balance

Whoa, it has been awhile.

For the past couple months I have been thinking about what my word for the year could be. It was pretty evident what it needed to be as I was going from one task to another and not really seeing the big picture of where I am headed in my life.

I was overwhelmed and depressed and concluded that I needed a major life overhaul.

According to the dictionary, one of the definitions of BALANCE is "to arrange, adjust, or proportion the parts of symmetrically."

Now as my life is starting to settle down after some of the changes I have made, I am ready to emerge again in the blogging world with a renewed sense of not only what and where I need to be now but the direction of the path should be taken for the future and dang...it looks bright.

I realized that every activity, every minute of every day was directed by work. Do I work this night, will I be too tired to participate, are we ever going to be able to do anything fun? So, I changed jobs and cut down my hours. I went back home to the University Hospital and I will never, ever have the reception that I received anywhere else in my life when I walked back on that unit until I am reunited with loved ones up in heaven. I felt like a celebrity. It was so fun to see all my friends and in a weird way, it was like I never left. Although I had to readjust my work flow due to the differences between IMC and the U, I felt like I was right where I needed to be and could jump right back in. I will miss my friends at IMC but I know that this was a good move and working less and being with my peeps at the U has improved my mood significantly.

A few months ago I also started making changes in our financial accounts and we are really trying to save money, we ask ourselves if we really need this or that, I started couponing, and I feel like I am pretty good at finding a deal now. I am hoping that we can start having more excursions and doing fun things together as a family with cutting down at work and putting our money to good use. I want to have fun in this life...not have it be a platform for how much we can work.

I also realized that I was making excuses of why I was not doing the things that I needed to be doing in my life because I was so tired from working so much. I wasn't saying my prayers or reading my scriptures on a regular basis. I wasn't going to the temple. I would be grumbly about helping my kids out or wouldn't be on top of things and we would be scrambling to get projects done. I didn't feel like I was there for my boys and I felt empty because my cup definately was not running over. It was pretty much empty. We are working on bringing the Spirit back into our home and working together as a family to pray more and study more and become a stronger family.

Exercise is also something I am trying to work on since it is pretty non existent in my life. I want to live for a long, long time and I know that I need to start doing it to increase my health and also feel better about the way my tummy looks. I am thinking about cutting back on my diet coke intake but one thing at a time, right?

Both Justin and I have grown in the last year and feel blessed and grateful for where we are right now. I am excited about the future and am happy that just little changes have brought such peace into my life.

I needed it.