So there's a name for this...

and it involves cutting the ties of the superhero cape...it's called Cumulative Stress Disorder and it means that even if we believe we are very strong and very capable, we don't get to leap high buildings in a single bound or stop speeding trains. Or push ourselves to the brink of falling off and out, where we crash into hard walls of reality that have signs plastered onto the unrelenting bricks; the signs say 'Danger' and 'Slow Down' and ultimately, 'STOP.'

That dang wall really hurts. Superheros that bang into bricks may recover, but still get bruises and actually break. Hemingway wrote 'The world breaks everyone~Some become strong at the broken places.'

I will own that I broke. My body slammed into the wall and made me stop, hard.Yesterday the doctor told me that even though my heart is clear and good, it could still stop if I don't stop pushing so hard. I have separated muscles in my left side above my ribs because I have either dug my garden or split wood or done something I am not really capable of doing, but....  I do it anyway because it needed to be done. And my darned collarbone still aches because it never did get put back into place right - just from digging the garden up. Sheesh. I despise feeling fragile and incapable. Can't I carry the world on my shoulders, being Hercules (or in the Plemons/Ogle family, Harkless?) or Superunionpresident?

Road signs are there for a reason; they're not just decorative. And if we are smart, we do not go careening around sharp corners, because, just because, we might not be able to stay on the road, and we might hit the wall.

A Very Bratty Winter

Christmas Eve



Christmas Morning



A Sock Monkey from Santa!



Opening Presents with Dad



Sportin' the New Pumas from Uncle Talmage



Kash's First Bite of Real Food!



Spencer's Nightstand BEFORE:



Spencer's Nightstand AFTER:



Michelle & JoAnna "back-country snowboarding"



*New Year's Resolution: to lose 20 pounds ;)