Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving went pretty well, it involved a lot of driving back and forth to Kingston for me, but that's alright. The kids were at their dad's house for the day so after Thanksgiving we headed back up to Kingston for the weekend. It was good to spend time with family and friends. Above is a picture with Hailey and Will with Grandpa Jay, and the other is the kids and I at our home.

I'm having issues with decision making now. I thought I had my mind set on selling and moving, but family is getting after me and I'm second guessing my decision, only a bit though. I need to pray more about it. It really brings to my attention how I'm different then my family in many ways, different then many average Americans in that case. I'm not willing to be a slave to a job, just so I can accumulate more things in life. There is sooooo much more to enjoy in life! Like spending time with family, friends, nature, helping out in the community, being a role model for others, and the list goes on.

A great quote I read in a book I'm reading called "Living Simply with Chlidren" by Marie Sherlock says

"the empty space you sometimes feel
can't be filled with 'stuff'.
Love, innternal peace, and compassion
are the only ways to fill it up."

Unfortunately some people don't understand that, and honestly they might not ever "get it". And still others will think you are odd, weird, crazy, etc, to think that way and to go against what the "world" or modern society says and does and keeping up with the Joneses. It's hard to stand against what the world says, and to be set apart. And often time it comes with scurtiny.

"Just wait" is all I have to say!

My new do!

Yes, I chopped it off!!!
I know many of you will be upset that I chopped my long hair, but I did it. I was going to go in for a trim and to add more layers to it, and some long bangs. But I thought "my hair is so long right now, I might as well chop off 10 inches so I can donate it to locks of love, who makes wigs for cancer patients."

So, I just did it. I was in a spontaneous mood.

I like it, and now I don't need as much shampoo and it dries way faster in the morning, as I always seem to be rushing. It's hard to get all three of us, including breakfast, lunch, and bags together and out the door by 7:15 am. Geesh!

And yeah!! it was my first week back that I worked every day this week! I'm doing good. Still in some pain, and I almost didn't make it all the way through this Wednesday again (but I think it's because I worked about 11 hours on Tuesday, I need to stop doing that). But I made it. It's a big accomplishment for me, and it feels really good!

But I am very tired in the evening and try to go to bed shortly after the kids go to bed.

Tomorrow the realtor takes pictures of the house, which means tomorrow I'll be cleaning, and then we're going to Olympia to get storage containers to organize our stuff. fun, fun!

Off to bed for me before I fall asleep typing.

More info about our new rental

Ok, so..... where did I leave off........
50 acres, 7 miles from down town Shelton, 5 miles from work, 5 miles of trails on the property, a stocked trout pond for fishing, a huge rope swing, a fire pit, a fireplace in the living room with a projector screen to watch movies on. Goats, chickens and a huge greenhouse that we can use. '

We're pretty excited! Our house is officially up for sale with a realtor, so we're waiting to see how that goes. The realtors say that houses in our price range are selling, so we'll see. I sure hope it sells fast, but it is a buyers market.

Well, I'm off to purge through some more stuff!

Stay tuned!!

Hold on!! things are coming together fast

Ok, I'm really tired and I just got back from eating at the seafood buffet with Dad and Bonnie and then I soaked in the hot tub, so I'm melting quickly and my bed is calling to me. But I wanted to give you all a quick up date.

We've had a busy last few days. Most of you know that we've been shedding material stuff left and right lately. Oh, it feels sooooooo good! I knew that we were heading for a change, but still didn't know in which direction. Well, things are coming together. This weekend, I had a couple come twice to come look at my house for sale. They have been in Africa for 10 years as missionaries and are now back in the states and want to settle back into Shelton. So that's exciting to have someone so interested inthe house. And we found where we're going to move to. The short of it is that we'l be moving to a 50 acre farm in the Shelton area and living in a home where we are renting a very large room from a family that lives in Seattle. Yes, we've met the family already and they are wonderful people. The house is their get away house, so they are there and use two of the rooms ocasionally on weekends. So then we'd be sharing the kitchen and living area. We only have to pay 400 a month. more later

In the valley for a day!

Well, overall things are going well. I had a little bump in the road on Wednesday afternoon. I was doing ok on Wednesday morning, but soon into my day at work I started feeling terrible. My body was hurting a lot, my motor skills were shutting down, and I was having a hard time walking and thinking straight. I left work around 11:30am, holding back the tears. At least I was thinking enough to ask a friend to follow me home to make sure I got home safely. After looking back I think next time I won't drive at all. It scares me when I'm not functioning all the way, I worry that I'm not paying enough attention to the road. At least I avoid going on the highway and I take a route that allows me to use stop lights. None the less, I shouldn't have been driving.

I was worried that it was the starting of a few days, or weeks of pain again, that's how I felt. But I think with all the work I've been doing on learning how to relax my body and get control over my pain, it really paid off. I was able to breathe my way through and take the focus off my pain and force my whole body to relax. Then I looked inside to see what triggered my pain, which I'm learning is caused by emotions left unchecked.

Well there are a lot of things that COULD have triggered it; including but not limited to: LOTS of stress at work (that's the nature of how it goes); the weather storm that just blew in (yep it effect fibro sufferers, just like people who have arthritis); or it could be the fact that on Tuesday I started trying to workout more then I had been. And working out for me used to mean really pushing myself. But right now I've been limited to moving around in the pool, yoga and other stretching, and light walking.

But on Tuesday I walked on the treadmill at a slightly faster pace then normal for a half hour, and then did the recumbent bike for 10 min, followed by soaking in the hot tub for 30 min. Not much, I know. Maybe the clincher was that in the morning of Wed I did 10 girly, yes I said girly, push ups!! Ok, this is embarrassing for me to admit. Normally (before fibro knocked me down) I would wake up, do 20 regular push ups and then go run, etc. And then throughout the day I would do random 20 push ups. I'll get back to that place, watch me!

