The Buerglers

When I first transitioned to being a stay-at-home-mom I feared that I would waste the days away, and while some days this is true, I have found that having a decent routine helps keep peace and order in the house but also increases my productivity. It has taken me a decade or two to admit that I actually need and thrive on routine.  My free spirit didn't want to seem "trapped" or "tied down" - however, sometime at the end of college I learned that a little self discipline goes a long way.  When I graduated I was balancing 3 part-time jobs, and later added graduate school into that mix. It wasn't that each day had the same routine, per say, but that each day of the week did and that was enough. Now that I am home with the girls, we have preschool, I teach an online theology class, workout, and juggle dance/gymnastics/PSR, and a small photography business. It seems like a lot but finding the day-to-day routine and the weekly routine has made everything p...

This summer started with a blur. Another bout of depression and anxiety hit my like a fright train.  The hardest part of the illness is that people who have never experienced it think you can "snap out of it" or "just stop worrying" - but it's more powerful than a bad day or being nervous. It's all consuming and debilitating and there is NOTHING that will make it better. Now that I have been through this three times, I know that there is a trifecta of things that trigger it for me: significant hormone change like post partum or post weaning  significant life changes like in my career or family Eric being gone and/or emotionally unavailable due to travel or work This summer I stopped nursing Maggie, Eric was stuck working looooong hours at work, the overwhelmingness of summer was upon me, and I was finally grieving the loss of my job (yes, even though *I* quit it an entire year before).  Eric and I had also made the decision not to open a small bus...

Friday is my sabbath in a sense. Every other day of the week is go-go-go, including Sundays because I work for the Church.  I am a part-time employee so I take Tuesday and Friday off.  Tuesdays are full of doctors appointments or play group or play dates. But Friday, Friday is my sacred day.   No alarm clock. No agenda. Evie and I get to sleep in and do whatever we want. I make sure the day is about us and taking it slow. Today I woke up at 6:00, 30 minutes before I usually do during the week (why God, why?) but I laid in bed reading until 8:00am.  Evie had no sign of waking (okay, thank you God!).  She was exhausted from a busy week of school. I dragged myself out of bed, threw on some workout clothes and put my hair in a pony tail + headband for a dead sexy look. What to do today? I decided that Evie and I both needed some fresh air and Vitamin D straight from the source.  A nice long walk it would be. A co-worker gave me a $31 gi...

 Eric and I have been trying to get to Stateboro, GA to visit my siblings at least once a year. All three of them went to Georgia Southern.  After Katie (the last one) graduated two years ago we changed that "tradition" to Savannah, GA, where my brother, his wife, and our nephew/Godson Zachary live. Last year we went in early April .  This year we went down for Easter weekend. The whole trip came about because Eric's great aunt and uncle live in Beaufort, SC (about an hour away) and his family was meeting up to celebrate Easter there this year.  We took off Friday, left the house by 6 am to beat Spring Break traffic and were in Savannah by lunch. We had a pretty funny hiccup on the way down.  Just as we got to 75S/285 my GPS app was exploding with notifications about several miles of stopped traffic. I pulled up Atlanta traffic twitter feed and sure enough there was an accident.  And by accident I mean a tuna truck caught on fire! For...