Gratitude Practice 2020 Day 1: Back to Real Life Eve

Tonight! Similar to many children on December 24th, I am absolutely giddy with excitement and wonder and anticipation at the idea of what tomorrow morning brings...a return to real life! Eeeee! Since the middle of November it's been a steady stream of holiday magic. I’ve mingled and I’ve jingled. I’ve holly-ed and I’ve jolly-ed. I’ve traveled and...I’ve even babbled and tonight on this, Sunday, January 5, 2020 I am an absolute puddle of gratitude and exhaustion and excitement. So very ready to return to my boring predictable steady normal everyday grind of a life. I need routine just as much as I need a break from it. I need morning alarms and consistent bedtimes. I need meal planning and a steady stream of fruits and vegetables. I need laundry days and chore charts. I need solo time in my little rectangle office just as much as I've needed the heart filling around the clock full-time mama time. I'm ready to open my over-flowing two week neglected email inbox, beginning prepping for boring weekly meetings, start reconnecting with my dynamite team and resume the projects we were desperate to pause just two weeks ago. I need my real life schedule, my structure, my boundaries, my mad list making process and my trusty time management strategies. Big BIG fan of the holidays and the tinsel and the twinkle lights and the gatherings and time with my big and little family and yet I crave the simple in's and out's of my full-time working mama husband loving life as a youth program wrangling mid-level bureaucrat Today, I am grateful for both the rest and the readiness. And now I'm heading to bed, before 10:30pm, with dreams of staff meetings, grocery shopping and the return of the beautiful real life routines that I love dancing in my post holiday hungover head.