Monday Upsides: Too Many to List

Only 4 weeks of work left. I am not going to lie ... it has not been easy to keep going. I think partly because I haven't had much on my evening calendar, the days are a little slower. Meeting up with a friend tonight after work. Hoping to put some other events on my calendar this week. I like having something to look forward to on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. Not to future trip but just knowing there are fun things ahead helps get through the days. Yesterday, I drove out to the farm and took photos of 3 rescue pitbulls. I have gained a great appreciation for this breed because of my volunteer work. They are characters. They come in all sizes and I sure like the small ones.  We had a friend from the west side visit this weekend. I got some weeding done on my real estate, and slipped a nap in yesterday. We also took a road trip to Walla Walla to share an omelet at a local café  (The Maple Counter Café) I have been wanting to try. It was worth the drive. 

MONDAY UPSIDES:

The sun is shining and we're going into the 80's this week.

The ibuprofen I took last night before bed helped with my aching back after weeding.

Change is in the air.

I've got ideas.

After today, I have 2 Mondays left. My last week is a holiday week!

Got upsides this week?  Tell me!

love, susan

Monday Upsides: Puke and Get on With Your Life

 

Monday Upsides ... because if you look hard enough, you can always find an upside. Am I right?

 

I had a full weekend with dog sitting for friends and fitting chores & some fun things in. Saturday I met up with a young friend who is mother to this little baby angel. We had breakfast and then hung out the entire day until almost bedtime. Baby N is growing like a weed. She was born 3 months ago just under 5 lbs. and is now a whopping 8 lbs. Her mama decided to take a hot shower and I got hold and take these fun photos of her right before she projectile vomited her entire 6 oz. of milk. The cool thing is she never cried or made a fuss about. Just puked and got on with her life. I haven't held a tiny baby in a long time. Truth be told, I'm really rusty at it and I am glad to have spent a whole day with her so I can get my baby skills back. There will be an adopted grandbaby in my future.

 

MONDAY UPSIDES:

After today, I have 3 official working Mondays.

It is May this week!

Talked with my son yesterday.

Finally got to see my hairdresser yesterday for a trim.

My young friend turned me on to YouTube channels and now I'm thinking of things I can watch.

I watched an entire movie on Amazon Prime yesterday called Life Itself. It was pretty dark but I loved it.

I got more of my summer clothes hung up and put away.

We are still doing the taco crawl this week.

The sun is shining and it will be in the 70's this week.

 

What are you upsides today?

 

love, susan

PIGGYBACKING: Pause, Breath, Stretch, Sip That Water

You may know from reading some previous posts that I have been seeing a speech therapist this month. She is bomb diggity. Three sessions in and I have some work to do to change my behavior. Old dog, new tricks.

 

This week we talked about fitting so many tasks into so little time.  A visual for you:

 

 

              This is how many things I have to do.                     

 

      This is how much time I have.      

 

So the idea of piggybacking tasks is not foreign to me. I do it all the time. Right now, while I am writing this post, my hair is drying. If I was a better multi-tasker, I'd have a load of laundry going and the lawn sprinkler on.

 

SIPPING WATER One of the behavior changes she asked of me is to sip water all day in place of clearing my throat. Clearing my throat constantly is damaging to the vocal chords and will only make my voice worse. I am not a big water drinker but I got myself a container and started consciously sipping water all day, especially when I feel like clearing my throat. It works. When I told her how successful that task has been, she said it gave her goose bumps. My thinking has been ... why go to therapy if I don't take her suggestions? It would be a total waste of her time, my time, and money.

 

BREATHING TECHNIQUES I am struggling with the assignment for belly breathing vs. shoulder breathing. I think once I am retired, I will be able to focus on this whole heartedly. Right now, the job I hold has me putting out fires all day long on the phone and in person. When I'm talking to people, especially on the phone, it is difficult to pause and take a deep belly breath. I'm not good at it ... yet.

 

SPEAK IN SHORTER SENTENCES and AVOID SPEAKING WHEN THERE IS BACKGROUND NOISE This has been easy to accomplish. Quite frankly, I've been talking my entire working career and I am ready to give it a rest. I don't do a lot of talking outside of work but when I do, I now need to think about what I'm going to say and try to say it in shorter sentences. Or, if I am going to have a long dissertation about the topic, I'll need to use my pause/breath/pause behavior. Trying to talk over other people or noise (read: in a noisy restaurant, in the car with radio blasting, social gatherings with several peeps, etc.) is a thing of my past.

