Finally! A week before Christmas--December mostly over--I have finally come to a place where I can take the time to breathe.
December has come and gone so fast it has left my head spinning and me scrambling to catch my barrings. Not exactly what I had in mind and anticipated for my Advent.
Slow. Intentional. Meditative. Spiritual. Meaningful.
These are some of the descriptive words I would have used. It has been anything but! Such is life. I have been busily working on drawings, finishing them up in the nick-of-time (more on those later). I had wanted to slowly pull together my child's Christmas gifts over time, but finances said otherwise. We couldn't even begin our Christmas shopping--not one single gift-- until this past Saturday. Hence, the no blog posting for Saturday--we were out and about with absolutely no spare time for that. A big thank you to my parents, who took my four older kids for the better part of the weekend to allow that to happen. My husband and I had to do a whirlwind shopping spree, but we got it done. I even got them wrapped and stashed at my mothers nearby office to keep them from prying eyes. In addition to the Holiday preparations, I have had to keep up the homeschooling, and the house cleaning, and the bills, the social events, add in a December birthday, a doctor's appointment, a midwife appointment. . . .AHHHHHHHHHH!
It's been too much. Just trying to keep my sanity has been a chore. I don't know if I always succeeded.
But the time has come. The storm has passed. Now the calm. With all those things behind me and a week off of homeschooling, I can take this time to slow down--center myself. Savor the moments. I get a week to do a little housecleaning (not too much, that can wait for the New Year; but a much needed general cleaning is required). I get a week to get around to some holiday baking. My girls and I will be cookie making machines--we have a variety of recipes lined up. Hopefully, even more then making cookies, we can make some warm holiday memories for them. I can take a week to meditate and spiritually prepare myself for Jesus' birth--the whole reason for the December hoopla (though it wasn't meant to be that way--the hoopla, I mean). Again, such is life. . .
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
You know what this is? Time to breathe. This is what I needed.