I feel like I've been gone a month...

Things I learned during my Break from the Blog, also known as Trying to Get my Ducks in a Row.

• My ducks are still not in a row, and probably never will be. And that's ok.

• Books are good. I should really make time to read more of them. I read one by Jodie Picoult, one by Francine Rivers, and one by Bodie Thoene. The time I usually spend blogging I instead spent getting lost in pages that came alive and transported me to New Jersey and San Francisco and Bethlehem, and I loved every second of it.

• Going to bed anytime before 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning does wonders for me. Wonders. Like, I am not tired in the middle of the day and I do not toy with the idea of taking a nap when Savannah goes down for hers. Who knew?

• I could take a year-long blog break and still not want to clean my house. That's one priority that did not rise high in the ranks.

• Being on a bloggy break lends itself to the feeling of being on vacation, if only mentally. I did not compose a post in my head one time this week. That was a weird feeling.

• My time spent with God was more consistent this week. That's a good thing. And one I need to continue.

• TV can wait. Family takes precedence. Even if said TV is showing the gymnastics that I have been waiting - all day - to watch. Because it might so happen that hubby announces at a most inopportune time that he wants to take a little drive, and do I want to come? And I might hesitate, and even tell him to just go ahead without me, imagining a quiet house with just me and the balance beam and floor exercises and little girls with lots of glittery clips in their hair doing amazing flips and twists in the air. But then I might come to my senses and realize that my family is here and now, in real life, and the little girls on TV are just pre-recorded entertainment, and that it won't change the outcome one bit if I'm there holding my breath nervously or not. So I choose to go, and make some memories with my family, watching a storm roll in as lightning flashes and outlines the mountains in the distance.

On a side note - my sweet hubby turned 41 on the 2nd. Happy Birthday, honey...you are the youngest 41-year-old that I know!

I also had my first piece of sushi this weekend, and I'm feeling pretty special about it. I know, some of you are probably gasping at my obvious lack of refinement. What can I say - I am more of a down-home cookin' kind of a girl. I have had a huge aversion to the whole idea of sushi, because, um, raw fish. But we had a Girls Night Out at a Japanese restaurant, and they ordered some to share. I gingerly took a bite, and it was fantastic. (Now that I typed all of that, I'm hoping that what I had was real sushi. Hmmm...maybe it wasn't, and that's why I liked it so much. Tara...that appetizer, was it the real deal?)

So, I'm hoping you all are still out there. I can't wait to drop by and see what I've missed out on this past week. And to those of you who told me that you have considered taking a blogging break of your own, I highly recommend it. Just be sure that you come back.

Happy Monday!