Farmgirl Paints: prickly

I'm about ten steps behind as of late. Oh the joys of the holidays:) About two hours after I mailed out the last of the Etsy palooza orders my parents arrived. Whew! What would have been perfect...if perfect was ever possible...would have been about a week or two of gathering my wits. Maybe a day to sleep in, a hot bath, a much overdue workout or two...a salad! But it didn't go down like that. Timing is everything. It really is a true statement. But despite me we had fun. We tromped through every antique store in a 30 mile radius. We decorated the house and made a Thanksgiving feast. Honey and I did Black Thursday, and Mom and I hit Black Friday. She even helped me wrap each and every gift. Feeling blessed to be pretty caught up.

Speaking of Black Friday and Thanksgiving I was feeling a little blue this year. Tradition is a funny thing. For the last three years we've spent Thanksgiving with some dear friends. They moved back up North recently ending our little "turkey run":/ Even though this year was wonderful the memories of previous years made a little pit form in my stomach. I love change, crave it actually, but lately I find myself mourning loss.

So back to tradition. These pics are a few weeks old. The girls had a day off from school recently, and it's our thing to go to this one trail and take pretty pics. We've done it the past three years in a row. Honey is always working, so it's just me and my girlies. Pictures are always better outside. Why don't I ever go outside!?? I miss my big girl camera. I hardly ever pick it up anymore.

On our walk I found this prickly thing on the ground and couldn't help but feel a connection with it. I kinda feel prickly lately. I think burnout is to blame. The lack of time for basic self care. You've heard the saying all work and no play... I have this burning desire to find time for FUN! So I'm cultivating a plan for play. I'm getting out a pen and paper and scheduling it in. Yes pen and paper. A list has to be made you know. It's not going to just happen on it's own;)

1. Learn something new (this is coming)
2. Relearn something old (I signed up for The Beautiful Mess online camera course)
3. Take care of yourself (I joined our Hot House Yoga studio)
4. Read a book...any suggestions??

While my folks were here we got the call that my dad's brother David passed away. He had a massive heart attack and died while tending to his herd of buffalo down in Tennessee. So sudden. So unexpected. This of course riled up all kinds of emotion. What do I want to be doing if I died right this second? OR if I had time how would I like to spend my last days on Earth??

Life is so short. We don't know the plan. Thank heavens for that. Seriously if I had a visible expiration date I'd probably go sit in a corner frozen with the pressure to make every last second matter. But what does matter? I definitely wouldn't go buy anything. I'd give away everything I owned to all the people I love. I'd scoop them up and go to every place I've ever dreamed of. I'd make a million and one memories. I'd write out how I feel...what I believe. I'd have those heart to hearts. It would be intense. It would be deep. It would be pretty exhausting. Maybe just maybe instead of going full throttle I could try living this way a little bit at a time, every day...just because it's obviously the right thing to do;)

Be a blessing.