Just Breathe....

"The way we breathe... is often a revealing metaphor for our willingness or ability to experience what is actually going on inside ourselves and to move freely through and within our lives and ourselves." A quote from my current text book "Free Your Breath, Free Your Life" by Dennis Lewis. How true is this?

My School Intertwines With My Life

I know this should happen with everyone... but when I say "life", I really mean my "core self".  When I was in school to be a teacher (yes, I have the degree and everything), I loved it.  I loved what I was learning, but it never applied to "me".  It applied to kids, and how I could help them learn.  And it applied in the future.  But what I learn on a daily basis, affects me directly, and now. 

At The Taylors' For The Weekend

We are currently with our friends, Mandy and Shane, for the weekend.  When we are at their house, or they are at our house, it's pretty hard to be motivated.  It's just understood that it is a time to watch TV and play on the computers.  Yes, computerS.  Each person has their own personal one.  Our boys become engrossed in their games, and Mandy and I are pros at surfing the Internet and acting like we are doing homework.   We really only stop to eat a meal.  Not very "healthy", but it's not like we eat junk food either.  It's just a very "sedentary" weekend.  On the one hand, it's great because I literally CAN'T stress about the house.  It's a mandatory break.  This weekend I think Mandy and I are both of the mind to get out and do something.  Lilly and I did make it out today for ice cream.  I made the mistake of getting myself a chocolate sugar cone.  I don't think it would have been a bad thing, except I didn't account for the fact that I had to eat half of Lilly's due to the fact that it was melting everywhere. 

This leads me to the subject of the belly that I've been talking about.  If you've been following either one of my blogs, you'll know that my current course of study is focusing on the belly.  I've been trying to practice the techniques given in the book.  The first one, after learning how to breathe into your belly instead of your lungs, is basically taking two fingers and going around the rim of the belly button.  You're supposed to just massage in circles, without actually moving your finger.  Feel what lies under the skin.  Is it lumpy?  Hard?  Does it hurt or cause you to feel nausea?  I have to say that I am really surprised at what I have found.  I've found knots, little pea size areas.  I've found places that hurt as well as nausea.  But what I've mostly been surprised about is the feeling of frustration that comes out at this time.  I have a lot of built up unrest.  I'm glad that I'm becoming aware of it, and surprised it has been so easily identifiable... after being told HOW to identify it. 

That's all for today, folks.  I'm just going to continue doing what I'm doing....  and enjoy my memorial day weekend.  I hope you all do too.

It's Okay To Not Do Anything....

Once in a while, at least.  That was my lesson for yesterday.  I still did most of my morning routine.  get up get dressed, brush teeth, make bed...  I wiped down the sinks and swished out the toilet on the upstairs bathrooms, but didn't make it to do the downstairs one.  I didn't unload the dishwasher, so the dishes piled up somewhat.  I didn't do the weeding like I was supposed to and I didn't do anything else for that matter.  I was tired and my body hurt all over, and I didn't want to do anything.

Procrastination...

I've always known that I am truly a PRO at procrastination.  I always have been.  I work well with deadlines.  I do tend to stress out when they get so close, but somehow I always get it done.  Deadlines motivate me.  Is that sad?  Shouldn't I be able to be motivated without deadlines?

Maybe that has been part of the problem with my house.  The only deadlines I ever had were when people would come over.  Then the flight of the bumblebee would occur.  But things always fell apart after company left the house. 

I want self-motivation, in all aspects of my life.  The house is starting to turn into that, finally.  I find that I LIKE cleaning.  It helps me clear my head.   Gosh, just the fact that I enjoy spending time in my bedroom now is AMAZING! 

Anyway, now I need to be self-motivated in school.  I am taking two classes for this 16 week session, nd I'm only halfway through one class at the beginning of week 8.  Gotta get better at that.  So, I have picked up my blog on school again.  I figure that this blog has helped me stay on top of my house... maybe that blog will help me stay on top of my schoolwork.  I hope so anyway. 

In other news, today I vacuumed my entire upstairs.  I also want to shampoo our master bedroom carpet.  It might take tomorrow as well.. as I'm just going to do the shampooing in 20 minute increments so that I don't get tired of shampooing and stop altogether.  Things are still coming together!  Each day looks better and better!

The Weekend is Family Time

I've always been pretty good about making sure that on the weekends, I spend it with family... specifically, Mikey.  But it's rare that we actually go out and do something.  This weekend it has been all about us. 

Open-mindedness (warning: long post)

I've been thinking about this quite a lot, mainly because of my brother's blog that I've been reading.  And, based on his blog from yesterday, he has obviously been thinking about it a lot too.  Really, it's a theme that's been coming up a lot lately in my life, and I've been having serious, in-depth conversations about it with various people.   I almost didn't write this blog simply because David had said a lot already, but I think I'll say it anyway.  I have different readers than he does.

A Clean Bedroom Is A Breath Of Fresh Air...

Well, I slacked off on what Flylady has set as the duty of the week.  But i haven't slacked off in my cleaning.  This week is supposed to be the guest bedroom and bathroom.  But there isn't much to do there except dust.  So I did that, as well as put the rugs from both of the bathrooms upstairs in the washing machine.  So, with not much else to do there, I started in on our bedroom.

Can I Erase Yesterday? And This Morning, For That Matter....

Stressful...  I guess that's the right word.  Yesterday I was driving the girls to their babysitter so we could go play pool.  I was turning right at a light.  The lady in front of me turned, I looked left to make sure no one was coming, started going and then BAM!  The lady in front of me had gotten cut off by a guy either coming out or going into the gas station on the immediate right (I'm not sure, it all was sort of fuzzy).  Well, she stopped in time, but I didn't.  Lilly and Jasmine started screaming because they were scared, and my car started steaming and making a pretty bad sound.  Crap. 

Notes on the walls...

Mikey just keeps putting smiles on my face.  The only part of our master bedroom that is even slightly diry lately has been our shower.  Today was the day I was going to clean it.  Well last night when I went to bed I was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed, and I glimpsed at the shower in passing.  What?  was that clean walls I saw?  No WAY!  Sure enough, Mikey had cleaned the shower for me.  I'm sure he knew it was the next thing I was going to do, and he did it anyway.  SERIOUS kudos for this guy. 

So I wrote a note to him on our mirror telling him how much I love him and how much it means to me that he did that.  We used to leave notes on the mirrors with dry erase markers all the time.  I mean like every day.  It was always so heartwarming to wake up to a loving message or come home to just a note that shows you're loved and appreciated.  We've stopped doing it mainly because in the last move I threw out all the dry erase markers and never bought any new ones.  Mikey bought new ones for me a couple of days ago.  I hope the notes start back again!

I woke up with a smile this morning....  I love those days.