Today was a rough day, today I was overwhelmed with the house chores, the to-do lists, the weeds in the garden, the birthday gifts that needed to be made and mailed, the overdue library books and late home schooling reports, the whining kids and my exhausted state.  I am ashamed to say that I lost my temper (several times) and yelled at my kids.  After apologies, snuggles and story time together, I was still pretty frazzled.  When hubby came home I escaped for a very long walk and that helped.  After our late lunch I realized my mood was still too delicate to tackle the endless tasks awaiting me after 3 very busy weeks of work and year-end activities for the kids.  And so, I escaped to my room for a                                                                        N A P !                                                                 Not sure when I last did that, but after over an hour and a half I finally woke up, this time with a relative sense of calm and a feeling that I could make it through the day (mind you, it was nearly dinner, so that shouldn’t really be so daunting in any case).

What was the biggest lesson in this hard day?  I think this painting of mine has captured it —  I need to put more energy into relaxing!  It might be time to move this piece out of the guest room and into a room that I spend more time in…

Perhaps I should move it to an outdoor “room”.  I definitely have not been putting enough energy into sipping tea on the new deck….I will have to try a little harder!

How are you making efforts to relax these days?