A Much Needed Day Away

My life and schedule have been nothing but insane lately.  Late nights, early mornings, and days crammed with more than I can accomplish.  And I'm normally very busy anyway.  Because of that, my blogging has had to take a back seat.  With the exception of this past week, I've still been really good about cooking from the cookbook and taking pictures.  It is the actual typing up of the blog that I'm doing terrible on.

At one point, I thought that I would try to get everything made and blogged about before the new cookbook comes out.  Well...it comes out this next week, and I'm clearly not done yet.  The funny thing was, I wasn't worried about if I could get it done in time.  I was worried that no one would want to eat things like soup in the summer.  Guess I don't have that problem any more.

After an absolutely insane week, I was losing my mind.  My house is a mess.  Most meals have included cold cereal or a sandwich.  I have tons of emails that I need to respond to, and the laundry has piled up to new heights.  After surviving the final "mom taxi" pick-up on Friday, I realized that I actually had an evening without anything on the calendar.  My weekend schedule was even surprisingly empty when I checked.  Normally I would be excited that I had a day or two to play catch-up.

However, after this CRAZY week, the last thing I wanted to do was work all weekend on things like laundry and cleaning my kitchen floor.  I wanted to do nothing.  Nothing at all.  I wanted to stay in my pajamas all day long, watch TV, play games with my family, and veg. 

So I texted my husband on Friday at 6:00 PM.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  Let's put the kids in the car and go somewhere for the weekend.
Him:  Serious?  Where?
Me:  Anywhere.  Kentucky?  (This is a family joke.  When we ask our kids where they want to go on vacation, one of them always requests Kentucky.  She has no clue what she wants to see there.  She just likes the thought of going to Kentucky.)
Him:  Is the cabin available?
Me:  Doubt it.  It never is when we don't book it in advance.
Him:  Logan?  St. George?  Provo?
Me:  Yes.  Yes.  No.

I am a hard-core vacation planner/researcher.  I spend hours finding the just-right hotel, reading reviews on places to eat, determining what we want to do/how much it will cost/when they're open/how to get there, etc.  I don't just pack up and go.  But this burnt-out mommy was ready to tell all the kids to pack pajamas and a toothbrush and get in the car without any plans at all.

My husband ended up calling and talking me out of an unplanned, potentially expensive, mental breakdown getaway.  We called my mom, found out the cabin was actually available, each packed a basic bag, and off we went.  We even picked up a Papa Murphy's pizza on the way so that I didn't have to worry about dinner.

Right now I am sitting at the table in the kitchen at the cabin enjoying this lovely view and just relaxing.  The boys are in the basement watching BYU football.  The girls are watching Little Mermaid in the master bedroom.   Life has slowed down for a day, and I'm loving it.

One thing that I wanted to do while I was up here is get caught up on my blogging.  Blogging is something that I enjoy, and I don't consider it work.  So I packed up my laptop, my cookbook and my camera (since the memory card doesn't fit in this computer).

I typed up one blog, plugged in the camera to download the pictures, and had a "you're freaking kidding me" moment.  My husband cleared the memory card and downloaded onto our computer at home.  Really?!  Really?!!  AHH!

So, instead of telling you about chocolate mousse and sweet and sour meatballs, you're hearing about my insane week and mental breakdown.  After all, blogging (and chocolate) are cheaper than therapy.

Even though I have no pictures, I am still typing things up.  I will add the photos when I get home and then get the recipe reviews posted.  I'm trying to be better about getting things on here regularly too.  I am excited to try out the new cookbook, but I need to finish this one first.

So be on the lookout for lots of reviews coming soon.  In the meantime, I think I'll go take a much needed nap.