Well, the blizzard was supposed to come in off the Atlantic at 10:00 pm, but now, they say it won't be until 3:00 am. I had taken a nap because I wanted to stay up and watch it, but I'm going on to bed. Actually, it's a nor'easter. Can we please out the "th" back in that word?! I've learned that a nor'easter is basically a hurricane that forms in the Atlantic and is snow instead of rain. Gusts up to 70 mph are expected.
I ran errands today, picking up some last minute groceries (bacon!) and alcohol (rum!) and a larger snow coat for my fat dog who has "outgrown" hers.
The house was pretty bad when I got hme, but it laid down for a good while and napped and read a book, looking out the window at the snow coming down. When I got up I was a little overwhelmed by how bad it was downstairs. Launched into my "your just white trash" thing, but got hold of it pretty quickly. It's mostly that everyone puts things on the kitchen island and my dog who is incontinent. She has peed so much in these rooms and all I've had time to do is wie it u with paper towels as best as I could. So the floor was really icky. I got a nice meal and salad made and we watched a Biggest Loser and a House, M.D. Them my husband had to rush t bed because it turns out he has to get up in the morning to take care of all sorts of college business. I had just assumed he would be able to sleep late tomorrow. After he went to bed, my oldest brother called to see how we were doing and we had a nice chat. Then I had to clean the kitchen, put up the groceries, clean the counters and mop the floors, let the dogs out and feed them, lock up, turn out the lights, etc. it's 12:30 now and I am so ready to go to sleep! I assume that 35 mph wind with gusts up to 70 mph will likely wake me up when they get here. There's a freaky radar oicturemofmthis storm. It's really huge! Let's see if I can put it here.
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/eaus/rb.jpg
There we go! Told you it was freaky!
Good night!
Lisa
Dear Friend,
Oh, my gosh. My daughter said she wanted a blizzard, but the one coming is supposed to be, perhaps, the worst ever. We're right in the area that is supposed to be hardest hit. I've been reading on blizzard preparedness and how to let your pets go to the bathroom during a blizzard! They want everyone off the roads tomorrow by 1:00 pm so that people needing to get home can do so and they can be treating the streets. I'm supposed to buy a gallon of water for each person for at least three days, and I presume some for the pets. Fill the tubs and sinks with water. I'm going to try to go to jazzercise in the morning and to the chiropractor! I've been in a lot of pain.
So, signing off for the day.
Stay warm!
Lisa
Dear Friend,
I don't remember much about this last week. One of the problems with PTSD is that the ability to lose traumatic memories is non-selective and I find I drop memories easily if I don't take care to remember them. This week has primarily been one of learning to work with this cortisol supplement. I've gone from being able to go to sleep easily to hardly being able to go to sleep at all. My doctor told me to not to anything interesting at all once I'm in bed, including blogging. But I don't know how or if that's going to work out. Not blogging means not remembering. I feel absolutely exhausted, get in bed and then ... tight and bright! Wide awake! It's being very frustrating, but I do think I'm sleeping less overall. I know I'm not sleeping twelve hours anymore, which is a good thing. And I have more focus and energy when I get up, another good thing. I think I'll try taking my Klonopin at bedtime instead of the morning and see how that works. At the moment, though ... I am about to do yoga here at home. My daughter found a 30 days of yoga youtube and is loving it. So I'm going to try to do Day 1 now. Nothing I'd rather do than put off doing something good for me. So, I want to go do the laundry, mop the kitchen floor, take down milk glass and china t out in the china cabinets and even work more in my sons's room! But ... I'm going to DO IT, right now. More later!
Well ... that was thirty minutes of awful! I've lost a l-o-t of strength, and this messed up shoulder makes it much harder. So, top of the list for tomorrow will be: 1. Make an appointment with the prolotnerapist I found and, 2. Find a physical therapist and make an appointment . Oh ... and I also MUST go to the chiropractor, come hell or high water ... or two feet of snow! I am so out of alignment and my neck is in a lot of pain and I just keep ignoring it. For a month now! Being kind to oneself means taking care of your needs. I'm not too bad at taking care of my soul and spirit, but my body gets relegated to the bottom of the list day after day.
