Dealing with winter stress, and break the Lenten Book Club tie!

Hi all! Happy new week to you! As I mentioned before, we have quite the dramatic turn in the Lenten Book Club poll! :0 Two books received the exact same number of votes, and it's been a week since anybody has voted, so I think that all of my regulars cast their opinion. I had the poll set to allow multiple votes (because why not? I like having that option. I have a hard time with commitment in these circumstances ;-)) and so now I made an executive decision. I could have just picked between the 2 books myself, but I didn't want to do that. I closed the poll, and put up a new one. You have til next Wednesday, January 31st, to vote for one of the top two books (and yes, this time you only can vote for 1!): either The Thief:

or How God Hauled Me Kicking and Screaming into the Catholic Church:

Scriptural-based historical fiction (involves the story of Longinus), or non-fiction apologetics/conversion testimony. Go to it!

In other news, I'm not having the best of days. :-\ It's just one of those stretches in which I have a lot on my mind:

• The semester starts in less than a week, and the frenzied preparation pace at work is very draining. I like a lot of quiet in my life (I'm a major Introvert), and this type of environment is extremely noisy, if you know what I mean.
• With the semester starting next week, my work life will go back to whiny emails about why assignments are not done on time. They haven't even started yet, and I'm already over it. 😶
• I'm always worried about my kids. I've given up on ever being in a relaxed state when it comes to them.
• I'm getting more requests for professional dance gigs, and although this is what I "wanted," the Scaredy-Pants, Insecure Tiffany that lurks within is feeling downright nauseous about the whole thing.
  
  All of this, in addition to the following pile-ons of late:
  
• My phone has decided that it suddenly doesn't want to connect to any other devices via Bluetooth. i.e. my Fitbit and my car's system such that I can play my podcasts in there. Fitbit challenges and podcasts are two of my sweet joys in life. And speaking of my car...
• My little Honda Fit has decided that he is a sensitive soul, and thus sometimes he needs to be macho with his gear stick. This means that when I'm driving along in 5th gear, and need to downshift into 2nd to make a turn, the stick will get "sticky" and not allow me to move it into any gear at all, let alone the one that I want. 😳 Even Mike, a lifetime driver of stick shifts, has commented that my gear stick is more challenging than most. But back to my phone, who should be put directly into the Naughty Corner...
• My podcast app decided that it didn't like a few of my feeds and was regularly throwing tantrums, refusing to download new episodes. I finally gave it the boot and downloaded a new app, despite the fact that I had paid for the old one. I've decided that I don't care, this one is working great, and isn't that what matters?

I feel exhausted from even thinking about all of this, and I've been down all day. Sometimes, it's just the way it goes.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to rally! Life is good, even amidst frustrating days.  Mike is taking the kids and I out to dinner tonight, I'm reveling in my new dance choreographies, and I'm happily deciding on what I'll be doing for Lent besides reading our book club entry. Do you all have any ideas for me?! I haven't given anything up for Lent in several years, I've tried to add things in instead. And well...sometimes those things don't make it all the way to Holy Week. :0 I already know, from Advent, that journaling is likely to go down the tubes quickly. What are your ideas? I'd love to hear from you!