Alden likes to trot around telling us all about what he is doing. He is getting a lot better at communicating. There are fewer screams and squeals to direct our actions. He adopted his own sign for want… convenient that it is basically the same as the ASL sign. He is also very good and showing us how exciting something is for him. He goes around and says “Whoa!” or “Woo!” This happens a lot.

I can’t put my finger on it. Sure, I am busy. Yeah, I am a bit overwhelmed. But that doesn’t explain it. My emotions are all over the place. I feel like a bottle of soda that has been put in a paint shaker. Can you hear the machine, “Shake! Shake! Shake!” I am exhausted and on the verge of drenching myself and everything near me with my liquid emotions. As I ruminate on life like a cow chewing on cud I try to get to the bottom of this lull. Meanwhile, Bah Humbug.

I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person. Either I do things one hundred percent or I don’t do them at all. The reason isn’t solely because I want to excel. Although I do put things off until I can do them the ‘right’ way. It turns out this usually means I get overwhelmed with the final goal. An example is my singing lessons. Hmmm…. practice an hour a day. Warm up, cover technique and repertoire. Be ready next week to show off the results. Finding an hour of uninterrupted time to cover a dozen songs and perfect everything along the way is impossible. Not possible means I feel like failure is imminent so I do nothing.

The solution: Break it down. Baby steps. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. I need little goals. To press forward I must set up manageable tasks to survive. Novel idea? No. But sometimes we need to remind ourselves of the obvious.