Don't You Put Me on the Back Burner

Oxford shirt: thrifted (part of a little boy's uniform!), remixed * Cardigan: UO * Jeans: Gap, remixed * Loafers: thrifted, remixed

You guys, can you believe it? I'm still sick. It has become ridiculous at this point. It's the kind of sick where I don't fill poorly enough to stay home from work, but by 2 or 3 in the afternoon I'm just about dead. And every day just seems to repeat the cycle. It's getting old, I tell ya. I'm just gonna keep on overloading my system with water and vitamins, and see what happens.

I've been leaning towards minimalism lately, not only in my fashion choices (less accessories, simple pieces that complement each other, without too many bells or whistles - I almost wrote "whistlys"), but also in my food choices, my time management, my mental well-being. I'm trying to pare things down, and get a handle (dammit! Just wrote "handly") on the various parts of my life. There are certain things that I love doing that have fallen off of my schedule, just because I've been feeling so scattered and cluttered and busy. I haven't written anything or made jewelry in months. I finally went through my Google Reader last night, and there were posts from Halloween that I still hadn't commented on (yes, those got the boot. I read and commented on the backlog from this week/weekend, but couldn't bring myself to tackle the archives. You all looked lovely, adorable, scary, or clever in your costumes - please pick the adjective that applies to you). It's not that I don't want to do those things, but in the past few months I've gotten into this daily routine that doesn't leave much time for recreation. It's job #1 all day, then dinner and job #2, followed by bed. It's not ideal, but I think I had convinced myself that it was doable. At some point, however, I think my body gave out on all that sustained busy-ness, and I've been recently inspired to re-prioritize.

This probably means that I won't comment as regularly. I read everything in my Google Reader, so just know that I'm there, even though my witty quips are not. I constantly feel inspired and renewed by each of you, and I'm so grateful for the creativity and energy that you put into my life. I hope that by acting more consciously, and letting myself prioritize things that make me happy, even if they're not "productive", I'll be able to go to bed at night fulfilled and sleepy, instead of simply exhausted.

I would love to hear some of your strategies for dealing with this. Are any of you doing the two-job-shuffle? It's hard to not let it overwhelm, and I've never really been one for sacrificing my free time, but it gets hard when the to-do list is seemingly neverending. How do you prioritize your hobbies and interests when things get stressful? What gets put on the back burner? (I think that is many people's biggest challenge. We all want to be able to do everything, but most of the time, something has to be sacrificed in order to balance it all out.) Any tips? Questions? Advice? Words of wisdom? I'll take anything.

Title song: The Killers, "All These Things That I've Done"