S, I'll check in later. This is going to be sort of a stream of consciousness entry today.
Dear Friends,
This has been a rough week, as evidenced by my failure to post. I was two minutes too late to get into a yoga class and didn't try again, though it did go ahead and buy ten classes. I only made it to one jazzercise class because I was accosted by a homeless man who needed some help and I had to go to my bank to get money and had to have a HUGE fight with them to be able to withdraw money from my account because I didn't remember a password I had set up! And I couldn't change my password unless I remembered the old one and I couldn't get rid of the password unless I remembered it! They actually were not going to let me cash a check!!! Oh, my gosh! Let's just say ... uh, yeah they did! Anyway, class was over by the time all that got taken care of and I didn't try to go again.
I had a lot,of,problems with doctor's appointments this week. I won't go into it all, but I probably spent almost three hours on two occasions waiting for doctors who didn't show up. That kind of cut into my exercise time!
I've cooked very healthy meals and am staying off the sugar. I think I've lost some weight, but I'm still too scared of the scales to check!
I am ending this week with my downstairs quite clean and my upstairs picked up nicely, except for the unpacked rooms, of course. I got Christmas packed away and stored and organized in the basement. This entailed moving tons of things which really hurt that right shoulder again.
I've had one important meeting with the caterers that went well. I'm doing better about keeping things picked up and not leaving a mess behind me.
My article I sent to Christianity Today was rejected. Darn. Almost all of the laundry is finished with the exception on one load of darks. I got some blouses steamed today, but a fuse blew somewhere and my steamer wouldn't turn back on. Then I did some ironing, but that fuse blew and I couldn't iron anymore. But, I'm still glad to have made a start.
I have started taking the cortisone prescription yesterday and today. I am still sleeping twelve hours, but during the course of the day I am feeling MUCH better and functioning way better.
I have planned my menus for this next week and have part of the grocery order ready to go. Should finish it tomorrow.
So, in all, I'm still moving the right direction. Writing and working out are still being difficult for me, but I knew they would.
I hope you have a great week and that you are able to enjoy a day off tomorrow. If you haven't seen "Selma," MLK Day would be a great time to go see it!
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
Is it just me, or does Connecticut convey a certain cool ambience to you? It always has to me, and today I went to it for the first time. My daughter had an interview with a career agency in Stamford. The interview went great and the woman feels certain she can place our daughter, which would be fantastic. Our son's job search is not going so well. There aren't any part-time positions available right now thigh the job agencies he is using. He's decided to try busking in Nashville! Lord help us!
On the way back from Connecticut we stopped at White Plains and took care of a bunch of returns at Nordstrom and Loft. I don't think we actually spent any money! We has the lettuce cups with chicken salad at PF Chang's which was nice.
When we got home I checked out the menu at a restaurant where we were taking guests tonight. Crazy complicated and mostly in Italian! I spent some time figuring it out and sending my husband an email explaining it to hm. This made me two minutes too late getting into my yoga class tonight. I did spend time figuring out all of the various ways to buy classes and went with the ten class package which wa $190! The more you buy the lower the price gets, but I didn't want to get too much and find I couldn't use them.
Then I came home and changed and we took this couple out to dinner, total strangers, had a very good time!spent more than three hours at dinner with them! I feel absolutely stuff. I had two small slices of bread and that probably has my stomach messed up.
So it's after 1:00 now and I'm so tired. Not so good tonight about getting to bed. But I was in bed with lights off before midnight last night.
Doctor's appointment tomorrow.
Dear Friend,
Well, week one of the new year has passed and I want to look back at it and evaluate my efforts so far.
I have done without sugar so I have quit eating all those surprisingly good gluten-free cookies that I was eating each night and haven't eaten peanut M&MS when we went to the movies.
I made it to yoga once and to Jazzercise twice.
I got most of Christmas packed u and taken downstairs.