 

NECK STRETCHES My therapist brought to my attention that I carry my stress in my neck, and my shoulders become earrings by the end of the day. She is not wrong about this. Taking this topic to piggybacking, we came up with different times of the day where I will do some neck stretches to coincide with a task. For examples: Stretch first thing in the morning while I'll in front of my S.A.D. light, stretch when stopped at stop lights, stretch when I'm throwing the ball for my dog, stretch when I set my alarm clock. All these daily things I  already do become a trigger for doing the stretch. And, you know what? This idea of piggybacking freakin' works! 

 

Lastly ...

 

PREPARE BULLET POINTS FOR TRAINING I will be spending the next month training a new person to take over my job. It will require a lot of talking. We came up with a plan where I will try to type up some bullet points and written material for support of what I'm teaching. Brilliant in theory. Now, just need to make the time to implement.

 

POST IT NOTES The last thing I'll share here is that I will be putting up some post it notes around my house, car, and temporarily at work to remind myself to pause, breath, stretch, shorter sentences, and sip that water.

 

I hope there is something here that might help you in piggybacking a task, chore, or behavior that you've had difficulty with. How could you use these ideas with something you need to change in your behavior?  If you have any tips for me, I hope you'll leave a comment.

 

love, susan

 

 

 

 

Upsides: Crack Coffee

I missed my Monday upsides this week due to a dog sitting job. I wasn't home for 9 days. It doesn't mean I didn't have upsides. There are always upsides.

 

The best upside at the top of my list is I only have 35 days to retirement. Dude! This last 6 months has been long. I told a friend at work that May 31st is like a due date for a baby. I've been growing this baby and imagine what it's going to look like, what I'm going to name it, how I'm going to raise it, spend time with it, nurture it, etc.  

 

The other upside is that my replacement has arrived at the office and I am starting the training process. It is a gift that we get to have her to train rather than hiring someone after I am already gone. I have already started the process of knowing that on my last day, as I walk out the door, I need to let go. Easily said. We'll see how that works out. I'm pretty good at letting go out on a daily basis. Nobody is more ready to spend her days differently than I am.

 

About the cup of coffee pictured here. Last night my friends, hubby, and I went on the local annual taco crawl and our last stop was at a fairly new Cuban restaurant. We had no idea it existed. They are only serving tacos for this crawl, which I think is a brilliant marketing plan because it got us there. After finishing our tacos, the owner came to our table and offered us a cup of coffee on the house. Imagine my surprise when he brought us these "demitasse" cups of jo. I knew it would be strong but was not prepared for the slight sweetness and hint of chocolaty flavor. This coffee is to die for. I was up most of the night. We shall call it crack coffee. Definitely going back to this place for dinner sometime. They serve a root plant called yuca (Cassava) so I think I can fit into my plant based plan.

 

Another upside is that today is Friday. Next week it will be May. My birthday is at the end of May and I plan to call it my birthday month. I'll be 60 and I am a little giddy about that. I plan to milk it!

 

Gotta go now and get my day on.

 

Have you ever had a Cuban coffee or yuca? What are your upsides today? Tell me!

 

love, susan

Monday Upsides: Tax Day

Well, here we are again. Monday and clear blue skies after a weekend of windy, cold weather. That's okay. I'm going in with an upside attitude. Over the weekend, I hit the send button on my taxes, and went photo walking with my buddy despite the arctic wind that put a chill in my bones yesterday. We couldn't figure out what we wanted to photograph so I pulled up a photo scavenger list online and we went with that. It was great fun. We spent about 5 hours scouting around for images to check off the list. Scavenger lists are a great way to wake up your creativity. I'll post a few pics at the bottom of this post.

 

MONDAY UPSIDES:

• We go live with a new database at work this morning. It has been a long time coming.  The old database brought out the worst in me in that there have been times I wanted to pour a cup of hot coffee over my hard drive but I would never waste a good cup of coffee for that. It will be a challenging week learning the new program. I say BRING IT ON. Upside: We are going paperless!
• There is something in the works at my job that will unfold today or tomorrow. Luckily, I am a person who knows how to go with the flow. There is a definite upside in learning to not be a future tripper. I just stay in today and know that things are just as they are supposed to be. (Been listening to Dan Harris' 10% Happier Podcast ... can you tell?) Upside: win/win/win
• The tulips are all blooming in my front landscape. I wish I could convey how happy tulips make me feel. The color, their shape, how they survive the cold ... all of it. If I was a flower, I'd be a tulip. A pink one. Upside: happy girl
• I'm starting a 9 day dog/cat/house sitting job tomorrow for a friend at work. She and her husband built a beautiful home with floor to ceiling windows in the front. It always feels like a vacation when I sit for other people. Plus, I love other people's animals and it makes me feel honored to get to care for them while they vacation. Upside: Netflix non-stop
• 5 more Mondays Upside: I see the light at end of the tunnel and it is not a train.

