Health

Lent 2026

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Maybe this is my new thing… blogging while walking on the treadmill. For many years, I blogged while nursing babies. Back then, I was typing on a keyboard, now I am talking into the microphone on my iphone. What do I have to say?

Before Lent begins, I often pray and think about what I could do to grow closer to God in the six weeks before Easter. This year was completely different. Ash Wednesday kind of sneaked up on me. I think it was on Mardi Gras, (which I didn’t celebrate this year) that I got an email from Ascension about the Crux series. I read a little bit about it and Bam! That was what I was doing. I even paid the $4.99 for 90 days of using premium access on the Ascension app, which already seems worth it to me.

The theme is surrendering your life totally to God. This is something I desire greatly, and can use all the help I can get in practicing it daily.

In my own words, the plan is to read the Gospel of St. Mark, and to do a daily Examen, which St. Ignatius of Loyola is known for. The app gives you prompts to help with that. And then there are two physical components. These are daily fasting and daily exercise. These are personal. Maybe something that is a bit of a stretch, but doable with God’s help. There are also daily video reflections by Fr. Columba Jordan, CFR. I am adding in decluttering 15 minutes a day, which has nothing to do with the Crux program.

The Belly Fat Boot Camp Challenge is winding down. On Monday morning, I will take my final measurements and my “after” photos. I feel like it was a success. This is the third challenge I’ve done. The first was in January 2024, my husband and I did one together in May 2025, and this one began in January 2026. I wonder if this challenge was easier for me because it was my third one, or because the exercises were not as demanding as in the other two. I’d prefer to think that my mindset has improved. I used to think doing the workouts and eating the healthy foods was so difficult that I couldn’t continue with it for very long after the challenge ended. Now, with a little increase in caloric intake, I think it’s totally sustainable. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not homeschooling anymore and I have more time, or if I just want it now. Maybe… I actually want to be healthy now that I’m 56 years old. I believe God wants me to take care of my body as well as my soul. I don’t think he wants me to be a slave to a sugar addiction (or any addiction). He came to set the captives free.

I’m in a preparation mode. I’m getting ready for the next season of my life. I don’t know what that is yet, but I think it will be revealed to me when the time comes. In the meantime, I’m trusting Him, and I’m walking on this super old treadmill. And I’m using my voice to express the hope I feel.

Book Notes: Uncluttered Faith and Staying Focused on the Positives

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So I haven’t really done much minimizing around my house since my last post. One day, I looked through my nightstand and wanted to keep everything, including the book light that I probably use once a year (because it’s cozy to read under the covers in the dark sometimes). I really have no need of a book light, because even when my husband is home, he has the ability to sleep while I read with the lamp on. I’ve quickly discovered how attached I am to material possessions that I do not need, or use.

My next attempt to declutter was my clothing. I have a dresser and a small closet. Here I realized how much I’ve accumulated in recent years. I’ve written about capsule wardrobes and Project 333 on this blog in the past. I may have taken the easy way out by deciding to do Project 333 again. I’m keeping out only 33 items, including outerwear, accessories, and shoes, for three months (in this case, until spring). I chose my 33 items, and threw away two stained items and four ratty socks. I am donating two pairs of jeans that don’t fit right, and I packed up the rest. I now have three plastic bins full of clothes in the basement (that I’m procrastinating going through). When I used to do this, I think I had only one partially full plastic bin in the basement. Apparently, I’ve been accumulating clothing.

Today, I was upstairs with the girls and I looked at the books, the DVDs, and the puzzles. I declared that I will be decluttering those soon, but not today.

I think I may have a little fear about getting started. I recalled that I had fear before beginning the Belly Fat Bootcamp Challenge. I wasn’t exactly sure how it would go. Would I be able to keep up with the exercises and cooking the food? Now, I’m five weeks in and it doesn’t seem so difficult.

