As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon. David is out driving with Meredith. I’m sitting at a desk in my craft room – leaning back, with my legs crossed over the knee – and Liam is asleep on top of me. Somehow I’ve managed to balance him on my chest with his head on my shoulder and get my hands free to type. My legs are propped against the legs of the desk in such a way as to keep me exactly in this position. He is a large baby, as I may have mentioned before, so I can’t say that I am exactly comfortable.

I opened the computer intending to browse my Project Life Pinterest board. Before Liam fell asleep on me he was puttering around the craft room floor, getting into things he shouldn’t have been. I was letting him, in exchange for being able to work on Project Life. There are a couple of blank pockets in this current spread that I wasn’t sure what to do with, so I wanted some inspiration. But then I figured it was a good time to write a few words.

Now my neck is getting a crick in it and my back is becoming sore. Let me shift my weight. There, that’s a little better.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about being super tired, acting grumpy, and needing to slow down and release expectations. Well. It kind of got worse before it got better. I shed some tears. I felt low-level depressed for a week or so.

But the last few days have been good. I feel like things are being handled. The house is clean and decorated for Christmas, the laundry is done, the week’s meals are planned, and we’ve had a lot of downtime to connect as a family. I ran three times this week, and reached out to a friend to do the long runs on weekends together. We did our first yesterday and it was SO much better to go with her on a trail instead of by myself in my neighborhood. I mean, the first half marathon is only six weeks away. I basically have to add a mile per week to get to where I need to be. So this is being prioritized.

I also told David that I would really like some time to myself this weekend that doesn’t involve running or monitoring a sleeping child. This right now, this doesn’t count. I’m stuck to this chair unless I want to risk waking Liam up. If I were here alone, I’d get myself a drink and turn on some music at least. But he is taking the kids to his parents’ house for the evening and even though I’m tempted to be jealous (I love having dinner over there with them) I need the alone time to recharge.

I’ve been really into Ali Edwards’ memory-keeping projects lately. I’m still working on my Week in the Life album. I’m currently documenting for December Daily, although I’m going to complete my entire album after the fact because I wasn’t able to prepare ahead of time. (I really hope Ali does Week in the Life earlier in the year next year, to give us time to finish up before moving on to December Daily.) I’m thinking of joining her One Little Word class for next year.

I love how these projects all have a different purpose and they are all perfect complements to Project Life. This morning Meredith and I looked through the year’s album and I was blown away again at how much I love it. Everything about it. I’m so grateful that I decided to give it a try almost three years ago, and that now it is almost second nature.

Real time update: David and Meredith just came home to pick up Liam and go to his parents’ house, and now I am really, truly, alone for the first time in months that I’m not also running or driving. So, it’s go time. Should I scrapbook? Read? Wrap gifts? Watch Netflix? A little of everything? I don’t know yet how I’ll spend the next few hours, but I’m feeling pretty good about it.