Halloween, ASU & More Camping

This past weekend was weighed down, boxed in, and surrounded by busy and unnecessarily stressful days. Let's have a week in review for the week before Halloween:

Monday: normal back to work monday, nothing fun about these days; went shopping to prepare for Thursday (keep reading...)
Tuesday: girls' Bible study night, my night to lead (interpret: stop by the store for wine and delicious dessert on the way home, drink glass of wine while cleaning house with one hand and holding Bible to read/prepare in other)
Wednesday: fabulous date with Whit & Andy to a new yummy Italian restaurant - not stressful, but still not time at home to prepare for Thursday
Thursday: 2nd annual letter-themed halloween party, prepare for Friday, pack and cook for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Friday: present lecture to group of psychologists at Behavioral Health Center with colleague, invited back after last year's presentation (thank goodness I could repeat my presentation!) 1/2 day at work, leaving for ASU game, tailgate, 8:00 Halloween game in Boone crammed into 2 bleachers with 16 extra people, one too many of whom had had one too many Fireflys; spend a relaxing (hooray!) night at Brittney & Jacob's
Saturday: delicious breakfast at Melanie's with friends, buy Christmas present with hubby, go to wedding shower for Lynn & Michael, hang out outside in cool chairs with matching caps, get lost with Matt & Kat driving to campsite (does this part sound familiar?), camp with 4 other couples
Sunday: wake up from a nyquil-induced semi-sleep (as well as you can sleep camping), drive through Stone Mountain, come home & nap, dread going to work Monday...

Not so stressful or crazy as I look back on it, but I'll tell you what...communication was far from its best in the Bruce household this week as my obsessive compulsive, need to be in control, easily annoyed, type A, high stress, why can't everyone just be like me, evil twin Eller, lesser self, seriously in need of Jesus self decided to put on a show in full force. No need to ask for encores, I was putting on a serious show every night! Sigh...always good to get a good dose of humility and a reminder of who I am when I'm not working on being who I am striving to be!

We all get our days though, don't we? I'm learning patience. And tough love. And realizing there are lingering parts of the serious side of me that are here to keep me grounded, it's okay that my sister used to call me boring, I need to be boring sometimes. I can't love other people well if I can't love myself; and I definitely can't help other people grow if I can't help myself. Don't grow weary in planting seeds, rejoice in the harvest, rest in the winter.