what i’m into – that’s keeping me sane {february 2016}

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What I'm Into. January 2016.PNG

It’s that time again! Time to tell you What I’m Into – That’s Keeping Me Sane and as usual I am linking up with Leigh Kramer and her fantastic What I’m Into Link-Up. I love this link-up because it’s great to read other people’s posts and get new ideas to stay sane. Check everyone out here.

  • I love my Hubby. His strength and patience keep me sane every day. This weekend, my Hubby and I are celebrating our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary. I cannot believe that it has been 10 years all ready! Wow! I know I am much saner for having him in my life.
  • Running keeps me sane and my training has really picked up for the Half Marathon on April 10th. So far, I have run more miles than I have ever run in my life – including my longest run ever of eight miles. And as I stated here, running on the treadmill has really helped my outside runs. I believe that I am getting faster, as well!
  • Writing keeps me sane and I am particularly excited because I have done another Enjoy Life Interview that will post on March 14. I really like doing these interviews and sharing them with you. You can read my first ever here.
  • And so far, I have met one of my intentions for 2016 to post one blog post per week. I also posted to my blog 50 times since I started it. I am very grateful to every one of you for reading and commenting. You guys keep me going.
  • Reading continues to keep me sane and this month, I read a lot of books (Check out my Quick Lit post for a list). I am 4 books ahead of my target intention to read 36 books this year.
  • Reading Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think has caused me to reassess what I can do as a new mom. And so I have started working again, part-time, in my chosen field of project management and event planning. This has really help to keep me sane. It’s been three weeks and so far it’s been successful. We have had a couple of challenges as I knew we would, Buddy Man got an ear infection for one, but we’ve worked around them. One upside is that I have to “give a durn”, another intention.
  • I have managed to stay out of multiple rabbit holes, The Good Wife, etc. per my intentions but I have discovered another show on Netflix that I have added to my list: The Mysteries of Laura, about a mom who’s a detective and has kids. I enjoyed Season One, and am waiting for Season Two .And I was so mad when NBC cancelled Crossing Lines, a crime drama about a multinational task force unit, in 2013. I was unaware that it was renewed for two more seasons and able to be viewed on Netflix. I have enjoyed catching up.

So what have you been into this February? Do tell.

enjoy life…

friday’s “secret”: to be happy, make someone else happy

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“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.”

– Gretchen Rubin

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shenna “LaShay B” Townsend for another Enjoy Life interview. Shenna is currently working on a project that she started three years ago, a part of which is collecting and donating prom dresses for girls. I will post this interview within the next couple of weeks. And if you have any dresses that would be suitable for a banquet or prom that you no longer need, I would like for you to consider donating to her project. I will post details in the interview.

I took a dress to donate to her when I did the interview. It felt wonderful. I felt happy.

How are you going to be happy this week?

enjoy life…

an un-“enjoy life” riff

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I know it’s Friday but no “secret” today. Just a riff on something that’s been irking me lately.

 enjoy life…

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me well that I try to do everything as close to perfect as I possibly can. I am a planner by nature; I take pride in my ability to think through scenarios, to anticipate problems before they happen and stop them from happening. This is what I do!!! My sense of value comes from being reliable and dependable. My basic fear is not being supported, valued, loved, appreciated by others (Enneagram type six, anyone?), ergo, I try to do EVERYTHING that I can do without fault so that others will like me, love me, value me, appreciate me. I don’t want to be a disappointment!

For that reason, I have lived a large part of my life in fear; fear that will I not measure up and then no one will support me. I haven’t done things in life because I feared I wouldn’t be able to do them well. I have played it safe. A lot.

Well, my world was turned upside down. I had a baby, something I knew I would struggle to do well-aka my biggest fear. And even though I knew this before Buddy Man arrived, it has been made plain to me since his arrival. I have absolutely positively zero control anymore; my planning nature doesn’t serve me as well as it use to because all of my plans can go out the window in a matter of minutes. While this may have always been the case, it’s really becoming a thing and has been very discouraging and very sad for me. I am not meeting the expectations that I have always held for myself. I now have to cancel the appointment, to not be able to meet an obligation because my child is sick, I’m so sorry. And “Mommy brain” is REAL! I forget things I use to not forget – to send the thank-you cards, to call or text back, to remember the birthdays, Where is my phone?

I am not this person!

Or am I? Now? Is this the new me? Is this how it’s going to be?

More importantly, will people still approve of me?