Make the call...

I have a confession to make. I am REALLY bad at returning phone calls. I'm even worse at even making them at all! I start out with the best of intentions and then day after day goes by and I still haven't made the calls I want to make. I guess there are a few things holding me back.

First of all, I have a hard time finding time to actually make the call. Most of the time, I'm planning to call friends--and I know that it will be more than a 5 minute phone call. If I call while the girls are awake, then I won't be able to carry on a coherent conversation because I will be chasing Kallie around the house. So, what's the lesser of the two evils? Call when I'm totally distracted and can't listen? Or not call at all? By default, I've chosen the "not call at all" option more often than not. Some people would suggest calling after the kids have gone to bed. And, that is an option. But, it seems my time is taken up by cleaning the house, doing laundry, or some other chore. The evenings are usually filled up because I'm spending time with Ryan or running a few errands or finishing the things I didn't get done during the day.

Then, because my life has been quite busy for a couple of weeks, I start feeling guilty because I haven't made the call. The worse I feel about not calling a friend, the less I feel like I want to call them. They are still important to me and their friendship is still very important to me--I just feel super bad that I haven't called.

The last thing that usually keeps me from calling is the timing. Probably the best time for me to call a friend would be between the hours of 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. when my girls are down for a nap. My SAHM friends would probably be OK with this option, as their kids are sleeping as well. But, my working friends are in the middle of their work day and can't talk at that time.

In the end, none of those excuses should really matter and I should call anyway. I think that's going to be my goal for the next few weeks: I just need to make the call.