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

My blog is a secret.   One of the reasons that I keep it a secret is that none of my friends really read blogs.  I think they will think that’s it’s weird and a waste of time.

One friend of mine made a comment regarding blogs that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.  It pops into my mind every now and then and I keep turning it over and over in my mind.

“I’m too busy living my life to then go home and write about it”.

Now, she was not saying this to be condescending at all.  She is an extremely active, single person.  One of the busiest I know, in fact.  Busy in the sense that she works a lot, she has a ton of friends, and she is always involved in some project or festival or event or whatever that is going at the moment.

But, her comment got me to thinking.  Thinking about all the projects I want to tackle and the photography class I want to take and how I want to get back into making jewelry and all sorts of other things that have been on my ‘to do’ list for ages (like sewing…it’s been a new year’s resolution going on so many years that I finally dropped it this year).

So, I’ve been thinking…..am I trading doing for writing about what I want to do?

Maybe I spend too much time reading blogs…and why do I do this?  Is my own life not exciting enough?  Why am I not taking enough time to spend with the friends I have in my own backyard?  What is not fulfilling me in my own life that I seek out living vicariously through others through blogs?

We went to cabin with 3 other families this weekend and had the BEST time.  I can honestly say that I didn’t think once about any type of computer, blog, facebook, email or anything.  The interest wasn’t there as I was too busy having fun.

I think I need more of that and less of this.  I’m just not sure how to get there from here.

I wonder if anyone else out there in blogland ever feels the same?  Then, maybe that’s why there are so many abandoned blogs out there.

Do you distinguish between the two?

My husband and I were talking about this the other night.  I was thinking of starting our son soon with chores where he will get a small allowance, like a quarter, for doing certain things.  He will be four next month.

But then, I also don’t want him to expect money for everything he does, like cleaning up his toys when he makes a mess.  I want him to understand that some things are expected simply for being part of a family.

When I was growing up, I had an allowance.  I can remember getting one in fourth grade, but can’t remember about before then.  I remember having to clean my room and the bathroom (along with my sister) on Saturday morning in order to get my allowance.

But, I also made my lunch everyday and did my own laundry starting that year as well.  But those were not connected to my allowance, but more to needing to eat at school and wear clean clothes.   My Mom did her laundry, my Dad did his and my sister and I did our.  Interesting set up, now that I think about it, but both my parents worked and it worked for us.

I do believe in an allowance.  I believe it helps kids understand that you often need to save up for something you want and that you have to work to do that.  I used my allowance to go roller skating nearly every week.  If I wanted to go every week, I had to pay for it.  That was the deal.

I also like the idea of matching funds for something big, like a car.  The, you save up $2000 and I’ll match it to help you buy a car, sort of thing.   Or maybe for putting money in a Roth IRA or something.  What they put in, I match.  I like these ideas….incentives for saving.

So, I’m wondering…what kinds of chores are best for four year olds?  And do you have chores that are done because they are part of the family and then chores that are separately tied to allowance?

I do

This past weekend we had my youngest son’s first birthday party.  We went out for ice cream on his actual birthday, then had a party on the weekend.  As always with my family, the party was complete mayhem and I was glad it when it was over.

The cake turned out great though!  I was so happy with it.  It was blue and white in the shape of a #1.  So sweet!

I still have my oldest son’s party to get through in a month.  It will be the first party where we invite friends from his pre-school.  It will be complete chaos I’m sure.  And, we are having it at home.  Not sure if that is a wise choice, but I don’t want to change the date if it rains or transport the cake that I plan to make, so we will just hope for the best.

Not sure where everyone is going to eat cake, but I will deal with that later.  Maybe I can borrow a picnic table or something.

We are going to a cabin in a couple of weeks for a friend’s daughter’s 7th birthday.  My friend gave her the choice of gifts or doing something.  She chose doing something without a 2nd thought.  So, they rented a cabin that has 3 bedrooms and sent out an open invitation to others to ether stay in one of the 2 extra bedrooms, get their own cabin or tent camp, or just visit for the day, since it’s a National Park.

I think this is a SUCH a great idea and am definitely going to start doing this as my boys get older.  I love the idea of teaching them to recognize that experiences with friends and family are more valuable that stuff and that there is often a trade off.

We are having a ‘no presents’ party anyway for the friends.   Big D will get enough from family to warrant anything else from others.   That’s a hard one for me though since he loves giving gifts.  I sort of feel like I’m depriving his friends of giving him something if they want to, but I would really love it if they just made him a card we could keep in his scrapbook.  Maybe I will mention that on the invitation in a cute poem or something.

Is there something special or a tradition that you do for birthdays with your kids?