A Catch-Up Post

I thought a catch-up post was in order since it has been almost two months since I posted anything.

There hasn’t been anything especially interesting or exciting going on.  We’ve just been busy, mostly with work.  We’ve been stuck in a rut of not leaving work on time/taking work home with us (sometimes the whole “do more with less” gets really out of control), which hasn’t left time for much else. 

Most of this year has been that way, and it has felt like we’re stuck in a cycle of just trying to make it through the week only to arrive at the weekend exhausted and behind on all of the life stuff that got put off during the week.  When that happens, we seem to spend the entire weekend trying to catch up and getting ready for the next week of work. 

We both struggle a little bit with setting boundaries, so that’s something we’re making a real effort to work on.  We’re also trying to work on better time management.  I think better time management will follow if we get better at boundaries.  You can’t really manage time that you’ve allowed others to take control of. 

Hopefully, this means we’ll have a little more time for things we enjoy, which for me includes writing blog posts and visiting your blogs.

We both still have a long way to go when it comes to setting boundaries with work and leaving on time.  Hopefully, we’ll see some improvements soon.

We did finally make a plan and stick to it for this past weekend, though, and it was wonderful.  We bought tickets in advance for a Saturday afternoon showing of The Little Mermaid.  It’s one of my absolute favorite Disney cartoons, and I really wanted to see the live-action movie. 

It was so good!  It was just different enough from the cartoon not to be predictable but stayed true enough to the cartoon to be familiar.  There were some new songs that were great.  And I absolutely loved Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. 

In other catch-up news, I took a CPR class.  I took a compressions-only class years ago but never a full CPR class.  I had the chance to take one with Nick, so I went for it.  I’m always nervous in medical settings, so going through the class with Nick made me feel a lot better about it.  I did a lot better than I expected to with chest compressions, and I learned how to use a bag valve mask.  I still hope I never, ever have to do CPR on a person, but at least I know I can. 

It was neat to take the class with Nick, too, because even though he wasn’t teaching it (he’s not a CPR instructor, but has plenty of CPR experience after spending over 20 years in the fire department), he was helping people who were struggling during the practice and practicals.  It was neat to watch him teach other people and, in some cases, just help people find the confidence to do it. 

So, what about you?  What have you been up to for the past couple of months?  Are you good at maintaining a good work/life balance?  How do you do it?  Have you seen the new version of The Little Mermaid? 

A to Z Blogging Challenge

It seems like March lasted for about five minutes.  It’s hard to believe it’s already April!  I knew March was practically over in the sense that I rely pretty heavily on calendars, but I still found myself a little surprised that yesterday was the very last day of March.

For many bloggers, April means the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you’re not familiar, it’s where you blog every day in April with something that corresponds to the day’s letter; A on the 1^st, B on the 2^nd, etc., and Sundays are your days off. 

I started this blog, way back in 2012, by participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  I can’t believe that was ten years ago!  Wow!  I looked through some of the old posts and saw that there are some people I still interact with regularly via Blogger, which I think is pretty cool.  I also realized that my blogging has come a long way.  We had a very slow digital camera way back then and an even slower desktop computer.  It took so long to get a post up!  And adding pictures was such an ordeal, so I very rarely had any.  That has definitely changed!

I don’t have the best track record with the A to Z Blogging Challenge; I finished successfully in 2012 and 2015.  I didn’t participate in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, or 2021.  I started but didn’t finish in 2014 and 2017.  But, the ten-year mark seems like a good time to jump back in, so here I go.

Since I’ve signed up at the last minute, I don’t have a theme, and I don’t have very many posts planned out.  I have a few drafts and ideas for things I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but definitely not 26 posts.  So, I’m open to ideas if there’s anything anyone wants to read about or see more pictures of.

So what about you?  Are you participating in this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge?  How long have you been blogging? 

Time Flies Even If You’re Not Having Fun

 They say time flies when you’re having fun, but I think 2020 is proving that time just flies.  It certainly hasn’t been fun, but at least it seems to be going by quickly.  It has been almost two months since my last post, but it seems like it went by in a blur. 

I’m still working from home.  I did get to go into the office for two days during the past week, which I was absolutely thrilled about.  Beyond that, we’re still being told to work from home until we’re told otherwise.  

Nick and I are still staying home as much as possible.  Social distancing and mask wearing just aren’t happening in our area, so we’re choosing to avoid situations where we can’t be sure that social distancing and the mask mandate will be enforced.   

It’s starting to feel like fall, which is very different from this time last year.  One of our local weather forecasters posted on Facebook that in September of 2019, we had twenty days of 90 degree or higher temperatures.  This year there only three days of 90 degree or higher temperatures in September.  

We’ve been enjoying the cooler weather.  We’ve had the windows open for over a week now, and we’ve been eating outside fairly often.  I clipped some of the roses that are blooming and put them in a vase on the table outside.  I love having cut flowers around, but we can’t have them inside because the cats will destroy them.  It’s nice to be able to have them on the outside table.

I’ve switched to fall themed cards and stickers for my chemo and senior buddies.  I think the plaid pumpkins are very cute.  

