Less Hustle More Coffee

Oh ya’ll! I took a PTO day off yesterday, after being physically and mentally exhausted much of the week with lack of adequate sleep on some days. I have now slept 9 hours solid the last two nights giving me energy again. I also get energy from having self time and if I don’t get it, I basically cannot function properly as a human, lol. I did not tell anyone about the day off but my boss and George. I just needed to know that this day was mine and wasn’t going to be filled with anything else.

What I did yesterday was video “Spend a Vacation Day with Me at Home”. I think it turned out great. I used my iPhone for much of it but made myself use the EOS M50 for a few things. I did everything I wanted to do yesterday and nothing I didn’t want to do. lol I still did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, cleared out some things in the fridge, made a smoothie, fixed popcorn and watched a show or two, changed my sheets, packed for Hot Springs, scheduled the Amazon returns, ordered vitamins for me and for Mom, and worked many hours on the flooring video. I’m almost through with it but I will need to video a segment of our house all put together to end it. I also will need to work on thumbnail. I’m not sure when the upload will be. I’m not pushing myself. But I do need to figure out a way to catch up on the videos. I’m not getting the time I normally had, as you well know. And it makes me very sad, mad, disappointed to move at a snail’s pace toward my goals.

Homemade Smoothies

The smoothie was made with the following ingredients.

Because women enjoy watching other women’s make up routine, I actually filmed that too after I took a shower – no I didn’t film that part, lol.

Publix Makes a Great Salad

Publix Salad

I had bought a salad at Publix Thursday evening. It looked small for $6.99 but it looked good and fresh and I bought it anyway to have for my day off yesterday. I put it in another bowl and let me tell you, the salad exploded into about twice this size. The lettuce was packed in there. It had a lot of dressing and it hit the spot. I love this salad with blue cheese, strawberries, candied pecans, and balsamic vinaigrette. It’s a favorite spring salad.

The Little Girl I Was.

Me as a Little Girl playing with cards. I saw this on Facebook last night – as shared by a cousin to me a few years ago.

So, I was only child for 10 years. And I learned how to entertain myself. I think it is the reason I really enjoy having self-time now. It’s just what I’m used to. I like for everything to be calm, no stress, and not a lot of activity. So Mam-ma showed me how to play SOL (solitaire) and Mam-ma called it “beating old SOL”, which I pictured as the devil for some reason. I guess because he was some spirit I couldn’t see that I was trying to beat. That made it fun. I was so happy when I learned how to shuffle the cards the adult way. Later I learned to play Go Fish, Old Maid, and up to about the sixth grade, enjoyed playing “War” with friends. I knew one magic trick with cards that someone showed me. I wonder if I can remember it.

On a trip – likely in Destin, FL – we bought these cards. It was fun for me to buy them because it reminded me of playing SOL with cards when I was little. I think today I’ll play an old fashioned game just for the memory and see if I can remember the trick. Mam-ma made the rat I think. I have several rats like this in my office as they remind me of Mam-ma and her whimsy. She was very crafty also. My Nanny could sew like a professional though and I wish I had spent more time learning it. It was always a desire and still kinda is but just one I’ve never invested in because well – you see how many hobbies I have already and don’t have time as it is. It’s a blessing to love to do so many things in life but a curse to not have time to do them all, lol!

As a young girl, I also loved to draw, paint, and do crafty items although there were not many crafty items to be crafty with except that Mam-ma taught me to embroidery on old pieces of clothing or old pillow cases or flour sacks and also taught me the basics of crocheting, and even quilt making. I’m so thankful to anyone who took the time to show me “how to” do things as a child which was mostly by grandparents. Grandaddy taught me to read at a very young age. My grandparents really invested in their time with me to show me these things.

I even loved sewing in Home Ec – like I really LOVED sewing, but Mom’s machine was old and crotchety and neither she nor I had much patience in teaching/learning with me on that old machine-so my love for sewing quickly fizzled. Looking back, my mind was so open to learning new things. I loved to draw, sketch, and just decided I wasn’t too good at that either although Mom says I was. If I couldn’t make a living doing it, I gave it up because it frustrated me as I always went for perfection and couldn’t reach it. With art it seemed that you either had the talent or didn’t. I didn’t and didn’t think it was something I could improve. I could have been wrong. But it mostly seems to be a gift and one I didn’t really have within me. I mostly liked doing all my hobbies but always felt I was no good at them or never good enough to take off with any one of them. I was always interested in other countries and cultures through school but had very little information.

