I would like one of my goals for next year to be to get to November and I’m not thinking “HOW???? HOW is it November already???”

Is it one of those impossible dreams? Like “I can do <insert thing here> once life settles down.”??

But seriously. How is it the second week of November? This is the lead in to our crazy busy birthday (Chance & Darby)/end of school/Christmas/New Year/birthday (me)/start of school/birthday (Quinn) season that lasts 11-12 weeks and is absolutely crazy every year. Writing it down, that’s nearly a quarter of the year that I spend in a stressed state. This is NOT good for my health. I do my best to slow down and try and manage my time and resources well, but gosh it’s not easy.

And the last month has been pretty crazy around here already. Quinn broke her finger a little while ago which was very upsetting and painful – on her right hand too, so school and school holidays were not easy. Monday four weeks ago we got the all-clear at fracture clinic (hooray!), but the next day at school she tripped over and fell and broke her wrist (left this time thankfully!) It was “just” a buckle fracture so I was expecting just the two weeks in a back slab cast, but we went for another appointment two weeks in, and came away with a full cast up to her elbow for another four weeks, as there was part of the bone that was coming away (??) that needed correcting.

I don’t know why I find it interesting that I have three boys and my only daughter is the one who has broken three bones while Chance has had a single fracture incident (where he broke both forearm bones) and the other two haven’t had any. Maybe it’s a bit of unconscious bias at play, assuming since boys are generally more rough, that they would be breaking bones more.

I digress.

I honestly feel like I’m in a constant state of having five things I need to get done at any one time, and I’m conscious of doing my best for my health by eating well and heading to the gym at least three times a week, but then there’s also mobility exercises I would like to be doing, as well as my pelvic floor training, and gosh I really do need to get rid of more stuff out of the house before birthday/Christmas season is upon us, and did I mention I’ve picked up some casual admin work that I can mostly do at home, but have to go into the office for training for a while yet, and and and…..

I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. And I know when I google strategies to deal with the mental load, I’m told I should meditate every day but I already do a breathing exercise each morning that takes 17 minutes and how am I meant to add more stuff as well as keep up with random appointments for the five of us, all the while looking after our individual and collective mental health??

I’m trying not to take on extra things, but that’s the nature of the end of the year. Extra things are sometimes not optional. I honestly do love this time of year, but gosh can we please just hit the brakes so I can catch up? I’m having most of the weekend at Marty’s which will be super helpful in getting some Christmas stuff organised without looking around at my house and sighing and getting frustrated at the state of it.

Here’s a fun photo of recent shenanigans with my school mums and partners/husbands. We had a trivia night and the theme was Rock n Roll. Our table went as Mums n Roses and we won best dressed AND the trivia!! (I dressed as November Rain and Marty was Slash!) These nights certainly help fill my tank!

Ironically I started writing this post a week ago, and am only just finishing it off now. I guess the only thing left to do is buckle up, hold on tight, and enjoy the ride! Let’s do this thing! 🙂