So what about you?  What have you been up to during the past two months?  Does it feel like fall where you are?  

September Wrap-Up & Blog Ahead

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will be October 1st.  It feels like it should be still be sometime in May, or at least still early summer. 

Thanks everyone for your concern when I posted about the hurricane.  I’m late in posting this, but we came through the storm unscathed.  I’m not complaining, but our area didn’t get anywhere near the wind or rain that was originally forecast.  We were very fortunate.

Thank you for all of the anniversary wishes.  We both took off on Thursday and Friday, so had a four day weekend together.  We kept it fairly low key, but we had some great Indian food, more pie than we should have, and participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s (I’ll post more about that later).  It probably doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but we enjoyed it.

It’s officially fall, but we’re forecast to have temperatures in the low to mid 80s for all of next week.  I’m happy with that.  The longer we can postpone the cold, the better.  It also means the flowers will last a little longer, which always makes me happy. 

I’ve signed up for the Blog Ahead Challenge hosted by Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup.  The idea is to increase your number of scheduled posts by thirty during the month of October.  I’ve only done one of the Christmas posts I want to do, so I’m hoping this will be the push I need to get more of them ready to go. 

So how was September for you?  Does it seem like this year is flying by?  Are you participating in any blogging challenges in October? 

The Lilac Bush, Three Years Later

I usually love it when the “you have memories” notification comes up on Facebook.  Most of the time it’s kind of fun to see what was going on exactly a year, or several, ago.  Sometimes it’s a good way to measure progress and see how much has changed.

This picture popped up today, from three years ago.

In 2015, the attorneys in my office gave me a gift certificate to a local nursery for Administrative Professionals Day.  That was a good year in the yard, so I was delighted with the gift certificate.

One of the things I bought with it was a lilac bush to plant in front of the house.  I had forgotten how small it was when we first planted it.

As you can see from these pictures, taken today, it really has grown a lot in three years.

I really, really like the bush, so I’m very happy it’s doing so well.  It smells great, and I love the flowers on it.

So what about you?  Do you like lilacs?  Do you enjoy it when Facebook informs you of memories for a specific day?

The Blank Pages of 2015

I’m not really a New Year’s Resolution kind of person. I’m not really sure why, but I’ve never entirely bought into the whole "New Year, New Me" thing. A date on the calendar isn’t going to suddenly take me from being a temperamental caffeine addict with a frighteningly disorganized purse to being a calm, only drinks water girl with a perfectly organized purse. It would be nice, but it’s just not realistic. In my opinion and experiences with attempting New Year’s Resolutions.

That being said, I love the chance (and encouragement) to look back on the previous year that a new year brings. It’s a great time to reflect on what you did, didn’t do, wanted to do, etc. 

The beginning of a new year does also bring a blank slate of sorts. Literally, if you’re like me and don’t have the best relationship with technology. I’ve been using this calendar for about seven years now, (it works really well for keeping up with Nick’s rotating schedule), and getting the new one for the year always makes me really happy. It has that new book smell, and I love all of the blank pages. It’s a whole year waiting to be filled up.

This, of course, begs the question of what’s going to be written on the blank pages of 2015. Work, obviously, represents a huge chunk of time for most of us. But what about the rest of the time? The beginning of the year seems to be a great time to think about how you want to fill the pages of the year ahead.

For me, a few things come to mind. I haven’t given up on writing. I’m still working on a cookbook and a novel (my inability to commit to one project at a time could be part of my problem). I still need to work on exercising, losing weight, and making better food choices. And there are a few house and yard projects we’re hoping to tackle this year.

Then there are the more intangible things like spending more time with family and friends, being more mindful of how time is filled, and doing something good. Those are the things that are a little harder to measure, but that certainly doesn’t make them any less important.

The pages fill up really, really fast. It never fails to amaze me how quickly a week can go from being a blank slate to being a constant rush to get everything done. I think that just makes it even more important to work on filling the pages, as much as possible, with the things that really matter to us.

So what about you? How are you planning to fill the blank pages of 2015?

Life

I had a plan going into the A to Z Challenge to write and schedule a lot of my posts for the week on the weekends, and have everything scheduled to post on its assigned day of the week.  It takes a really, really long time for pictures to upload, and I thought that would be easier in addition to allowing me more time to visit other blogs during the week.

Sometimes life gets in the way of plans, though.  That was the case for me this weekend.  Nick was off, the weather was beautiful, we had a class Saturday morning, and we had plans with Nick’s grandparents to attend a nearby festival.  We took advantage of the beautiful weather to get a lot of yard work done.  We put in our first raised bed, which I’m extremely proud of (probably more on that in a later post).

This made me think about the things that make up our lives, and how much time we spend doing them.  Life is busy, and it seems like we’re constantly juggling to fit everything in.  Obviously, some things are more necessary than others, and some have a much higher priority than others, but they’re all part of our lives. 

Here are the major things that make up my life:

Work.  I imagine this one is a biggie for most people.  It’s 40 hours a week, probably for the next 40 years, unless we win the lottery or something.