I wanted to be an ice skater, or a teacher when I grew up. I wanted to write on the chalk board and those projector things using flair pens. Oh my gosh – I never got to do that part with the projector – I missed out. lol But I do have a chalk board and dry erase board, lol.

Mom taught me how to house clean (lol) but Home Ec taught me how to cook – and George did too.

I also fervently wanted to learn piano, but was given a guitar instead and I tried to have an interest in that but I just wasn’t. I wanted to join the band and be a part of that community but was discouraged in that realm. I would have played the flute had I joined. I think I would have loved it back then. I would have loved being a part of that group and I think learning musical notes can impact your brain in a positive way making paths for learning more difficult things. I loved music, collecting and taping music on my cassette recorder – that was the coolest thing to record the radio and make cassettes. I also wanted to be a singer, but my voice was never high enough. I am a very heavy alto. But my range was never big enough to be valuable. I guess that was maybe 6th grade through 8th grade or so.

I did buy a keyboard and taught myself to play in my late twenties, learning the notes and all. But quickly gave that up when the computer scene hit. I was ALL ABOUT computer games, digital graphics, anything on line, and then one that stuck – something that I was finally good at -writing and blogging which lept a bit into dabbling in photography and now vlogging. I’m not a professional photographer or videographer and really don’t have time to learn it but have always just jumped in – to get a blog or vlog done. I like to watch other people’s videos and then go learn how to do what they did. I am itching to learn – and of course that is where the problem comes in – this itching of mine to learn and explore. I can’t travel as often as I’d like so I am thankful for our internet and YouTube to keep showing me things and taking me places.

And that brings us up to date I guess. lol

It Snowed Last Night

So it snowed last night and so Fancy’s trim is canceled for today and rescheduled for the Saturday after Hot Springs and Mom wants to look at furniture that day as we were supposed to do that today. The roads are very icy even though they look somewhat clear. I took these very early morning as the sun came up so they are twilight blue. I am so glad this didn’t happen during the work week. lol

I can’t decide if I am in the mood to do a snow photo shoot or not. lol I could go out in the cold and do one. I mostly just want to catch up on everything that I am behind in though. But we’ll see.

Miscellaneous Updates

Oh, I had my consult for the colonoscopy Thursday. And then followed with Chic Fil A drive through. I think Chic Fil A took about as long as the doctor, lol! Anyway my colonoscopy is scheduled for one day in May.

Katy and Cody and Little Roo are feeling much better from the flu. Little Roo is taking a few steps here and there. It’s so cute. We got to see him yesterday. He is also saying a few words now. And repeating more. I can’t wait to see him next week. Then it’s going to be hard leaving him again, because the next time is going to be a long time.

Today’s To Do List

First of all let me say how grateful I am to have three days in a row off! My psyche needed it, as you know. It was a secret day yesterday just for me. I didn’t want anyone knowing about it because I knew if they did it would make me feel guilty that I wasn’t spending my time elsewhere doing God knows what and I just need down time to rest and enjoy being home. Working FT takes so much out of you while trying to do so many things. We seem to be gone all the time.

I had learned to manage my time better in recent years and then now we are back to reshuffling again and trying to fit everything in. I absolutely refuse to give up my hobbies though because they are what make me the happiest and give me joy. Giving up work and sleep is not an option either but sadly all three of those things (work, hobbies, and sleep) have to give way at times to make room for everything else going on that pushes them out of the way. It’s all good, I’m not complaining about the responsibilities and glad to do them – just saying it is truly a time management issue – not that I don’t want to do it. A big adjustment process that I keep talking about because I have not truly found an answer. I’m just kinda limping along. Maybe that is the answer, lol. I’m dealing with it all (having no time at home) the best way I can. And that is to blog about it, lol. Sorry – not sorry.

So back to the “to do” list. I’ll work on these things today and tomorrow. They may not mean much to you or seem very productive, but to me these things mean the world to have time to do them. Because it means I’m home and able to be here and just BE! What does it mean? FREE TIME! YEAH!

• laundry finish
• iron
• redo vitamin case for next week
• check Hot Spring weather again
• Do some Canon lessons
• play cards the old fashioned way
• set up the puzzle
• transfer photo/video footage from camera
• go through about 12 notes/lists and compile them
• update my planner with some new dates/events
• update to do lists so I don’t forget
• vacuum
• work on video – maybe even finish it
• watch a show
• read
• clean some as necessary – I’m not overdoing it this weekend!

So who’d have thunk it? That I would have TWO sort of Surprise Days off in a row?

Thank you God. I love you for that! How’s the weather where you are? Did you make it this far down the blog? lol. And what is on YOUR agenda for the weekend. Love hearing from you.