I’m definitely seeing similarities between my taking care of my body and taking care of my home. I go through spurts where I work out and eat healthy foods, and when they end, I go back to my old sugary food habits and not working out much. I’m also good at decluttering and organizing for a time, and then stopping before I get to the results I really want. You could call it yo-yo dieting, yo-yo exercising, and yo-yo minimizing. Surely, I could choose to change my lifestyle permanently in both areas, couldn’t I?

I think I need a change in attitude. I finished reading the book uncluttered faith. At the end, there is a bonus section called The Becker Method: A Seven Step Guide to Becoming Minimalist. Here is a quote from Step 2:

… it is so important to focus on the positives at the beginning and throughout this process. Rather than dwelling on what you’re losing, celebrate what you’re gaining. Instead of being motivated by the negatives of consumerism, you’ll find greater momentum by thinking about the positives of minimalism. This is why this book has focused exclusively on the spiritual benefits and blessings of owning less. (Pg. 207)

This stood out to me as something that I haven’t done consistently. I keep tending to focus on what I can’t eat. I focus on those Super Bowl cupcakes in the pantry, the bag of peanut M&Ms on the counter, or the smell of the frozen pizza in the oven. I think of how long it’s gonna take me to finish a workout. I could just as easily focus on my smaller waist, the definition starting to appear in my arms, or how blessed I am to be able to go to the store and buy ground chicken and protein powder, which can be quite expensive. I could be grateful for my health.

I could also be grateful for the material possessions that I use everyday or every week. Instead of being afraid that I might someday need something that I don’t use very often, I could focus on the freedom I will feel when I choose to live more simply. Maybe I’ll be less scattered and distracted. I can think of the time I will have to spend on what really matters to me now, instead of being sad to lose something I used to use in the past and no longer need.

This book really does lay out many of the benefits to owning less. It also discusses many of the Gospel teachings, which I know so well, but I don’t follow so well. This is something that I will certainly pray about. It’s easy to think that these teachings will not lead to happiness, even though I know that God wants what’s best for me. I’ll end with a quote from the book related to this, that I found encouraging.

This was my attitude – until I actually started living out Jesus‘s teachings on money and possessions. As soon as I did, I began to understand on a deeper level that all God‘s greatest blessings lie on the other side of obedience. There is a better life for us in all His commands, including the ones to give away money and belongings. (Pg. 12)

My New Meal Planning Idea

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Index cards! This is not a tried and true system I’ve been using. The cards you see in the picture are the only cards I’ve made so far. This is an idea that I am excited about that hasn’t undergone testing yet. I think writing about it will give me clarity and I’ll test it out this week.

I’m halfway through the six week Belly Fat Bootcamp Challenge which I’ve written about in previous posts. The challenge suggests following a meal plan, which is divided into three progressive phases, each lasting two weeks. (I am in the middle of the weeks 3-4 meals.) There are five recipe choices for each of the meal categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon/evening snack, and pre-workout snack.

It seemed kind of complicated in the beginning, but now I’m seeing it as a bunch of new recipes. For week three, I chose three of the meals for each category and plopped them into a spreadsheet for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then repeated them for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and left Sunday open to use up leftovers. Still, it felt kind of complicated because I had to look at the spreadsheet to figure out what meal I was having and then find the recipe on the Meal Plans PDF. And I would often lose my place as I was preparing the meal.

So that is why I got so excited when I thought of the index cards. It was my aversion to seeing 25 meals at a time on five pieces of paper, that led me to this idea. I’m already using index cards daily to see my cleaning chores, my spiritual practices and other reoccurring to do’s. I love that they can help me to really take “one day at a time” by only seeing the cards for that one day. I can spread them out on my desk and physically put them away as I finish a task. I don’t have to keep writing these tasks over and over in my planner, and it’s satisfying to see the pile go down.

