I’m in the process of trying to reclaim the things that I want for my life. I have managed, over the past several months, or maybe even more, to get comfortable. That comfort has led to laziness, both physical and mental. In a nutshell here’s what I think happened.
I was married for a long time. I had a normal little family (mom, dad, kid) until suddenly, one day, I didn’t. I got divorced and was forced to spend some time soul-searching and figuring out what I wanted from my life. I was still a mom, only my role had changed, since I didn’t have my son with me all the time anymore. That was brutal.
I had to decide how I wanted my life to turn out. I was required to make difficult decisions that I never thought I would be faced with, but I did it, and I’m proud to say I did it with grace. I pulled though stronger and better equipped to face the future than I would have thought possible.
I was beginning to understand what made me truly happy, perhaps for the first time ever. I did things I had put off doing, and went places I wanted to go. I began to develop new interests and I dusted off some old ones. Then I ventured out into the big wide world, and I miraculously managed to meet someone wonderful.
We’ve spent time getting to know one another, and we’ve committed ourselves to each other. We, along with my son, have become a family. We’ve purchased a home and we function as a unit. It’s a very happy, safe, and comfortable place to be. I like this feeling a lot.
We both work long hours, and we both are sort of home-bodies. We do enjoy the theater, and attend live performances regularly. We both enjoy food, so dining out is a fairly regular occurence for us too. Other than that, we tend to stay home. We like our home. We like each other’s company. But here’s the thing, I’ve noticed that I’ve pushed the other things I enjoy to the back burner so that I can just “hang out” with him. I need to quit doing that. Participating in NaNoWriMo and NoBloPoMo are great ways for me to make sure that the time I’m spending isn’t wasted time.
I’m not suggesting that spending time with loved ones is wasted time. It isn’t. Spending time watching sitcoms with loved ones can be, though. Instead of mindlessly watching tv, I would rather bring out my laptop and work on a chapter of my novel or begin a new blog post. Instead of watching the adult cartoons he so enjoys, I can keep him company while I stitch on a quilt binding (of course there would have to be a quilt ready to be bound for that, but you get the idea). Maybe I can even convince him to take a walk around the park with me. It would do us both a world of good. And I still have all this extra weight I need to lose. The couch isn’t any good for helping me make progress in that area. Neither is the half price Halloween candy, but I digress.
There are only 24 hours in each day, no matter how you look at it. I need to use mine to further my goals and to help me live my best life. Watching tv won’t help me do that. I know that, but I’m still keeping Monday nights open, after all, everyone needs some downtime, right?
The trick-or-treaters are all gone, and only a few candy wrappers were blowing around the empty street this morning. I’m debating whether to put away the Halloween decorations today or wait until Monday. It seems like they should stay up through the weekend. I even hit the half price section of my major discount retailer this morning for a few strands of orange lights and a three foot tall monster yard decoration. Oh, and a couple of bags of half price candy. We ran out last night and I’m a candy addict, I admit it.
So now that another holiday is officially in the books, the craziness that is November begins. We start the month with the vestiges of Halloween, and the candy and mess (think rotting pumpkins) it leaves behind. As soon as we get that all put away, we turn our attention to Thanksgiving. Who will be coming over, what dishes should we serve? And if you live at my house, how shall we prepare the turkey? Fried, smoked, or roasted? Decisions, decisions. Then, the day after that’s all done, as we’re enjoying leftovers, we turn our attention to Christmas. Up goes the tree, and out go the crazy black Friday shoppers. No offense, but I enjoy sleep way too much to get up in the middle of the night to fight crowds and spend money. No, thank you.
Mix into all of that a little thing called NaNoWriMo, where you challenge yourself to write a whole novel in November, and another little thing called NaBloPoMo, where you challenge yourself to blog everyday, and you have a recipe for madness. The really weird part about it all? I did it last year (oh, and threw in a very early Chanukah to boot) and honestly, I LOVED it! I blogged everyday. I wrote a manuscript of over 50,000 words. I cleaned up from Halloween, celebrated Thanksgiving, celebrated Chanukah, and prepared for Christmas. I also taught full-time and parented a teen and maintained a relationship with my fiance. I rocked it!
So here we are back at November 1. I’m in a new home, but everything else is the same. Do I think I can do it again? Why not! I won’t know unless I try, so by golly I’m going to try. Hang on to your hat, because November is here!
Maybe tomorrow I’ll go to the grocery store and buy some fresh fruits and vegetables to eat.
BulgingButtons 