deal with myself that it could not get in the way of family or work.   The end of the school year is a very busy time of year and I wanted to give my family and my work my full attention.

This brought to mind a word I refer to often when thinking about how to use my time.  Adaptability. I consistently seek to feel “balance” in life. Balance in work, home, friendships, hobbies, adventures, you name it. However, I don’t think of balance in the same way that most people do. It’s not about time for me. It’s about need, energy, and adaptability.

It is ridiculous to think that we can balance time in all of these categories.  If you work a 40 hour week you already know that mathematically it’s not possible.  So instead of balancing time, it’s more about balancing energy and needs.

A few weeks ago my work as a principal required more time and extra focus.  Today I write this post while my daughter is asleep and recovering from her surgery. For the next few days, my energy and focus have to be on her. That’s where it needs to be. I have to be kind to myself and say no to other things to allow my energy to go to her. I need to remember that I don’t need to do it all.

For all of us that worry that we are not doing “it all,” I ask you to give yourself permission to be adaptable.  Shift your energy where it needs to go. Things don’t always go according to plan, but we can adapt.

Oh, and if you are wondering what happened to challenge number 19 on outdoor succulents, well, I would consider it a fail:)

When I put the outdoor succulent pot together we ended up with about three days of rain. The rain combined with me not putting enough soil in the pot ended up with a very unsuccessful attempt.  But guess what I did? ADAPTED! I moved them into small pots and they are now inside the house where I can manage them:) I’ll leave the outdoor planting to my husband for now:)

-Marn