Today is my get-my-life-on-the-fast-track again day. I’m reading a book called Eat That Frog, and it’s really got me motivated. Ok, maybe I’m only on page 2 of the first chapter (I did read the Introduction!) and already I’m so excited to started on Mr Tracy’s advice.
Friday I woke up feeling as if I needed to make some changes in my life. I think a huge part of that is that once again I was in bed for several hours before finally falling asleep. If you are one of these people that can fall asleep anywhere, at any time and within minutes, I hope you appreciate what a truly remarkable gift that is! I’m usually at the other end of the sleep spectrum — I sleep with earplugs (moms of small children — this is also a great way to train your kids to go see their dad when they wake up in the middle of the night — however, it is good if said dad is one of those gifted sleepers), with the window opened just the right amount, on the left side of the bed, in an absolutely dark room, with the heat off, socks on, and two down pillows of the exact right fluffiness. And even with all these factors in place, if I’m lucky, I’ll sleep maybe 5-6 hrs.
Mostly my problem seems to be that as soon as I lie down I start obsessing about things that I can tune out completely during the day — such as last Thursday night when I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about how tigers in Africa are being poisoned. The pointless death of such magestic creatures is decidedly sad, but really, it’s not something that I should be up worrying about most of the night (especially as I knew it would really depress me so I didn’t even watch the segment — just the teaser). OR I can’t sleep because I start worrying that I won’t be able to sleep.
So after spending most of the night obsessing about tigers, when I woke up on Friday morning, I was feeling as if I needed to give my life a new reality. I was on the phone with Lisa Pace telling her how I needed to change things up when I realized that I wasn’t even supposed to be at work – I was supposed to be at a meeting with a sales rep! That was my final straw on the taking my life on a different track — I need change. Later in the day I found the above mentioned book and I picked it on an impulse and it was the right move. So, the change began today! I’m going to try to get to bed earlier, eat a bit better, be more efficient with work so that I can spend more time with the kids, find time to scrapbook, blog and to work out. I figure I should get all these habits in place before that big 4-0 hits so I can start a new decade off right.
But… of course that meant I had to give my old way of life a proper send off with a huge, gooey lava cake smothered in whipped cream late last night!
Today I started the day by getting up 45 minutes earlier than usual. I had the house spotless before taking Alice to school, I didn’t forget anything that I needed to take to school with her, I made Alice a real lunch (she never really eats them so I usual just give her a snack) in hopes that she might really eat it. I was actually at her school 5 minutes early and from there I went and RAN at the park! Yes, for the first time in 9 years I ran. Who cares if the cartlidge is gone in my knee, there’s just nothing like a run to get you going on the right path. And I’ve been an efficiency machine through out the day. I think I am on my way to becoming that healthy, effective, efficient human being I’ve been trying to be since achieving adulthood — I’ll let you know how long that lasts!
But, when I really knew I was off to a good start to my new beginning was when I save a hummingbird this morning! The poor thing got into our garage and tried to fly through the window in the back of the garage. I saw it happen, ran and got a glove and picked the poor thing off the work bench. I got it halfway out of the garage when it flew out of my hand and made a beeline for the window again! WHACK! This time it hit so hard it bounced off the work bench and then behind it. Your garage might be perfect. Ours is not. So, in order to retrieve the bird, I had to whack my way through the cobwebs. I picked the bird up again and Scott tried to remove the cobwebs from it’s feet and beak. While doing that, it got out of my hands again and headed to the window. This time I got it and held it tight until it was safely out of the garage. It was so incredible to hold that fragile little life in my hands. Saving a life certainly does help start the day off on the right foot…
Lots of wildlife spottings around here lately. Yesterday Daisy was barking her head off at the front window which is nothing unusual. But when I went to check on her I discovered she actually was barking at something — the 5 deer lying down in our front yard. The barking dog didn’t scare them off but the human with camera did. This is what I was able to capture.
And, while I was at it, I figured I should get some updated photos of Daisy. She’s hardly looks like a puppy anymore at 7 months. With another 2-3 inches still to grow, she’s already starting to be look pretty intimidating!
With Wendy out of town caring for her ailing father, Krista on the east coast, the babysitters gone on spring break and my kids home on spring break, there wasn’t much time to blog. And once out of the blogging habit, I was finding it hard to get back into it. I’ll do my best to stay more faithful. Plus, what could be a better way to close out the first day of a new path than with a blog post?
And to close, here’s some photos from what I missed blogging about while not blogging!
We took the kids snowshoeing one day over the break. We had never attempted it before and it went very well! No matter that it was a two hour drive there, we snowshoed for an hour and then drove the two hours back!
Scott and a friend took our two and their two kids camping for the second weekend of the break (while I stayed home and painted the master bath for two days!)
And we have a big boy in the house with his first loose tooth — it was a HUGE deal!!! It’s been this loose for a week and still hasn’t fallen out… Do you see the second set of teeth coming in behind the two bottom teeth? I’ve never seen that before… (and please ignore the slight chocolate mustache)
And I think I am now officially caught up! Hope your week is off to a good start!
