Okay, so I’m not coming back to blog yet, but I had to write about this.  And thank to all of you who made so many nice comments since I have been away…they have been SO lovely to read!

Do you think of Sunday as the start of the week or the end of the week?  My husband and I differ about this.

To me, Sunday is the last day of the week.  The day of rest.  God created the world in six days and on the seventh, he rested…or however it goes.  I’m not overly religious, but this is how I think of the week.  Sunday is a day of rest, to spend with family or whatever, at the end of the week…recharging so to speak, before the next week begins….on MONDAY.

My husband thinks of  Sunday as the first day of the week.  This makes no sense to me, therefore I cannot even argue his point.  Weirdo Australian.

What do you think?

If you read yesterday’s post, you know that I’ve been feeling very overwhelmed lately.  Well, this is, in fact, an understatement.

I will be taking a hiatus from all things bloggy, both writing and reading, until I feel like I can do something more than half-ass and feel good about it and myself again.  If you knew me at all, you would know that by even making such a statement that I’m having some problems.  I have always been a very confident, capable and organized person.

Over the last four years of staying at home with my two boys, I have lost something…and it’s finally coming to a head.  Maybe I just need a few days off or maybe I need go go back to work.

What I need, I am not sure.  But, there it is.  I am not sure when or if I will be back to this blog.  I need to get back to what is real for me.   And right now, that means getting offline.

Thanks for reading and making comments.  I will probably see you at some point in the comments section of your blogs, if you have one, soon.

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Is it just me or are October and November always really busy months?  I have been getting more and more stressed at the mounting things I need to get done by December.  I tick one thing off the list and something else gets added.

I am amazed at how so many mom bloggers out there are able to keep up with it all and their blogs too.  There are a lot of amazing women out there.   And honestly, if my neighbor, who has four children, brings me baked goods one more time…well, actually, I will thank her profusely as she a brilliant baker and just continue to call her supermom behind her back.

Went to a pumpkin farm last weekend.  Got two pumpkins.  It’s was beautiful on Saturday and a perfect day to spend outside on a farm.  Crap on Sunday.  But that’s okay.  I went to the mall and actually started my Christmas shopping.  Mind you, I detest Christmas shopping.  And for those of you with tween girls, I found this fabulous light up journal at Justice.  So cool.  And lots of 50% stuff at Barnes and Noble.

But, I digress.

We are keeping it simple this Christmas.  Just a few toys and books.  And low stress.  Planning on getting nearly everything I can off of Amazon.  Shipped right to my door.  It’s always cheaper than the shops anyway, plus I don’t have to drive or be around mad shoppers.  Perfect.

Also started looking for a few plane toys for our trip.  Found this cool mini eye spy game on Etsy.  Think I will get it for the trip home since it’s a day flight (14 hours from Brisbane to LA).  Flying over is at night, so fingers crossed there will be some sleeping…at least for the kids if no one else.  If all else fails, there are always movies and walking around the plane.

Having my bi-annual clothing swap this coming Saturday morning.  Siked.  Think we will have more clothes/participants than we did in the Spring.  I’m hoping to find a decent pair of jeans.  Will be making some muffins and my co-host is making sausage balls and limosas (champagne and grapefruit juice).  Yum!

But there are so many things going on, I’ve started running again in a feeble attempt to beat down the stress.  I feel enormously snowed under right now and running is the only way I can clear my head.  Doesn’t get anything done unfortunately, but at least I’m feeling a little better and getting in better shape.  And it’s helping me sleep, which I wasn’t doing a great job of before.

Now, if only I hadn’t bought that bag of cashews at Trader Joe’s, I might actually lose that leftover baby tummy that keeps hanging around.

How do you manage it all when activities and ‘to do’s’ start piling up?

Image by Cindy Funk

I love a great quote.  One that captures exactly how I feel at certain moments.  I was reading through Jessica Srague’s website today, as I’m taking a photography class through there (and learning heaps I might add) and saw this line as part of one of her posts,

“…what else does a mother have but a heart that has expanded wide as the universe, and can’t be contained, and so it flows out her eyes.”

This is how I feel so much of the time when I look at my boys.  The gratitude for their being is so overwhelming that my eyes fill up.

I was having a heart to heart with one of my best friends yesterday.  It’s often hard being a Mom.  As Moms, we often give up too much of ourselves.  Especially as a single one, which she is.  It’s also hard to remember how fortunate you are sometimes when you are caught up with having a pity party for yourself, for whatever reason, which we both have been lately.  We are both fortunate for different reasons, but comparatively speaking, very fortunate.

I just finished reading The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.  It’s one of those beautiful books where the characters are real and gracious and a sobering reminder of our often forgotten fortunes.  I like being reminded of this.  Not because it makes me feel better in comparison.  But because it helps me to be grounded and thankful for what I have.  I have so much to be thankful and grateful for and I want to feel that every day so that I can live each day with the open heart and graciousness that it deserves.

Sometimes being a SAHM is very hard.  And lonely.  And it sometimes makes me feel like I’m boring.  I’m sure I’m not, but I often feel that way.

I often feel like I don’t have a lot to contribute to adult conversations since my days are spent playing pretend police and house games, changing poopy diapers, making snacks and lunches, and building with blocks.  This of course all while trying to fit in some emails, dishes, laundry, dinner, a shower (can I get an amen!?) and a dozen other things that fall to me from finances/bills to keeping track of family birthdays and events to just keeping the house moving along.

Then, after the day is done and long after I should have gone to bed, I stumble across this blog of a girl and her bucket list.  She has a GREAT list.  I’m into bucket lists lately and have even started my own.  I started reading some of what is on hers and realize that I have done many of the things on her list.

The feeling of having already done something that is on someone else’s bucket list is pretty heady.  It made me feel as if my life is not so boring after all.

I started to feel quite a bit better about myself.  And I started to think about how often things that I think are no big deal, others think are fantastic and vice versa.  For example, others think it’s great that I have traveled and lived overseas.  To me, it’s no big deal.  But the fact that my friend Anne can sew a dress!  Well, to me, that is amazing.  I can sew on a button.  By hand.  I can’t do sewing machines.  I have broken sewing machines before.  It’s not pretty.  I have wanted to learn to sew for as long as I can remember.   It’s very daunting to me, while to others it’s something they’ve been doing for ages and not a big deal.

So, no matter who you are and what might be on your bucket list, there is a very good chance that something you have done or can do, whether it be to travel, scrapbook, finish college, live in Manhattan, climb a mountain, go camping, sew a dress, knit a scarf, write a story, take a pottery class, save money with coupons, fly somewhere, cook Thanksgiving dinner, get out of debt, become a parent, skydive…whatever…it is more than likely on somebody else’s bucket list.

When I think about it that way, I’ve done and can do some pretty cool stuff.  And I’m guessing the same is true for you.