Got upsides? Tell me about them! 

 

 

 

 

Monday Upsides: I Got Plenty of Them

My dogs got new beds yesterday as I visited the pet expo. Buying things for them is always a crap shoot because I never know if they will like what I bring home. This bed was intended for the border collie but as you can see, the top dog in this house claimed it. She also promptly rounded up all three elk antlers I brought home to claim them for herself. I constantly have to put this dog in check.

 

I did some yard time on Saturday, took a nap, watched The Highwaymen on Netflix with the hubs (he loved it), and did a lot of laundry. I also input data into TurboTax. I haven't hit the send button on the taxes yet because I don't trust the numbers. I like to sit on them a day or two and go back with a fresh mind. I visited my friend who I'll be dog/house sitting for next week to get the lowdown on what I need to do. I was tickled pink when she said the dog and cat will both sleep with me every night.

 

Today is my first of three speech therapy appointments this month. I haven't written about it here but I'm having trouble with my voice. I noticed about 8 months ago that my voice was changing. I mentioned it to my primary care doctor in August and she said it was probably the heavy smoke from fires we were experiencing at the time. When I went to see her 4 months later, she sent me to an ENT doctor. He put a scope down my throat and says I have bent vocal chords and referred me for speech therapy. Whew, at least it's not cancer. Every doctor in this area takes a month to get in to and I've been at this since January. Today is my first session. What caused the bent chords? Likely aging and the fact that I talk all day long on a switchboard. When I met for my speech intake, I discovered that I project my voice differently when I'm talking on the phone. I attribute this to cell phone coverage. Often people cannot hear well on them and so I have to change my voice to accommodate. Often times, people are calling from their speaker phones while they are on the road. Long story short, however it happened, the damage is done and now I am hoping the therapy helps. Other remedies are cutting back on coffee, drinking more water, humidifier, and no whispering. Whispering is the worst thing you can do to your vocal chords. Who knew?

 

MONDAY UPSIDES:

• 6 Mondays to retirement
• Speech therapy finally
• I did some meal prep yesterday so I've got salads for a couple days
• Taxes are almost done
• I got a great idea for something to grow from a reader (thank you The Widow Badass) Go read her awesome blog!
• Change is in the air

Got upsides today?  Tell me about them.

love, susan



Redneck Gardening 101

The garden got some of my attention today. My back is feeling it, too. Last fall, for some reason, I didn't get dead stuff picked up like I usually do so it has been waiting for me. I'm really not a good gardener but I do enjoy putzing around outdoors, picking things up and trying to make it look nicer. Once I am retired, I hope to spend a lot more time trying to grow more. I really like perennials but I have to put them in  decidedly so I can fence them off from the dogs until they take good root. My dogs think I plant things for them to later dig up. Home wreckers, all three of them.

 

I planted some sunflower seeds in dirt in an egg carton today and made a little terrarium with a produce bag. My mother would be proud of my ability to scrounge around and see what I can find to make it all work. The solo cups with tomato plants were given to me by a friend who apparently has this gardening thing down. I'll be placing these tomato plants in a topsy turvy planter and hanging them out in another two weeks. It is still too cold to put them out.

 

Near my house, there is a guy who has several potted cactus, mostly chicks & hens strategically placed in his side yard that I'd like to copy. I have no original ideas when it comes to placing things in my garden so I'm always on the look out for something that I can copy.

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to tackle the cactus garden I have out near the street. I'll take a before and after photo so I can feel good about myself when it's all done.

 

Do you garden? What would you recommend for a person who has little gardening skills who needs something easy to grow to make her feel about the time spent?  Tell me!

 

love, susan

Monday Upsides: 7 Mondays to Go!

 

Watch out for April foolers today. It's my favorite day of the year, however, I have not thought of any tricks to play today. I think I've played them all. I'm happy we're at the beginning a new month but I think the next couple of weeks are going to drag on if I don't get some fun on my calendar. Last weekend I got out for fun family photos on Saturday and a rescue dog yesterday. Our neighbors moved and gave us a jar of honey they cultivated last summer. I checked my garden pots and found growth. And, I bought two pair of Lularoe leggings from my old friend in Phoenix. How have I lived this long without owning a pair? They are so soft and fit beautifully. I will be ordering more.  Lots of upsides! How about you? What are your recent upsides? Tell me!  love, susan

Sweet 7 month of JillyBean looking for a new home.

Lularoe leggings are the best!