Anyways, after a short episode of crying, relaxing, and then talking to one of my difficult clients on the phone about a major issue we were dealing with and confronting it. I was then able to pick up my kids and we all went to the pool and I soaked in the hot tub and stretched my arms and legs. After 10 hours of sleep that night, I went to work the next day able to function at a normal level, although there is some pain, but just normal pain, not teeth clenching pain.
While back at work Thursday I took a look at some of things I wrote down before I left for the day on Wednesday. Yikes! it looked like a 1st grader wrote it!! And the worst thing is that I don't really remember writing it!

Have a great weekend!

Still kicking

Sorry! Computer complications!

I haven't posted for awhile and it's been driving me batty! The computer I use at home has decided to act up on me. Even my computer at work died and they had to get me a knew one, I guess getting back into the roll of things made my computer unhappy. I wore it out! ha ha.

So far what's helped me the best after going back to work has been soaking in the hot tub almost every day after work. I find that it helps my whole body relax and my muscles loosen up. I even had the kids join at the athletic club so they can play in the pool while I soak. With winter here and it getting so dark so early, and don't forget all the RAIN we're having; it makes it hard for the kids to get outside and play. So going to the pool gives them some activity to keep their bodies moving.

Yesterday I even started doing some fast walking on the treadmill and some biking. So far, so good. I've had to work my way up to even doing that without my body tensing up on me.

I've noticed that stress at work triggers my muscles to tense up. I'm also doing a lot of work (including reading, tapes, videos, etc) to learn more about all the emotional connections that send pain throughout your body. The mind/body connection really is amazing! And there is so much to learn out there, many things that doctors are just now figuring out. Well, Socrates knew a lot way back when, but we became so modernized and westernized that we forgot some very basic principals.

Only a few nibbles on the house for sale, nothing promising yet, and no idea what we're going to do if it does sell. We did look at an apartment in town, it would work, but we're not ready. And we're still purging through our "stuff"and getting rid of some of it. It feels good!!

Take care for now!

The little blessings in life

So, as you may already know, last week was my first full week back to work. Which has been pretty hard for me and sometimes taking all I have to push back tears because of pain and frustration. But I love it when God does little things to be there for you. Small and insignificant as they may seem, when you are in a place where everything helps, it sure is a blessing. God is so big, yet is in tune with EVERY detail of ALL of our lives.

You know those daily calendars that have verses on them, and you read one a day. Well my little blessing this past week (and to be specific it started the Friday I went back to work) has been that EVERY quote all week has been about weakness. Imagine that. Some say it's just a coincidence. Well, I know that my Papa in Heaven loves me so much that he would speak to me and show His support for me through a calendar and ministered to my exact need. And remember, I prayed about when to go back to work, and I went back to work sooner then I thought I would. And remember that I had four frustrating days when I was ready to go back to work and there was a hang up with the doctor so I wasn't able to go back until Friday Oct 24th. The timing was in God's hands, I should have never got frustrated. He's knows what's best for me, always.

So I wanted to share a few of those quotes with you. Just imagine feeling the pain I'm feeling, haven been out of work for two months, and going back with the uncertainty if I can even do my job.

"God loves to use weak people. Everyone has weaknesses. In fact, you have a bundle of flaws and imperfections: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. You may also have uncontrollable circumstances that weaken you, such as financial or relational limitation. The more important issue is what you do with these.
'I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people' -2 Corin 12:9"

"God has a different perspective on your weaknesses. He says 'My thoughts and my ways are higher than yours' (Isaiah 55:9), so he often acts in ways that are opposite of what we expect. We think that God only wants our strengths, but He also wants to use our weaknesses for His glory."

I'll add some more of them tonight. Lunch break is over :)

Playing in the rain today!

After all the fun and the wet clothes were in the washer, we were sitting at the table for dinner and both kids said "this was the best day ever!" I asked why, and they said it was because of stomping in the puddles. So..... Let your kids be kids and stomp in the puddles and enjoy rainbows. And get outside end be a kid too! I'm saying that to myself as much as I'm saying it for others. It may just be "the best day ever!"

Simplifying.......stress and ease vs. investment

Ok, I could probably write close to a novel on this subject, if I had the time and energy. But for now I'll try to keep it short and pertinent to my situation, because that's what I'm focused on right now.

If you've been reading my blogs you've heard me talk recently about downsizing, simplifying, and perhaps moving. All these options and choices have been rolling around my brain and I've been exploring the options available out there. So for the quick up-date...my house is up for sale (by owner), I'm daily watching craigslist for travel trailers for us to buy and move into, looking as to where we can "park" it and the costs involved in doing so. We've also stared looking into the option of renting an apartment locally, which is proving to be interestingly good so far. Simple, no yard, no utilities to pay, no house to fix and upkeep. The negative side, no investment.

The dilemma I run into is the responsible part of me that wants to make a good financial decision. We all know the housing market stinks right now, and I'm not too confident it will come back up for awhile. But then again some decisions are not made based on financial choices. So, if I rent a place I will be saving roughly $500 per month, which is $6000 a year. So, If I held onto my house, and trusting that the market will go up in the next two years, then the value of my house will increase more then the $6000 per year I would save if I were renting. Of course these figures are not including the cost and time put into home improvements.

But the catch is, I need to be living with less stress and more freedom with my finances on a month-to-month bases so I don't have to work quite as much during the school breaks. And this 1935 house is a stress and a sucker on money. The ultimate goal is less stress, so that fact does outweigh the money part.

Feel free to post comments or to e-mail me with ideas, questions, comments on our transition, etc.