Daily

Sometimes having a to-do list and checking it off makes me feel better. Here goes:

Tonight after work

• Unload the dishwasher Done 5:10PM


• Remind myself of my blessings


• Prepare the house for the housecleaners Done 5:30PM (sort the mail, wash the sheets in the guest rooms (6:30PM), put stuff away on the counters)


• Remind myself of my blessings


• Start taking vitamins (could explain my lack of energy- BAD GIRL) Done 5:35PM


• Remind myself of my blessings


• Actually do more than just open the Wii Fitness box- maybe actually work out on it - Changed my mind. Not in the mood. 6:30PM


• Remind myself of my blessings


• Watch "The Bachelorette" Done 6:30PM


• Remind myself of my blessings


• Added: 6:30PM Cut myself some slack Working on it....

Tomorrow's To Do list

• Go to the office


• Tick a few things off my work to-do list


• Come home


• Appreciate the clean house


• Appreciate the freshly mowed lawn


• Appreciate the fact that I didn't clean the house or mow the lawn


• Try not to get crabby that the housecleaners put things in weird places


• Try to not go all conspiracy theory on them that they do this to mess with me.

I owe LOTS of email to LOTS of people (sorry PracticalGirl, I owe you at least 3, Pat I owe you several... the list goes on) and I haven't blogged since Friday. I don't think I've read email since early last week either. Don't even ask me how many phone messages I have.

I'm behind on blog reading AND writing. BJ has asked me to do a couple of things for him while he's on his business trip and I've been pretty much ignoring him. I'm sure he'll get over it.

I'm just letting you know that I'm alive and kicking. I'm just ignoring everyone because I just don't have it in me to be at all social right now. I'd really like to go into a nice dark cave and hibernate for a few months.

Log in for the rest....Nevermind... temporary lapse in judgment. I had a talk with myself and have deleted the 'bad' stuff.

This week has kicked my everlovin' butt. I've gone to sleep by 6:30 p.m. every night and slept through the night until the alarm rings. The difference between this week and last week are like night and day.

Hmmmm... what does that tell me? I'd make an excellent stay at home [insert whatever] right now.

So forgive me for ignoring you (all of you!). Doesn't mean that I don't care. I promise. Just give me some time to be in my cave for a while.

That's what I feel like telling my boss. One more week off would be FABULOUS. This has been the best week ever. I've accomplished all the little things that I've been meaning to do, all while sleeping in until all hours of the morning.

It's been overcast/rainy all week except for Monday and today the sun is shining. In about an hour, I plan to tackle my back yard. It worked out quite perfectly to have the overcast days, because on those days I made all my phone calls and made appointments I've been meaning to get to.

I also did a little shopping (tee hee- he went for it, and let me reimburse myself for the Wii), some movie watching and general laying around.

I made an appointment with the landscaper to get the hedges trimmed on both driveways. I still have memories of not being able to move my arms after doing this myself a couple of years ago. He's going to shape up the trees in the front too (for the love of Pete, I can't make trees into ornamental balls to save my soul). He's going to give me a quote to finish the river rock in the back (remember when I started that by myself- a bag at a time? Dork!) AND he's going to give me a quote to clear out the stinging nettle and blackberries in the back. I've been bitten by the nettle for the last time.

Theoretically, anyway.

Lesseee.... I also made reservations for Casey and Jessica's wedding rehearsal dinner, made reservations for two box seats right up against the window at the local horse races for tomorrow as our belated Mother's day celebration. Squeeee! I can't wait!

I caught up on my friends lives, except AG. I guess I'd better get a little more commando on contacting her to see if she's OK (love you, girlfriend).

I've finished watching EVERY season of The Office via netflix streaming video. Seriously peeps, that is the way to go. I love it so much that I've canceled our movie channels. For 8.99 a month, I get one DVD at a time, plus UNLIMITED streaming video. You just can't beat it.

It felt really good to get all of those niggling little things off my to-do list. I think I might do this again sometime; take another week off while BJ is on a business trip. I loved having NO schedule whatsoever. I feel so rested and refreshed. I honestly haven't felt this refreshed in a very long time.

Yup, it's been a good week.

Off I go to tackle the back yard. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Caution! Pontificating ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

I've been reading a lot of books lately that really hit home to me. This type of reading isn't for everyone, but I sure enjoy it. I've always thought outside of the box when it comes to spiritual matters for as long as I can remember. Many of you know that I was raised in an ultra-conservative religion, which gave me a good, solid moral compass. I will never regret the time I spent going to church, nor the lessons I learned while I was there.

I remember very clearly a day that I was sitting with my parents and family from my dad's side when I was about nine or ten, listening to them talk about religion. My parents were sharing their truths, and the other family members were sharing theirs. I piped up, "I don't believe there is just one true religion." Yup, I said that at the ripe old age of 9 or 10 (I remember what I was wearing that day, and that's how I gauge my age. )

If looks could kill, I would have been dead from the daggers being sent my way from my mother. In their religion, they believe that it's very important to do your best to bring people into their truths- so what I said was quite taboo and I got quite a 'talking to' after that. That was the last time I'd bring up my thoughts on the matter with my parents until I was about 40.