I spent time at my desk once to write, and a second time when I wrote an article and sent it to an editor.
I am doing a lot better at staying picked up after myself.
I worked more at the laundry each day which worked out fairly well.
I'm trying harder and succeeding a little at going to bed earlier.
I'm preparing good meals and eating more produce each day.
Getting up is still a complete no-go. I have used my light box oribBly four times this week.
So ... really good progress. Definitely an "E" for effort. Which reminds me of another resolution to quit being hateful to myself and to be kinder.
I've been doing fairly well at waking up and, not being able to wake all the way up, but not letting myself go all the way back to sleep either. Today, though, was a disaster. I woke up around ten from my alarm, but could absolutely not get up or thoroughly wake up at all for almost two hours. Really ruined my plans to go for a long walk, but we did make it to church.
I have to take our daughter into Connecticut to meet with someone tomorrow. I have FOUR ALARM CLOCKS set! One for 8:00, 8:15, 8:30, 8:45. Only the first one is by my bed. I'll have to get out of bed to turn off the others!
I hope you have a great new week!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
Well, I've been kind of down for the last few days. I didn't make it to yoga on Friday or today. My own fault. You have to make it happen, and I just didn't do it. Haven't written any the last few days, either. But I did ... hmmmm ... well, no. Just really haven't accomplished much of anything. I've cooked a couple of really good, healthy meals the last two nights. And we went to see "Selma" tonight. My!! Best movie, best actor, best supporting actress, best director, best screenplay! Seriously. It was fantastic!
So, tomorrow is a new day. Three goals for tomorrow. One is to finish with all of the Christmas decorations and get them all put up and arranged downstairs in the basement. Two is to take a long walk. Do you know I haven't gone on a single walk since we got here? Three is going to church. Getting my Biboe read early in the day, also. I'm in Exodus right now where God is giving Moses all the directions for the temple, which is tedious reading. He's about to go down and find the people committing idolatry, so there's nothing boring about that.
At the yoga class that I did go to, though, I felt this strong sense that I was going to find healing there. The same thing at the Jazzercise class. I found myself thinking this evening, "You can do this" and actually believing it.
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friend,
My anxiety was ratcheted up like crazy today. I had an appointment with my psychologist, but didn't print off directions and couldn't use my phone because I still can't find it, so I got crazy lost and was very late. She is so terrific, though, that I knew I would still be received warmly. While seeing her, a couple of things came together in my mind to make sense out of something that I hadn't understood. Before. Clarity is always a good thing.
Then I went to Jazzercise again. Really enjoyed it so much! I will be going to yoga tomorrow. This will be a good bit harder, but that's ok.
I didn't get much at all accomplished today because of being so anxious. It's very disordering. I hope that tomorrow will be a much better today. One thing that. I did right today, at least, is I did not let myself go back to sleep after my alarm went off. I was sooooo tired and stayed in bed for a while hitting the doze button, but I didn't go back to sleep. I didn't get any writing done, but I made PORK CHOPS for dinner tonight! They were the lean type, and I ate them without any reaction at all.
I wasted a good amount of time looking for a cool top to wear for the dinner we are giving Monday. I got a fabulous magazine in the mail which is so ME, but the prices are extraordinary! So I tried finding equivalent pieces in Soft Surroundings. But the things that inreallynliked weren't going to be available for a while. Rats. It's been decided to have the dinner at a restaurant rather than here atbthenhouse, which minimizes the stress load tremendously.
I have a ton of work to do tomorrow, and my first thought was that I wasn't going to have time to write. But then I remembered that that's not how it's working anymore. Writing is sacrosanct now and everything else has to fit around it. I can't keep waiting until there's time. I took one of these silly quizzes that Buzz Feed Optus out all the time and it said that my dominant trait is ambition! I laughed when I read that because I thnk I have the least ambition of anyone in the world. But maybe it actually was tapping something that I didn't know was there.
