Life is a little nuts right now, in case you hadn't noticed. We have five properties under contract, three active listings, and two more coming soon. We are in the middle of Grandpa's big move, Aracel's soccer season is in full swing, and we are about to bring home a new baby. Football season has taken over any free time we have on the weekends between Husker watch parties (GO BIG RED) and NFL open houses with our pick'em peeps. Add in all the other groups, people, and commitments we love, and there isn't much blank space on our calendar these days.
I'm not complaining, at all, because most of what is keeping us busy is all great stuff. Grandpa's house went under contract in THREE DAYS, for crying out loud! Hellooooo! There are exciting things happening everywhere right now! It's all good, but it's all still a lot.
When I realized I had no professional appointments scheduled this morning, I would have given just about anything to sleep in and do absolutely nothing for a few hours. Of course, I still had a ton of work to do, but there was also one thing on my calendar I wasn't willing to give up...especially because I'd already had to reschedule multiple times. Today, Marley got to get together with his bio-brother, Toby, for a puppy playdate.
You may be thinking, "Seriously, Shanna! THAT is a priority on your calendar right now?" YES, it is!
I got up early, knocked out the urgent work, worked out, loaded up Mar, and took a few hours to watch two dogs play ridiculously hard together. Marley and Toby absolutely LOVE each other, and watching their excitement when they see each other warms my heart every single time. Toby's parents are also some of the sweetest people I know, and I genuinely enjoy our conversations while the boys run themselves into the ground.
By any reasonable measure of productivity, taking a few hours for a dog playdate during a week like this probably makes absolutely no sense. Yet, driving home, I realized it might be the most important thing I do all week.
When we adopted Marley and moved him from the farm to the suburbs, I promised him I would make sure he still got to spend time with his doggo family. Yes, I fully understand he is a dog and probably had no idea I was making this promise. However, I KNEW...and I meant it. Family means more to me than anything, and Marley is family. His first family matters to me, too.
Maybe you think that's silly, but if you could see these two together, I'm pretty sure you would understand and agree.
It would have been incredibly easy to cancel today. I have plenty of legitimate reasons to say we are too busy right now and we will do it next month. I think that's how important things sometimes quietly disappear from our lives. Not because we decide they don't matter anymore, but because something else is always more urgent. The things and people we claim to matter most slowly start getting whatever time happens to be left over.
Real estate is especially good at reminding me there will ALWAYS be something that needs to be done. Inspections, appraisals, showings, contracts, negotiations, closings, and whatever unexpected situation decides to become an emergency today. I love what I do, but waiting for work to calm down before making time for the rest of my life would be a terrible plan.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of work still got done today. However, some did not. It will. Work is incredibly considerate that way - it will always still be there waiting for me tomorrow.
What's important is that Marley got to play with his brother today. I got to spend a precious little time with people I genuinely enjoy, and I kept a promise I made when we brought our boy home.
These playdates have become just as important to me as I think they are to Marley. Maybe even more because he doesn't know how busy life is. He doesn't know there are five properties at varying degrees of controlled chaos. He doesn't know there are six hundred billion emails that require some kind of attention from me. He just knows he got to see his brother today.
I think that's the reminder I needed that not everything important has to look important to everyone else. We simply have to make sure the things we SAY matter most actually get some of our time.