I tell that story because it shows that I've always been a free thinker in the matters of spirituality. I do believe that my parents' church is true for them and I believe that the Catholic church is true for my aunt, and so on. I absolutely love learning about other religions and how they started. I love listening to people give their testimony of their truth, even if I don't share their truth. I believe that religion DOES have a place in this world for many people, perhaps the majority. For me though, I've had a set of beliefs that go back over many years. The things I believed wouldn't be considered conventional or 'normal', so I never really talked about it because I didn't want people to think I was weird. (too late! Everyone KNOWS I'm weird!)

A couple of years before I met BJ, I started down my path to self-discovery. I've mentioned it a few times in my blog, so I won't bore you with all of it. Part of that was to read books on spirituality on Sundays- my version of church, if you will. It was amazing to me how many other people believed the same things I did, as I churned through the various authors. I felt so isolated and alone (abnormal, even) until I started reading books that literally took my breath away because of the similarities between their truth and mine. It seems that once I started reading those books and talking about them, I found more and more people who shared my beliefs. BJ is not one of those people, but he's kind enough to respect my beliefs and not mock me. I could see how easy it would be to mock me, but at this point I don't let that bother me because I'm so secure in my beliefs.

Right now I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth". Wow, wow and WOW. Once I'm finished, I'll share my thoughts about the book and what it teaches. Other areas that I like to explore are topics about how much control you have over your reality. Notice I don't say life..

I recently ran across this; something I'd read a long time ago. I think it hits the nail on the head about controlling our reality:

Which Wolf Will Win?

An elder Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves."

"One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, jealousy and lies. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth and compassion. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too."

The children thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The grandfather simply replied, “The one I feed.”

Sometimes I have to remind myself of that story- especially when I'm going into a spiral of negativity. The story is so simple yet the message is clear and undeniable.

It's so awesome to me to meet like-minded people after all these years of keeping my spiritual thoughts to myself. That's what I love about the good ol' USA, we can all believe what we want without fear of persecution. That's a privilege and not something I take lightly.

It's now Wednesday and I've only had the opportunity to work on my front yard. It's been overcast and/or rainy yesterday and today- so I haven't been outside.

Instead, I've been inside watching movies and catching up with all of my online pals.

Speaking of pals, Anonymous G- what's up? How are you? Where have you been? I'm calling you out here on my blog because I'm sure other people are wondering about you, my dear friend.

I've not had a proper meal all week, and that's been fun. Yesterday, I had three peanut butter cookies, a protein shake and a fat free fudgesicle. I'm sure there's something terribly wrong with that, but I don't care. Today I had yogurt, two peanut butter cookies and I think I might have a salad for dinner. Maybe... I'm not terribly hungry. I always tend to lose weight when BJ is on business trips. He's on a trip next week too, so this bodes well for the "I'm going to see my ex-husband who left me because I was fat" event coming up next month.

Speaking of losing weight, I bought a Wii today and bought the Wii Fit system balance board and games to go with it. I bought both on e-bay, so it'll be a few days before they get here. My friend that visited last weekend was talking about the Wii Fit and it sounded like something I'd enjoy. Here's a list of all the games that came either with the Wii system or the Wii fit:

Wii Sports Disk:
Baseball
Bowling
Golf
Boxing
Tennis

Wii Play Disk:
Shooting Range
Billiards
Find Mii
Tanks!
Pose Mii
Table Tennis
Fishing
Charge!
Laser Hockey

Wii Fit
Includes more than 40 types of training activities designed to appeal to all members of a household. Training falls into four fitness categories: Aerobic Exercise: 10-minute exercises that are designed to get the heart pumping. Muscle Conditioning: Controlled motions using arms, legs and other body parts. Yoga Poses: Classic poses that focus on balance and stretching. Balance Games: Fun activities, such as ski jumping and heading soccer balls,that challenge the player's overall body balance.

I think that oughta keep me off the streets for a while, eh?

The only downside is that any form of exercise tends to make me jerk more frequently and severely when I'm resting. I'm still jerking around from the heavy-duty yard work I put in on Monday. With all this fun, I may lose weight from exercise AND the ensuing jerking around, eh? I'll do a product review once I get the thing and start playing with it.

I really need to stay off the online shopping when BJ is away. I caused some major damage today. I paid for all of it out of my allowance (we have joint funds and we each have an individual monthly 'allowance'), but I'll bat my eyelashes at him and see if he'll let me reimburse myself with joint funds. So far, I have had 100% success rate using this method.

It was fun 'seeing' what everyone is up to today. I'm hoping for SUNSHINE tomorrow so I can work on the back yard.

Later peeps.