Dear Reader:

I'm going to let you in on something.   Because I have been prioritizing contributing to this blog every day, I have had to let some "things" go like, for instance, picking up the preschooler and busy mom detritus off of my living room floor.   I always hate it when people say "don't worry about your house,"  your job is to spend quality time with your kids.   Because, seriously, I'm not worried about what people will think.  I am worried about HOW IT MAKES ME FEEL to live in an episode of some "cleaning intervention" reality TV show.    When my environment is decluttered (I'm not even shooting for ACTUALLY CLEAN here), my mind is at ease.   When there are pieces of food and pajamas and crayons and bubble wrap and stuffed animals and stickers and My Little Ponies and jackets and shoes (dear lord, the shoes!!!!) strewn about my living room, I begin to twitch and think that I may not make it to the next morning.   So, instead of exercising today, I decluttered my living room and my bathroom.   And, a little bit of my kitchen.   And, I'm telling you right now - everything is OK now.   Stepping back down off of the limb or back from the cliff or whatever clichéd metaphor you want to insert here.  

Do you see that floor?  Do you see those neat piles?  I may sleep here tonight.  

Anyway, I've somehow got to start living a life that allows me more time.   Because I need to tackle my sleep issues (i.e.,  I need to start getting more sleep) and I need to be able to blog and pick up after the kids and myself, and have some time to just stare vacantly at a wall without any thought in my head....  I actually watched a TED talk video today (obviously, I am finding time for some things - or more accurately, I'm desperately not doing other things so that I can watch TED talk videos, etc.) about Depression as a "disease of civilization."  This had many, many interesting facets to it which I will not bore you with, but one of them resonated quite a bit.   The guy had, like, 6 or 7 steps to changing your lifestyle to "treat" depression.   Exercise was number one - naturally.   But, one of them was to "stop ruminating"....  This is very interesting to me.  Because rumination is my thing.  SERIOUSLY.   I can turn a thought over in my own head so many times that it comes out mangled into something completely different.   I always thought that my capacity for self-reflection was a great thing - an asset.   However, this guy made a good point.   If some or many of your thoughts are negative in some way (and not all of mine are, obviously), ruminating over them is extremely detrimental to your mental health.   I'm quite sure, dear reader, that you are all sitting out there thinking - "Well, yeah, Lisa.  This is not rocket science.  Thinking negatively makes you more likely to encounter depression."   But, it was just the way that he said it and my connection to the idea that I LOVE self-reflection.   I love people who are self-reflective.   I love everything about it.   But, maybe, just maybe, all of that reflection needs to be balanced with a good bit of action - even if I haven't worked out all of the kinks in how I should act....

I probably should stop thinking about this right now.   See?   This is going to be hard.  

Anyway,  I had a relatively stable eating day.    I attended Scholarship Day at my school and played for and listened to some prospective students, which was great, but caused me to miss my happy Saturday morning time with the kids.   However, I avoided the muffins and granola bars set out for this event.   Then, as mentioned before, I cleaned.  And yes, it took me ALL AFTERNOON for two and 1/4 rooms.   ALL AFTERNOON.   Then, I headed out to "Into The Woods" - the world's longest musical.   And, now, I'm here.  And, I have to get up and be at church to play for the early service at 8:30am as usual tomorrow morning.    Thank goodness I've got a break coming up.  

Calories consumed:  1815
Calories burned:  some indeterminate amount while cleaning

Breakfast:  Two Eggo Waffles (chocolate chip),  Egg white muffin, coffee with milk
Lunch:  Handful of nuts, sugar snap peas, individual apple sauce, pretzels with hummus
Dinner:  one serving of chili,  broccoli,  baked potato with cheese
Snack:  popcorn

I needed more fruits and veggies today.   I plan on getting those in (as well as some serious exercise tomorrow) while navigating two church services and an afternoon birthday party for one of the kids' friends.   Also, more pics tomorrow.

Whew.   I'm going to sleep now.

Thanks for reading.