Busy, Busy, Busy...

These past few months have most definitely been a whirlwind!

Granted, I may have overloaded my plate for this year, but I secretly enjoy staying busy.

While I wish that I could say I am staying busy with my social life, let's be honest...that is just downright laughable! Ha, ha!

Since the Summer has ended, and Fall is now upon us, Emma has started THIRD GRADE! 

Seriously, though...WHOA.

Haylee has turned THREE YEARS OLD!

Again...WHOA.

We had to get Em ready for school, since third grade is apparently a huge leap from second grade!

That is no joke by the way. 

She has much more homework, their curriculum is much tougher, and everything seems to be a lot more intense. She was placed in the co-teaching class, with two teachers and 50 students, which I was very unsure about once I found out. But it has actually been very good for her! 

She has an extra set of eyes, and hands to help her, and she is benefitting from having two ways to have a topic explained to her. Two similar, yet different, approaches to each subject. 

Overall, we are loving her teachers and their communication with the parents!

Then we had Haylee's Dinosaur Birthday at the bouncy house place. 

Yup, our girl loves her some Dinos and bouncing! 

We also had a numerous amount of friends' kids birthday parties to attend, so that took up a lot of time during September.

So besides the girls and their overall busy-ness, I have taken over Em's Girl Scout troop as the main leader, and added five extra girls! That brings our troop to a total of 14 GIRLS!

Yup, 14. That makes us an official 'Super Troop', haha! 

Which means that we will get to earn extra money during Cookie Season, so that's cool!

Then there is the all consuming, never-ending task that I took on for Emma's school as their Box Tops Coordinator. Yup, you read that right...Box. Tops. Coordinator.

It is a lot of work. 

Including: advertising at the school, setting up contests, collecting from the school as often as I can, clipping, counting, sorting, mailing, and on and on!

HOWEVER, like I said before, I secretly enjoy it!

It definitely keeps me busy and always thinking.

In fact, I have come up with two new ideas that the school has never done before, so it will be kind of exciting to see how it all goes this year!

In case you were wondering, each Box Tops brings in .10 cents, which adds up pretty damn quick!

Also, with helping out the school as much as I can, I hope to be able to find some sort of para-educating role once Haylee starts Kindergarten...

So with all the school stuff, and Girl Scout stuff, and toddler stuff, and house stuff, I have been kind of M.I.A. the last month or so!

But once everything falls into it's place soon, hopefully I'll be around more!

The funniest part about all of this, is that everything I end up doing, brings in zero income!

It's all volunteer-based work, which is something I can honestly say that I would never have seen myself doing nine years ago!

But again, I enjoy doing it.

And I enjoy helping out where, and when, I can!

Namaste

Have you ever tried to do something for yourself, only to find out that it's next to impossible?

A few months back, I started trying Yoga.

Something to center myself,  to relieve stress.

To get in some exercise, without feeling like I was exercising. 

I even found out that my local gym held an evening class!

So I went out and bought myself a yoga mat.

I went to a few classes, and even found a pretty amazing Youtube channel, 

so that I could practice at home. 

Then I remembered {how could I forget} that I have two kids and no sitter!

The class I tried going to was in the evening, but my husband's work schedule is kind of all over the place right now, which means that I am not always able to count on making it to the class.

Yes, my local gym has childcare.

But do I really want to pay for it? Or can I?

To me, that seems to defeat the whole purpose of finding your zen!

Then there is the practice-at-home routine. 

I tried that too!

But of course, it's kind of hard to find your inner peace when your toddler no longer naps, 

and your eight year old is constantly nagging you! 

So, I kind of gave it up. 

Not necessarily in the give-up kind of way, 

but more in the lets-try-this-later kind of way.

Which I fully plan on doing when school starts back up next month!

But until then, I have been trying to find out what finding your inner peace is all about.

How to find that zen feeling, and have been exploring the meaning of Namaste.

The meaning behind Yoga, Namaste and all things Zen, have always spoken to me.

But for some reason, I have never taken the time to explore them.

Shame on me!

I really do love the way I feel afterwards.

It is much more of a workout than I had originally thought, which I consider to be a bonus.

And the funny part of it is, I have no balance and I am not as flexible as I once was!

But oh well! I have to at least try, and I am.

Maybe one day I will get to that point where I don't have to try so hard.

And maybe one day I will be able to reach those difficult poses.

But first, I HAVE to find the time for myself.

But how? 

I have been told to include my little one, to have her join me.

But trying to include my toddler into a yoga practice is everything but peaceful and relaxing!

I have to find a way to be at peace with all that is crazy in this world.

For more reasons than I should probably admit, I need to find inner peace.

I need to find zen.

I need to learn the true, deep meaning of Namaste.

Because sometimes, people just need to find themselves.

This particular journey is all about me.

Me, Myself and I.