August Already?

Today's topic idea came from my good friend Holly. So everyone say, "Hey Holly!" But I liked the idea, so I stole, I mean, borrowed it.

But seriously, it IS hard to believe that we're quickly approaching the final stages of summer. Does time go faster the older we get, or does it only seem that way? Is autumn really only a blink away from breezing into our lives? Not that I mind because I love fall. It's always been my favorite season. I don't do so well in the heat. I melt easily. ;-) But most summer days here in Minnesota aren't too extreme as far as heat goes. And while it is more humid than the West, it's not usually unbearable like the South, which feels pretty similar to a jungle, minus all the coconuts and monkeys. So except for a handful of days when it feels like the equator has gifted us with its palpable humidity, summer here is pretty nice. Especially compared to winter (my least favorite season). It's not just that it can get wickedly cold. It's that it's so long. My calendar says winter lasts three months. It says Thanksgiving is an autumn holiday, and Easter comes in the spring. Those of us who live here laugh at such nonsense. So summer is good. Very good.

But now, it's winding down. So, I need to take the time and focus required to really make the most of it. To savor and enjoy. To not let myself get so diverted by life's minor annoyances that I forget to appreciate the fun stuff, especially the parts that are unique to or best during summer. Things like being outdoors without 57 layers of clothing, the longer daylight hours, the warm sensation of sunshine on a walk through my quaint little downtown area or in the park or by the lake, the pleasure of eating ice cream or frozen custard outside or watching the sunset melt into the shimmering lake, the taste of sweet corn slathered in butter and salt, the smell and flavor of grilling steaks, burgers, and hotdogs, picnics, gardens, and blue patches of sky peeking through a canopy of mellowed green oak or wispy weeping willow leaves. All this extraordinary stuff that I so easily can overlook and under appreciate, and in my ignorance deem ordinary. This is beauty. This is sublime. This is summer. Will you seize its joy?

Better with Ginger

Ginger is good to me. No that wasn't a typo or a grammar mistake. Though, even those of us holding a degree in English can still succumb to those on occasion, ; ).  I meant exactly what I wrote. Ginger is indeed good to me.

My Ginger is not an item in my spice cabinet. She's an awesome friend, who most definitely helps bring joy to my life. I'm blessed to know her. She's a sweet, kind, gentle woman of God. She uses the resources she has to quietly help others. Although she's not one who tends to draw attention to herself, her light still shines. She's a behind the scenes kind of girl. She'd laugh at me calling her a girl, since she's a couple of years older than my mom. But, I often call all females girls and males boys regardless of age. Just an old habit from teaching grade school. One of the nice things about being this age is that others' ages really don't matter to me. I'm much more interested in finding kindred hearts and spirits than in how many birthdays someone has had.

But Ginger also knows how to have fun. Quiet does NOT equal boring. I have enjoyed many great conversations with her that include laughter and joy. Of course, the coffee, tea, or special beverage and sometimes a few bites of baked goods that we share, also adds to the enjoyment. As wonderful as places like Caribou or Starbucks are, they are so much more fun when I'm there with family or friends. Ginger is one of those women with whom I can talk about pretty much anything. We share our concerns and prayer requests, and she's safe for me to confide in. She listens non judgmentally and with love.

She's also been a tremendous blessing in giving rides more times than I can count and bringing food to our family when people have been sick or in the hospital and during our trips to Mayo for Kelley. I'm thankful for her love, words, prayers, and deeds of kindness, for the interest she takes in my family, and for her young at heart spirit. She's a true joy bearer. Ginger is very good to me.

When it rains...

This morning I was greeted by a couple of joy stealers before I even finished my AM coffee. I handled them fairly well despite not yet being fully caffeine infused. First, my son came upstairs at the unspeakably early (for him) time of 8:30 AM and told me that he thought he had strep. He'd been awake most of the night with a very nasty sore throat that came on out of the blue with no other symptoms other than a bit of a headache. Normally, I'd most likely encourage him to wait it out and just use natural or OTC meds to deal with the symptoms since most sore throats in adults are viral. However, I knew he had strep. I'd like to credit it to great Mom intuition, but in all honesty, anyone could have figured it out. A week ago, his little brother had strep, and the same day that James (the youngest of the family) was diagnosed, Cory (the older and supposedly wiser brother) decided it was perfectly fine to finish James's half eaten piece of pizza, even though yours truly told him it was a REALLY bad idea. "Mom, I KNOW I won't get sick." Famous last words. But, of course, being 21 years old, he does know everything. Or if not QUITE everything, definitely MUCH more than mom. So I wasn't exactly surprised when his strep test was positive. But I will refrain from anymore "I told you so," statements and muster up some motherly sympathy. And not act annoyed that for the second time in a week, the rest of us at home have been exposed to strep.

