Stress...
Well the deadline that I was working towards for the last two weeks finally ended Friday at midnight. Has my stress dissipated with it? Of course not - because now I'm 2 weeks behind on my other work project that I was supposed to be working on and got pulled off of and we're moving in 2 weeks and I haven't even really started packing, nor have we signed on an apartment!

But I need to focus on reducing stress because it has been causing physical symptoms for the past month or so that I can no longer deal with. I'm sleeping 10-12 hours some nights (weeknights 9-10 and weekends 11-12), this just causes more stress because it shortens my daytime hours. That's the worst symptom but there are plenty more and now that I know it's stress causing it I'm going to do some things about it.

First off - this week I will leave work by 5pm each night, I will get some exercise in (preferably a nice run outside). I will pack/clean for 30 minutes and then I will relax with some stitching on my Neighborhood RR which I need to start. I'm going to take next Friday off completely to make sure I finish the website, pack and stitch.
Before bed I will do some breathing and relaxing exercises (friday night I took a bath at midnight when I got home which was great) and I will try to get up after only 8 hours of sleep.

It's time to take care of myself a little better because how I'm feeling affects my loved ones and in particular my fiance who has plenty of stress himself with a final this week.

So you will see my posting more often again - and hopefully with some stitching. Tomorrow I will post my Celebrations report finally. I will take those pictures tonight before bed. Now I need to go check out the website and see what I can do in the next 40 minutes before I start "relaxing".

To all my friends - don't forget to take care of yourselves, you can't help those around you if you yourself are not happy and healthy.