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This year I was not very organized.

Last year I posted my introductions to my workshops just before the annual conference I attend. Then, I spoke on household organization, living on a single income, and  homeschool startup.

One thing different, this year: I was formulating my very first solo PowerPoint presentations. (Yeah, I know, NOW that they are becoming passé!) I was totally consumed with learning this new-to-me tool.

Another big difference was that I am now doing everything here, myself. No kids to help out. So, while there is less dust falling, less mud gobbing, and less bathtub ringing, every single daytime chore has fallen onto me. Hubs helps with things when he’s here, evenings, but . . .

Third—and I realize there is reason to rejoice for each of these—we now spend at least one whole day, per week, in another town, working on our possible second career.

So I could not work ahead and schedule posts for while I was gone. The best I could do was drag my laptop along and try to keep up with y’all.

Therefore, I have decided to try something different, which is to condense my topics into blog posts so you can see if you would like to order, soon, the audio version of them on CD. I receive no payment, but would be happy to share these with you.

I did speak on burnout. Moms, with all the kids at home and all the neighbors gone cha$ing rainbow$, can burn out. What does that look like?

It comes in two stages, both related to fire, as I related in my workshop.

The exciting stage of burnout looks like an explosion. Mom goes berserk and soon will have nothing left to give. The more lack-luster stage looks more like what we call it, “burnout”, because Mom is plain gone, out of fuel, spent.

I once posted on the song, “Pass it On” which begins: “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” In that post, I told of how to build a one-match fire in the fireplace, and that was my intro to this workshop. However, I quickly relocated that fire in a forest and told of what foresters do to prevent forest fires.

They fight fire with fire.

In the cooler seasons when fire danger is low, they start a smart fire that can easily be controlled. They actually call this fire a “control burn”. Using drip torches, they, YES, start a forest fire, carefully watched by several professionals wielding special heavy-duty rakes and shovels, and backed up with bulldozers. The purpose is to remove all the dead, deadly debris on the forest floor, making it difficult to ignite with a careless cigarette thrown out on a hot, windy day. These lower temperature fires do no damage to mature trees, because the thick bark on them insulates the living part of the tree from the lower heat.

It’s a bit like an immunization for a forest.*

And I wonder—what kind of “debris” is in my life, that could cause a big “fire” with just the right spark and leave us with everything within me — gone?

And I wonder that about yours, too.

* (Incidentally, your state probably provides heavy fines for doing this at home, without knowing what you are doing. Don’t play with fire.)