Out of Control with BAD HABITS

Hi All.  My blogging groove kind of slowed down big time.  It's weird trying to decide what I put in my private blog and what I put on this blog... and tonight, I just don't care.  So here it is. :)

The past 2 weeks kind of rocked me.  I felt super out of whack and completely off balance in every aspect of my life.  I've been running myself into the ground in my work world trying to help a particular teen complete college scholarship applications and other Club related competitions.  I have put 100% in for this girl and will continue to do so, but man, it's wiping me out.  I hope all my efforts bring forth great fruit!

With school, I continue to get amazingly good grades (YAY) but I leave everything to the LAST minute.  I am usually up late ('til 4am-ish) every Tuesday night trying to finish homework due in class the next day.  The dumb thing is I have every intention to do homework on MONDAY nights too, so I end up staying up SUPER late on Mondays, but really only get distracted, stay up 'til ridiculous hours of the night, and come away having accomplished absolutely nothing-- only another successful night of NO SLEEP.  And yet, somehow, I show up for class every Wed 6-10pm full of energy, confidence, passion, and excitement for the world of school counseling.  The program is perfect for me and I'm excited (and nervous) to get more into it come this spring! (I'll start a 100 hour practicum at a high school, observing a school counselor who I met through my work at the Boys & Girls Club.  Score!)

I love love love my Church calling and continue to embrace it with love and smiles.  Last weekend rocked me as I spent 7 hours at a winter workshop training for stake Young Leaders and Camp Leaders (I helped in one of the workshops)... and the following day I taught the youth in 2 different ward conferences.  Nothing huge and scary-- just time consuming and exhausting.  And I was so hoping the Spirit would be with me and help me teach effectively; I hope it did.  I have a lot to juggle and organize and I often feel like I fall short in being a leader/mentor for the YW leaders in the stake, but I am determined to tie down loose ends and get it all on track.  I am grateful for a gung-ho secretary and 2 great counselors to support me.  I LOVE my interactions with the girls in the stake and have made efforts to attend high school basketball games for a few of them.  I really enjoy doing stuff like that and will continue to do so as long as my schedule permits!

I taught the young women in the Spanish ward today... and spoke half English, half Spanish.  I really enjoyed it!  I learn so much from these girls and I am continually blessed as I study and dig into the gospel to prepare for these lessons.  I feel myself growing in this calling and I need that.

I stopped caring and stressing about dating.  I kind of just don't want to deal with it right now.  And that's that.  There are still a few lingering "set-ups" that haven't happened yet, but we all know I'm not in a hurry to make the first move with any of those.

My sleeping habits are out of whack.  Big time.  I rarely go to bed before 2am... and too often I end up turning out the light around 4am.  Why?!?  sigh.  I don't know.  The best excuse is I usually don't get home from work until after 9pm or so, so my "day" doesn't start until much later than most.  I love being up at night.  I love doing my thing.  But I should really go to bed earlier so I can embrace the mornings and be productive during those hours.  Life would be so much better.  And I could actually go RUNNING again and feel good about my physical health!  Lately I'm more like a zombie and just keep going.

I won't even go into details about my eating habits.  All I know is I'm having some pretty weird allergic reactions of some sort and there are foods that definitely should not be eating... and I just keep eating them.  I am starting to really think twice about my choices, especially in relation to the experiences my sister Heather is still going through.  Click HERE to read her latest blog post.  Have I ever told you I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis 10 years ago?  Maybe I'll write about that some time... life goes on!

So here I sit.  Drowning in my bad habits and off-balance behaviors.  But even still... I am super happy and loving life. :) I have so much fun every day, whether at work, talking with family, with people in the stake, with Cassity, or just plain happy driving in my car.  I take it as a compliment when I tell people I'm 32 yrs old and they kind of go, "Whaaaa??"  Yup.  True story.

So that's me.  Plugging along, one day at a time.

p.s.  I've written in my journal every singly day since Jan 1st.  Super proud of myself!