All The Things

True story: I want to do it all. You know, do "all the things." I'm an overachiever at a school known for its insane breed of overachievers, which only perpetuates my overachieving status. Overload on classes during my senior year of college? Yes, please! Work two jobs and an internship while being a full-time student? That sounds lovely! Volunteer three days a week in the Durham Public Schools? Sign me up! Plan hall events, fill out duty logs & incident reports, spend evenings on call? Sure, why not!?

Except after four straight months, it looks more like this:

Womp.

Balance. I'm learning it ever so slowly. Balancing 37,294 all-nighters with trips to Cookout and Starbucks in order to maintain a small bit of sanity. Balancing 2893 pages worth of papers with Thursday night small group Bible study. Balancing an infinite number of psychology powerpoint slides with family Christmas get-togethers.

Balancing one-on-one meetings and evaluations with the Christmas cantata at my home church.

Balancing time spent at the dentist with time spent playing with my kitty.

She's cute. Meow.

Balancing the things I have to do with the things I want to do. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot more of "things I have to do" than "things I want to do" on my list these days. But we're getting there...

Slowly but surely, I'm checking things off my epic whiteboard wall. I'm counting down the days until exams are over. I'm counting down the days until Zach is home. I'm counting down the days until I can go to bed and not move for at least a week, maybe two.
And who knows? Maybe next time around, I'll be better about not trying to do all the things -- enjoying the semester instead of simply surviving it. Or maybe I won't; maybe I'll still attempt all the things. It might be infinitely more stressful, but it sure isn't boring.
Or maybe, just maybe, I'll get the hang of this whole balance thing and reach some point of equilibrium. Until then, ebb and flow, baby. Ebb and flow.

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Christmas Explosion

Fact: Christmas has exploded in my room.

The newest addition to my festive display? Some gorgeous Christmas flowers sent by this boy who wishes he could be here as I work non-stop through the end of the semester.

[It is easy to say things like that from 9,000 miles away. Trust me, nobody actually wants to be here as I stress out over papers and exams. Hard to believe, but I can become slightly unpleasant...]

Twenty red & white tulips and a little bit of Douglas fir -- my room not only looks like Christmas; it smells like Christmas! Christmas smells definitely make me a more pleasant individual :)

Check out the vase that came with them!

• • • • •

Christmas has exploded back home, as well. Mama dearest has already sent out the Christmas cards, so I can show off the glory that was our Christmas sister photo shoot:

Have I mentioned how much I adore my neighbors' red barn? Definitely plan on using it as a background again in the future.

• • • • •

The days keep passing by on Charlie Brown's advent calendar:

• My sisters and I actually gave away a bunch of stuffed animals and books when we cleaned out our storage closet over Thanksgiving break! Check :)
• I send cards to friends all the time. Like, ALL the time. Check :)
• And... let's be honest, I didn't make a "holiday treat" for the birds (am I expected to roll a pine cone around in peanut butter and birdseed?), but when I was in Kindergarten/1st Grade, I spent my entire recess collecting acorns until they were spilling out of my jacket pockets, hoarded them all at home for months in a bowl, and then scattered them in my yard during the first snow so the squirrels wouldn't be hungry. First of all, please tell me what kind of child does things like that completely on her own? Second of all, I'm pretty sure I'm covered in the "caring for critters" category. Check :)

Today's task?

Let's go with 50 degrees. And no snow. Seriously, Charlie Brown, it's been warmer here than it's been in Afghanistan for the past month (true story); I can't imagine it getting legitimately cold & snowy for Christmas. And I'm perfectly okay with that.

• • • • •

Any portion of my room currently not decked out in red, white, and/or green has been consumed by another color:

Oh snap, my mama & daddy are getting ready to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary! My sisters and I are throwing them a party this weekend, and even though we've never attempted to organize a party while all three of us live in different cities, everything is coming together quite nicely :)

Please please please can I design invitations for the rest of my life?

• • • • •

In completely unrelated news, I began saying good-bye to my iPad tonight. I've thoroughly enjoyed testing him out for the semester, even if he did nothing to enhance the learning portion of our class. But goodness, I sure will miss playing Unblock Me every night before falling asleep...

And lastly (& still completely unrelated), I stopped using Blogger to upload my pictures & instead switched to Photobucket. Blogger has been killinggg me recently by absolutely destroying photo quality and I have no idea why. Please just look at this:

Image uploaded via Blogger:
Image uploaded via Photobucket:

Are you kidding me?! Anyway, I guess I'm a Photobucket user until Blogger can get its act together. Thanks for putting up with the horrible photo quality over the past few weeks; I promise I really do take good pictures :)

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