My plan is to copy each meal onto an index card. I can still use the spreadsheet to plan out the week. And then every night I can gather the five cards that I will use the next day, and file them in my card box. The next morning, I’ll spread them out on my desk and when I’m ready to eat a meal, I can just take the card and use it to prepare the meal. It will be flexible too. I change up the order that I have the snacks and the meals every day, depending on when I’m working out or going places. I might have the breakfast, pre-workout snack, then late lunch… or I might have an afternoon snack at 5 o’clock and dinner at eight, depending on the day.

My hope is that when this challenge is over, I will continue to use these recipes to live a healthier lifestyle. I think that these cards will make that easier.

Belly Fat Bootcamp Challenge

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Last night I trudged around my neighborhood in my heavy snow boots and wearing a weighted vest, trying to get to 7000 steps. It was almost sunset and I turned to see the beautiful view in this photo. I took many more pictures on my walk and none of them looked as amazing as it was in person.

It was the Belly Fat Bootcamp that motivated me to go outside while the plows were still making their rounds. It seemed better than the alternative, (the 30 year old treadmill), and it was. The daily step goal for week one was 7000+ steps. It will increase by 1000 steps each week. So as this will be my second week, I’ll do 8000+ steps each day. Then, during week six, I will hopefully be getting in 12,000 steps per day.

I listened to The Two Towers as I walked, but rather than me seeing Gollum frolicking in the forbidden pool, it looked like I was entering Narnia.

Speaking of Lord of the Rings, Bobby and I did go see the first one at Cinemark Friday night, and I did eat a medium popcorn with layered butter. That was the only meal I ate this week that was not on the plan. I’ve been consistent, but not perfect.

I also missed the daily step goal one day this week.

Aha. That was Thursday. I went to the movies with my father and sister. We saw Song Sung Blue. I loved it! But I must have run out of time for walking that day.

The workout plan (not including the cardio) is basically 4 days of full body strength training workouts, with three rest days. On two of the days, there is also an abs/core workout. I tweaked it a little. I do only the lower body exercises with the plan and workout my upper body on the rest days. So, I don’t have rest days, but every day requires a shorter time in the basement, which I prefer. I hope I’ll still achieve great results.

One of my struggles is that I want to see immediate results. I need patience. Change takes time. It takes consistency and effort. I just need to stop focusing on the scale, the tape measure, the mirror, the pizza I can’t have, the peanut M & M’s that look yummy, and the words “hot chocolate”.

I want to thank God for my health, my strength, my nourishing food, all things beautiful… and enjoy the journey.

Weekly Planning

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On Sundays, I do a little weekly planning. I pencil in the activities I’m planning to do at specific times. I fill in the short, daily to-do lists with 2-4 items for each day: calls to make, work-outs, tasks, and small projects.

This week’s projects are:

Belly Fat Bootcamp – This is a six week challenge that begins on January 12th. It’s for women over 40, and it comes with meal and workout plans. I’ve completed similar challenges from Melissa Neill before, and I’ve achieved great results. I started eating the meals this past week and they are quite different for me… quinoa, buckwheat, bok choy, wild salmon for breakfast?

Cleaning out my email – On Thursday, I cleared my inbox. There were over 1000 emails in it. I saved some in folders, and have been unsubscribing from many. This Thursday, I plan to go through all of the folders, deleting what I no longer want to keep.

Take down the Christmas decorations – I don’t really want to this year. It’s not because of the work, but I think I’ll miss the ambiance.

Purge the pantry – It needs to be done. I try to do it every three months, which is seasonally.

New file drawers – This project is taking longer than I expected. I received new hanging folders, manila folders, and Freedom Filer labels for Christmas. I thought I’d switch out the old folders and declutter papers quickly. Nope. There are lots of decisions to be made. Do we want to get rid of certain papers after two years? Do I want the product manuals in the folders or in binders where they are now? Can I get rid of papers from projects I’m not working on? I’ll make decisions.

I’m planning to go to two meetings this week that involve reading books. One is in person (starting up again after a break) and the other is on Zoom (completely new to me). I also have a date with Bobby to see The Fellowship of the Ring on Friday night. We usually watch LOTR together in January. This year we plan to go out for the first and third movies, and watch the second one at home sometime in between the others.

