A few weeks of doing less (hopefully)

Like many parents, May Madness has left me harried and exhausted. So I'm taking a hiatus of sorts.

Prickly pear blossoms, back in April, at Blunn Creek Nature Preserve.

Tomorrow my kiddo graduates from the fifth grade. It’s an all-day event, starting with the ceremony, brunch, then a big party out on the blacktop. I’m helping out by bringing drinks and volunteering for a couple of hours.

I’ll be packing tissue because I will no doubt get emotional. Our daughter has been at the same school since kinder. It hasn’t been a perfect school, but it’s been the center of our life for six years. Gulp. Moving to a new school is a loss as much as it is a win.

And tomorrow is just one day in a month full of days that have been bonkers, full of balancing logistics and errands and planning. Mostly in a good way (I somehow landed five freelance writing assignments on top of my part-time job as a managing editor for a health website), though my body often seems to get confused between “good stress” and “bad stress” and I end up like the cat meme regardless.

Next week we go on vacation. That’s a great thing! Except it will involve a lot of time in airports/airplanes/taxis, and so again my nervous system will struggle with good vs. bad stress. It’s not the end of the world if we miss a connection, it just feels like it, because airports are physically uncomfortable places for a highly sensitive gal like me.

I’ve been sending out weekly posts for 36 weeks now, and so it feels like the right time for Shrieking Cactus hiatus. For those of you who are paid subscribers, I’ve paused payments. (And I may keep them paused, unless I get more free time to really invest in this newsletter and come up with better “paid offerings” beyond paywalling certain posts.) I hope you all have a wonderful few weeks! See you on the flip side.

~Joy

Relatable outro:

@dustinnickersoncomedyMay is like another December for parents #parentinghumor #comedians #may #marriagehumor #family

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