Day ? Weight ? -- Weekend review (long)

I know it's the Holidays when I'm so mentally and physically exhausted from the weekend that I have to take Monday off just to recover.

Which is what I'm doing today--a mental health day off. And I kept Sophie home from school, too. She was up late every night this weekend and I thought she needed the rest. She continues to be dizzy every morning, but thankfully it's not lasting long. We took Luke to his baby sitters (he asked to go--"I wanna go Ginger's" he said after he'd been awake for a couple of hours), then I got Sophie a donut and me a latte and scone. Apparently I'm also taking the day off from giving a hoot about what I'm eating.

Friday I didn't end up doing my fabulously planned long run. Instead, DH wanted to go see a movie while Mom had the kids. Unfortunately, my resolve of needing that run drained away with an opportunity to see Will Smith (I love him). We saw "I Am Legend," which I really liked but was haunted by all weekend. It's one of those movies that is so vivid and the situation so terrible, it's impossible to forget and images kept flashing into my mind.

We also had to bake a turkey for Saturday night, when our group of church friends did the dinner for our city's Rescue Mission. I had forgotten about it and hadn't gotten the turkey out of the freezer, so at 3:30 Friday I started the 24 hour process of babysitting the 18 pound gobbler. I'll spare you the details, but basically we thawed it in cold water for 11 hours, then spent 6 hours baking it, and DH spent an hour carving and cleaning up afterwards.

Saturday I felt really awful with S.A.D. symptoms. I just could not motivate myself to do anything other than babysit the turkey and keep the kids from tearing the house apart. We all got ready for the rescue mission and left the house at 4:45 p.m. We (7 couples and 12 kids) put on a Christmas program there and served dinner, then we all went to dinner at Pizza Hut, then went home and got the kids to bed around 10 p.m., and then DH & I spent 5 hours setting up DH's new TV and A/V system (he decided he needed some new big boy toys from Santa this year). Yes, that's right--I was up Saturday night until 3 a.m.

Sunday morning, even though I wanted to sleep in and DH in fact did sleep in (he stayed up until 5 a.m. watching movies--he's insane), I had to take the kids to church, because the children's choir sang and I didn't want Sophie to miss it. So I got both the kids ready and got us to church at 9 a.m. on time.

Then at 1:30 we all left for the Log Inn ("officially recognized as the oldest restaurant in Indiana, the Log Inn was built in 1825 and has been in continuous business since") where we had the N. family reunion. Mark's family has been getting together for over 40 years, I think. There were 11 kids in the original N. clan, so there are about 100 N. relatives that gather each year. The food is all fattening--the best stuffing ever, fabulous potatoes and sweet corn, tasty milk gravy and famous fried chicken--and I ate it all. This is a once a year event, after all, and I don't feel guilty about partaking of such wonderful food.

What I do feel guilty about is my general malaise and lack of movement. Guilty isn't really the right word, though. These SAD symptoms are biochemical, and there is only so much I can control and make myself do, and I just have to get through it the best I can. I get this way every year, and this year I'm not on antidepressants like I have been in the past. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it yet. I'd like to not get on drugs if at all possible; I'm not anti-Rx drugs, but I know that they can and did contribute to my weight problem and I'd prefer to use other methods to treat my SAD (I have a light for it, and exercise helps a lot) for as long as possible before I go back on something.

ANYWAY, sorry for the depressingly long post. It's only temporary, and hopefully some rest today will help put me back on track for tomorrow.

Mama said there'd be days like this,
there'd be days like this, my mama said.