Mentally I'm more like the second picture which is not a throwback from Christmas, but rather it was taken by me in our front yard last night. Curtis has been in California for work of since Monday and is (thankfully) back today. The girls missed him a lot and they're snuggled up in oversized Giants t-shirts as I type this. Before 🦠 he'd travel like this pretty much every week. It was hard, but we'd found our groove. Now at least the girls are a bit older, but after I pulled a muscle a few days ago that I didn't know existed, I'm starting to think, so am I 😅👵🏻 Between my tweaking hip, teaching Vacation Bible School this week, our aging cats competing to see who can hack up their hair balls in the most inopportune places, some raging eczema, our laundry hangover from summer trips still raging on, and Catherine with a surprise 4:45 AM wake up ... my mood is very much like the dehydrated palm trees, wrapped in half working Christmas lights that until I walked outside to dump our recycling, didn't know were being turned on each night to fully put on display for our neighbors just how much of a hot mess we are right now. Obviously this isn't everything, there's so much on my various to do lists and a myriad of concerns weighing on my heart and mind. Of course it's not all bad. Mixed right on in there is so much hope, excitement and special memories to be made on the horizon. I know for a fact I'm not alone in these feelings. I'm truly happy for those of y'all who feel like you're thriving and have it all together. I suspect some of y'all may also be feeling like a scraggly palm tree with broken, blinking Christmas lights on display in August, and that's ok too. Just do what I do, and wrap yourself up like a burrito and fall asleep to your favorite comfort show (may I recommend The Office, Parks & Rec, Frasier, or Golden Girls) Or, you could do what I'm also (trying) to do which is remind myself that every to-do list gets tackled the same way - not with the snap of the fingers or all at once, but bit by bit. 📸 @alisiathompson_photo