Tabitha Sings and Melissa Sleeps

Just returned from Tabitha's first of many Christmas performances. She belongs to the city children's choir and her school choir. As well, she also must preform at a school Christmas play and a piano recital. The recital she is going to miss as her parents will be out of the country (yes, I actually just received an email from the Gina Grant all about my dance training). And of course, Mistaya and Pippi have their share of dance recitals, band concerts, school plays and piano recitals too.

Tabitha is so much fun to watch perform as she always has a few genuine little smiles that light up my world.

It has been a busy weekend for my girls as usual: play dates, concerts, sleepovers. And busy for me too. I did finally get to a movie with Peter--The Descendants. I loved that it was filmed in Hawaii. George Clooney was great in it. The movie was just OK. I, of course, wanted to rewrite so many lines and scenes--If they had let me tweak it, it would have been a good movie.
Truth: I am going to relocate for several months a year to...S. France, S. Spain or Hawaii! Just as soon as I establish myself in the publishing world. The sooner the better :D

It takes me awhile to accept the obvious. I have felt so tired for at least a week. I want to sleep a lot. Yet, I never allow myself to nap, thinking I must just be depressed or something. But this weekend I had an epiphany. I really am tired, exhausted! I deny myself the luxury of ever physically resting my body aside from sleeping. Working out for several hours + each day at full intensity has exhausted me. My body is begging me to give it even a full week of no hardcore workouts. I've been ignoring my body, thinking a night's sleep is enough for it to replenish itself, build new muscle etc. I've been so wrong. I am not 20 years old.
Now I get my body. I cannot work out 2 strenuous hours a day and think one day a week with no workout is enough to recoup. I need more days off. Somehow, someway, I need to not do anything but casual walking for at least two days a week. Live and learn. By February, I plan to not teach more than 2 dance classes a day and take at least 2 days off a week. I may even have to give up running on the weekends for awhile. It's too much cardio each week. I have to cut back somewhere. I'm like that--if I'm passionate about something: dance, painting, writing, I go full throttle until my body (or mind) crashes on me and reminds me to do all things in moderation.

It is so easy to delude oneself and get caught up in a routine and think the body just has to keep up. The high intensity 1h dancing that Zumba demands, leaves one so overheated and sweaty that there is no way a drink of water is all the rest I need. I now know that I need so much more rest, fluid and food. It will take time but I will figure out a schedule that lets me rest my body more. Way more. It is hard though, I find even when I'm not teaching, I am rehearsing--learning new dances all of the time. I guess because I love to dance so much, it is easy to overdue it. But I feel good that at least I caught myself before I totally collapsed in exhaustion.

Lord Voldemort Needs Rest

Mist and friend as Lord Voldemort. She and her friend have so much fun dressing up together. They've decided to dress as wizards every Friday at school. Mist has such a fun sense of spirit--chip off the old block, I dare say!

So...I write tonight because I have spent the entire evening in my bed. Mistaya is at yet another sleep over party, Peter brought the little girls home pizza and I canceled everthing off my schedule and lay here--head on pillow...practically in a coma. And just now...I am starting to feel alive again. I was a mess of exhaustion: getting up early, little sleep, going hard working out and working on my papers etc.
I had even stopped eating. Every once in a while I loose my appetite and start to get too thin. I know I have crossed the line when the bath tub becomes uncomfortable because of the bones in my butt. That is what has happened again. So, it is so important for me to get my appetite back.
I think how it happened is that I eat a low sugar diet (I believe this to be of optimum health) so I naturally keep quite thin on this. And then I developed the mother of all bladder infections and was in bed with a fever for a week--no appetite. And it just kept going....
The good news is just moments ago, I could raise my head off my pillow and felt hungry! I ate some left over spaghetti squash au gratin I had made last night, and some chocolate for dessert.
 I feel much better. Rest was so needed. When I am stressed I tend to just want to be out, working out: running, hiking, dancing , etc. But what I really need is to just lay flat on my back in bed for a night and talk to and or see absolutely NO ONE!

This rest will be short lived, I am working for the rest of the weekend starting tomorrow. Peter will take Tabs and Pip to Kamloops to pick up our new LG washer--my dear, sweet parents found one on sale for us and bought it before it could be snapped up by others! Mist will be home afternoon--and she will entertain herself as I write like I've never written before.