Upsides

Time has gotten away with me the last couple of weeks ... pretty much since daylight savings. On the upside, it is finally light enough in the mornings that I can pick up dog poo before I go to work. This is a goal of mine ... to keep it picked up daily. The snow is finally all melted and the crocus made a visit this week. Everything else it behind.

Our neighbors moved out over the weekend. They are a super nice young couple and we'll miss them but we won't miss their dog digging holes under the fence and coming through. He did it twice last summer and blood was shed.

I am hanging in at work but my short timer's flu is no secret. I'm not gonna lie about that.

I know it's Tuesday and late for Monday Upsides so I'll just call it Upsides and scrap the Monday.

• 8 working Mondays to go
• Flowers are starting to bloom
• The taco crawl starts in two weeks!
• I have a couple of photo shoots on my calendar now
• The hubs is going to the west side tomorrow for 4 days, leaving me to my house alone (that never happens)
• We've decided to start a Pros/Cons list regarding moving at the end of summer

Hope you are seeing flowers come up wherever you are in the world. It was a long winter, wasn't it?

What are your upsides this week?  Tell me!

love, susan

High Tea for Me

Today was a floating holiday for me. Where I work, we are awarded one day a year called a floating holiday. It can be used any time, with or without approval. It's a freebie. I used mine to attend a tea party this afternoon.

I've never been to a high tea before and didn't know they serve snacks. I ate a big lunch earlier but I wasn't going to be rude and not try the beautiful finger food the ladies of the Moose Lodge prepared for this event. Along with scrumptious hand-made mints, miniature cupcakes, filled strawberries, little crab and chicken sandwiches, and crustless cucumber sandwiches on rye crackers, they had each table decorated differently. The ladies of the club brought tea pots and cups from their own collections to decorate each table. It was hard to choose which table to plant ourselves but I settled on one that had real bone china cups as I knew my tea would taste the best there.

There was a super interesting  presentation by one of the ladies who is a former teacher. She had brought some pieces of her Blue Willow collection and with it she had a made a poster report that would have gotten an A+ if I was grading it. She gave about an 8 minute talk on how bone china made its way to the United States in the bottom of ships. I'll never take old china for granted again. 

I really enjoyed sitting with a couple of retired women I did not know while I listened to some stories and enjoyed a few good laughs. We talked mostly about family reunions. One woman said her family once did a reunion in Ireland where 19 family members attended. She belongs to a couple of church groups and she helps in the kitchen at the Moose Lodge, and serves dinners there on the weekends.

To my surprise, the water for my tea was boiling hot when they brought it to our table and I  enjoyed two cups of green tea while stuffing my face with the above-mentioned snacks.

All I could think about is that I can't believe I am almost 60 and have never attended something like this before, and that I would love to do it again. It was nice to be among service minded women who came together to enjoy a cuppa in the middle of a Thursday afternoon. Add to this the fact I was being paid while not working, making it even sweeter.

After the tea party, I stopped by my friend T's dog grooming shop and was talking with her and another friend about my experience and was asked if they has crustless cucumbers sandwiches. Who knew that's a thing? Apparently, it's not a real tea party without this.

This may be a lot to do about nothing to you but for me it was such a beautiful surprise on an otherwise surprisingly beautiful day. Oh, I almost forgot to write about the Ireland/reunion lady talking about her hearing aid app.  Say what? Yeah, she has an app on her phone that adjusts her hearing aids for different places she goes. For instance, when she is in church, the music is too loud so the app automatically turns down her hearing aids for her. OMG, you know, a person only needs one good idea to make it big. Why didn't I think of that?

Have you ever been to a tea party? Did you enjoy it? Did you know there is a hearing aid app?  Have you ever had a crustless cucumber sand?

love, susan

 

 

 

 

Monday Upsides: Bring. It. On.

This last weekend was like a 48 hour party! Book club, dog photos, a birthday party Saturday night, a Sunday afternoon taco birthday party with best friends, and a nap. And, just like that it's Monday again. Yesterday, while walking to our car, the hubs and I saw two young boys outside playing. One was shirtless. Brrr! There is still snow on the ground but I loved his optimism. Are you ready for some Monday upsides? The snow is nearly gone. The daffodil greens pictured here were more crooked on Saturday from the crush of a months' worth of snow. Be a daffodil ... don't let winter crush you. Nine more work Mondays to go. I'm feeling less stressed about this retirement thing. You wouldn't think it to be a stressful thing but it's change. There is not a cloud in the sky this morning. Warmer weather is here. There is a full moon this week and it brings out the crazy is people.

Bring. It. On.

love, susan