Tonight we’ll be celebrating Bobby‘s birthday. His actual birthday is January 12. He’ll be turning 56, like me. I’m writing about what I know. I’m just happy to be writing.

September’s Habit of the Month

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This month I’ll be working on what the FlyLady calls the most important routine of the day: the Before Bedtime Routine. It’s her Habit of the Month for September, which I think is an ideal time to focus on it.

After a summer of late nights and skipping this habit because I’m “too tired”, I’m ready to be more disciplined. I’m ready to add some structure to my evenings to make them a time to prepare for the next day, and to improve the transition into an earlier bedtime.

This is what mine looks like:

  • Food plan (for the next day, in MyFitnessPal)
  • Tidy the kitchen (do dishes, load the dishwasher, run the dishwasher, a.k.a. “Shine My Sink”)
  • Tidy the living room
  • Check my planner
  • Look at my index cards
  • Start my to-do list for the next day
  • Lay out my clothes for the next day
  • Get ready for bed (brush teeth, p.j.’s, etc)
  • Examen, night prayers
  • Read
  • Lights out by 10:00 pm

That looks long as a list. It’s only on four index cards. I estimate that it takes about an hour. I need to test it out to see if that’s true. And of course, I would need to get started pretty early if I want to read for a long time. I’ve really gotten away from doing this regularly. My shortcut is run the dishwasher, tidy the living room and hop into bed.

I’ll report back here in October with the results.

The New Year: Time to Review and Renew

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Now that we’re two weeks into 2025, I am finally ready to write again. The end of 2024 was such a whirlwind of busyness. I didn’t plan for that to happen, but it happened once again. Now I’m in that place where my eagerness to change my whole lifestyle has worn off, and I’m realizing that all I have is today. I’m not going to radically change my body, my home, or my habits in a couple of weeks. I’m just going to live one day at a time and focus on turning to God as much as possible each day.

Of course, the first thing I must write is a review of the end of 2024. It was a mixture of traditions and new experiences.

  • There were some field trips with Mary. First to Old Wethersfield, CT with my father-in-law, and then to Salem and Boston with my father, and my brother (who was up from Tennessee) and his girlfriend.
  • Joseph was in a community theater production of Beauty and the Beast.
  • Hannah was in the play, Big Fish, at her high school.
  • Sarah and Rachel sang in a choral concert at the college they both attend.
  • My friend, Carol, and I went on a Miles Christi Spiritual Exercises retreat in Wappingers Falls, New York.
  • We hosted Thanksgiving.
  • We had our annual tree trimming party.
  • Mary and I spent some time with Bobby in New York City. We saw loads of Christmas decorations, and we went to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum for the first time. It was one of the touristy things I had not done yet. 
  • I started a huge project. I made a slideshow of pictures of my Christmases from 1969 until 2024. I did it methodically, and it was very time-consuming. I still haven’t created the DVD yet, but after Christmas we did watch all four parts by connecting a laptop to the TV. A true family movie night.
  • I spent the day with my mom when she had eye surgery.
  • The girls and I went to my nephew Edward’s high school band concert.
  • Matthew turned 26.
  • Joseph turned 24.
  • I created a Christmas musical bingo game to play on Christmas Eve and we tested it out.
  • There was a lot of time spent Christmas shopping and wrapping presents.
  • We took pictures and made a Christmas card.
  • My sister and her family hosted Christmas with my mom.
  • We hosted Christmas Eve with my dad.
  • I attended midnight Mass. Rachel and Hannah sang in the choir.
  • On Christmas morning, we did our annual Santa pancakes and bacon breakfast and opening of gifts with the “kids” and Matthew’s fiancé, Anna.
  • Then we hosted Christmas with Bob’s side of the family on the 26th.
  • I took another trip to NYC with Bobby, Rachel and Hannah. Rachel wanted to see the decorations and Hannah wanted to see the Harry Styles pop-up store. We ended up seeing A Complete Unknown at the Lincoln Square AMC and it was so much fun. We considered New Year’s Eve in Times Square, but I wasn’t feeling up to par, and it was going to rain, so we came home on New Year’s Eve day.

