Love Is.... Self-care

Self-care is not blogging when I'm tired and really have nothing to say.

Self-care is turning out the light when my husband asks,
because we do like actually sleeping together.

Self-care is owning up to being a night-owl and just going with it.

Self-care is admitting 5am hurts.  And naps are nice.

Self-care is a shower.

Self-care is eating an apple, instead of saving them for others.

Self-care can be going ahead and pigging out on my favorite junk food.

Self-care is happily cooking a meal.

Self-care is asking to be taken out for a meal.

Self-care is taking care of things on my to-do list.

Self-care is taking it easy after a busy-do day.

Self-care is accepting compliments and understanding and love.

Even from myself.

Hither & Yon

Today was mostly spent driving.

Tuesday is chock-full of after-school activities.  OK, dance lesson for DLG & piano for MLB, but that's plenty.  We do not believe in over-scheduling anyone.

Midday, I drove all the way over to my mom's house to retrieve DLG's coat, and to bring back my vanity/desk from my childhood.  The piece looks lovely in her room.  I think I will go to Costco to get her some lighter colored shelves.  Then, it's on to figuring out how to fit my old double bed in her room.

Maybe we'll just commandeer her brother's room.  Boys don't need much space.

Steady as She Goes

Still plowing through my To Do List.  It contains between 20-25 items.  As some come off, I add others.  Some adds are emerging things; some are things that I've put off long enough.

Maybe by summer I can get it down to a reasonable 10-item as-needed list.



Nah.

We Have Seen

Today, January 6, is the Feast of the Epiphany.  This year the actual feast day fell on a Sunday, which was very convenient for us Americans.

We celebrate the revealing of the Christ to the world when wisemen from the east came in search of the new king whose star they saw rise.

More amazing than their trek is their acceptance that the king was a suckling child of humble birth.

We rarely accept things as they appear to us.  We look for the "angle," for the falsehoods, for the traps.  We expect more and are disappointed when that's all there is.

My kids-- God bless them, because He blessed me with them-- find delight in the here and now.  They have learned to be dazzled by the wonders of everyday:  a spider, a book, lunch.

I brought them Three King's Day gifts.

Nothing big.  Just stuff I found post-holiday clearance.  My son was excited to see his tin held holiday magnets; he barely saw the chocolate coins (a kid fave) below those.  My daughter didn't even open her tin; she was all about her emoji-poo squishy.  And both of them were amazed at the size of the gumballs.  My 14yo & (almost) 10yo were excited about $5 of stuff.  They accepted and rejoiced.

I pray that the Lord keeps them full of gratitude and wonder.  I pray the Lord reminds me always to be thankful and joyful.

Setting Priorities

Today I feel both disappointed with myself, and satisfied with myself.

I'm disappointed because I did not help with the ballet studio's Winter Open House and Rummage Sale.  During The Nutcracker performances, I'd made plans to help out (despite my own misgivings of planning & organizing a rummage sale 10 days after Christmas.)  But then, as evidenced by yesterday, life caught up with me.

That, and I needed to reassemble my dryer vent.

So the dryer vent is one of the banes of my existence.
THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS WRONG WITH IT!
(1)  The inadequate roof vent is clogged with 10-year-old matted lint.
(2)  And we don't own a ladder tall enough to reach the lowest eave.
(3)  The conduit from the floor to the roof is about 20 feet.
(4)  It slopes the last 9 feet.
(5)  The interior conduit is, I believe, repurposed rectangular downspout.
       Because that fits within the framing.
       As opposed to making the framing fit round conduit.
(6)  So. Not. Code.  (Wait!  The county has no codes!  Ha-ha!)
(7)  I need to fit a 12.5 sq.in. round peg into a 6 sq.in. rectangle hole.
(8)  That's off-center.


A few visuals:


This is the vent opening, and the repurposed downspout.

This is my dear, sweet, up-to-code, UL certified dryer.

Quite the mis-match, eh?

I bought an arsenal of things that might make a connection that can easily be removed & cleaned, that would be less likely to catch lint.

And I ended up using what I had removed.  It had been cobbled together by the last tech to work on my dryer.

I don't work by the hour or by the job, so I was able to take time to securely reassemble the parts and to use vent tape to smooth it all out.  After I had to cut the connector piece in order to make a truer 90-degree bend, the round conduit fitting was more of a 3.5 than 4 inch diameter.  Luckily, I had a true duct connector (both ends crimped, a pair of tightening belts included,) which created the transition I needed.  It made the unit stick out an extra 3-4 inches, but Carley was able to figure out a way to get back there and gather up the slack on the flexible conduit so it could be back in its original position.

So I'll see how it holds up, and how soon I'll need to clean the conduits.

Someone said that charity begins at home.  I believe the intent was that charity is first modeled in the home.  Mrs. March took it a step further when she entreated her girls Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy to concentrate their efforts at care and helpfulness with each other first.  Or as my husband reminds me, you can't pour from an empty bucket.

I truly missed spending time with my fellow ballet-moms.  I consider them friends, not co-members.  But I do need to take care of myself and my family first, so I can give more of myself when I do have the time.

Recovery Day

I was lazy today.  In-between all of my busy-ness for the past 3 days and the weather front that came in, I found myself very sleepy.  So I slept almost all day.

How lazy?  I'm typing this on the 5th & back-posting.
(Hey, I mentally composed this on the 4th.)

Training

I saw a beautiful horse today near the house.  Its coat glowed in the overcast weather; its head arched to display its braided mane; it stood perfectly poised.  I asked the young man if he needed to cross the road, but he said no.  As I drove past, it occurred to me that he must be tempering his show-horse to  distractions-- traffic, people, weather.  Horse and rider, patient & still with each other.

My own selfishness can be a distraction.  I play way too many games on my tablet; I take too many naps; I try to get away with as few responsibilities as possible.

I need to train myself, need to be well tempered.

Stayed busy enough today.  Got my list down to 20 items.

2019. Day 2.

I did not take a nap today.  I did prepare and enjoy 3 nutritious meals today.  I did complete a handful or two of tasks from my list, while adding a few new tasks.

Do To List now stands at....... 24 items.

Yay me.

But, here's a resolution we can all support:

(Life is short, eat the donut.)

Hello 2019

My To-Do list has  25 things on it. Had to make a list, otherwise I'd forget to do them. Like I have for the past few months while either stressing, depressing, or over extending with kid-related volunteer projects.

Mom-life. Oh, look. More stuff.