Miscellaneous – Page 19 – Lemon Drop Pie

January 12, 2016January 12, 2016

Here’s To Good Days

I had a fairly busy day today. When I think about my day’s accomplishments, I automatically think about how my day at work started. My day actually starts by getting my two daughters to where they need to be, whether it’s school or orchestra. Then it’s off to work for me. This morning, in addition to teaching, my co-teacher and I had three parent conferences. After our conferences, I skipped the gym and headed home for lunch. One of the guilty pleasures of my day is to watch a TV show while I’m eating. It’s the one time I don’t have to watch a kid-related show, and Ed doesn’t really care for TV, so it’s just me and whatever series I’m bingeing on.

I quickly washed some sheets and blankets, threw dinner into the crock pot, and then headed off to read to Emmy’s third grade class. She had picked out the book that morning.

She chose The Stinky Cheese Man, of course!

I went home for a short half-hour and made a couple phone calls, and then it was back to school to pick up Emmy. Lily had chorus and then show choir rehearsal, so she stayed at school. Emmy vegged in front of the TV while I procrastinated emptying the dishwasher.

As I was procrastinating, I thought that my busy day was going pretty well. I wasn’t too tired; in fact, I was feeling pretty good.

Then it was off to pick up Lily and her friends for carpool duty. After dinner and helping Emmy with her math homework, I thought about good days as I was putting clean sheets on Emmy’s bed. Nothing particularly special happened today. But it was a good day.

Some days, I’m just tired. My worst days were when I was going through chemotherapy and teaching full time. I was exhausted and felt like I would never get better. Years later, I felt the same exhaustion when my babies were born. They did not let me sleep! I was exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhausted from the blessings of being a mother to small children.

It doesn’t always take something as drastic as cancer or a sleepless baby to exhaust me. I struggle with anemia, and sometimes I get so tired it feels like I can’t even lift my arms. That’s when I know I’d better start taking an iron supplement again. And just last week, I was putting away the Christmas tree ornaments and I finally sat on the floor and gave up. I put myself to bed after the girls got home from school. It turns out that I had a stomach bug and I quarantined myself in the bathroom.

Today, on the other hand, after I made Emmy’s bed, I felt as thought I could have been persuaded to go on a shopping trip to Target, if only Ed had been home. It was bedtime for the girls and Ed was visiting his dad in the hospital, so the trip to Target was going to have to wait. But that got me to thinking about good days.
Satisfying days. I had gotten a lot done, and it was a normal, not exhausting day.

Here’s to putting on pajama pants and fuzzy slippers at the end of a normal day. Here’s to not worrying about the dirty pans in the sink because there are clean sheets on the bed. Here’s to kissing the kids good night and sitting on the couch to write.

Here’s to good days, and restful nights.

January 8, 2016

New Year, New Goals

As we begin 2016, it’s fun to remember some of the good things that happened in 2015. Some of the things I accomplished are worth writing down, others, like washing countless loads of laundry and cooking many dinners are home, aren’t as interesting to note. Maybe I should, however, since laundry and cooking are accomplishments, as mundane as they are. Here are some other things I did in 2015.

I went to the gym at least 12 times every month. I’d like to say that I’ve lost weight, but I really haven’t. I have toned up, however, and I feel stronger than I did a year ago. I also found out that I enjoy working out! Even though I’ve taken exercise classes through park districts and have always been a walker, I’ve never been a member of a gym before, and it’s fun to take the time for myself.
I read 26 books and met my Goodreads challenge. Some of my favorite books were in the Walt Longmire series by Craig Johnson. I also had fun helping my friend A.J. Cattapan promote her book Angelhood! If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. If you’d like to see some of the other books I read in 2015, go to Goodreads!
My family and I took a vacation to Disney World. This was also something brand new for me! I had never been to Disney World before, and it was great fun to take my daughters there so we could all experience it for the first time together.
Bike riding was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid. I would ride and ride around the small town I grew up in. When we moved to the suburbs, we lived on a busy street that went into the city, and it was challenging to find safe streets to ride on, but the neighborhood across the street from our house was pretty quiet. Ed also loved bike riding so it was very strange that we never went biking riding together! Then we had kids, and I don’t think I rode my bike for over 10 years. This year, my Mother’s Day present was a new bike, and I started riding again, this time with the whole family!

It’s impossible to know what’s in store for me in 2016, but I definitely have made some plans! Here’s what I hope to accomplish.

To celebrate being cancer-free for 20 years, Ed and I are walking the Avon 39 Walk to End Breast Cancer in June. Stay tuned for more details!
Shortly before Ed and I got married, we drove to Yellowstone Nation Park. As we drove hundreds of miles together and saw so many wonderful things, we knew we would some day take the same trip with our children. Well, for better or for worse, we decided that we are going to take that road trip this summer. Wish us luck!
This goal may not be able to be accomplished, but I really want to declutter my whole house. I guess if I can at least declutter the bedrooms, I’ll be happy. It’s a start, anyway!
Read 25 more books. This will be easy and enjoyable! I’m almost done reading my first one; Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith.

What are some of your new goals for 2016?

Read some of the other Spins about the writing prompt NEW by clicking these links!