I am finding it increasingly more difficult to keep up. My own life is flying right by me and I am not saying that I am not participating because I am. It's just that I go from this day to that day, and while I am living it fully, it is just zooming along. Does anyone else feel this way? Am I the only one that tries to take daily stock and finds that managing to do it weekly is accomplishing something? I get up each morning with list in hand. Accomplish this, do that. Hurry here, hurry there, while on the way home from work, stop and do this. Clean the apartment, go to the gym, get my butt to work, stop and pick this up on the way, make a salad for dinner, cook a little chicken, clean up the mess, see this child/husband/friend, get myself to bed, get up and do it again. No complaining here from me, just speaking of the state of mind/body/universe that I live in recently. Perhaps pain and pain medications distort the picture a bit? I lay in bed and cry sometimes, the pain is overwhelming. I can push it to the back of my mind and body during the day with activity and preoccupation, with the help of the pills, of course. But at night..oh at night... Maybe that is part or all of the reason that I feel I am not keeping up. Hell, I don't know. Maybe I am not making a bit of sense here. I know what I am trying to say, but the words don't come easy.

In the meantime, this is what I have been doing:

I finished all the GIFT shopping yesterday. I took the day off from work, and did I ever pick the right one, it was a beautiful FIFTY-THREE 'effing degrees (family joke, involving the youngest, when he was young). This year will be a partly gift card affair, the kids are just getting so difficult to buy for. As they age they get their own ideas on what and where to buy, so this just makes sense. I did buy them each things that are practical for their homes, but the rest is in gift cards. I had the best time shopping for my grandsons, both of which are still too small to understand the Christmas thing. (But next year, Brodie is going to be a blast.) Now all that I have left to do is the stocking shopping and that is my favorite part. I will finish it next Saturday...my plan was to do it today, but while I slept, a BLIZZARD warning has begun and I think I will just spend a quiet day inside. I did spend two or three delightful hours with my youngest yesterday. We had lunch and did a few things that involved running here and there. I don't remember laughing so much in a long, long time. Thanks for a wonderful time, Jordy. :)

Seriously, a blizzard warning has been issued for this area. When I watched the news last night, we were supposed to get an inch or so of snow, now it's predicted to be up to eight inches, with winds of over forty miles an hour. LOVELY. I love the winter in Iowa. Other than getting to the gym this morning, I have no where to go until Monday so, it's okay. My oldest and family is in Branson, so of course I worry about them getting home. Good hell, where would I be if I couldn't worry about something?

And so it goes.

I posted a picture of the HO HO HO, taken with my phone, as my camera is in the shop being repaired. Not all of the gifts are there yet, but I think my little Charlie Brown corner tree looks okay.

Happy Saturday.