{"id":1059,"date":"2010-12-08T12:32:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T12:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.com\/?p=1059"},"modified":"2010-12-08T12:32:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T12:32:06","slug":"less-is-most-definitely-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/?p=1059","title":{"rendered":"Less is most definitely more"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last Christmas I totally overdid it. After decorating the Church on Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass, a full day of cooking the Christmas lunch followed by two more days of cooking for our annual mulled wine and mince pie carol singing party, I ended up (on my birthday no less) in bed for two days with a migraine. Did I enjoy myself up to that point? Well there were times here and there where I could step back and see that things were going well and that everyone seemed happy, but if I’m honest, no I didn’t. Christmas went by in a huge whirl of activity and exhaustion until, finally my body said ‘no’.<\/p>\n

This year I’ve learned my lesson, although I have to admit that it hasn’t been \u00a0very easy and I’ve battled with it all for a while. In the middle of the year I finally handed over my Church Flower Fairy crown – after many, many years and to the distinct displeasure of some older members of the congregation. It was really, really hard to stand up and say ‘no, I don’t want to do this anymore’. Sure in theory I could have carried on, but the whole thing had become a psychological burden to me – and particularly in a church setting I don’t think that is what our service is meant to be about. So, finally, and with deep feelings of guilt, but with a surprisingly light heart, out went the flowers.<\/p>\n

This week I finally said ‘no’ to the Christmas party – for this year at least. I know lots of people love to come and sing carols and eat goodies and that some will probably be disappointed, but this year \u00a0I need a break. It’s awful to think about organizing a party with only a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach – even if my daughter was offering massive amounts of practical help.<\/p>\n

So this year it will be a case of much less, but hopefully this will bring us – or me anyway – immeasurably more. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not not doing Christmas – but \u00a0I’m not going to be working full pelt to keep to a detailed time plan. It’s going to be more peaceful, with time to reflect and relax and time to do things on the spur of the moment just because we feel like it. I think now that I’ve made these decisions, that this is how it’s meant to be.<\/p>\n

And I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it……<\/p>\n

Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Christmas I totally overdid it. After decorating the Church on Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass, a full day of cooking the Christmas lunch followed by two more days of cooking for our annual mulled wine and mince pie carol singing party, I ended up (on my birthday no less) in bed for two days with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQtrc-h5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1062,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions\/1062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runquiltknitwrite.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}