Then as we were discussing Cory's condition, James came upstairs and wanted to know why the basement bathroom was soaked and smelled bad. Wonderful. Terrific. A kid who needlessly contracted strep AND a bathroom flooded with stinky water. And it wasn't even 9:00 AM. When it rains, it pours, especially in our flood prone basement, but the funny thing (Yes, I have a somewhat dark sense of humor) was that during all the rain we had about a week or so ago, we had no flooding whatsoever, and today we had basement water without any rain. I had to laugh at the irony. Normal people wouldn't laugh. They'd be upset, stressed, annoyed. Especially if that's the only bathroom with a shower and they were definitely planning to shower that day cuz , well, let's just suppose it had maybe been more than a day or two or three (Hey, don't judge. Some people have very dry skin and hair, so they aren't supposed to take tons of showers. Just saying.) But, one thing I don't claim to be is normal. And so, that little tiny soul giggle just couldn't help itself. Up, up, up it bubbled. Sometimes you just have to see the humor in life's challenges and inconveniences. And that's one more way to live more joyfully.

Little Luxuries

I admit it! I should have been born rich! I enjoy luxury. Call me shallow, if you want, but I like quality stuff. Don't get me wrong. I don't think these things are the most important parts of life, but I still like them. Of course, the MOST important things aren't material, but that doesn't mean I have to always settle for low quality stuff. It's not an either or thing. A person can be spiritual yet still enjoy material things. My challenge is that I'm not a rich chick. But where there's a will, I want to be in it. ;-). No, that's not how the saying goes. I think it's actually, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

So, as much as I'd love to visit some posh Caribbean resort and spa and be fanned all day by Pablo the pool boy, that's not happening anytime soon. So what's a luxury loving lady to do? How does a Nordstroms girl navigate the world on a thrift store budget? Two L words. Little luxuries. For instance, toothpaste. I'm joking, right? Actually, nope. Here's the deal. I usually buy the budget brand of most things because I pretty much have to. It's no fun to get down to zero cash flow a week before payday. But recently, I decided I'd had enough of dollar store toothpaste. So I paid a few bucks extra for the Crest HD Whitening toothpaste. And guess what? I really like it. The jury is still out as to whether it makes my teeth any whiter. I just started using it a couple nights ago, but I like how it feels in my mouth. Yes, it's like $5 instead of $1. The budget conscious part of me wants to scream, "That's FIVE times as much!" But seriously, it's a $4 difference. Not exactly big bucks here. And it feels so nice. Definitely worth the extra $4. Little luxuries are one of the ways I incorporate joy into my life.

I also find joy in doing stuff with my family, either all together or individually. Tonight, I made blueberry scones with my youngest son. It didn't cost me a cent. Sometimes just doing ordinary, everyday things can be turned into joy bursts just by changing how you do it, who you do it with, or the attitude you have toward it.

So many different ways to bring joy into our lives! Experiences, relationships, and sometimes even a tube of toothpaste. Go figure!

What are some products that you enjoy? I'd love to hear about them.

Recently Read

The latest book I've read was a novel called All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I believe it won the Pulitzer. I thought it was a great read. Of course, the style was excellent, with great imagery, symbolism, and plot. They don't award the Pulitzer to mediocre works. The setting goes back and forth between France and Germany during World War Two, telling two seemingly unrelated stories. One chronicles the life of a brilliant orphan boy who ends up in the German army. The other is about a blind girl whose locksmith father is given a treasure that must be hidden from the Germans. Eventually, the lives of these two young people intersect.

The story was exciting and filled with details that tugged at the heart yet weren't overly sentimental or sappy. My one complaint was that there were a few times the author dropped the F bomb and a couple other choice words. Thankfully, the book wasn't filled with these, but I did find the book on a Goodreads list of clean fiction. Maybe I'm a prude, but to me, any use of the F word disqualifies a work being considered clean. Still, I do think it was worth reading. Just be forewarned. If there had been frequent swearing, I wouldn't have finished it since I don't enjoy having to wade through multiple pages of foul language. Just not my idea of a good time.

