Dear Diary,

'Tis the season for stress and chaos...and MAN, have I been feeling it? I'm not actually sure why, really. I mean, I have all my Christmas shopping done (Whoop!), I've got my outside decorations up, I don't have any out of town trips planned for awhile, I'm not sick anymore...I mean, overall, things seem pretty good. But then why do I feel so stressed? It was rent/operating statements week at work, that ALWAYS stresses me out. Every month I tell myself: "It will be fine. It will be over in 2 days. Everything will be fine." but I still get stressed out, neurotically, I can't help it. I think the fact that I know I shouldn't stress, but I am still stressing, frustrates me even more. Vicious circle.
We are moving our dining room table into the kitchen and the kitchen table will go into the dining room just for the Christmas season to showcase my snow villages, then we'll be giving it and the chairs to The Salvation Army. After Christmas we will be making the dining room a play room for Riley (since I know of a lot of the toys he will be getting and some of them take up a good deal of room); we will be moving the storage cabinet upstairs into the guest room, clearing off the bottom shelf of the console table, and hopefully replacing that horendous chandalier! So, getting everything ready for all that switching is a little stressful, then I still need to put up all my indoor decorations.
I hate that I have waited so long to put up all my inside stuff, I will only be able to enjoy it for a couple of weeks and I LOVE it all so much! I may have to keep it up past New Year's, just a little bit. I have so many fun, animated, singing decorations that I know Riley is going to love so much. Mom has a lot too and he is already enjoying her's.
I still need to balance our checkbook with Money and pay some more bills for the month...that's some more stress hanging over my shoulders. I've got to go pick up our big picture & ornament from Kiddie Kandids, and order a few more Christmas cards while I'm there. I need to get a couple more stocking stuffers for Chris' stocking. I need to wrap all the Christmas gifts. The list goes on, but it still should not cause me to feel as overwhelmed as I do. I wonder if there is something else that I'm just not 'facing'??? Psychiatrist? Anyone? Anyone?
Seriously though, those of us who do NOT work in retail or life saving positions should just have the entire month of December OFF! So we can stay home and clean, decorate, shop, wrap, bake, etc. It would just be so much easier. I would say that being a stay-at-home mom would help, but honestly people, if you have ever stayed at home with your kids you know, it's a full time job, you don't have any 'extra' time to do all this stuff, you've gotta wait until their daddy gets home to watch them so you can turn your head for a moment to fold clothes or take the dishes out of the dishwasher.
OK, now those of you who actually read my mindless ramblings understand why this post is titled 'Dear Diary'...I just had some random thoughts I needed to get off my chest, and it's been too long since I last posted. Now I will close this post, go back downstairs and do some laundry until my beautiful, amazing son wakes up and is ready to play with me! (then it will be back to the kitchen!)
Thanks for listening, Diary, talk to you again soon, I'm sure.
Heather