And this brings me to 2025. I started a new method for keeping a schedule. It’s a combination of using a planner and the index card filing system laid out in the book, Sidetracked Home Executives. (These were some of my Christmas gifts from Bobby.) So far, I’m liking how it’s going. Maybe I’ll write a post about that sometime.

Mary and I have gotten back in the groove with homeschooling. For my meals and workouts this year, I decided to do the transformation challenge again. I successfully completed it last year and the results were amazing! Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with it. I went back to my unhealthy eating habits, and walking occasionally was my exercise. So I’m back to meal prepping on Mondays for the whole week and I’m doing great on that end. I haven’t been keeping up with the workouts. I did a bit too much on the first day and I could barely walk. Then I took a few days off. I’ve been procrastinating a lot when it’s time to work out. I haven’t decided what I’m gonna do about this. I need to pray about it.

I’ve been taking down the Christmas decorations. Bobby turned 55 years old, so we’re the same age again. We celebrated his birthday last Sunday. A box of 60 eggs now costs $26.32. I remember a few years ago, when I first started buying these boxes at Walmart, they were $8.00. I got my haircut and I want to figure out how to style the layers. Or… I could just keep straightening it.

I love a new year with new possibilities!

I did spend some time reading my retreat notes from last November, and once again made some index cards to read every day to keep my focus on what’s most important. My resolutions this year are not really things I want to accomplish, but rather attitudes that I want to have. One of those attitudes is gratitude. I think this writing was helpful to me. I feel grateful for the blessings of 2024.

Writing always helps me to slow down. Sometimes my thoughts seem to go too fast and I feel like I’m not keeping up. I focus on the things that I’m not getting done. I can be way too hard on myself. But when I am still, and very quiet, I know that it’s enough. Everything is as it’s supposed to be at this moment.

And it’s gonna be a year of hope!

Action Faking

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SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, NYC

This will be a post about procrastination.

A woman came running over to tell me that she was decluttering all the extra chairs that she took from her mom‘s house when her mom passed away a few months ago. She really didn’t need them. She had heard from my mother, about how I helped my mother get rid of the clutter in her home when she downsized. I told her honestly about how I keep decluttering the “downstairs”, which is what we call the first floor of our home. And how I never quite get around to the basement, which has piles of crap in it. The “upstairs”, or second floor, is mostly filled with stuff belonging to my children/young adults. Although, the school room contains a lot of my stuff too.

Today I was sorting through papers. I have these manila folders full of notes and PDF’s. I have a decluttering folder, an organizing time folder, an education folder… you get the idea. I’ve decided that I no longer need all of these notes. There was one paper that got me thinking while I was in the shower, which is one of the best places to think. It had notes about action faking, that were most likely from a YouTube video.

Action faking is procrastinating. It’s doing what we’re comfortable with and taking only the uncommitted actions. It does little to lead to actual progress.

Why are we action faking?

What are we trying to avoid?

Maybe there’s some kind of suffering attached?

Or not believing we’re capable?

This reminded me of the body transformation challenge that I am currently doing. Before I started, I was afraid. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of doing it. I talked about it with my father, who wondered if I would be able to finish it, and my mother, who was worried I’d lose too much weight, and my kids, who probably didn’t say much about it. When I told Bobby about the eight week challenge, he said, “Of course you could do that for seven weeks.” I corrected him by again telling him it was eight weeks, and he repeated, “Seven weeks is no problem.” (He’s my cheerleader.)

Well, it turned out, I started it two weeks early so now it’s a 10 week challenge and I’ve already finished seven weeks of it. It isn’t easy, but I’m not doing it alone. I know that God is helping me, because I keep asking him. I say things like, “Please help me to get through this next set.”

From my notes:

We may never feel completely ready.