Besides reading, I have been able to find other joy breaks, despite being at the teen pain rehab clinic at Mayo with my daughter. It's an all day program with additional activities every evening except Wednesdays. They also have activities on Saturdays and Sundays. And parental involvement is required. Today, though, I was able to start on a craft. I'm making a decorative H for my daughter Haley, who's at home, that she can hang on her bedroom wall. Hopefully, she will like it.

Would love to know what books you are reading and enjoying and what crafts or projects you are working on. Reading and crafts are both things that bring joy into my life as I journey through this second half.

On Being a Weeble

Hey there! It's been over a month since I last posted. I haven't done much as far as working on my goals. The only one I'm even still working on is exercise, and I'm still falling way short of my five day a week goal. More like once or twice a week. But I'm not giving up. Something is still better than nothing.

This past month has been hard. I haven't felt well. Nothing serious, but I did have a cold and since then have been intermittently dealing with a lot of fatigue and some depression and just kind of feeling under the weather off and on. My kids have also been sick, and I've been bogged down by some of the details and challenges of making arrangements for my 17 year old daughter and me to go to the Mayo Clinic program for teens with chronic pain. Kind of a big deal since it means twenty three days away from home. But this is something she really needs to do so she can get her life back after dealing with pain,nausea, and ever increasing dysfunction for almost two years. She has what some would call fibromyalgia, though her official diagnosis is idiopathic dysautonomia. That's a fancy way of saying that for unknown reasons parts of her autonomic system don't work as well as they should, which cause issues with digestion, energy levels, sleep, and mood, as well as causing problems with sensory issues such as pain, sound, light, and temperature. Basically, what would be "normal" to us is way "too much" for her.

As if the everyday onslaught of anxiety, headaches, stomach pain, nausea, joint pain, and fatigue weren't challenging enough, Kelley also caught strep, which just sent her stomach issues through the roof. She doesn't usually get a sore throat with strep. Just horrible abdominal and back pain, worse nausea, and throwing up. And with strep comes antibiotics, which aren't particularly tummy friendly even to people who don't have issues with digestion. Since the first course of antibiotics gave her no relief. She had to go another ten days on a second one. Since the end of Jan, she's had increasingly bad stomach pain. We've been to ER once as well as having to make a trip to her regular doctor in town and another to the gastroenterologist an hour away. And there have been several days that I've sat with her unable to help as she was curled up and crying/screaming in pain. Kelley is normally slightly underweight to begin with, but in the last two weeks has dropped ten pounds because she hasn't been able to eat or even drink much at all. She's 5'7" and today weighed in at 114 lbs.

Besides, dealing with not feeling well myself and Kelley's three weeks of abdominal hell, a week ago my 11 year old son, who hadn't been feeling well, suddenly spiked a fever of 104.4! So we made another trip to the doctor. James had influenza. The next morning,Haley, my fifteen year old daughter came down with it. I know the saying goes,"When it rains, it pours," but this felt more like a hurricane.

Ok so what does all this have to do with being a Weeble? Many years ago, there used to be these toy people, by Hasbro, I think, that were shaped like eggs. They tipped over and wobbled. They were people who wobbled, people + wobble became Weeble. Cute ,huh? The funny thing about them was no matter how hard or how many times you knocked them down, they never stayed down. After all the wobbling was done, they ended up back in their upright position. I remember the jingle," Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down." So although this has been a month of much wobbling, I can still keep my joy because by God's grace and through the power of His Holy Spirit, I won't end up falling down and defeated. Lord, make me a Weeble. Only with better hair. ;-).

May you too become a Weeble and always come back to a place of joy no matter how much wobbling life brings your way!

One Bite at a Time

So the New Year is officially well under way. Wow! So, how are your resolutions going? I can honestly say that I haven't broken a single one. Yep. Scout's honor even. Do you want to know my secret? Are you ready?

I don't make any resolutions.

Surprised? In case you might be wondering why I don't, it's pretty simple. They don't work. Not for me. Not for most people actually. Instead, I make goals. Maybe you're thinking that since it's already the second week of January, it's too late. But I finally figured out something profound. I don't have to wait for a new year, new month, new week, or even a new day. I can have a fresh start anytime. Even at 11:43 am on the second Tuesday of the month.

Last month I shared my first set of goals that I want to complete by the end of 2017. These aren't necessarily the only goals I have for the year, but if I work on too many at once, I get overwhelmed. I have 7 so far but am only focusing on 3 right now. As I complete some, I will add in others. I also realize that some may need to be changed as time passes and am open to that as well. Life has a funny way of causing us to make lots of adjustments to our original plans.

