How is it already November?! This is one of those things about getting older… time passes faster and faster. You always hear that as a kid or teen, but it gets more real with each passing year. This year is registering in my mind as “What just happened?” (There may be some expletives in that statement too.)

But today, with it being the first Monday in November, I’m really feeling the weight of stress.  Let’s see if listing things out makes it feel like a less overwhelming time:

• Have the kid home from school today because it’s parent-teacher conferences. Try to get some work done during this time.
• Attend my first parent-teacher conference as a parent.
• Go to the dentist.
• Vote. Yes, I’m supposed to get time off work to go vote by law… doesn’t meant that it doesn’t add to the stress. I have to take that time away from getting work done, and read through the 9,302 judge options on the ballot. Why are there so many judges?!
• Run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay this weekend with a team full of strangers. Kind of having a moment where I’m questioning my sanity on that choice! (It will be fun.)
• Run a search committee and hire a new employee at work.
• Finish building the redesigned web site for work, launch it and sit back to field all the complaints that will inevitably come in and be directed at me.
• Oversee a major household renovation that will be taking place this month.
• Have the kid home from school again on the 11th, because her school is closed for Veterans’ Day.
• Guest lecture for a university class
• Thanksgiving
• Get the dog to the vet for shots
• Keep trying to make menus/meals for the fam, which I am getting better and better about FAILING in that regard.
• Buy my kid some warm clothes. And new shoes.
• Keep being the default parent.
• Try not to go completely blog-silent during all this. The site has brought me some amazing opportunities, but it has to be one of the first things that gets relegated to the back-burner… it’s not a living-breathing member of my family nor does it actually pay the bills.

Nope, still feel stressed. Sigh… Oh well, this too shall pass, right? And some of the stuff on the list is really good stuff, it’s just that all added together I feel burdened and unbalanced.