This is how I know I’m stressed – when a friend offers to arrange a massage for me (AND watch the other kids….AND bring me Starbucks!) AND…. I actually consider it.  Never been a fan of massage, I hate to say….but I do know that all the muscles that I can still name from medical school anatomy class and the ones that I occasionally pull and can’t remember their name – they’re all pretty tight right now!!

The other way to tell that life is in that “stress” mode is the lateness of this post. When your brain is filled with the “have-to’s,” there’s very little space for the creative. Yet, if you pause enough, it will come.

Every single year I have high hopes for Advent. Teaching the boys about patience and waiting (“I hate waiting”). Focusing on hope, love, joy and peace (“It’s my turn to blow out the Advent wreath candles!” “No, you blew them out last night!”). Thinking about service and how we care for others (“Oh man, I’ll just get that Angel Tree gift myself this year”). Starting new traditions that will carry on year after year and become that lore in adulthood of “well, when I was a child, we always did…..at Christmas.”

When I struggle to slow time down – it has a way of speeding right along.

Literally, this Advent season has been:

• Choose a new school district for the boys from (thankfully) some really great choices. My sister and I have thought about which district we would prefer “in theory” for a few years now, but we suddenly needed to make the decision….like yesterday!
• Put up Christmas tree top-heavy with the “fragile” ornaments
• 
• Tape up a strand of Christmas lights around the door frame
  • Re-tape
  • Re-tape
  • Tape again
  • “Stop playing with these lights!!”
• Find a place to live – not only within the school district but in the “zone” that feeds into the elementary school that handles kids with “special emotional/behavioral needs”
  • Search for places online – Thanks, sis, for handling the brunt of this!
  • Visit homes for rent, townhomes, apartments
  • Agonize
  • Look at more, change mind, get close (oh, wait, this place doesn’t take dogs!)
  • Sign lease
• Fill Advent calendar boxes with candy
  • Forget to open a box every day – our calendar says it’s December 7^th – we have LOTS of shopping days left!
• Complete paperwork for neuropsych evaluation intake appointment for Super Tall Guy
  • Freak out the morning of the appointment when the forms are who knows where
  • Out-smart 8-year-old to get him in the car to go to the appointment
  • Pat self on back for remembering to charge and bring along the DS game system
  • Groan when informed, “Mom, there’s no game in this DS”….ugh!
• Thank Grandma for bringing over “Advent Bags” filled with toys/treats for each evening of Advent
  • Forget to open them after day 5 or 6 – we’ll just save them for next year (Did we say that last year?)
• Complete (redundant, endless) paperwork for school enrollment for two boys
• Find central admin office just in time for school enrollment appointment
  • Freak out in parking lot over who has the copy of the lease – really – honestly – the ONLY important paper we need today
  • Sweat bullets over whether all the forms are done correctly as the administrator slowly marches down the checklist – check, check
• Complete paperwork and behavioral forms for behavioral assessment intake appointment for Super Tall Guy
  • Huh, he is pretty challenging
• Bake brownies for
  • Christmas party #1
  • Christmas party #2
  • 2^nd Grade Christmas party
  • Kindergarten Christmas party
  • Oh, you want some for your second-grader as well??
• Battle with self-will to NOT go in to Toys R Us
  • Lose battle
  • Spend too much (again) on the boys
• Sit on the couch
• Turn off the lights
• Soften Christmas music
• Cuddle with sleeping dog
• Get lost in the glow of the tree lights
• Breathe
• (message friend to accept massage offer….)

Want to slow down time? Just do it.