Taking a Night Off

Lately things have been SO crazy busy for us!  I thought life didn't get crazy busy until you were running five kids to five different sports/music/school activities.  I was wrong.  Between school, work, and church, we are busy busy bees!

Things at work have been a little crazy too... people taking vacations and I fill in for them; people getting married and I fill in for them;  people giving 2 weeks notice and I have to contemplate if I want that job.  Which I decided not to take.  But until we find a replacement, I'll still be doing that job.  Work is just madness! I hope and pray the day soon comes when my work will be in the home with adorable little babies that are pooping and screaming and throwing objects.  That sounds like a dream.

Dustin started the Masters of Exercise Science program along with his doctorate of chiropractics this quarter (have I already mentioned this?)   He was able to apply and get into the program a quarter earlier than they normally do which is FANTASTIC because that means we could be graduated the end of September 2014 instead of December 2014.  It's only 3 months difference but think about how much better it would be to move in September vs. December.  Yeah.  It's a big deal.  It also means his work load is a lot heavier with an extra class and extra weekend labs.

Church callings keep us busy busy too.  I'm the 2nd counselor in Primary (I feel like this post may be redundant and I don't know if it's cuz I've blogged this all before or just in my head.  Sorry if it's redundant!)  and over the cub scouts... which I know nothing about.  Sure, my mom was the Webelos leader when I was around that age, but I never paid much attention, those boys were gross.  For some lucky reason all my months of teaching sharing time this year have 5 WEEKS instead of the normal four.  And does the primary manual have lessons for those extra 5 weeks ever? Nope. Which means I get to make up lessons!  Blarg.  I will be teaching in March and while February has been a super exciting month of the creation and bodies, my lessons get to be the heavy Atonement, Death, Resurrection type lessons.  Yikes.  Our primary is SO young so I am struggling to find ways to teach little babies these deep topics.  It will be an adventure.

Look how adorable this Primary is.  This was when we were trying to take a picture for a Thank You card for the previous presidency.

Dustin is the ward mission leader and those missionaries sure love us!  They keep him busy with weekly meetings and frequently ask him to go out with them to lessons.  The Relief Society and Music Director have also asked my help in enrichment activities, sacrament meeting numbers, and so on.

We are super grateful for my job and that Dustin is progressing well in school.  We also like our callings and want to help the ward.  But MAN are we stressed out. a lot. and often. 

That is why we decided to come up with the "taking a night off" rule.  One night a week we get a break from everything: no cooking, cleaning, school, work, church, budgeting, nothing.  We can do what we want to relax and de-stress from every day life.  One night of quilting, reading, blogging, Nintendo time, working out, just whatever we want to do!  It has been a life saver! Because we know that we can't really have a night off, we switch off weeks so one of us can still keep the house running smoothly.

Tonight is my night off! Which is why I get to present to you a blog post!  I also got to watch some Survivor, work on my latest quilt, and I'll probably read more of Bossypants  when I'm done with this post.  Hopefully these nights off will mean that you, my dear friends, will get to hear more on this blog.  Maybe I'll resurrect my long lost recipe blog.  Maybe I'll make a cookbook from all my pinterest recipes I'd like to try.  Maybe I'll organize the millions of pictures on my computer that are lost!  The possibilities are endless!

And this keeps us sane.  Best idea ever.

Maybe you should give it a try too? Take a night off.