Where Does the Time Go?

Do you ever wonder how we got to the middle of September already?  Seriously!  If I may step on a soapbox for a minute...what happened to quiet nights sitting at home hanging out, watching tv, and playing with our puppy?  Poor Cooper has gotten maybe 6 hours of our attention all week, instead of each day like normal.  Between meetings for work (me after work, Brad before), volleyball leagues (which is fun, but still), Bible study, weddings, other church commitments, and visitors/visiting, I feel like I have more on my plate than I should.


But God doesn't give us more than we can handle, right???


So I breathe when I can.

And I say to myself:

The laundry will have to wait (this was the first week since May that I did not wear my team shirt to volleyball because it's been sitting in the dirty laundry basket since last week).  I have lots of things in my closet I never wear, so now's the chance!  Groceries will somehow make it into our kitchen (or we'll get creative!  I doubt we'll go hungry).  The house will somehow appear clean when we have friends over for dinner on Saturday (probably we'll have to the "make it look  clean even if it's not" thing with candles and a quick vacuum).  The window trim will hopefully either get painted before winter or miraculously not rot over the cold months...  All our new plants we haven't had time to water will hopefully come back in spring or we'll just try again!  The rotting corn stalks in our garden that we never had time to eat/appreciate will probably get eaten by deer before we have time to pull them out, which I guess will save us a step.  My master's class work is not due for a month, so I have a little time to wait.  Maybe it's good for Cooper to learn to be okay without us so much???

Last year we really weren't involved in too much.  We did a summer volleyball league, but not fall.  I did Bible study, but not Brad.  I was minimally involved in extra things at work, so I could focus on just teaching.  Now I feel like everything got overloaded at once.  I took on an extra position at work, plus joined an extra committee.  Brad and I are both in Bible study, our summer volleyball transitioned into a fall league.  I'm teaching Sunday School.  I'm starting classes towards getting a master's degree.  Most of these things are blessings and fun things, and things we should be doing, but we just have to get used to being busier.  I'm not used to being home only one night a week.  I'm not used to having no free weekends.  I was really hoping to get back into a work out routine again when school started, but that has just not been able to happen.  Plus I think I have a hard time saying no to people, and it seems like once you get a little bit involved, people think you might be willing to do more things, too.

So anyway, here we are.  September 16.  Thanks for letting me vent a little - if you're still reading this at all.  :)  I have no new pictures to post.  I literally have not taken one single picture since California (Sept. 6).