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Thankful Thursday: Sleep!

Last week you’ll recall my sleepless plight. This week, I’m rejoicing in the delightful feeling of sleeping for 7-8 hours for the past few nights. Monday night I got to sleep for 7 cumulative hours, Tuesday night I got to sleep for 8 whole hours, and last night I got to sleep for roughly 7 hours again. The baby’s teeth are through the gums, therefore meaning he’s in much less pain now — presumably, anyway. It’s such a glorious feeling to wake up feeling mostly refreshed. Granted, I’m still running on a deficit and trying to catch up, but I’m so relieved to not see the wee hours of the morning. The lack of sleep has been affecting me physically and mentally. I’ve been feeling slow and sick, and my mind isn’t as quick and sharp as usual. I highly disagree with the saying “sleep is for the weak” — actually, weakness is the result of sleep loss, Mr. or Ms. Inventor-Of-That-Saying. And chances are, that person’s disdain for sleep led to a much earlier demise than if s/he realizes that a good night’s sleep (or enough naps to equal that good night’s sleep) functions to restore a person physically and mentally. In fact, some prisoners of war have been tortured by being forced to stay awake for prolonged periods of time. Lack of sleep leads to more car accidents. While you are sleeping, your body goes to work repairing and rejuvenating. Without sufficient sleep, people can literally go crazy. I for one believe the strong understand that sleep is an important part of living a healthy life. Knowing your body’s limits is most definitely a strength, not a weakness.

And now, I’m going to take advantage of the baby’s nap by napping myself. Ah, delicious sleep!

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Thankful Thursday: Coffee

As I type this scheduled post that’s due out tomorrow, I’m sipping coffee. I’m fully aware that it’s 10:42pm, but apparently my baby’s top front teeth have no concept of that. In fact, my baby has no concept of that, either — he’s blissfully ignorant to the concept of day and night. He has reverted to his reverse sleep schedule, and he’s taking me with him. Sure, it’s easy to say “make your husband stay up,” but too many people forget that I’m breastfeeding the baby. He’s still reliant on me for at least some of his nutrition. You’ll notice yesterday’s glorious picture of my pillow — oh sweet, sweet lovely pink pillow, how I miss the days of nestling my head into your soft, comforting cotton fluff. But all too soon I will blink, and my precious little baby will be a precocious preschooler sleeping in his very own big-boy bed.

So for now, I’m thankful for coffee. Believe it or not, I’m actually a fan of instant coffee — it’s smooth, just the way I like it. Add in a splash of flavored creamer and it’s perfect. Sip, sip, ahh! So while I could theoretically be sitting here falling on my face, I’m actually feeling alert. While the baby toddles around, inching ever closer to letting go of the furniture and taking those first solo steps, I’m awake enough to watch and offer encouragement. Oh, and clean up the chunks of banana that he leaves behind.

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Thankful Thursday (August 5th)

Some days you have to really dig deep to find the brighter side of life, but I think just the action of doing so helps to bring perspective to any situation. I mean, I don’t live in some third world country with no clue as to where I’ll find the next meal for my family. We’re not war-torn or ravaged. We have a roof over our heads with a climate-controlled interior. We have food to eat. We live in a reasonably safe environment — even if you take into account that it seems like home invasion robberies have become more common around town, it’s still relatively safe when compared with places like Somalia or Ethiopia. We have each other, too! And what could be more important than family? As a person who places a lot of value in family, I couldn’t imagine anything more important. I think that I need my kids as much as they need me. Really, I couldn’t imagine a life without any of the three of them. They’re all very important to me.

So while I may not own a house, I have a family that makes this apartment a home.

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Introducing Thankful Thursday

I’m very pleased to announce four theme days – Mindful Monday, Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, and Foodie Friday. Let me explain each topic.

Mindful Monday will be all about mindfulness. I will be discussing my practices with mindfulness, topics discussed on The Mindfulist, and ideas to be more mindful. Wordless Wednesday will be a single picture – no words. It’s fairly popular, actually. Thankful Thursday will essentially be the evolution of my gratitude series. And my favorite? Foodie Friday will encourage me to get into the kitchen to bring you glorious pictures of delicious food. It might not be anything like Smitten Kitchen or The Parsley Thief, but I do enjoy food.

I had several ideas for Tuesdays, but none of them really seem exciting. The most viable Tuesday theme was Taboo Tuesday, which would essentially be my day to discuss more serious topics – to treat this platform as my soap box. I may still instate that theme, but for now Tuesdays will be open. Perhaps Typical Tuesdays will work? Saturdays and Sundays are also open-ended. If I don’t have anything worthwhile to say, I probably just won’t post. However, I do need a set schedule in order to encourage myself to write and be creative. I’m looking forward to my posting schedule.

Moving onto today’s theme – gratitude – I’m very grateful to have come up with this schedule. I’ve been lacking in the creativity department lately, and it feels wonderful to finally get some creative ideas flowing again. When your livelihood is based off of creativity, it can be very stressful to loss that creative touch.

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Gratitude # 77

At this very moment in life, I can count many blessings that make any uncomfortable life changes that much more tolerable. This life change itself is a blessing in disguise. I wasn’t happy with the job change I made, and I had several red flags warning me that it was the wrong move to make even before beginning the process of counter offering. However, we all know what they say about hindsight. There’s only so much living in the past a person can do before moving on and absorbing the lesson – and that’s exactly what this was. I learned a valuable lesson about trusting my instincts over looking to others to justify something that just doesn’t feel right. I learned not to trust someone just because they seem personable. I learned that I shouldn’t settle for anything less than I truly deserve, regardless of how “good” it might seem on the surface. I learned once again that minutes are most definitely worth more than money, and that the people you surround yourself with are more important than the digits before the decimal point on your paycheck. I discovered that right now I’m in a place where I haven’t been before. You see, I had a life changing moment like this nearly three years ago, and I didn’t handle it nearly as well as I’ve handled this. Brian has noted that I seem happier than I did in a long time. I have shocked myself with how happy I am despite the fact that I’m involuntarily unemployed at this juncture. Imagine that!

I think I have grown and changed in such a way that I trust that everything will be as it should. I have experienced enough uncomfortable situations in my life thus far that I know determination and perseverance can carry you quite a long way. I’ve learned to live in the moment, to value the present. While I still have moments of rehashing the past in my mind or agonizing over the future, I’m becoming much more mindful. I’m focusing so much more of my efforts on making my dream – the dream to become a consultant and freelancer – become a way of life. I don’t doubt it will still take some time before I can consider it to be a fully supporting way of life, but everyone has to start out small at some point or another. This is my time, and I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity. I am so grateful to have built a network of good friends, and I am grateful for each one of my readers. Life is much better than it seems.

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