Just take a step forward.

We can’t endlessly prepare if we want real results.

Decide what your first real action is, schedule it, and do it.

Avoidance creates the anxiety.

I’m not sure if all of that is true, but I know one thing, I am getting results in the challenge because I have been taking action.

I suspect this is why I haven’t been getting the results I want from my decluttering for the past 25 years. I’ve been just doing what I’m comfortable with, which is the downstairs. I’ve also been action faking/procrastinating by reading, watching YouTube videos, collecting notes on the subject… getting ready.

I had a college professor, who would say that if you read five books on a subject, you’re an expert. Well, I am an expert on simplifying, decluttering, minimalism, or whatever you would call it. I’ve probably read more than 40 books on the subject. I don’t believe that knowledge is power. It may give me some advantage, but without action directed toward my goal, I’m not gonna get there.

I believe prayer is powerful. God supplies the power. I’m going to pray that I will stop getting ready and start taking action. My first step is going to be getting rid of some of these action faking papers. I know what to do.

I Didn’t Know Complexify Is a Word

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I can’t believe it’s been more than four months since my last post. And yet I shouldn’t be surprised, because long stretches between posts have been a pattern for me. It seems like when I “come here” in the mood to write, I feel obligated to explain where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. So let me just get my excuses for not writing out of the way.

They are as follows: homeschooling, parenting, Italy, remodeling the half-bath, Plum Island, parties, NYC with Mary, decluttering, home maintenance, NYC with my sister, holidays, plays, deep cleaning, decorating, Christmas shopping, wrapping, movies, puzzles, cooking, celebrations, taking down decorations, and trying to maintain relationships and my spiritual condition.

So today is Day 15 of the Catechism in a Year, and I’m on Day 10. I’m also on Day 10 of a 30-Day Organizing Boot Camp, of which I’ve completed 16 of the assignments. If that didn’t make sense, it means I’m a little behind on my studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a little ahead on my decluttering and organizing my entire house. I expect to get behind on the latter when I get to the storage areas assignment, which for me is the dreaded basement. Maybe I’m being dramatic. It’s not as bad as I imagine it to be. I made a great deal of progress on it in November. The problem is that I always give up when it gets hard, and I don’t finish the whole house. Well not this year!!!

Let’s talk about books. The start of a new year always gets me assessing where I’m at in many areas, and reading is one of those areas. I find myself, as usual, with a list of books I am “currently reading”. This means I started them, but do I want to finish them? I’ve decided that 2023 is the year I will finally read The Lord of the Rings. I’m starting with The Hobbit. I also plan to finish the last few pages of Letters and Instructions of St. Ignatius Loyola. That’s all I have decided so far. There are so many good options. I will commit to one soon.

I’m not going to attempt to plan out my whole year as I did in the past, by setting goals and breaking them down and getting things done. While organizing crafts and hobby supplies, I found my old planners. The first one was an original Franklin Covey planner and the year was 2000. Yes, I have 22 years of them. Skimming through them I found it interesting that 2020 was noticeably emptier.

Anyway, I’m starting out 2023 by planning for the week ahead. I start by scheduling the activities that I already committed to, like giving rides. Then things important for my spiritual wellbeing, such as adoration. I also track daily habits I’d like to form or strengthen. I thought I’d ease into physical habits to make it easier for me to develop them. The first week I focused on sleep. I went to bed early and got up early. Yay! The second week I added drinking water. I met my daily water intake goals. Yay! But my sleeping plan failed miserably. I got into eating chocolate and staying up late reading or watching YouTube videos on my phone in bed. This week I’m going to try going back to the 5-0. (It’s going to bed and getting up at regular times, calorie counting, drinking water, exercising, and journaling. It’s basically taking care of my body.) I’ll need to take one day at a time and pray for help to do this. And a media fast wouldn’t hurt.

