October

This month has been the busiest month I've had since I graduated from high school, or at least it feels like it. Even finals week when I was in college didn't feel so busy. I'm a stay at home mom with only one kid, so at least to my mind I shouldn't really be all that busy. We've had family visit. We've taken day trips. We've worked and worked and worked on the house. We've had places to go and things to do, and it feels like it almost never stops. But it is a good busy.

I should have known that life as a stay at home mom was busy. My mother was the busiest person I've ever known, and was a stay at home mom all of my life. There never seemed to be much "spare time", except for one week a year when she'd get so wrapped up in a book that only the basics got done. I think it was the only week a year that my mother rested. I should have known better. I'm not quite sure how she did everything that she did between shuffling us three between events and still managing to have dinner on the table every night. I barely get the house work done and I've only got one kid!

With all of that, I have come to appreciate the times when I get to just stop. I enjoy taking a minute to just sit down on the couch and watch my daughter play. When the day is over and the monitors come on, I can look around me and relax. The house is clean. My family is happy, healthy, and fed. My little world is at peace. Life is only going to get busier as the babe learns to crawl and the hubs finds new work and the garden gets bigger and the dog needs out, but that's okay. I'm learning the value of the word no, and joy in taking the time I need to actually enjoy life. I will find my week being absorbed in a good book eventually, but for now, I'll take the minutes that I have and just breathe.