Busy, busy, busy

Yes, life's been busy. I'm not sure how a full month went by and I haven't written a thing. There's been posts I've started in my head but have not finished. I've had impactful things happen to me but for some reason haven't posted about them. So, I want to rectify that.

First, the activities...

Family: I get to go see my whole family in Chicago at Thanksgiving. Both M and K are going. I can't wait! I've mostly been playing catch up with my parents and my sisters on the phone. I know the sisters have a lot going on, and I haven't been a very good big sister in checking on them. I've been even less of a "good daughter" because I haven't seen my parents since July. Sigh. On the bright side, I have seen M this last week when I made dinner for her and a cute friend of hers. We also met up at a local arts festival yesterday and spent a little time together as a family. And K and I seem to talk a lot. And fight a lot. Yes, that's a bright side.

Boyfriend: We had a wonderful day off when we drove to the beach and back in one day (I'm not kidding). We went to a shrimp festival and then just enjoyed the beach the rest of the day. We walked the pier, played in the ocean, threw a frisbee (I am miserable at that) and a football, and just basked in the glory of God's creation. Sitting on the beach holding hands with someone you care about...doesn't get much better than that.

Volleyball: This month has shown me that it's wise to wait. I didn't say anything to the coach about K's lack of playing despite some people's advice and frustration that was only slightly less than my own, but thanks to my wise boyfriend's advice. And it proved to be smart. She's been playing in every game since late September, pretty much, because Coach changed up the rotation and has one of the other girls rotating in with someone else. So, I've tried to go to as many games as possible. She has played well and she's had a few off games too. The best part of it all is that I'm getting to see her do something she enjoys, work hard at it, get mad because of it, get tired of it, and just be a part of a team. It's what you want to get out of an activity, right?

Work: Overall, it's been such a busy month, it's been making my head spin. We signed a new customer. We're trying to get two customers live on our product on 1/1/2013. We had another customer go live on the first web-only version of our product just last week. We had a customer conference in our town. And, I have employee evaluations due 12/1. It makes me slightly ill just thinking about the next few weeks. There is not a lot of room for chit chat at my job, and if you have the time, people wonder if they can give you more work to do. It's a really great group of people, but there is so much work that it's hard to show progress in one thing because you can't focus on just one thing. And you end up doing only okay when you're trying to do everything. I just walk in every morning thinking, "buckle down and get things done."

Church: Speaking of a lot going on, I think I feel over-committed right now at church. I'm teaching a youth girls bible study. I'm also trying to be involved in the "mercy" part of my job on the women's ministry by talking to a couple of women outside of the church that just need an ear. Between that and proofreading the church magazine, plus trying to go to as many events as I can, then helping to bring food to all of those events, it seems like there is something every time I look up. What I don't want to do is resent the church. Because that's not the point of being part of a body, which is what I'm trying to do. But, I have to remember that I'm still a single mom, and trying to take care of all of the above and still maintain a little sanity can be difficult.

I am grateful to be busy. Let's keep the focus on the fact that I am very blessed even when I forget it.