Thought for the Week: Sleep is a Good Thing

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast.

~William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Like many women, I have demands upon my time...demands that often pull me in many directions, demands that often chip away at recreation, demands that leave me feeling...sometimes...very. very tired and burned out. It seems that I may be very good about setting some boundaries...but not boundaries that protect my own time to recreate, to refresh, to renew. Who do I think I am...Superwoman? As my sweeties likes to remind me when I pull yet another overnighter working on a publishing deadline, "honey, you're not 20...your not a spring chicken...now get some sleep!"

Ahhh...sleeep! Sleep is something I tend to chronically deprive myself of...not like new-mother-baby-awake-every-two-hours sort of deprive...more like, "Just one more chapter," or "Sure, I'll stay an extra few hours at the office," or "Hmmm, we're out of bread dough - why don't I start a batch now...at 11pm....after all, morning doesn't come that early!"

I know all the reasons why proper sleep is important - and I know that when I get it, I feel so much better and my skin looks amazing So why oh why am I once again working off a sleep deficit? This week, my focus is on healthier sleep habits...starting tonight...and that means starting with unplugging my time-bandit laptop!

Good night all!

The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late. ~Charles Caleb Colton

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. ~Irish Proverb

A Poem for Baby: A Gift from Above, by Shirley J. Stankiewicz

Sent straight from heaven up above
Came an angel for me to love
To hold and rock and kiss good night
To wrap my arms around real tight

To cuddle & nurture and watch him play
To kiss his boo-boo's all away
To keep him safe and warm & count all his toes
To hold the tissue for him when he blows his little nose

To laugh at his jokes, to clap as he sings
To tell him all the joy in my life that he brings
To clean up his play dough, to pull his legos apart
To pin up his drawings and tell him it's art

To watch his first day of school on the bus all alone
To fight back the tears as I make my way back home
To applaud real loud when he's in his first play
To help him with his homework at the end of his day

To adore & cherish and watch him grow
To guide and teach him all that I know
To see him through good times & help him through bad
To share in his happiness and cry when he's sad

To hold him close and be by his side
To watch him through life as my heart fills with pride
To help him with decisions, the best that I can
To know that someday he'll be a fine young man