9:52 {stronger than you think}

"Promise me you'll always remember. You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

Christopher Robin to Pooh

As I eluded to in my post last week, I moved this weekend.  In addition to trying to prep for a move, I also was swamped at work trying to write reports for evaluations I had completed.  In further explanation of my move the majority of my items moved to one spot three hours away and my dog and I moved to my sister and brother-in-laws house.  Short version of a long story, my apartment building was raising the rent to a level which would be equivalent to a mortgage on a house.  So, I thought why still live there?  Then I thought why have I lived there all this time paying such higher rates if I could have gotten a mortgage for a home?

Regardless, I still have a few items to move and cleaning to do before the March 9th.

Also this weekend, I had one 10-12 page paper on espionage due on Friday, and another paper due which was due yesterday but I just submitted before this post on a violent non-state actor group, I choose the Weather Underground.

Why share all this information?  Well, I have felt stressed to the max trying to juggle work, school, moving, extra obligations, etc... My clients will never know I'm stressed they don't need to know.  At some point during the week, I asked myself, "Self, can I just not do anything"?  Will it all get done if I just ignore it?  You may ask what does any of this have to do with our quote for this week?  Well, it is often that when we are stressed we forget about the little things.  The things that make life what it is.  While feeling unsure of how I'll manage having children around everyday after living alone, and hope I'm not too crazy "aunt-ish" while living here for the few months that have been planned; I had a fun little moment with my nephew Emmett as depicted below:

please excuse the grain, this is shot with my iPhone.

What was happening here is that I went into my "new" bedroom and Emmett as you can see was helping me do my homework.  My sister of course was telling him that he needed to leave "auntie" alone when I was working on my homework; but I insisted he could stay.  While some may have felt extra stressed having a little tyke play trampoline on their back and bottom when trying to concentrate.... It is moments like this that I remember to take a step back and as Christopher Robin said to Pooh...

"Promise me you'll always remember. You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

In the long run, stress waxes and wanes, and I know I am strong enough to handle it, even if somedays I wish I didn't have to "handle" anything.  And I'm going to add to Christopher Robin's quote, remember the small things that make you feel happy- they help you remember to believe in yourself.

Linking up to Anita