Heading For a Crash. . .

That is kind of how I feel right now.  As if December isn't crazy enough, what with Christmas coming.  I don't even "do" Christmas in a big way.  I mean, my decorations aren't even up yet, and that isn't unusual.  Right now is just about the time we normally get our Christmas tree.  So I'm not behind at all. ;-) At this little place here we're more into the religious aspect of Christmas than the gaudy, glittery, and gifting.

But, add to the hectic Christmas season a few things:

1. Changes over at the horse farm.  For nearly two years I've been trying to get the owner to bring on a third person to help out.  My co-worker there has been having health issues for three years now, and there doesn't seem to be a way to get him out of decline.  I've been trying to pick up his slack, and it's gotten to the point where I had to say "this farm isn't mine, and it can't take up my life/take me away from my family".  I had to put my foot down about how many hours a week and which hours a week I was available.  Which was a good thing, as the owner finally set to searching for an additional farm worker.  And she found one.  It did mean that I had to work extra this past week to train the new person, but in the long run it will be less stress for me.
2. DD1 is coming home from college in MN.  Not just for the semester break.  No, she has had a really hard time adapting to being 750 miles away from all her family and friends.  It was a tough decision, and one I didn't totally agree with (I'm still not sure I agree completely--I think she should have stuck it out for the entire school year), but she decided to transfer to the local community college for the semester that begins in January, and she will be moving back home.  Which means that next week, I get to drive 12 hours out to her, load up her dorm room after her last exam, and drive 12 hours home.  Then we get to work on being a household of four again, instead of a house of three like DH, DD2 and I have been since late August.  We also get the joy of figuring out how to have an adult offspring living with us full time.  The boys left home after high school and never looked back, or came back other than for a visit of a week or so at a time.  This will be uncharted territory.  
3. My grandmother, who was moved to FL with my uncle in June, has been ill. Late last week she was hospitalized for a blockage in her liver, and while doing surgery to correct that over the weekend, the doctor found advanced liver cancer.  Because she is 90 years old and has been frail for the last several years, there will be no chemo or radiation given to her. The prognosis: approximately two months, and plans were made to move her from the hospital to hospice. Today, the report from FL was such that my father has decided to drive down there immediately.  And he is not a man who jumps to conclusions, so I know I will not be speaking to or seeing my grandmother alive again.  As much as I would like to be there, there is no way I can go, there are too many things and people here who need me more than my grandmother.  It sounds like she would not even be aware of my presence anyway, so here I wait.

Heading for a crash.  I do believe I have hit my stress limit. Now, to go on faith and know that everything will work itself out in the end.  It just might be a rocky few months.