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friend,
Seriously. Prepare to be astonished. I wrote an article today and immediately submitted it to a magazine! 1500 word article, I kid you not! You may be wondering what it is about, so I'll tell you that it is regarding the woman who entered the security code to let the terrorists into the building to massacre the people in Paris. I look at her actions through the lens of the Cardinal Virtues. I try very hard to not be condemning, but to still look at the decision she made because I think it's important that things be thought out before one is looking down the barrel of a gun. I am resisting checking my email every five minutes to see if I have a response yet.
I did not exercise today, as I said. I do plan to go tomorrow at sometime despite how crazy cold it is. I have an appointment with my psychologist tomorrow, but I have misplaced my phone for two days now and am not sure what time. I'll match the exercise I do with the time of the appointment.
We are giving a dinner next week and the caterer has suggested a menu, I still haven't found my cookbooks! But I'm having to toss the entire thing. Not only does he have wheat in a lot of things, but the main course is beef! I'm hugely allergic to beef! So I've got to come u with a new menu tomorrow.
I had an enormously hard time waking up this morning. I don't know what I'm going to do about this problem.
My husband is back, thankfully. It's 11:00 and I am SOOO ready to go to sleep. So, that's it for me.
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friend,
Yes, I did it! And I am inordinately proud of myself! I didn't do any writing today, but I did do some reading, not a lot but some, on the topic I am writing about.
I got a message from my niece around 1:30 in the morning asking me for help in a discussion she was having with a friend of hers who is an atheist. So, I wrote a long, but terribly interesting - honestly! - response because he was saying all sorts of ugly, misinformed, ignorant things about God. So I wrote a long thing about Job and the whole council opinion heaven where Satan and God talk about God. Pearls, I'm telling you! Pearls! I wrote until 3:30 and then finished up and went to bed and was actually asleep by 4:00 am. I slept till noon and then had to rush to get to a 1:00 doctor's appointment. So, I get there and it turns out that my appointment is for the NEXT day!! I was 24 hours early! :-). They had me see the main doctor who is back now and we went over a few things. Then I went ahead and had the saline infusion with vitamin B12. She said she didn't want to make any changes to my anti-depressants, but she did add a supplement that is supposed to be very helpful with reducing yr REM sleep and increasing your deep, restful sleep. I've taken it tonight. I don't expect any immediate effect.
Then I ate lunch at a diner and went to the Jazzercise class! So glad! It felt really good and I was able to modify everything so that I really took it easy on the tendons and things. I worked up a sweat even though the studio was FREEZING cold! I have decided to stay home from yoga tomorrow. Not sure if that's the right decision, but I think it is. I'm a lot weaker than I realized and had a hard time in the yoga class, especially because of my arm. Switching from the downward dogs to lunges and all was hugely difficult. Then tonight, we did some work with hand weights. I had to put the weights down at one point because it was really hurting, but overall I was pleased with what I could do. But I think it's best that I give everything a day off. Then go back on Thursday and Friday. I still have to go back to the doctor's office tomorrow for the actual visit that I showed up for today. But other than that, I can stay home and work on things here. We are hosting a dinner next week and I really need to get my china moved into the dining room china cabinet and my milk glass moved into the china cabinet in the living room. I got a message today from the designer asking if she could come take pictures of the rooms. She is still hoping to get a piece into Southern Living about it.
My husband comes back tomorrow night from his conference he's been at. Can't wait for him to get home. And my best friend had surgery today and it went well, so that's good.
My arm is really hurting this evening. Not terribly ... But it's not good either. I'm going to have to go get that Bio-Freeze on it before I go to sleep.
I've picked a prolotherapist. It wasn't hard, really. This one is in Manhattan and I am hoping to be able to drive there. I'll have to call tomorrow and get an appointment.
So, that's my news for the day.