Fur kids.  We have six of them right now, so taking care of them and spending time with them takes up a lot of time.  It’s time we both feel is time well spent, but still a lot of time.

Volunteering.  For hubby it’s at the Fire Department, usually at least one day a week.  For me it’s something involving animals.  Today it will be driving to a kill shelter in South Carolina after work to pick up kittens to bring to the no-kill shelter here.

Home and yard work.  The dishes and laundry (and sweeping and dusting) seem to be never ending.  No matter how much we try to streamline it, they still take time.  This is also the time of year when yard work becomes a major thing.  At least we get to be outside for that!

Cooking.  This is how I spend a lot of my time.  I love cooking.  Most of our socializing seems to involve having people over to out house to dinner, and I’m in the process of writing a cookbook.   I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Spending time with family and friends.  This one is so easy to push to the side, but so important to make time for.  Because Nick’s work schedule is pretty crazy we have to be very conscientious about blocking off time for the two of us.  I also think it’s very important to spend time with family and friends, even if it’s just meeting someone for coffee to catch up.  

Of course there are other things, but those seem to be the main daily and weekly things that make up my life.  

What about you?  What are the main things that make up your life?  

A to Z Challenge Reflections Post

It’s hard to believe that it has already been a week since the last day of the challenge, yet here we are already about to move into the second week of May.

Signing up for the A to Z Challenge was one of the best things I’ve done in a while.  I’ve always said I want to be a writer, yet I rarely find the time to write.  Because I enjoy writing I’ve often treated it like a prize or reward; I’ll write when the laundry’s done, after the dishes are put away, when the house is clean, etc.  But these things are never totally done; they’re a part of life, which is ongoing.

Quote on a bench at Riverbanks Zoo & Gardens

I learned during the challenge that writing is like anything else that’s important to me; if I want to do it, I must make the time to do it.  I won’t suddenly find the time to do it.  Each day has 24 hours; I’m not suddenly going to notice that Wednesday has snuck me an extra couple of hours to write. (A girl can dream though, right?)  If I want to write, I must make the time for it, either by organizing myself a little better, or spending less time on another pursuit.  That was probably the most valuable thing I learned during the challenge.  I realize that probably isn’t very profound, but it has made a big difference for me.

I also learned a little bit about letting go of a topic, or at least shelving it for a while.  There were days that I had definite posts in mind for, yet I ended up going with something entirely different.  Sometimes my original idea wasn’t nearly as interesting as I first thought it was.  Sometimes I was just too ashamed of what I’d managed to write on a given subject; I felt that if someone was kind enough to stop by my blog they deserved (at the least) something I wasn’t embarrassed to have written.  There are some ideas I will probably re-visit at a later date, but I feel like I now have a much better handle on knowing when to move on to something else.  With limited time to write, I feel like that’s a pretty valuable lesson to have walked away with.

I also learned a little more about navigating blogger, though I still have a long, long way to go.  I will admit to being a little less than savvy (if it weren’t for my husband my blog would be even less ascetically pleasing), and I’m still trying to figure out to follow some people back, but I feel like I have made some progress as far as the logistics of posting: I can now re-arrange the pictures to my liking (most of the time) and I’ve learned how to schedule a post.

The most surprising, and pleasant, aspect of the challenge for me was how truly kind and supportive people have been.  I felt almost like I’d won the lottery when I got my first follower; each follower after that was a wonderful surprise as well.  In returning comments to other bloggers there were certainly some people whose lives and interests seem to have nothing in common with mine, yet they still managed some positive comment on my blog.  Blogger Land is filled with some really nice people, and it was nice to come into contact with some of them.

I don’t really think I can pick a favorite post; even choosing a favorite post on some of the blogs I’m following now (including the ones I haven’t really figured out how to officially follow yet) would be somewhat difficult.  But here’s a list of some of the blogs I have found that I really enjoy:

The feathered nest – She has actually come up with another sort of challenge idea, involving photo prompts that I’m very excited to be participating in.

As if by magic – I enjoy her style of writing, and her photos are amazing.

Inane Ramblings – I can never predict what her topic will be, but it has always been a pleasant read.

Writers Do Laundry, Too – I clicked on this blog because the name caught my eye; I continue to come back because I really like her style of writing.  She’s a writer and has really good insight, but never comes across as condescending.

Grits and Groceries – This is another one I clicked on because the name interested me.  Because I’m something of a procrastinator I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but I will.  He’s also great about answering any questions you may leave.

My Life as Lynn Proctor – Her posts are a mix of many things; humor, reflections, insights, etc that I look forward to reading.

As I said, these are just a few of the blogs that I have come to look forward to reading; it’s just impossible to name and list them all.  I am glad that the Challenge List is expected to stay up for a while, as I am sure there are plenty of other great blogs that I haven’t even gotten to yet. 

For any of the A to Z hosts reading this, I’d just like to say “thank you, thank you, thank you”.  I am so glad I signed up, and am very much looking forward to next year.  Thank you as well to everyone who has read, commented on, and followed my blog.  We made it through the challenge, and are better for it.