Less Hustle More Coffee

Good morning (at least it is here)! Just thought I’d pop in for a late mid-week entry. Or is it end of week? It’s “Friday’s Sister, Thursday” today.

So I am better from the diverticulitis situation. I have bounced back and forth between glee and depression. Glee that things are going well and then depression if I feel a pain or have a moment of nausea or a period of extreme fullness when it seems digestion is not happening. I have had this two times before. Both times as I came out of it I did this back and forth thing. Both times I try to assess what happened and not have it happen again. Some of this is repeat from my prior post but, this time it was different. I didn’t really have any warning signs.

But one can only control so many things. I can give up nuts and popcorn, despite the updated studies that show it’s not really the culprit. But the doctors say they hear their patients saying it is – and that even spicy foods can cause it. So I get it though. They are ALL correct. I mean if “the flow” (ha) is good – nothing has time to get stuck in an intestinal wall – most of the time – but if you are leaning your body into the side of your desk or sleeping on your left side, or something of that nature could press it together. And spicy food could irritate the lining of your stomach and cause an inflammation or infection. So everyone is correct. And so I just have to eliminate those things that I love from my diet. I do not think the spicy food is bothering me, but I did notice last week or two that ketchup really tore me up whereas it has not before. And certain types of tomato sauce can cause blisters in my mouth – so perhaps it is doing that in the lining? I don’t really intend on giving up tomatoey things as a whole, but it is something to consider. I think I would have to give up living as a whole if I had to give up spaghetti and chili. Life just would not be worth it. lol. So this has really bothered me. And my moods have been up and done. I am a control freak so I want to be able to control this. But I’m not sure I can. I mean with this last bout being such a surprise, it makes you just want to give up trying to control it. But I guess that is not good either. Life seems to just be what it is going to be regardless of effort sometimes. But I will give up nuts and seeds and popcorn. I’ll be more careful about the tomatoes. I’m not giving up the tomato sauce. But I will reduce the spicier versions and see if there is a way to make it less acidic. And after the antibiotics are gone I’ll start back on probiotics and stay on them? The nuts and seeds and tomatoes were important to me for my healthy diet. So ironic. But I just have to trust that whatever journey God allows me to go on, is the one I will go on – whether it be life, death, health, illness, or just plain a life w/out nuts. We all need a few less nuts in our life. 😉

Most of all I’ve had numerous conversations with God and I’ve tried to maintain a positive outlook – as my mind wanders into negativity. So good things have at least come out of it and I do believe that God is in control of my life and what happens to me. So there are some blessings:

1. This happened over a weekend and did not devastate me regarding my work.
2. I was able to get rest that was much needed.
3. I was able to spend time in prayer with God and have some much needed conversations.
4. I was able to find the new Beth Moore book that was recently published. I will be listening on the commute.
5. Heck, who knew? This aids my weight loss and I’ve been really wanting to break the cycle and continue my health journey. I’ve been asking God to lead me in this effort but I continue down the same paths.
6. Maybe this will finally get me into action continually as exercise is good for digestion.
7. It makes me realize I have less control over my life and need to ask for God’s guidance EVERY day and not just when there is a crisis. Some days I just think “I’ve got this”. I got nuttin’.

Maybe there are more good reasons this happened but that’s all I can think of this morning.

Here’s the new Beth Moore book, “Chasing Vines”. You should go on line and read what it is about. It’s just what I’ve been looking for. It’s about the significance of our lives.

So Katy has been lucky on the ranch in TX. It’s snowed. And iced first. She was excited to be in TEXAS and get snow days. We haven’t had any here. I don’t think.

We have had rain from the same system. A big one.

I have been so glad to be able to work. Have I told you lately I grateful I am to have this job that suits me so well. I love almost every aspect of it. I even love stuffing the checks for an hour an half on Wed for our Nashville plant. It’s probably not the most productive thing for a salaried person to be doing for that hour, but it’s nice to have a mindless hour. And I’m grateful for these envelopes as it’s much easier and less messy than using that glue stuff, but I just use what is available. I got a lot done in the last 3 days in catching up from last week where I only was able to do half of my normal week as we were doing year end activities. So I’m having to double up and or catch up for this week. I still have one state that needs finishing up for year end. There was no way we had time. I only had a week with the data I needed to to everything I needed to do, so we did good with the time we had. I had help also which was appreciative. But this one state you have to enter by hand all the employee w-2’s manually (well we would not have to if we had the correct software- but we don’t) so I got about 12 entered yesterday of the 208. Since I don’t really have time to do this, it’ll be a slow go, but every one entered in the fractions of time I can find, will eventually eat away at the 208 total. Kinda makes you also realize the turnover rate for that plant. Our plant there has less than 100 but there was that many w-2’s so go figure. Wow. And that is why I moved out of HR – no one wants to work and you can’t get your other parts of your job done b/c you are always having to worry about the hiring. I remembered yesterday how it used to be when you could be selective and people were clamoring at the doors of companies wanting to work for them. Now they all just want to Uber.

So we have had some humor this week. George said he would fix this for me:

Ewww. I am craving some dressed eggs though. I was going to order them from Cracker Barrel yesterday but it wasn’t on the menu. It comes on their salads but I have decided to wait before eating lettuce and salad. On that note I’ve also decided not to eat anything with Kale in it. Much like seeds, it has some really strong sides to it and I don’t digest it very well. So I’m choosing to eliminate that. I had kale when this happened to me the first time. Makes you wonder.

Anyway, gonna go try to get done what I can today. Knock her out of the park the best I can.

Looking forward to the weekend. And I will pop in here in a day or two with my updated to do lists and projects. Looking forward to them.

Keep me in your prayers. Yes I DO believe that that one extra prayer can change God’s mind or influence Him. Man has negotiated with God before. He has changed His mind before. But more than anything, I think He desires for us as His creators to communicate with Him. I’ll be doing more of that.

Have a fine and dandy Thursday. Are you looking forward to Spring? I’m also thinking a lack of sunshine can aid in creating the perfect storm for things like I’ve been through. So I’ve added extra Vitamin D to my daily diet. You may consider it too for extra help getting through the yuk til we get to more sunshine. I’m thinking cruise this time next year to sunnier weather. Who am I kidding? I could not go til mid February due to payroll/year end constraints. That is the downside to payroll as there is only certain windows of time. One only hopes for no emergencies. But anyway – I still love what I’m doing and I wouldn’t ever go back, not even at gun point. lol

Have a good one!