Our family Christmas on New Year's Eve 2022
Life looks like this now...
I'm 57. I'm retired from a state university job and work with my husband in our contracting business. I spend 2 days a week with my granddaughters and visit my mom (who lives 5 hours away) about once a month. Mom lives near my sister which is great because I can see family when I visit and stay in their home.
I read every day. That's the main thing that defines who I am. Much of that is reading I source via online sites...Facebook primarily, but Insta, emails, etc. are also in the mix. I read on my phone or tablet a lot, but I'm also crazy about checking out stuff from the local library.
I wake up with the daylight, not an alarm. I love this about my life these days: rarely do I need to use an alarm to get up in the morning. And I can take my time with waking up and getting up. Sundays when I serve at the 8 am service are usually my only alarm days.
I have a cup of coffee, or two, or three, while I do my morning prayers (currently following the Benedictine Daily Office) and browse the news and the socials.
I work at my desk, flipping from thing to thing. I have a note pinned to my monitor that says, "DO WHAT YOU'RE DOING" because the older I get, the less facile I am at multitasking. But I still have too many tabs open at a time, mentally as well as on the screen. 13 on the screen right now. Estimating, billing, banking, sales tax and other taxes, there are a million of these little tasks.
I sometimes order parking lot signs from a shop in Grand Prairie. When they're ready I drive to pick them up, 45 miles. It seems far because I rarely make trips like this, but compared to where I grew up in Houston, a trip like this is nothing.
I have Zoom studies three nights a week in the Spring. My church group is continuing our study of how we can support the flourishing of ourselves and other humans. My Daughters of the King chapter will begin our discernment study next week. And next week, I'm starting as co-facilitatator of an Enneagram Curriculum group for 12 weeks.
Mondays and Fridays we pick up Nash and Nova. We have a variety of things we do: play games, go to the park, get snow cones, make snow cones, play Roblox (which drives me insane), go to the library, read, play with the little boy down the street. Ken hung a great big swing from an oak tree in the front yard and that's a popular activity.
I don't eat until noon (intermittent fasting) and I usually have a salad for lunch with some kind of meat on it. I do yoga weekly and I try to walk every day. I try to do something regarding cleaning or decluttering in the house every day. Often I fail in this regard.
It's a good life. Having been a caregiver to a cancer patient 11 years ago, I'm very aware that I want to mark the unremarkable days. These are they.
