Saying No?

Here it is Monday and I am faced with a huge headache, very sore muscles and an overwhelming sense of exhaustion.  You see Friday night was the grand production of our elementary school annual carnival for which I head up the committee.  When asked how long I have been doing this I had to ask do you mean school carnivals or PTA volunteering in general.  Of course the individual asking then requested the answer to both questions.

I figured it up and I have been volunteering as a parent through the school system for about 15 years and have been involved with the school carnivals for about 7 now.  This realization made even me gasp with shock.  I have been doing this for so long that I had not taken the time to realize that by now if I had been paid for all the hours of free work I have given I could probably have paid off my house, sent a kid to college or even better yet sat myself somewhere on a nice relaxing beach drinking one of these nice tall drinks:

But alas!  I think back over my parenting years and realize that I either must be a glutton for punishment or I just really do love my kids unconditionally.  I mean there has to be a logical reasoning for the amount of torture I seem to have willingly invited into my life. Just off the top of my head I am reliving hours of cutting die-cuts,  gluing papers, stapling booklets, decorating bulletin boards, running book fairs/bike rodeos/fiestas and honestly I can't even count the endless packages of Girl Scout Cookies and Boy Scout Popcorn I have helped sell.

It has been told to me more than once that I put all my focus and energy into whatever project I have in my sights. I have been accused of doing this to the point of self destruction and while in the past I would laugh it off and just keep on going these days things seem quite different.  No longer are the days of juggling 3 or 4 major projects all at once.  I definitely can't hop from one major undertaking to a new one while the first wraps up. 

No.  I have to sadly accept my limitations and admit that after the completion of a major project I now resemble more of a hibernating bear in the days following rather than the reigning super volunteer mom title I have so proudly worn through the years.  

With each completed project I find myself void of anything resembling life except a few rumbles of my snoring interrupted occasionally by a painful groan escaping my lips as I roll over in the bed.   

So my question that I am pondering is how do I transition smoothly from this: 

 

and learn to say this: 

NO!