Yodel-Ay-EEE-Oooo! I’m Exhausted--She Isn’t!

Punchy is a blessing but takes a lot of energy. She wants to go, go, go.

Sometimes it all feels like too much. Too much stress, too much responsibility, too many appointments. Too many dishes, too many cups of coffee, too little exercise to clear my mind.

Too much sugar, which makes me even more stressed and jittery. I don’t bake sweet treats now--and I miss and mourn that, I really do--but I will sniff them out in the house or car like a police dog after drugs. The dumb Yodels Dan bought once for Punch--more to relive his childhood and show her the ritual of unrolling them, I think, than to satisfy any snack want of hers. She can take them or leave them.

But I wished for Drake’s Cakes as a girl--oh, those lucky kids at Saint Mary’s School who took silver-foil-wrapped Ring Dings and perfect little round Coffee Cake Jrs. from their lunchbags--so I took a twin pack from her bedroom.

See the allure of an individually wrapped, cream-filled cake punched out by a machine? Stress drug?

1. I need to be pitching ideas, setting up story interviews, contacting colleagues, restarting my job hunt. Job search may seem counterintuitive since I’m already so stressed but part of our stress is financial, with both of us freelancing.
2. And I need to breathe deep, exercise and eat healthfully.

I think 1. hums along when 2. is honored and observed; 2. feeds and fuels clear thinking and creativity.

Good night.

TCOY

1. Planned a walk w Elly for tomorrow.
2. Going for dermatology checkup tomorrow for first time in easily 5+ years. Too long. Lazy about sunscreen and skin cancer runs in family.
3. Reread "The Gift of the Magi," that wonderful old Christmas story by O. Henry. 
4. Made mashed potatoes--with butter, local buttermilk, milk, sea salt and Yukon Golds--to serve w hot turkey for dinner. Mini chef Punch taste-tested, having me add more butter and scattering on Swedish sea salt, etc.
5. We did the dishes together, me and Punch, while listening to Taylor Swift and other songs on P’s Spotify Party Playlist. I washed, she dried and put the dishes away. 
6. Wrote and reflected here.