Hitting Pause

I'd like to pause the posts about the past for a moment and bring you up to speed on the present. Well, not all of it, but some.

I mentioned a while back that I am the YCL (youth camp leader) Leader for our Stake's Girls Camp this year. (I do have four other women serving with me, thank goodness.) Tonight is our very first meeting with our Stake's young women. I am so nervous that I'm too out of touch with what's cool and the side of me that likes to get business done first and fun done second will show through and the girls will think I'm lame and not come to camp and lose their testimonies and their daughters won't come to camp and their granddaughters won't ever know the gospel. Geesh.

Camp will be on the front burner of my brain for the next three months (please go by fast. please go fast). Here are some things that are getting demoted to the back burners to make room:

My Etsy shop. I mentally checked out of my shop a while ago. I still manage to get a sale every week though. I knew my heart wasn't in it anymore when I would feel stressed out with a sale instead of feeling excited. When sewing and selling become just one more thing on my long "to-do" list, that's a problem. I have so many ideas for new onesies and other things that I've started doing that I would love to add but, well, ya know. I'm just going to put this on the shelf until I can really put my whole self into it. I love sewing and crafting too much to make it feel like something I have to do instead of wanting to do. I'm actually putting my last onesie in the mail today and then putting my shop on vacation mode till I get my life back after girls camp.

Next thing to get shelved; my craft club. This one is hard to let go of. If anyone else would like to spearhead this, please, be my guest. Right now my head lacks the space to squeeze this in. Once camp is over I'll sound my chimes and the Gypsy Ladies will gather again.

I am so happy that my creative writing class will be over in 6ish weeks. I wish I could move this to the back burner, but I want to see it out to the end. I'm not enjoying it as much as last semester. I think it has to do a lot with the new group of students I'm with. It's a younger crowd this time around, in fact, there may be only five people older than I am out of us twenty. We're required to write two short stories each and then we read the stories and edit them as if we were going to publish them in our literary magazine. As a class, we then discuss the stories' strengths and weaknesses. I love the editing/publishing aspect of the assignment but I hate (loathe) the reading part. I was a good sport and read all the stories from the first round, but now in round two, I'm putting my foot down. I'm taking this class for my own enjoyment and reading about graphic details of sex, drugs, and rock and roll is not my idea of fun. I would rather get an "F" than an "A" and the permanent mental images that came with it. Once this class is over  I'll have my Monday nights back and be able to read what I want again. Praises be!

Olen and I will celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary on April 20th. Go us! Go us!

Olen made himself a personal fitness goal and has started working out with his brother in the morning and being very aware of what and how much he eats. It's very inspiring and helps me stay excited about my own fitness goals. I don't do as well as he does. He can turn the other cheek to chocolate but I face it head-on with my mouth wide open. I'm getting better though. Baby steps.

I wish I could find one of my favorite quotes from President Monson, but I can't seem to right now so I'll paraphrase, maybe I've already mentioned it. President Monson said that we should always put people above projects.

I find myself having to pause and say "Is this a project or a person?" about twenty times a day. When help is needed on homework, a drink is too high to reach, a shoe needs tied, a bum needs wiped, a hug needs giving or my attention is required, that's when it's time to put down the project and focus on my people.

Here's how I function: This guy.

It was late, the kids were in bed and Olen had already had an eight-hour day. I was busy entering BPOs (broker price opinions - my real estate data entry I do about two or three hours a day from home and like a lot). I hear the water running and dishes clanging. I spied this scene going on in the kitchen and then captured the service with my camera in secret. He heard the shutter and my cover was blown but that was all right because I couldn't have given him a big squeeze in secret anyways. I couldn't make it through one day without him. I'm pretty sure my brain would explode.