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
I hate say this but ... confession is good for the soul, right? Here's what happened. I couldn't sleep. At all. I guess I tensed up because I've been waiting for this day for so long and it was finally here! So, I couldn't sleep? I'd almost drift off and then would have kind of like a spasm that would wake me all the way up again. I didn't get to sleep until, are you ready for this? 6:00 am! Aaargh! I turned off my alarms and didn't set any others and finally went soundly to sleep. I woke up at 12:00, but I could only see the 2:00, so I thought it was 2:00 in the afternoon! I was fairly upset by this. A level of upset that could only be countered by lots of Facebook time! After a while I realized it was 12:00 not 2:00 and felt a little better. Then it became a matter of trying to figure out how to redeem what was left of the day. I thought that writing and going to yoga were the two main challenges of the day, so that's what I went after. I started working on my article that I started a couple of weeks ago and then left to go to a 4:30 yoga class. I loved the place and it is actually quite close to where I live. The teacher was lovely and started the class with a poem she read that was, you know ... okay. The class was difficult for me because of my right arm, but I hung in there and finished the class. I couldn't do the shiv asana well because I couldn't get my arm in a place where it didn't hurt. BUT ... I went! Broke down that barrier, found the place and went inside and did it. So I'm pleased about that. But, my abdominal scars from tumor removal are hurting. Weird, huh? It's like I stretched the scars are really hurting.
I came home and worked some more on the article. I don't know that I got two hours of writing in, but probably at least an hour and a half. So that's a start on attacking and forging ahead to get the new life I want. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I have printed off the voucher I had for the jazzercise classes and got the address in my head. The class I want to go to is at 10:15.
It would have been naive of me to think that this would be easy. But I'll try again tomorrow. In the epmeantime it's now 10:46 and I have to shut the house down for the night. That means folding the whites and putting them up, taking t the darks and complaining that I out them on to dry when I wouldn't be here to take them out. Now I'm going to have to fluff the shirts and pants, but that can wait till tomorrow. But I do need to get the stuffed animals I washed out of the washing machine and start them drying. Chessie has peed in at least two places to be cleaned up. The downstairs needs to be swept at least some because I took down the Christmas tree and garlands and there are tons of needles everywhere. The cleaners come tomorrow, but I don't want to leave them with THIS huge of a mess. The kitchen is a mess because I made us large salads and used a lot of herbs, so now it's kind of all over the place in there, plus the food was delivered today and I still have some of it to put up. Then I have to take the trash out, take a bath and wash my hair and get ready to head out tomorrow. It's almost 11:00, so that looks like going to sleep at 1:00 which isn't good. Hmmmm. I guess I'd bey her get up and get moving, then! I won't be getting on Facebook any tonight, that's for sure!
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow is indeed the day, and I've shot myself in the foot already. It's almost 2:00! I AM going to go to yoga tomorrow at 11:00 no matter what! But I've gone and stayed up too late again. Not from internet surfing, at least. But I checked my Facebook and there was in my news feed a forward of a post be Carmen something-or-other, the Christian singer who was really popular in the '80's and did the song about Lazarus. If you've never heard that song, you have GOT to go find it on you tube and listen to it. No, wait. I'll find it for you.... Okay, here you go. You'll have chills, I promise you! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zWR534c5cr4
Anyway, he has some post about how more whites are being shot than blacks and blah, blah, what are we going to do about it now? Well ... you know that got me all stirred up and, you know I wrote in a long response! And then my niece wrote a reply to my comment which I didn't really understand, so I added some more!
So, here it is, almost 2:00 am.
The good news is that I have everything ready to go tomorrow and have a super good schedule worked out. I visited a Catholic Church this evening. There was no music whatsoever, so it was kind of dry. Then I went to the health food and picked up dinner for me and my daughter and we watched the second How to Train Your Dragon which was really good. :-)
And now, because I KNOW you want to read it ( surely!) I'll share with you what I wrote.
