Grateful Friday

Wow.  This week has been a busy one.  Starting with Thanksgiving, I feel like I've been running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up.

Marianne and I were talking about stress yesterday.  She and I are the same.  We are do-ers (you can't be Coralee Dahl's daughter and not be a do-er).  We get stuff done.  But we have a threshold and when we have more to do than we feel like we can comfortably do, we get stressed.  Marianne told me (based on an article she read) that stress is bad for your health for people like us but some people thrive under stress and it isn't bad for their health.  So we need to be like those people.

Embrace the stress.

I don't know if I can teach this old dog that trick.

Here's something though.  One of the things taking a whole lot of my time this week was the Relief Society Christmas party.  I'm on the RS board.  (Apparently around here if there's a committee, put Thelma on it.)  This week I spent hours with the other women on the board.  We made ornaments together and planned and set up and cleaned up and carried stuff across the street from Susan's house (Susan has all the party stuff you ever need in your life) to Michelle's house (Michelle decorated her house in a stunning magnificent way to host the party).

Initially I felt a little (or a lot) begrudging about all the time spent when I had a busy week anyway.  Last night when I drove home late and with sore feet (because I wore the cute shoes that aren't super comfortable) the only thing I felt was grateful though.

I like those other women on the committee.  I enjoyed laughing with them and working together.  I loved the very real conversation we had about raising children.  Sometimes these things just happen when you're sitting around a table, painting and mod-podging.  I need time and shared experiences to make friends.  I'm grateful for opportunities to get to know good women, even when I thought I was too busy.