Take Time to Watch the River

I'm writing this post to tell you all, bluntly and apologetically, that the Wives and Daughters read-along is going to be postponed until further notice.  Which is to say, until after Christmas at the very least and probably until the end of January if I am not much mistaken.

The simple fact of the matter is that I am just too busy.  And stressed.  Lots of stress.  This holy tide of Christmas is supposed to be a time of comfort and joy, of spending time with friends and family, stopping to enjoy the lights on the tree and sitting before a crackling fire.  It's not a time for stress.  And though hosting a read-along for a really thick novel isn't necessarily a stressful thing, it can become one when it's combined with...

...editing and truncating Much Ado About Nothing to make a Christmas-present-video for one's grandfather
...memorizing lines for said video
...acting in said video
...editing said video
...frantically finishing various sewing projects that have to be done by the end of this week
...keeping up with schoolwork
...babysitting a precious little boy each and every week
...working on Christmas presents for various friends and family
...planning and preparing for an American history class that one is going to begin teaching in January
...attempting to keep up with e-mails from friends (doing rather poorly on that one)
...spending relaxed and appreciative time with one's family, one's friends and one's Heavenly Father

The last item the most important to me this time of year, and you know what?   If I want to do that, something's gotta happen now and something's gotta give.  And that something is blogging.  Or at least read-along blogging.

I committed to doing the read-along back in August, I believe, when I was laboring under the delusion that December would be a month of light schedules, with plenty of time to devote to W&D.  I was wrong. (Yes, thank you, Mary.)  So though a post or two of a Yuletide-ish nature may pop up on here before the end of the year (and I do hope they will), and though this blog may sport a new header sometime in the near future (and I do hope it will) I cannot promise any kind of regularity in blogging, and I must announce the pause of the read-along.  Because I want to feel like the picture at the top of this post.  And right now, I'm not quite feeling like that.  My emotions &c. are rather more along these lines.  :P  So I am calling a halt.  For now.

I know you all understand.
Thank you.  I really mean it.  Thank you.