I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed the last several weeks. There is nothing in particular causing this, it is combination of traveling, work, the holidays, and just the demands and emotions of a toddler. There are a lot of things in there that I cannot control. When I get feeling like that my initial reaction is to simplify as much about the things I can control.
I started off November with a week-long work trip to Dallas. A few days after that we loaded up the car and drove to Indiana for Thanksgiving. We had a great week with my family, then made the 12 hour trip back to Arkansas. We were home for 4 days then we got on a plane to go to Orlando for Amanda's Grandmother's memorial service. It was both a physically and emotionally draining weekend. We got back last Monday night and I went to work on Tuesday to see a huge pile of stuff I had to get done.
All week I've felt behind on my sleep. Amelia is totally off her schedule. She has been staying up until at least 10pm every night. My wife usually has to lay down in the crib with her to coax her into going to sleep. Amelia went without a nap yesterday and got to bed a little earlier, so hopefully we get her back on track over the next couple days.
With Christmas coming Amelia is going to get some new toys. We already had Christmas with my family and she got some new things. Today we went through her toy box and bagged up a ton of stuff that she doesn't play with anymore to make room for her new loot. I already feel much better about the condition of our living room. Simplify. Remove distractions.
I have realized over the last few months that we were not watching much tv. The growing list of shows on our dvr felt more like a to-do list than a form of entertainment. I'd been thinking about canceling our cable for a while now, but this week I pulled the trigger. I called AT&T Uverse on Friday and told them I wanted to cut the cable. It was a clean break. We can't watch any of the stuff that was sitting our our dvr, and I am okay with that. I hooked up our OTA antennas. We are able to get all our local stations in HD with an antenna. I'm looking forward to only being able to pick from 6 channels, and not having a dvr. I'm even more excited about all the money we will be saving.
The craziness that Christmas brings isn't over yet, but the finish line is in sight. I have been trying to focus on experiencing everything through my daughter's eyes and sharing in her excitement. I think we are going to do Christmas at our house next weekend and I am really looking forward to it.
That is all I have for now. Maybe I will check in next month.
