With Bri Weekly | Week 11
This week I finished the outline for something I have been building called the Make Room Planner.
The idea is pretty simple.
Life can be full without you disappearing inside of it.
The planner is for the person carrying work, family, appointments, meals, kids, aging parents, leadership responsibilities, friendships, goals, and all of the random things that somehow become theirs to remember.
Someone a lot like me.
What made me smile this week was realizing that while I have been trying to figure out how to help other people make room, I have also been practicing it in real time.
There was room to build.
I started SheBuilds and spent time working through the prompt for the project I am creating there. I had an interview for a role I am genuinely interested in. I applied to other opportunities. I worked on With Bri. I photographed jewelry and put out an album drop.
Some of this season still feels uncertain, but I am not sitting around waiting for the next chapter to begin.
I am building while I wait.
There was room for the commitments I have been trying to make to myself too.
I went to the gym.
I kept working on my water goal, some days getting all the way to bottle four.
I got my prayer time in.
None of those things are huge accomplishments by themselves.
The point is that I am finally paying attention to whether I made it onto my own list.
There was room for family.
Karter excited about a gift he just opened on his birthday.
Birthdays. Church. Bowling. Wrapping gifts. Games. School applications. Parent teacher conferences.
I sat with Kalialani and got her high school application submitted.
There was also time with Mom.
I missed part of SheBuilds one day because being with her mattered more. She had been at the doctor the day before and had medical staff coming to the house, so I stayed.
We ate together.
We watched our show.
We did what we always do.
And I was exactly where I needed to be.
This week I took Kyle (my oldest child) to open his own checking account, which felt like one of those parenting moments that sneaks up on you. One minute you are opening their first little savings account and the next you are sitting at the bank watching them take another step toward adulthood.
Kyle downloading his banking app.
That is something I am learning to appreciate about this season.
Flexibility is a gift.
I felt that again while sitting at Starbucks working on my SheBuilds project.
Coffee in hand. Laptop open. A little window of time before I needed to pick up my own kids.
Then my phone went off.
A close friend, who is family at this point, needed a huge favor. Her child was not feeling well at school, and she needed someone who could be there until she got out of work.
What stayed with me was not just that she asked.
It was that I could say yes.
There have been so many seasons of my life where my schedule was packed so tightly that helping in the middle of a weekday would have required moving mountains.
This time, I had room.
That felt significant.
I even noticed room showing up in the fun stuff.
Cards have definitely claimed their place in my life at this point. 😂
There were card breaks, card show moments, and even a small lesson in restraint when I sat and enjoyed a break without buying into it.
I need more practice with that one. 😂
There was time with My Boo.
Time at the gym together.
Dinner.
Watching breaks.
Just being.
Looking back, none of these things individually define the week.
Together, they tell me something.
Making room does not mean clearing your calendar until nothing is left.
It means creating enough space inside a full life that the things that matter can still fit.
Your goals.
Your health.
Your people.
Your faith.
Your work.
Your joy.
Your future.
YOU!
I think that is why this planner feels different from the things I was trying to build before.
I am not creating it from some perfect system I mastered.
I am creating it from the middle of the mess.
From coordinating three kids while trying to build a career.
From helping Mom.
From leadership responsibilities.
From relationships and friendships.
From wanting to build things that belong to me.
From trying to drink the water, go to the gym, say the prayer, make the appointment, show up for the game, answer the call, and still have something left for myself.
This week reminded me that making room is not something I am waiting to do once life calms down.
This is the work.
Making room while life is still full.
And I think I am finally learning how.
With Bri, it’s a vibe. ✨