Too Fast Too Slow : The Time Enigma

Where does time go? Today my beautiful baby girl turned seventeen! How did that many years just fly by? My sweet Kelley Victoria is now a lovely young woman! I consider myself greatly blessed to be her mom. I feel that way about my other four kids as well, but she gets special mention since today is her birthday. :-)

No progress on my ongoing projects of weight loss, housecleaning, or installing the chandelier. A little frustrating, but other things come up and life happens. I keep losing and gaining the same two pounds. The exercise thing remains inconsistent, and I haven't scheduled that appointment with the surgeon yet. I think once I actually see the dr and start meeting with a dietician to get on some kind of plan, that will help. It's kind of hard to just try to eat "normally." Or to figure out on my own, how often I can have a treat or how much of the higher calorie or higher fat or higher carb foods I can eat. There's so much conflicting advice out there, and then people say everything is OK in moderation. But exactly how much is moderation anyway? And doesn't that vary from person to person?

As far as housecleaning goes, my next project is my youngest son's bedroom area, but there are several heavy items I can't move by myself, so I have to wait til Jim or my older son is home, and usually by the time they are, we have too many other things going on. Soccer will be over after this week, so that might help. We will see.

Every morning I plan to have a particular type of daily bliss but lately the things I've planned don't end up happening. By the time the have-to things of the day are done, it's often too late, or weather, schedules, and unplanned obstacles prevent me from doing as planned. And yes, this gets frustrating. But I also need to remember that even though I might not get to do the particular daily bliss that I had planned, it doesn't mean that there isn't joy in my day. Sometimes it's just different from what I was expecting, and that's OK too. Flexibility is important in pursuing joy.

I was able to bless Jim a few days ago, and that's a blissful thing for me. I know that sounds a little sappy or even fake to some, but whatever. Yep, I'll just come right out and admit it. I'm not normal. Never have claimed to be. So there! I told him in front of the kids how thankful I am for his servant's heart toward the kids and me. He works hard to bring in enough income to meet our needs so I can be home and educate the kids, and he gives us his unconditional love and often gives up some of his wants to provide stuff, time, and attention for us. Yep, I'm a blessed woman. I have challenges in life, but so does everyone.

So, how do you handle the days, weeks, or months in your life where progress slows or comes to a halt? Do you give up? Have a meltdown? Make changes? Wait it out? Keep on chugging along and chipping slowly away in little bits when you can? And how do you stay encouraged in the process? How do you incorporate joy into those times? Do you look for it in other places? As always, I welcome your comments! Until next time, here's to joyfully embracing life in the second half!

Midsummer Musings

Happy Almost Midsummer! Guess I'll start with my updates. Last time, I reported a 5 lb weight loss, but I don't think I was working from the correct starting weight, so it was actually only 4 lbs, and that's still where I'm at. Wish I could say I'd lost more, but then I'd be a liar. At least, I haven't gained. That's something anyway. I feel like I've done pretty well with food since I'm not really on any kind of specific diet plan at this point. I'm finding it challenging enough just to mostly avoid junk food. I haven't been consistent with exercise, though I have done a few walking sessions over the past couple of weeks, but not as many as I need to. But I can't change the past, and I am planning to walk today. I did have an appointment scheduled to see the doctor, but it isn't going to work, so I need to reschedule. So all in all, no real progress from last time, but haven't gone backwards either.

Jim still hasn't finished putting the finishing touches on my chandelier.  What can I say? We get busy. Life happens. And I don't want to tackle it myself because I am not good at that sort of handyman stuff.

I've made a little more progress on my house. I picked up and rearranged my son's living area of the basement. Couldn't believe how much junk was there! Now, it's up to him to keep it clean. He needs to work on doing better there, but at least it's not the pit that it was before. And my wonderful husband blessed me immensely by cleaning up our really gross, disgusting laundry room that had gotten all wet and yucky because of a broken pipe and dirty clothes left on the floor. It was NOT a pleasant job, but he did it anyway. Yay, Jim! So now I can walk in there without fear and trepidation.

Yesterday's daily bliss was so commonplace and uncreative, but it was enjoyable for me, so scoff if you'd like, but I watched TV. GASP! Truth is, I like some tv shows. I do get it that it's not a good idea to have a couch potato lifestyle and do nothing other than stare at the screen for hour upon hour of free time. But guess what. A little tv once in a while won't kill you. I don't get local network tv because we don't have the right antenna or set up or whatever it is you need, and we don't have cable because seriously, I don't have that kind of extra cash to throw around every month, especially when most of the stuff is indecent or else just doesn't interest me. But I do have Hulu and Netflix. Jim, Kelley (my daughter), and I have watched several shows on Hulu that we've enjoyed. Right now, we've finished all of them for the season,but we started a new one several days ago. It's a suspense drama called The Family. It's a current series on network tv though I don't know if there will be a second season this fall. There are twelve episodes so far, and we've finished the first six. I don't know if the final one will wrap up everything or be a cliffhanger. But I love trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I've always enjoyed mysteries and things with a twist to the story.

So speaking of enjoying things, I decided to change up my hair a bit since I've had pretty much the same cut, style, and color for the past eight years. I'm now wearing it quite a bit shorter in the back. The front is about the same as before. My new style is a layered bob that I mostly wear in beachy waves, which is pretty close to what my hair does naturally. I was coloring it kind of a brownish coppery color with a few golden blonde highlights, but now I'm not really getting any more red put in but did add a lot more golden and lighter blonde highlights, so I guess that makes me a blonde. Sort of anyway. So I decided to try a new shampoo by John Freida called Go Blonder. It's supposed to deposit small amounts of color to help keep your blonde fresh looking. It seems to work well on my hair, which gets very dry if I wash it too often. It cleans without over drying, and my color is staying nice. So I'm planning to stick with it. Definitely would recommend this shampoo for anyone who wants to add some luster to their blonde. And I like the smell too!

 Hey, if we have to use products anyway, since there are so many options out there, we might as well choose ones that bring us some sense of pleasure. What products (beauty or other categories) have you found that you enjoy? Would love to hear from you!