A little rambling, a blog break, and a giveaway.

I have a problem. I'm terrible at saying "no".

While I was on the phone this afternoon, having to renege on a commitment, the sweet person on the other end of the line reminded me of the toll never saying "no" can take on you physically and mentally. She told me that she was just like me when she was younger, trying to do it all (and succeeding!), and it eventually caught up to her physically. She shared a scripture from 1 Thessalonians.  Paul told the residents of Thessalonica to "Make it your ambition to lead a quite life..." (1 Th 4:11). My life isn't very quiet right now.

Shea starts school on the 23rd. We have to be out of the house we are leasing on the 31st. The house we are building probably won't be ready until the second week of September. So, we are going to pack and move all our things into storage and live out of suitcases for a couple of weeks in the spare bedroom of my mother's house. We could stay here longer, but it's a 30 minute drive to school from here without traffic and traffic is terrible going into town in the mornings. My mother lives in town, so we think that will make life a little easier for at least a couple of weeks. In addition to all of the packing, moving and driving, I have my freelance work and all of the commitments I've made to keep up with. Oh, and the spike in lumber costs blew our construction budget, so we are laying, hand-scraping, and finishing an entire house of hardwood floors ourselves. I'm tired just typing all of that.

So, for the next month or so, I'm saying "no". I'm taking a blog break. I'll be back once we get moved and settled.

But, I don't want to leave you hanging, so I'm going to do a little giveaway in hopes that you'll come back. I'm going to share one set of fat-eights of my Katie Jump Rope collection. That's 11" x 18" cuts of the 33 fabrics you see above.

Want to win? Leave a comment. No need to become a follower, or Tweet, or blog about it, but if you want to do any of those things, it would make me smile. I'm going to let this one ride for a while; I'll pick a winner when I get back to the blog, mid-September. If your Blogger profile is set to hide your email, I won't be able to contact you if you are the winner, so be sure to check back.

I already feel a little weight off my shoulders. I'm going to try to find some time to read a book I bought last year called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. My friend on the phone this afternoon also suggested Simple Living by Jose Hobday, but I'll read that one after I get settled.

Enjoy the rest of your summer and I'll see you in September!