Time Off

Blink and you'll miss it.... life that is. That's the feeling I've had lately and definitely the feeling I have this morning. We had a great weekend with all of the family. Great is truly an understatement but it's all I can get out right now. It was so special to have everyone in our home for the whole weekend. I love our home here, but it always feels the best when it's filled with family.
Now, I'm taking some time off. If I could tell little Sarah anything it would be to slow down and take deep breaths. I am a busy person, I like it that way. It's always been my choice to be busy, organized, creative, adventurous, looking for the next fun thing to do or learn! But the downside is that sometimes I don't even remember what happened over the past week. Often I'm looking towards the next thing before I'm even done with the first. Now I have this blog, which is nice. When I was younger I journeled, a lot. I wrote like every teenager about my day and how I felt, Nana told me over the weekend about how she heard Oprah does something like that. Now I'm not an Oprah "follower", although I do think she's a truly amazing human being, but this is a great idea. Every day taking account of how my day went, how I felt, what good I did in my day, in others day, what good didn't I do??...things like that. Last year I made a running document on my desktop of the BIG things going on in the year; things that mattered that I wanted to focus on. I made it to keep my mind off of the little pidly things and on the things that matter and it worked. Mighty steps have been made and things got accomplished in 2010.

As an almost 29 year old mother of two, wife, and about to be full time student again, I live in a world of "Got tos". I don't like it, so I'm making the decision to turn those "got tos" into "get tos". I think it will make a profound difference in my life and anyones life really. I am so lucky. I get to wake up with my beautiful daughter and calm her when she's upset. I get to teach her how to eat, even if she thinks it's the funniest thing in the world to throw it all on the floor! I get to help Noah work out his issues and tackle his little life with ADHD, it can be a cruel world out there and I get to show him how special he is! I get to make my happy, healthy, loving family dinner at night and clean up after them because I want them to have fun, be young, and I want Kevin to have a break when he comes home from a long day with a long commute. These are not things I should have dread for doing, these are things I want to do for each of the 3 people I love most in this world. Now that's not to say I'm going to be anyone's maid ;) but I have become a firm believer that a person's attitude can change everything. I don't think it needs to be said that there are so many people in this world who don't have the luxury of getting to do any of these things. God has truly blessed me.

So what's the point anyway? The point is that I have decided to take 2011 "off". I'm not sure of exactly what that means as of today, but I've been thinking about it for awhile. I think it mostly means that I'm taking this next year one day at a time, consciously enjoying each of them. I know I can't avoid gastly appointments, exams, homework, meetings, but I can avoid packing the rest of our/my life. And when I think about trying new things, this is something I've never tried.... just taking it easy.... and believe me friends and family, it won't be easy everyday, but I think it's going to be a fun ride!