 So, what part do goals even play in living out a joyful second half? Cuz I'm going to be very real and say, that for me anyway, some of the things I have to do to meet those goals aren't exactly enjoyable (at least not initially). But one thing I've learned in living for 52 years is that joy isn't always automatic. Sometimes you have to be intentional and focused to change things in order to experience a better life. Though I do realize the importance of contentment and choosing joy no matter what, I also believe God gave us passions, desires, and callings to live out His purpose for our lives, and that's not going to happen to the fullest without some deliberate action on our part.

So, today I'm revisiting my goals, sharing which ones I'm actively pursuing right now, which ones I've tweaked, my struggles, my victories, and the steps I'm taking toward fulfilling them. Here goes!

My first goal is to read through 1 Timothy 50 times before the end of the year. This is a great book with a lot of truth and practical application in it, and I really want to get it solidly within my mind and heart. I've plotted out which days I will need to read a chapter in order to get through it that many times. So far, I've stayed on track and have read through it once. (It's only 6 chapters long, so it's not overwhelming. I won't even need to read every day to finish.) It helps that I now have a morning routine and have put my Timothy reading into the same spot of that routine every day. I read it right after writing in my gratitude journal and right before my prayer time. Basically, I'm turning it into a habit. I'm learning that making certain things habits goes a long way toward accomplishing goals.

The next few goals are to finish reading 3 books that I've started. Instead of trying to read them all at once, here a little, there a little, I decided to focus on one at a time. For right now, that's Passion Pursuit by Linda Dillow and Juli Slattery. It's a book for Christian women about the sexual part of marriage, and so far I think it's pretty good. I don't necessarily agree 100% with every tiny detail (but I rarely do in ANY non fiction book) and I still have some questions about some issues that they haven't touched on, but I'm not done with the book yet, so they might address those things later. With very few exceptions, I've stuck to the process of reading one daily section every day. Again, it's part of my morning routine, so it's becoming a habit. I don't wait til I have time to read. I MAKE time. And it just takes a few minutes, so it's not like I have to let other stuff go in order to do my reading.

My third current focus has been on exercise. My original goal was 15 minutes EVERY day. I didn't find this doable for me right now, which was setting myself up for failure. I needed to tweak it so I could miss a day here and there and still be successful. But 15 minutes just a few times a week probably wouldn't make much difference in helping me lose weight. So I upped it to 30 minutes and am going for 5 days a week. True confession, I'm not getting the 5 days in, but I'm working toward that. Last week I only did one day, but I was having a period from hell with heavy bleeding and a lot of cramping. (Oh the joys of going through perimenopause. No period at all for 6 months. Then 2 exactly 4 weeks apart like they used to be. UGGGGHHHHH! My body can't seem to make up its mind.) But I exercised yesterday and am planning to do so again today. Part of the problem is that the exercise bike is in the basement where my 20 year old son sleeps, and I like to exercise in the morning because after 30 minutes of pushing those pedals as a morbidly obese, not exactly fit as a fiddle, middle aged woman, I sweat like a horse running through a sauna, so I must shower afterward and would prefer to only shower once a day, but Cory sleeps in most mornings. So, as much as I don't particularly like what an exercise bike in the living room does to the decor, I think I might have to sacrifice aesthetics for health, at least temporarily. But when I am able to exercise, it's because I've included it in my morning routine.

So for me, I think the key toward moving forward in accomplishing my goals, is to have a morning routine that includes the habits necessary for making progress. What about you? What helps you? What are your struggles with meeting your goals? What victories have you had in progressing toward accomplishment?

My latest daily bliss was watching a movie on Netflix with some of my family over the weekend. The movie itself wasn't anything particularly great, but it was fun. Honey I Blew up the Kid. While we do pay a monthly subscription fee for Netflix, the movie didn't cost us any extra beyond what we pay for the service, so we didn't have to spend extra to have fun. I used to try to get everyone in the family to watch a movie together, but these days it's so hard to find a movie we all want to see, so rather than driving myself crazy and STILL listening to complaining I just figured we can each take a turn to pick out a movie every so often and whoever else wants to watch can. Yes, it would be wonderful to have the entire family do every family activity together, but it's honestly not worth trying to force it to happen. I'd rather just do something by myself or with one or some of the family and have all who are participating enjoying themselves, keeping the atmosphere pleasant and joyful.

Wishing everyone a joyful 2017!