Bring Home the Bacon

I have a confession to make.

When it is nearing midnight, and I haven't gotten around to writing my post for the next day....nor have I gotten around to thinking about what I'm even going to write about....well, I face the task somewhat begrudgingly.

I could get up and do it in the morning...but that is as likely as me getting up to exercise, so it's best that I stay honest with myself.

So, here I am, nearing the midnight hour, fighting a headache after two glasses of wine...never a good idea.  (I think my husband may have been trying to get me drunk.) 

Speaking of him....while he was putzing around with his lake home in the garage today, he managed to prove to us all that he is indeed getting old, and pulled a muscle in his back.  (This will happen when trying to lift a lake home single handedly.)  So, now he is walking around much like a woman in labor.  I believe I have commented on his behavior when he gets sick. (The world stops turning....etc.) Well, the same thing happens when he is in pain.

This is why women give birth.

End of story.

~

So, how did Day 1 of your "New Year's Resolutions/Evolutions" go?

Remember those baby steps I'm taking.

Yeah...they are teeny tiny baby steps.

Actually....I am starting to go through withdrawal.  I already am feeling that "The End Is Near" anxiety...and I hate that.

(The "End" as in...real life starts again on Monday...and I'm not ready.)

I have had a decent chunk of time to actually get some stuff done around here, but I have completely squandered it.

I could have put Mark and the kids to work, and tackled some projects around the house...but I chose to just be a bum instead.

Now...I'm almost out of time.

Today is our Westby family Christmas...so we will be busy with that.

Then there is the weekend...which for me is never a good time to get much done, because I am working.

This is where some changes definitely need to happen. 

And they need to happen IN MY HEAD!

~

I have wrapped my mind around the thought that my Saturdays are pretty much a bust, because whatever project I start...I always have to stop around 3 or 4 to get ready and head off to church.  By the time I get back and have dinner, it's after 7, and I always make it an early night because I'm up early again the next day.

So, in other words...I waste the day.

(I should write a book about wasting days.  I am SO GOOD AT IT!!!)

~

I have the book (a real book...not just one of the 500 books I should write...)

"52 Ways to Live A Kick-Ass Life" sitting on my desk.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book/author.  

The author has "over come an eating disorder, alcoholism and divorce..." and she dwells on these things a little too much for my liking.  It's great she has overcome them...yeah her! but I don't need to be reminded of it over and over again.  That being said, she does have some great ideas in the book.

Since it is a new year, I figure why not throw out some of her ideas that are good, and maybe you will like them too!

(especially good for late nights when I'm not sure what to write about!)

Week 1:

Take Responsibility for Your Life and Your Choices.

~

I like this.

I have been a guest at my own pity parties...and have definitely (and unfortunately) spent more time that I would have liked at the pity parties of others.  It is pretty easy to blame everyone around you for your unhappy circumstances.  It's also easy to think "don't they know how hard things are for me?" or "how can they treat me like that after all I have been through!"

I think we have all played the victim at some point in life.

The goal is to move out of that role, take all those negative "poor me" thoughts and turn them into positive ones.  

I could sit here all day and blame my age, my genetics, my depression, my migraines, my dogs for my weight gain....but the truth is...I bought a cupcake recipe book, and went nuts 18 months ago.  That set off my super sugar addiction, and I didn't stop.  I also didn't exercise.  My dogs are fat too...(but they didn't eat any cupcakes.) I could blame that damn cookbook (but OMG....it is SOOO good!) but the book didn't force that stuff down my throat.

~

She makes an interesting point in the book by saying this:

"Take a belief you have that you think is a fact.  Not a circumstance, (such as being in debt), but a belief.  For example, "I can never get out of this debt."  Ask yourself, "What if it was different?"  You don't have to completely say the opposite to yourself, or repeat any far-reaching affirmation- just get curious about the idea that it could be different.  What if it was possible to get out of debt?  Just consider it."

~

I think we often forget that EVERYTHING is a choice.

Okay...we don't choose for bad things to happen...but we DO choose how we react to it.  

That is probably the best lesson we can learn in life.  How to be able to not react....just listen, then absorb, then think it through (rationally, of course) and THEN choose how to react or feel about it.

We create our own drama.  Some of us create LOTS of drama.  (I, of course, have never created any, but I have heard that lots of people do this.)

I often wonder how things in my life would be different if I had figured this stuff out like 25 years ago....because I was the QUEEN of emotional reacting.

It never would have occurred to me to take the time to stop and think through an upsetting situation, and then deal with it.  Or, God forbid, sleep on it, and then approach it in the morning.  NO...I had to dive in head first, and solve whatever the problem was immediately....and while in a complete state of emotional turmoil.  As you can imagine, that always had a fantastic outcome!

Ugh.  

Honestly....where were the helpful magazine articles, and self-help books back then when crazy, hormonal, artsy, manic, pisces girls like me needed them?!!

All we got were "Yellow Mascara!  It's What's Hot!" (And I actually wore it a couple times, because that looked pretty with dark hair.) :-o

Or, "Drive the Boys Crazy With Love's Baby Soft."  That, or we were told that if we wore the right fragrance, we could not only bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan...but we could also make sure we never let our husbands forget he was a man...because apparently all of us were dreaming of not only supporting our families financially, but also doing all of the cooking, making sure we remained hot little sexpots, AND smelled good! (Well, not really good....I thought that Enjoli was a little rancid.) (And yes...I included the commercial for your enjoyment....click on the link.)

~

At least we are all wise and well-adjusted now, and perhaps our children have a chance at getting through their young adulthood with a little less trauma and turmoil than we did! (Or maybe I should just speak for myself here, because everyone else actually did already know all this stuff, and I was alone in my drama making, victim playing ways.)

~

At any rate, I'm glad that part has improved in my life.

Now...to work on the rest of it.

Like the "quit watching old episodes of "Castle" and actually do something productive."

One day at a time.

Baby steps.

Enjoy your Friday!!