"Hey Mom... Breathe."

The title encapsulates the most recent reminder our son, Z, said to me moments ago as I sighed heavily and plopped into my chair at the computer.  I have about ten things I need to do while sitting here and I just barely walked in the door from the last thing I accomplished on the to-do list today.

On Monday (was that only yesterday?!), Z was having a rough morning and so I spent some time talking to him about stuff and then I enlisted his help. 

He was feeling a bit stressed about all the stuff we want to accomplish this week and he is not a crowd person, so the party coming up also has him on edge.  I told him I was feeling like there's a lot of stuff to do, too, and I would really appreciate him helping me to remember to keep breathing all week long.  That way, we'd make it through this together.  Plus, he feels useful so he can focus more on that instead of how miserable he is.

Breathing is really the only way we'll make it through anything stressful or rushed or whatever.  If we stop breathing, we die.  That's just not a good plan for getting stuff done around here.

It's also the main advice I give my closest friends when they come to me with their burdens looking for an ear, a prayer or some new advice.  I tell them that first they should breathe.  And to keep on breathing no matter how hard it gets to do that.

And I hope they realize that when I say it to them, I'm not belittling their troubles or negating the importance of praying first or doing the work necessary to accomplish the task or resolve an issue.

No, breathing is what helps us to be able to pray or do work or handle just about anything.

Intentional breathing also brings fresh oxygen to our brains and helps us to feel better and to think more clearly.  I know because while rushing around this week, every time our son speaks up with a reminder to me (and he's been pretty diligent), I pause and take a good deep breath before doing anything else.

You know what?  Even with all the stuff going on, I feel better this week than I've ever felt while in the middle of an enormous planning project.

I feel a sense of peace about how things are coming together even though time is running short and there are still so many things I want to get done ... plus the other stuff I keep adding on.  My list is never-ending.

When this Saturday gets here and every minute of the day is pretty much scheduled out, I think it won't matter as much if I've completed each and every plan of mine in the days preceding.  What's going to matter most is that our daughter is graduating high school (Hallelujah!) and many of our closest friends will be here, in our home, celebrating that with us.

And mostly, what will matter is that I've managed to keep on breathing.

Yesterday, we crossed these things off the list...

• Haircuts for S and I (J, too, but that was not on the list)
• Kept the house straightened up
• Ate our meals at pretty regular times
• Pulled out the rest of the glass in the broken pane of our front window
• Arranged for my friend, KF, to do some baking for the party
• Made a schedule for Tuesday's tasks

Getting haircuts.

Hopefully good enough to stave off any unwanted attention from the HOA.

Today, we've accomplished the following...

• Emailed SSW who is sharing our celebration for her own son who is graduating (and later she got back to me and we are making good plans!)
• Drove nieces and took care of E all day
• Ordered the cake
• Purchased the decorations for the party
• Purchased a couple new household pretties: front doormat, flowers for the front porch
• Got the floor of the homeschool room picked up (the rest of our sometimes guest room gets pulled together tomorrow)
• Old leftovers cleaned out of the fridge
• Three small plants installed in the patio planter
• Pulled weeds from another planter
• Picked up part of the backyard
• Did the dishes and fed the kids
• Got my eyebrows waxed (for the first time ever)

Mediterranean Pink Heather - now featured in our backyard.

Since getting my haircut shorter, my eyebrows were like center of attention in their bushiness.  Now they are looking fine and feeling better.

And yes, I realize that you see many of the photos I post here now over there on the side bar from my Instagram feed and so it's kind of lazily doubling up to put them on the blog, but too bad.  If you want me to include the occasional photo amongst all this text, you will have to sometimes just appreciate that I have my iPhone on me at all times and it has the handiest camera.  This way is just more efficient.

Anyway, whatever you have going on this week, remember to BREATHE!