God bless this STRESS!

Ever feel like there's just not enough of you! Boy, have I been feeling that way lately! It's like suddenly school let out, four kids are home and someone opened the flood gate and BOOM everything at once! It's not always a BAD busy, but just plain BUSY..

Praise the Lord the Real Estate market really picked up in the last month. I was just wading through work this spring, when the boys WERE in Mother's Day Out, then the minute school let out there was a HUGE tidal wave of business! I'm so thankful for the rush and the beautiful houses I'm listing as well as selling! It's just crazy. BUT, I didn't plan on a lot of childcare for this summer, so it's been really interesting, but doable, juggling the kids.



These girls I have are wearing me out too. I always thought the boys were the real task. OH NO. They don't require NEAR the time the girls do. With Caroline doing 14 hours a week of gymnastics, and then coming home an absolute crab because she's plum wore out, it's just taxing. Then, she wants to have friends over, which I try to encourage because there IS more to life than gymnastics! She's is quite persistant and doesn't take no for an answer very easily.

Then there's Kate. She recently made Dance Company at Jenni Holley. (Congratulations, Kate) So she is busy going to dance classes and camps. She too is always asking for things. Like enough is not enough. Can I have a friend over? .. Okay now, can we go swimming, .. okay now can we go to the mall? . Alright now we want to rent a movie. I mean the asking NEVER ends. The whole time I'm meeting all these girl needs, the boys are just riding along in the car hoping for a little smidgen of attention. It's TRUE!

It seems like this summer every day has been packed. I kinda miss the days of "filling time"... "keeping the kids occupied".. between showing houses, inspections, phone calls, gymnastics, karate, dance and swim lessons, there is NO time filling here.

One thing that I have found that has helped me not turn into a maniac and continue to gray so quickly is exercise. I have found myself stress eating, so exercise is very beneficial. The other day, I was in the middle of a tense situation and looked down to find myself just eating Pirate birthday cake by the forkfulls. Well, if you don't know me very well, I'm quite health concious, very aware of my weight and don't often eat cake. This is another very stressing thing for me.. is being so aware of my size and what I eat. I was not blessed with a flying metabolism like my daughters and my friend, Heather, so I have to work at it. Thankfully, I caught myself eating that delicious chocolate Pirate cake with buttercream icing, and just moved right away. Yum! If I would have kept that up, then I'd be on the scales stressing like this gal.

This week Chad is out of town and Kate is at camp. While having one less kid is helpful, it is my older kid who is capable of helping out at the house when asked. So, It's just me and the little guys.

Thank God for sweet little Rachel, my babysitter, who's coming tomorrow to give me a small break. AND, I'm soo excited about this weekend. I am going with some girlfriends to a spa in Austin and just having some good rest and relaxation and, of course, shopping. This was Chad's Birthday present to me. I'm SO excited. I haven't had a girls' weekend since COLLEGE. NO LIE.. I'll post pictures of that later! So, I will continue to run like the wind, but thank God that I still can!