Finding Balance

How do we find balance when we are trying to juggle to many things?  I have been pondering this all weekend.  How do I find balance? My schoolwork, my beadwork, my housework, my grandchildren...It just seems that I am alway's trying to do a bit more than I can and something along the line suffers.  I have to admit these day's it is usually my beadwork.  It seems like my school work is taking many more hours a day than I ever imagined an online class could.  It seems like I just finish babysitting my newest grandbaby and then I am doing it again.  I am not complaining, I love the time I spend with her, my other two grandkids no longer need me that way but I cannot do much else when I have her, she does not sleep, she is very alert almost all day and needs to be interacted with.  So now I sit and wonder how to keep up with new shop listings on Etsy when I don't seem to find the time to make anything.  I listed the amulet above today, it has been sitting in my "done" box for weeks and I haven't done another since.  Right now I have three custom orders for amulet bags, each one is started, but I am not making progress.  I did my schoolwork this morning.  Then I babysat until 9:00 tonight.  Instead of sitting down to pick up my beading needle I sat down at the computer and went into my classroom to do......more schoolwork!... So now it is 11:00 at night and my eyes are telling me I can do nothing more than climb into bed.  Seems like a very typical day so how do I find that balance that gives me the time to do my schoolwork, be with my family and find the time for my creative needs? This is going to require a bit more thought, maybe I'll sleep on it.

A reason to laugh

It seems like I have not had much in my life as of late to make me laugh.  But this week we stood on my porch and watched an event that had me laughing so hard I had tears running down my face.  The farm next door has a number of pastures and they move different sets of cows around occasionally. Apparently this week it was moving day for the cows that have been across the street to the pasture next to my house.  Well, it did not go really smoothly.  The cows decided they weren't in the mood and decided to go in all directions causing bedlam to break loose.  The cows were running back and forth across the road, Have you ever seen a huge cow run?  There were three farmhands with big sticks running around to try to herd the cows in the direction they wanted.  That did not work out so well.  The farmhands ran right and the cows ran left.  Then the farmhands ran in a circle to the left and the cows ran backwards to the right.  There were cars stopped on both sides of the road because some of the larger, older cows decided to stroll up and down the road.  Three of the youngsters managed to get up into my driveway.  I literally stood on my porch staring down at three young bulls, they were just babies when I moved in here.  Here comes a farmhand on a tractor chasing them and they ran in three different directions.  They sure gave him a run for his money.  All the cows got eventually rounded up into the pasture next to me so we had a happy ending but it sure was fun watching this comedy while it unraveled.  Hope those farmhands got a pay raise!

Thoughts

Life just does not seem to settle down.  Every time I think things will slow down so I can catch my breath and figure out how to catch up, another something or other comes up.  I am just not getting any time to myself other than when I just do not feel well enough to do what is normal.  So I sat once more thinking what I can do for my shop to try to get through the holiday season.  Just cannot accomplish what I wanted and am now resigning myself to the fact that things aren't going to change much.  So I decided if nothing else I would concentrate on my mini amulet bags that I created for my "Love for Tori" line.  And then I would put them all up for a very special price of $10.00 through the holiday season which will fly by us just as it alway's does.

For anyone who may have not been reading my blog for a long time this particular line of mini bags are named for my grand daughter, Tori.  Tori is 17 and she totally owns my heart.  She also struggles with more illness than any 17 year old should have to.  She has a number of problems starting with a type of mono that never goes away.  It lives dormant in her blood stream and flares up when it feels like it. At least once a year and she is bedridden for ages, it has darn near killed her 3 times. 
Then a few years ago we went through the thyroid cancer scare, which is when I created these mini bags, not big enough for much but the perfect size to write a wish on a bit of paper, roll it up and tuck in your bag so it is alway's close by.  A bit over a year ago we finally got a positive result that Tori has both Rhuemetoid Arthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis, a gift from her father.  So at 17 she lives with the pain of a 70 year old.  This child is such a brave soul and I love her dearly.  I joke with her that we make a great pair with all our illness and fighting to have a normal life when I am rich I am going to go buy us matching lazy boys for the living room. 

Why I am going into all this is a mystery, just deciding to do some more of these bags for my shop just gets me thinking about how much we have gone through over the last 10 years.  I forget what tough people we are.