Your missing the point. Black citizens are being treated in a way that white citizens would not. Watch this video before you justify yourself in thinking black Americans can get over this by spouting some statistics at them! http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/24/surveillance-video-walmart-shooting-john-crawford-police. This guy was just walking around the store with a pellet gun he picked up on the toy aisle. All he is doing is STANDING THERE TALKING ON THE PHONE WHEN HE IS GUNNED DOWN!! And now they know that the white police officer's testimony was a lie. Will he be charged with perjury? Don't make me laugh! He's white! Or, if that's not enough for you, read this report http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/24/cleveland-police-kill-12-year-old-boy-wielding-bb-gun-that-looked-like-a-semi-automatic-pistol/. I submit to you that a white boy playing with a gun would not have been shot and killed sitting on a swing set in a park! To make it more interesting, find the actual transcript if the call that yr
Wait! Where's the rest of it?? Here it is ...
To make it more interesting, find the actual transcript if the call that was placed and then how the dispatcher reported it. THESE THINGS HAVE GOT TO BREAK YOUR HEART! Please read these articles from Christianity Today by black pastors if you want to better understand what is going on. http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/august/its-time-to-listen.html?paging=off. A very naive white woman recently posted on Facebook that all you have to do is obey the law and nothing will happen to you. NONSENSE!!! And we can't spout NONSENSE if we're Christians! We are commanded to "do justly" and "love mercy" in Micah 6. And James 2:12-13 tells us that judgment without mercy will be given to those who are not merciful and that MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUSTICE! How is mercy trumping your idea of justice when you look at these killings?
So ... that's it for me. Good night!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
Well ... last night did not go well AT ALL! I woke my husband up blow drying my hair and he couldn't get back to sleep. My right shower and arm were KILLING me! The bicep tendon was even spamming, so I couldn't go back to sleep. He got up and read in the recliner finally, and I settled in on two pillows, with the heating pad behind my shoulders, my arm sprayed down with Bio-Freeze and wrapped up with a tension bandage. I got back on my iPad and, lo and behold ... I found the glasses I wanted for a much more reasonable price and one I'm willing to pay. I usually buy the super cheap glasses, but they are so thin that they break super easy. So I'm willing to put a little more money in for these heavier, but very pretty glasses. I've tried to add pictures before, unsuccessfully. I think I'll give it another try, though. Here goes.
http://www.wayfair.com/Zrike-Renaissance-Pressed-14-oz.-Glass-11080-ZRI1349.html#
Nope. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
I'm going to try one more thing.
Yes!!didnt need it to be so huge, thgh. What's up with that? Anyway ... pretty, huh?
So, I finally got to sleep between 3:30 and 4:00 this morning. Not the way I wanted things to go. I had set my alarm for 9:30 and I heard it go off once and hit the doze, and then apparently just slept through it entirely until it quit after an hour and a half. I had it on music instead of an alarm which may be why I was able to sleep through it. Darn, darn! So, I didn't wake up until 11:00. Double darn.
But ... today was a new day, even if it did start out much later than I intended. I worked all day on taking down the Christmas tree, an onerous task not made any easier by needle-sharp pine needles on my dried out tree. Plus the fact that almost all of ornaments are unique and have to be packed up specially. I don't actually use very many bulbs at all. So, each year I open up the big tote and see all these individual boxes and tins and what have you, and I can't remember how to get all the ornaments back into everything! It's like having to re-work a jigsaw puzzle every year. So, this year I have written on each container exactly what goes in it. This should make things a lot easier next year, but it doubled the onerous nature of the job! And I'm not even through yet. There are probably still about a dozen ornaments that I haven't figured out how to pack up yet. And I'm pretty much out of boxes and metal tins. I must have re packed everything more conservatively this time. I also managed to drop a very expensive Swarovski star ornament, probably worth around $80. It fell on the velvet Christmas tree skirt, but managed to break into three pieces despite the soft landing. I'm saving them and taking them to the jeweler to see if he can repair it for a reasonable price. I know that there is stuff out there that is used on glass, but it's a pretty involved process if I recall right.
We all went out to dinner tonight to our favorite Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant. They have a salad that has papaya, jicama, and mango on lettuce with a peanut dressing that is delicious! I think I could eat it everyday. And they have a wonderful coconut curry shrimp soup with rice noodles and bean sprouts that I get every time.
