Three weeks ago, I ended up sick.  Pretty bad sick and I had the pleasure of being lectured about my asthma and caring for it.  Of course, I was doing everything I needed to do.  I got sick, and sicker (about this time, I stopped doing what I needed to to do…keep reading), and I got sicker…and that’s where I screwed up and didn’t do what I needed to do and see the doctor, which meant by the time I did go see somebody, I was so weak, I could barely make it to the mailbox, a whopping thirty feet from from the front door.

Sick, bronchial infection, rest, take the steroids, rest, watch this and watch that, and please, please rest.  Oh, and antibiotics, more steroids, and rest more.

Vacation was coming up anyway, so after I went on all those lovely drugs, I unplugged.  From twitter, from facebook, the blog…several posts had already been written so that was easy to unplug from.  And then I also unplugged from email and the net as much as I could.

We thought vacation would get screwed up, but after the upped dose of antibiotics and me taking it easy and actually resting, I did do better and we were able to take vacation.

It’s a good thing, because we were out in the back of the beyond-the Shenandoah Valley, to be exact and I couldn’t get online to tweet, to check facebook, or Amazon…I could catch email here and there and that was it.

In short, it was exactly what I needed. In lots of ways.

While I was sick, it dawned on me how much stuff I do have to do.  And how much I do because I want to (twitter), and how much stuff I do because I need to or feel obligated.  (Lots of this).

It’s no wonder I’m worn out…I think a lot of us are worn out any more because we try to cram so much into a day, and on top of the work stuff, there is the other stuff. This other stuff, for me, is the most important.

It’s the mom stuff, the wife stuff, stuff that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

It’s just the other stuff that I do…the stuff I don’t have to do that’s wearing me down. And I wonder why I collapse and all but hit the deck every time I get sick.

It’s time to cut back on some of the stuff.

I’ll still be blogging, but I may not be around as much as twitter or facebook.   

But if you don’t see me as much, it’s because my body and brain finally caught up with me and made me realize I need to slow down and stop pushing so much on myself, plus cut back a little even on the stuff I like doing.  It will free up the time I need for the the stuff I have to do and leave some time for relaxing, so hopefully I don’t drop like this again.

Now… some pictures… (yay! I can use pinterest again…they changed their TOS and it’s a lot more liveable now)

 

 

Taken somewhere off Skyline Dr in Virginia. Modified with the 100 Cameras App by Trey Ratliffe.

 

I took this one while the guy was driving. 🙂 Mountains make me happy.

 

Took this one when we went to DC for the day. Another one I modified with the 100 Cameras app.

 

Taken on one of the Civil War trails.

 

Taken in DC, at one of the museums.

And my favorite one is this… it had just finished raining a little and we had this beautiful rainbow at the USMC memorial.

 

What’s bizarre… I took all of these with my iPhone. I’ve got a digital Canon which I love, but I need to get an HDR camera. Really.