I will start with a rough chronology.
We started to chelate when my oldest was 7 1/2. That was back in early March of 2012.
I had great weekly round notes that were destroyed when a computer crashed and the files were rendered inaccessible. I got upset about that more than once and then I thought, well, I can restart notes and still chelate and nothing stops me from doing that. So that's what I did.
The longer we chelated the less we tracked.
I tracked each new start in a computer file but as rounds became routine I-n the best sense of the word- I tracked less and less. Having more than 2 children probably also contributed.
Having said all this, we have probably averaged and continue to average 3.5 rounds per month for the past 3 years. I started chelating myself almost 2 1/4 years ago and that has helped me to keep doing rounds without getting run down in the process.
This past week I skipped. I had a tummy illness my two younger ones also got and I didn't want to chance having to stop my own round and figured, I'd wait for the younger two to recover before starting a new round with them.
So what do you do to keep yourself from running ragged and getting too tired to do yet another round? I used to be the type of person that thought: "No, I can't afford take a break. We're wasting a weekend/week, if we don't chelate. If we stop one weekend we will stop altogether." I look back and realize that sounds pretty drastic and absolutist...welcome to the nature of mercurialism. Everything is black and white, there is no gray zone, no soft middle ground.
Thankfully my views have shifted dramatically with chelating myself. Now my internal conversation goes like this:
Taking a break THIS week allows me to return refreshed to the task of interrupting my sleep repeatedly during the upcoming round. It's a break, not the end.
I no longer feel guilty about taking a break to make chelation sustainable in the long run. I'm no help for anyone, if I'm run down. For some of you this may be common sense, for me it was hard-earned self-care lessons- and came with the added realization, that life is easier on the heathy side of things.
What do you do to keep yourself from running ragged and getting too tired to do yet another round? Do you plan breaks into your calendar, do you just take them as needed, are you afraid of skipping a weekend? Let me know in the comments section. Guaranteed, you're not alone!