I am determined to quit shopping in bed on my iPad. Dare me? Think I can do it? I did just a little bit tonight. (Wish I hadn't thought about that soup. Now I'm hungry!). I did get caught up spending time looking for a particular type of glass, but they are too expensive ($12) and only hold 9 ounces. But it opened u a whole new world of antique glassware that I didn't know about! And, you know ... that's JUST what I needed!
Then I looked for curtain rods for my husband's study. His curtains have been made, but I haven't gotten any rods in. I did a fair amount of work on this when I came across something called hinged curtain rods. They close together in the middle of the window, so they look like a regular curtain rod. But they are two pieces hinged on the side, so you can just open them up. This is probably what I should get because that's how these windows work. The screens are on the inside and hinge out wards, then you can adjust the window the way you want it and close the screens back up. They are delightful! They make you feel like you are at a lodge or camp or something. I have to do some measuring tomorrow, but I think that's what I'll be using for three of the windows and a regular rod for the one wide window. Now I just have to find clip on rings to match.
We had a lot of snow today. It was so beautiful! Huge flakes the size of quarters.
You are never going to believe this, but it is 12:00 and I am ready to say goodnight and go to bed!
Oh, my husband is leaving for the conference tomorrow, so I'm going to check t this one other church that someone recommended to us. Unless they meet at 9:30 or something like that.
Adieu!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
Best laid plans!! We went out on a date night tonight and saw The Imitation Game! Wow! Benedict Cumber... Cumberbunch? No. Cumberbatch? Oh, well. You know who I mean, for Best Actor! But, it was a sad and depressing film the way it ended. It just broke my heart. See we watched a House when we got home to set a little better tone for the evenings. Though Cutty is still mad at House for lying to her about the patient he was sure had Hepatitis C. Just shows they have men writers, because no woman would have actually acted the way she did. BUT, ANYWAY...!
I decided to get in bed with my husband while he fell asleep before taking a bath and washing my hair. And that was at least an hr and a half ago. I got to obsessing over cleaning out my inbox for some reason, oh yeah. To find one email to send one message only to find that the email I had was a "no-reply" address. So, I did deleted things and answered some old emails for too long. I hate it, later, when I get caught up in my OCD. Then I paid some bills and then started looking for drinking glasses. Just drinking glasses. I've picked out flatware and dinnerware and am now looking for glassware. But I want something really nice for a really ordinary price! I found exactly what I want, for $10.00 a glass, like thats's ever going to happen. Anyway, apparently in spent way too long on it, though I do think I finally found something that will work nicely at Crate & Barrel and is on sale.
But here is it, 1:13 am, and I have yet to take my bath! Anyway, on to telling you about my day, because I know you can't wait to hear about it! (There should be an emoticon for sarcasm.)
Well ... I mopped the entire family area and tore up this darn shoulder and bicep again. It hasn't exactly healed, but it was doing better. But now this bicep tendon is killing me!! I also planneda week's worth of menus from my new Williams-Sonoma cookbook. Then I worked on placing a big grocery shopping order. Had to modify it several times before I finally got it right and submitted it. Then I realized my husband is going to be GONE most of next week to a conference and I am sure not cooking like that for myself and my daughter! So I had to go back online and delete a whole ton of things! I'm just glad I realized this so a lot of produce didn't go bad.
I'm reading The Belly Fat Diet and it is really sounding good.
That's it for me. I am taking down the Christmas tree tomorrow no matter what!
Cheers!
Lisa
Dear Friends,
Today has been a pretty good day!even though I stayed up excessively late last night, I didn't let myself go back to sleep after I woke up around 10 this morning. I had a long prayer time, got the disgusting kitchen cleaned up (I hate leaving cleaning the kitchen till the next morning and almost never do it). Then I had a prayer time and perfected (?) my daily schedule. I got some more laundry done, took care of a lot of packages that needed returning and packed up my mother's last gifts to send to her. Then I got some work done on putting up all of the ornaments on the Christmas tree and made a pretty nice dinner. First day with no sugar. I've used gluten-free cookies to signal to myself that dinner is over. I tried eating some pistachios tonight and that helped. I'm thinking some hot tea might be better.
