Part of this whole This Is Who I Am thing is that I want to start confessing some things about the reality of my life to you. Don’t get too excited… it’s nothing super juicy, just that I feel an obligation to own up to everyone (especially to other bloggers, many of whom have already made such admissions) about the fact that it is incredibly taxing to write on the blog daily, work my full-time job (which I love as much as my interior design & textiles, just in a totally different way), maintain meaningful friendships, and still be the kind of mom & wife that I want to be. Being a perfectionist doesn’t help things either.

This is not meant to be a woe-is-me sob story. I am honestly not complaining here, because the truth is that I love my life and at the end of each day when I fall into bed utterly exhausted I still think to myself that I wouldn’t change a thing. But the hard fact of the matter is that every aspect of my existence probably suffers a little bit because I am spread so thin and that makes me not so happy.

I know I’m not alone in this predicament. It’s the universal plight of women worldwide, right? We all overextend ourselves and end up feeling guilty about the things that are still on our to-do lists, and the people that we love so much but haven’t managed to call in a couple of weeks, etc, etc. I used to frequently think to myself “if only I could squeeze an additional 2-3 hours out of each day” but age and practice have taught me that even if this was the case, I’d still manage to burn the candle at both ends. I know myself. But I also know this… I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t allow myself time in each of these important and tremendously fulfilling areas of my life. So for now, at least, the answer is living in a state of happy exhaustion.

However, for at least the next week I’m going to temporarily suspend all of the madness because we’re going on vacation! Actually, as I write the final words of this post, we are already on vacation. The photo above of Alex & Tahlia doing their happy dance in the backseat of the rental car as we pulled up to our final destination says it all, and for the following week I belong exclusively to my family. And while we may not be at our personal Home Sweet Home, we are together – without interruption – and that to me is home. No work, no blog, but yes – probably still a little Pinterest & Instagram. I mean, a girl can’t go cold turkey now, come on!

See you all back here in another week, and please come prepared for some wonderful surprises in the form of new columns and guest editors. Until then, wishing you (and me) a little more calm & peace than we may normally find.