J'ai du pain sur la planche.

Bonjour readers, and bon dimanche! 

It's 9:00pm central time and I am winding down my weekend, but I'm here! You may have noticed I missed my regular post last Sunday. I am so grateful to the French for having the perfect phrase to express just how I am feeling in this moment... j'ai du pain sur la planche, I have bread on my breadboard. This French idiom means you have a lot to do, a lot on your plate. I definitely have a lot on my plate. 

Almost two months ago I posted about feeling overwhelmed during la rentrée, the back to school transition (read that post here). At the time, I was searching for the best way to organize my time, pursue my passions, and remain gentle with myself. That last piece has proven more difficult than I anticipated, and at times I'll admit that when the bread is spilling off of my breadboard I am less than gentle with myself. I spend so much energy trying to keep the bread on the board when I could accept that I need to let some of it go and THAT IS OK. 

I speak so often about life providing you with just the piece of wisdom you need in the moment if only you are willing to listen and seek it out. Today as I started to go through some unread e-mails backing up in my inbox, I discovered one. In her recent post Why Not... Extinguish Self-Doubt?, Shannon Ables of the Simply Luxurious Life writes about providing yourself nurture:

If your life has just been through a whirlwind of emotion and upheaval, step back and care for yourself. Self-doubt can rise up when we refuse to acknowledge that we need to regroup, recharge and be reminded that while such unwanted events can happen, they don’t always happen and in fact may be happening for a good reason to set us down the right path to accomplish what we truly desire. It’s hard to see such a truth when we are emotionally frazzled, so be kind to yourself and gentle until you are ready to get up and step forward again.

I'm in the process of acknowledging these things, and of giving myself some of that much needed time. I'm trying to give myself permission to step away from the breadboard for a moment in order to regroup and recharge. Right now, that might look like late or sporadic posts, extended deadlines, fewer Instagram updates... but part of my mission here at Fleur de St. Louis is to share the journey with you, the good and the difficult, building a community of support... with a little French flair of course! 

Some bric à brac, odds and ends, before I sign off today:

⚜I want to say merci to Paper Write Service for an incredibly gracious comment on a recent post: 

Your page is really inspirational and lovely to visit with all the amazing elements to keep a person coming back. Keep posting more.

I will continue to do just that, and to encourage your comments that make this space a community where wellness, learning and creativity flourish! 

⚜For more French expressions with pain, bread, check out this link. I've really been enjoying the French language resources ThoughtCo. has to offer.  

⚜I've mentioned Carrie Anne James of French is Beautiful before on the blog (click here for that post) and want to continue to highlight her phenomenal French language resources as well. I recently signed up for her FREE daily pronunciation e-mail and received this audio lesson in my inbox today. It is perfectly fitting for my life right now - I think I need a day or two to ne faites rien as I regroup and recharge. 

Stay tuned for more content here on Fleur de St. Louis... I've got a few projects underway that I look forward to sharing with you. They are unfolding in their own time as I continue to honor that need to be gentle with myself. 

I am so glad that you stopped by today.

Extra warm wishes from me to you,