There’s a ten-year-old boy in my life (not my own, though nearly just as dear) who is obsessed with birds. A couple of weeks ago he downloaded a bird call app on my phone, and we listened to the various warbles and calls, chirps and trills.
This week was a flurry of physical activity, from daily workouts and running up and down the stairs at work, to the 8.5-mile hike I struggled through yesterday.
This week felt slightly busier than the last, in part because I wrapped up a huge corporate impact report for work and as a result, I wasn’t as diligent with waking up earlier and working out. You can’t win them all! Luckily, I fit in a workout this morning, which made my brain and my body happy.
By now you’ve seen the finished product of our long basement remodel, but I wanted to record the many steps we took along the way. It’s fun to look back on these photos and remember how often I felt like it would never be done. I also remember in our early-married years wishing for a finished basement, and today, we have just that! It’s funny how we can spend so much time pining for what we don’t have, only to sometimes take it for granted when we do. Writing this post is a reminder to stop and savor what we’ve accomplished. Ready for some very scary basement pics?
This week was the first week in a long time that I felt like things were (back) in balance. I know the concept of balance is tricky, though, and so I don’t hold too strongly to the notion of responding perfectly to life’s evolving demands. Life is meant to become out of balance—some weeks we work more to push through a big project, other weeks a sick child needs our attention. Life ebbs and flows as it will, and that’s okay.
The best antidote for anxiety I’ve found (besides medicine and sleep and exercise and skipping caffeine and going to therapy and all of that jazz) is presence. And what better way to be in the moment than to call out the things that make us happy right now. Gratitude helps me consider exactly where I am at today, not in some far away made-up life or one spent regretting past actions. Here’s what I’m grateful for today…
A few weeks ago, I began reading On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good. And then, as embarrassing as it feels to admit, I gave up reading it. The prose is excellent, the topic timely, and yet it felt like another task on my burgeoning to-do list. The very nature of reading a book promising clarity on women’s desire to be good enough felt like a step on that very journey.
“There are two kinds of people in sales. The ones who grab the bull by the horns, pick up that phone and make call after call. And then there are the timid ones, the lazy ones, the silver spooners, those without work ethic. The question is, which one are you going to be?”
This weekend I graduated from Illinois State University with a Master’s in Business Administration and a Certificate in Organizational Leadership. I completed eight prerequisites and 12 degree-seeking courses in three and a half years, all while working full-time, continuing to volunteer in my community, and being a wife, mother, and friend. Here’s what I learned.
I started writing about love last summer. I sat in the cold basement of the Door County farmhouse owned by Mike’s aunt and uncle, perched with my laptop on a wobbly wooden stool next to a fridge covered in old photos and the year’s calendar. The washing machine hummed along and my kids were unaware of my exact location. It was the perfect setting for a little navel gazing.