Wow time flies

First off I would like to apologize for my absence.  I have been busy dealing with a family issue and I am still deeply involved with cleaning up the mess in my home at the moment.  G took some pictures of my 'mess' and I will post them later with a more elaborate explanation to my absence.

I have missed spending time with you all and trying to get my house in order before Xmas season officially starts.  My health is holding in by a thread at the moment and feel a burn out coming quickly but I can no longer stand the chaos in my home.

G is still looking for work and actually has an interview today and a friend has passed on G's resume to his own business and when the owner saw it, he said, "This guy sounds perfect for a new job opening." So we really hope he gets the later job because it seems like something he would love to do and has experience in doing it.

My stress levels are ridiculously high the last couple of weeks and am trying to relax for a couple of hours in the early morning and late evenings.  Not sure if it is working LOL.

I do have some projects that I will be working on soon.  Some of them are Christmas presents that I need to work on for the kids this year.  I need to make my way down to the Re Store and go shopping.  Any excuse to go shopping right girls?  LOL  I am looking for cabinet doors for one of the projects.I need four of them.  I also have to start working on getting addresses for Xmas cards this year.

My mom and her boyfriend have been gone for only 10 days and I miss them horribly.  I do try and call them at least once a day, especially since they are my support at the moment for my 'mess'.  I don't know how I am going to be like after 5 months without my best friend around.  I am not sure if I will ever get used to her leaving each year.  But I am trying not to be selfish but its very hard.  As we grow,  I cherish her time with me more and more and am afraid that the time she is away from me is time wasted.  *see trying really hard not to be selfish but I think I am failing :(

I have a few more ideas for homemade solutions like I did for the 31 days Nester challenge I did in October.      I was able to get all my posts done but I have more in my head I would love to share with you.  I am also going to try and get a few things to host a small giveaway.  If you have a product or service and would like to donate to our readers then please email me at homemakerhaven at gmail dot com and I will see if we can get set up for a december giveaway.

Well back to work for me.  I do hope you all are still around and look forward to spending more time back on the blog and I am still in the process of designing a new self hosted/domain blog that I will eventually switch over to.  I do admit that I have just been too exhausted to even reach over and open my laptop.

Have any of you started your Christmas decorations yet?s  If so, are you finished or is it a work in progress?  What is your most loved Christmas decor piece and why?

I'm still here..

Wow what a busy week I have had.  I got my mother and her boyfriend off Sunday morning to Detroit, where they stayed in a hotel till the next morning before flying to Yuma Arizona, where the live half the year.  We have also had an emergency in our family that has been taking G and I away from home each day.  Although I do believe that by the end of Wednesday we should be finished for the most part.

I am sure I will fall asleep Wednesday evening, and spend most of the next days sleeping and recouping from all this activity.

I am sorry that I haven't been able to get over and share some awesome projects that I am working on but I do think I can share a couple at the end of the week.

I have also purchased a domain name and hosting and will eventually migrate to WordPress.  I am not aware of all the goodies that come with WordPress as well as not knowing the exact way to create my own themes..  So I will be doing a lot of studying till I get that up and running.

I know there are couple of  you that have commented and I will try and answer you by Thursday.

For all of you knowledgeable WordPress users, what plug-ins/widgets are your 'can't live without' favorites?  Also please tell us why you like them?

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to be back soon.

Do you have a hard time sleeping when your are stressed?

Wow can you believe that it is November all ready?   I am still awake tonight, it is 3:30 am and I am trying to get some work done on my household binder since I am unable to sleep.

I experience a lot of anxiety and today it just wasn't a good day.  Stress crept up and bit me all day. 

I suffer from depression and have since I was 7 years old.  When I get excited, nervous or afraid, my stress level skyrockets, like I am sure most of you do as well.  Tomorrow will be a long day for me. 

First thing in the morning I need to get up and tidy the dining room as I am having a meeting at 10:30.  This meeting was scheduled for last week but they cancelled the day of.  The worst part is that this meeting in my home will consist of 5 of us.  To give you a little back history, I have a PSW come into my home to help me twice a week.  So I have a meeting with all the agencies involved to deal with a few things that have been a bother to us about the service in the last few months.

The agency would change the times that the PSW's were coming to my home almost every week.  Now you ask , what is bad about that? LOL Well they kind of didn't tell me ever.  So I would sit here and wait, and wait, and sometimes I waited 5 hours.    With my health and all the doctors that I have to see, its very hard for me to schedule anything on days that the PSW comes cause I never know when they are coming.   Also I am of the mind that if I am sure to be ready and early for my appointments (showing respect to others), then I should be respected for my time as well.  I feel totally disrespected as if I have no life at all and am free to wait around all day for them to show up whenever.  Issue 1

**Note:  I just wanted to add to the paragraph above, that I understand things come up and people are late.  But I feel a patient's time is just as important as the Dr's. etc.** 

Also the second last time I had a review with the agency that sends my PSW out, she said something like this (paraphrasing), "You are too young to be on service, we will have to try and get you off within the next 6 months."  Now I know I have not talked much about my illnesses, but none of them will improve.  Each has 'will deteriorate' on my disability forms.  Also, one of the standards in the book they give you it says they will not discriminate based on race, age, etc. etc.  That really upset me.  Of course I would love to be off service but that is not realistic.

Anyway that is my morning for tomorrow, so am nervous about the outcome.  But the exciting part is that tomorrow I will finally be getting my hair cut.  Not just a trim , but quite a few inches.  It is almost at my tailbone.  I have picked a lovely medium cut, and a color and foil.  I haven't had short hair in many many many years, but due to my health I just cannot look after it anymore.

Also lets add the stress of G not having worked in almost a year.  Add a temporary stint at one employers for 2 months, but it wasn't a good fit.  We have basically been living due to family helping out.  I will be forever grateful for all the help we have received in the last year.  It's super stressful, I never know where we are going to get the money to pay this bill and that bill.  This week has been super long cause we are waiting for one company to give him an offer. 

Have I told you that I hate 'waiting' LOL.  I am not the most patient person in the world.  I also am not fond of surprises.  Yeah I know… boring lol. 

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I finally fell asleep halfway through writing this post.  It was actually written yesterday Nov.1, but due to the busy day I had, I never got the opportunity to finish and post this.  I will be writing a post tomorrow about my day today and the results of the meeting and hair.  

What strategies do you use to calm down when you have had 'one of those days'?  Do you use meditation techniques at night to let yourself mellow out and sleep well?