Speaking of media, and media fasting, today I watched a video I found fascinating. A man on a channel called Sips with Aquinas was interviewing Dr. Peter Kreeft. It was so interesting that I took notes. He listed the only three reasons why anybody ought to do anything according to Aquinas: 1. moral duty, 2. practical necessity, and 3. fun. There’s some food for thought. So, if I’m considering doing something, and it doesn’t meet any of these three criteria…

He was making the point that we make our lives more complex rather than simplify them. And why? Why are we so harried and hassled? Why do we complexify? And I like this one: Why do we put ourselves in a spider’s web? He says we are bored. I call it running away. The not wanting to slow down and sit quietly. He says it takes too much effort. It’s because of sloth. I’ve read about this before and would like to ponder it more in the future. And one last idea: If you don’t believe in a real Heaven, you have to try to make a heaven on earth, and that’s going to keep you very, very, busy forever.

In conclusion, once more, I was able to bring a bunch of wandering thoughts back to the theme of this blog: Slowing Down.

Self-Care

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IMG_6121

In 2018, I resolved to make some changes. I wrote about them in my first post. I completed my Whole 30, and then from Superbowl Sunday until Mardi Gras, one could say that I took a break from healthy eating. So I decided to recommit to my resolutions for Lent, which began on February 14th this year. Here is what I’m doing:

Eating healthy.  I’m doing another six weeks of eating Whole 30 compliant foods. Maybe this time I will be able to do the reintroduction of foods when it’s over and see which foods affect me negatively, if any.

Exercising.  (5 times a week for at least 30 minutes) I have only been doing the Couch to 5K weeks one and two so far. But I think I might step it up with Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I know that it will work my arms and abs (and everything) much more than the walking and running.  I also own her Ripped in 30. That is super hard for me.

Daily meditation. I usually start by reading from a book called The Language of Letting Go. A friend gave me a copy of it years ago, before I met Bobby, at a time in my life when I was trying to take better care of myself.  I loved it, then passed it on. I recently purchased a second one, and it’s as good as I remember. I’m at another time in my life when I am trying to take better care of myself after years of letting my physical and emotional needs be low priority. I’ve also been watching the daily videos from Dynamic Catholic’s Best Lent Ever. So far, they seem to go right along with this theme of self-care. I usually do some journaling and spend about 15 minutes talking to God (like a friend) and listening in quiet.

Continuing Operation Joyful Space.  I’ll admit, progress has been slow. I need to remind myself of why this is important to me, and stop the time-wasting distractions. I visualize this project as taking things off of my overflowing plate, or taking a weight off my shoulders. I long for a calm, orderly, peaceful environment.  My ideal home is tidy. There are places for everything. Only what we love, use (or will use at a specific time) would be in it. It would be beautiful… with candles, flowers, art, music and space. Everything in it would be in good repair, taken care of, maintained.  It would be comfortable and cozy. In addition, my life would have rhythms or routines, balance, and time for what’s important. (satisfied sigh sound)  That’s why I need to persevere!

The Menstrual Journal. (shown above)  This is not for Lent. I’m doing this for three months as recommended by my OB/GYN. This is a new interest for me. Science was my least favorite subject in school. In fact, I liked every subject except for science. I’ve said for years that I have a mental block when it comes to medical things. And I used to get bored when anyone would talk about food and nutrition. And food talk, channels, shows, allergies, photos and foodies seem to have increased over the years. Food talk seems trendy now. BORING! Then I found out I was having problems with my hormones. Suddenly, I’m reading about medical stuff.  Around the same time, I began to have a desire to take better care of my body, mostly to have more energy, but also to stop the night snacking. I believe eating when I’m not hungry dulls the mind and can numb feelings too. I may be getting off track here….but my point is that now I’m interested in hormones, and my menstrual cycle, and how food affects it, etc. I’m considering that being aware of my cycle may be a key ingredient in self-care. So I’m actually enjoying keeping this journal. And I’m tracking my food, sleep, exercise and feelings in it too.

I will continue to read, learn, pray and act in ways that will make me physically, spiritually, intellectually and emotionally healthier.