I've got my light-box alarm clock set up to wake me up with an FM station I listen to a lot here, basically pop music. It has been surprising to learn the connection between REM sleep and depression. The more anxious or depressed you are, the moreREm sleep you need to calm your brain down. But too much REM sleep keeps you from getting the slow-wave sleep you need to get really rested and refreshed. Plus, it actually makes your brain tired and uses up the glucose your brain needs which causes you to be more tired when you wake up, making you less productive and making life harder, etc. which sets you up to be more anxious. It's been really interesting readin on breaking this cycle at every place you can. The one I'm going to focus on the most is not sleeping in. I dream solid when I do that.
So getting up regularly is a big resolution for the year.
Not eating sugar for six months is another.
Exercising or doing yoga five days a week is another
Having a dedicated time for writing is the next.
Quit being mean and talking ugly to myself about myself is another that I almost forgot about.
Nothing to it, huh??!
I read one thing that says that when you make resolutions, you should ask yourself about each; why am I not already doing this? What is keeping me from having this be a part of my life? What is hindering me? But then I read that too much introspection increases depression! So, there you go! What's a woman to do??
So. Would you like to see the finalized daily schedule? Why, SURE you would!
Monday-Friday
8:00 -
get out of bed, brush teeth, skin care, get dressed
Go downstairs and let the dogs out, feed them, start the coffee, clean u the floor, let dogs back in, grab coffee and an apple and go upstairs
Put on makeu and fix my hair. Make the bed, neaten my bedside table and bathroom, open the blinds. Grab up dirty clothes and any dishes and carry them downstairs.
Sort the dirty clothes and start a small load of laundry. Unload the dishwasher, load any dirty dishes, clean off the counters, tidy the den, and breakfast room
9:30-9:45 -
Make smoothie and get ready to go to yoga or Jazzercise, leave the house
10:00 - 10:15 -
Yoga or Jazzercise
After this, the day may take one of two courses depending on whether I need to run errands or come back home. Here are the two options:
A. Errands:
11:00 -
run errands, doctor's appointments, manicures, etc., read Bible and have prayer time; eat lunch out
2:30 -
be home, out laundry on to dry, change clothes, put purchases away, fold and out up laundry
B. Return Home
11:15 -
put clothes on to dry, eat lunch, fold and put away laundry; work on house: organizing, de cluttering, unpacking, etc.
2:30 -
Put house back together for the rest of the day, change clothes
And then, regardless of whether I worked at home or ran errands, the next step is the same for each day:
3:00 -
Make some hot tea and sit down in my office to write, work on query letters, submit articles, etc.
5:00 -
Start dinner, make personal phone calls, clean refrigerator as I go along, a little each day
6:15 -
Serve dinner at the table, clean the kitchen, and watch TV with family
8:30-ish -
Get ready for bed, lay out clothes for the next day, take supplements, Facebook, play around on the internet, read some ... keeping an eye on the time so that I am done NO LATER than 11:30!
Saturdays will be for planning the week's menus and putting in a food order for delivery, also for doing concentrated and focused work on the house.
Sunday will be for church and relaxing. Maybe brushing my dogs out and taking them for walks.
So, what do you think? It seems pretty doable. I realized now that I didn't include any time for working on emails and taking care of household management and repairs or planing events. I guess that could be done after exercising. Hmmmm.
Well, I don't want to stay up too late, so I will say good night. I hope this has been a restful and peaceful day for you ... and that you didn't spend it either with your head in the toilet or lying flat in a darkened room all day suffering the after effects of too much partying last night! It takes almost nothing at all to make me slightly drunk. Were talking about anything more than one glass of wine. But let me tell you what! I am HYSTERICAL when I'm a little drunk! At least Inthink I'm hysterical. I know people with me are usually laughing! WITH me, I'm sure! Not AT me!
Stay classy!
Lisa
