Changes

 

Hello dears.  I thought I'd pop in again today since it is the last day of July and a new month is imminent.  

I went right to sleep last night, just quick as that, but woke in the wee hours and lay awake for a bit.  I slept again and was awakened early by a text message coming in from Katie.  Caleb had asked her what a certain bug was as they were going to the car, and she told him it was a dragonfly.  "Oh, Gramma LOVES dragonflies," he told her.  And I do.  Sweet boy to remember that!

I didn't feel at all rested and ready to face the day, which was too bad, because I'd planned to tackle the rest of my July list.  I was going to knock off every task I possibly could and get it all done.  Nope.  Not gonna happen.  If I listen to my body today, it's saying, "Rest, quiet work, usual housework and rest some more."  But when I looked at my late July list later, there's only one task I hadn't done and that is to clean out my spice drawer.  That is hardly a big job.  And I didn't get out to visit Mama.  I can possibly do that tomorrow.   So, I'm clear to begin a new month in August.

I've been trying hard these past two months to get back to self-care.  I mean physical care of my body in this instance.  I'm pampering my skin.  Once a week I use a body scrub and shave my legs and underarms. Each time I shower, I rub fragmented coconut oil over my skin.  This has done a great deal to combat the dryness I've noted in the past year or so.  

This morning, I did something so simple you might think it silly.  I parted my hair on the right-hand side.

Why am I making a statement about something that is so simple?  Except for a period in high school when my hair was long and parted down the middle (Hello 1970's), I parted my hair on the right.  After I got over my high school days, I went right back to parting my hair on the right.  One day, when I was about 36, I went to get my hair done at a salon I was using and for whatever reason, the stylist parted my hair on the left.  I'd never worn it that way and I wasn't sure I liked it, but I left it alone.  I've worn it parted on the left for 30 years now.  This morning, I parted it on the right.  It's a softer look that works with my natural cowlick on the right side.  My bangs have always fallen naturally on the left-hand side of my forehead, and it's been a constant fight to lay them to the right, so they aren't in my eyes.  It will take time to retrain my hair to do this but I'm happy with it, overall.  Simple but effective.

Another big change for us, one which John is very nervous about: we're switching to fiberoptic cable for internet service.  Months ago, they put the cable box in down at the end of our main drive.  Sam immediately called and got hooked up when they installed the box at the end of his driveway and the installation was free.  John said, "There's no way they'll bring it all the way to our house for free..." when I broached him about it.  Even when I got the sales sheet in the mail and pointed out to him the probable cost to us monthly, he was insistent that we couldn't afford to do the installation.

While Sam was here about two weeks ago, he said, "They didn't charge me anything!  And we've had absolutely no problems with drops or over usage warnings.  I have all the kids' tablets, laptops, game machines, televisions plus my own stuff.  And boy, do we use it!"  He urged me to call and just see if there was an installation fee.  

I did my research ahead and realized that we were now paying twice what we used to pay for our current unlimited plan through another company.  Which rather shocked me if you want to know.  The cost of the fiber optics is less than HALF what we pay now.  After talking with the girl at the service, I felt satisfied that we wouldn't find ourselves being double charged as we did with Hughes Net) nor would we be charged for any possible over usage, etc.  Even if we need to increase our data plan, we'll still be saving a load of money.  So, I told them to go ahead.

John was immediately on guard.  "We'll lose our phone service!"  "No, we won't.  We always had unlimited data with them.  We'll just return the hot spot and cancel the internet service."  "We won't have internet on our phones..."  "Yes, we will."  I told him we could keep the internet service and hot spot (but disconnect it) and TRY the fiber optic service which we can cancel at any point since we won't have a contract.  "And pay TWICE?"  I told him, "The first three months will be half-priced because they are having a back to school special.  It will only be a little extra, nothing like paying the current fee two times over.  And if this works out for us, we will be saving nearly $100 every month.  That's $1200 a year!"

John is very much the sort who prefers to go on with things as they are if they are working and NOT try anything new.  I am the one who budgets and struggles to get things to fit within that budget and having had a good report from Sam about the reliability, I say let's go for it. 

I have more changes in mind.  I don't know if they will come to fruition or not at this moment in time, but they are fairly big for me.  I'll keep you posted as I take those steps.  I won't jump in and tell you what my plans are before times.  But they are biggish sorts of things and I'm both nervous and excited to perhaps add something new to my 'career' as a writer/blogger/influencer (minor as my influence may be!).

Of course, I'm actively planning garden beds and planting of at least enough food to eat fresh most of the year round.  

And there are other creative pursuits in art that I want to tackle once again.  Once I finally got it fixed in my head that all I wanted to do was be creative and I didn't have to have a purpose for every item I make.  The purpose is truly to give in to that creative spirit and allow it to exercise freely!

If it sounds as though I have a lot going on in my head at present, if it sounds like I'm ambitious, well...I am!  I don't know just why, but I do in part.  I'm simply not cut out for just sitting about doing next to nothing.  I prefer to be busy, and my creative juices are really flowing lately.  Frankly I think I needed the break from my same old everyday routine to get those juices flowing once more.   

Part of it too is my realization that I don't have to work HARD all of the time, but I do like having things to do.  Not for me the life of sitting in a chair watching the tv all day long.  I've spent years at home now and I've yet to let it be a license to take a permanent vacation.  

Truthfully, while some of my plans are ambitious, there are also a great many that are just tweaks.  Just as I'm always tweaking my decor, adding in a new pillow cover here, moving a picture there, changing the arrangement of items on a tabletop...I'm not much of one for allowing anything in my life to get stagnant!  I change as I grow and learn, as I enter a new season of life and those changes also generate changes in my outer life, not just my inner life.  

As I come to terms with aging and the changes that brings, I'm also keenly aware of what I'm NOT.  I'm NOT ready to quit.  To slow down a little, yes.  NOT to quit work, but to be a little more relaxed about what I expect myself to accomplish in a day.  NOT to be unrelentingly busy, but to still be productive.  NOT to sit back and do nothing but to be vitally alive doing things I enjoy.  That's my goal.

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