Doing Great

I was just thinking about what I would tell someone - my doctor for instance - if they asked how I was doing.

I have been feeling and doing great. I find myself generally to have enough energy to face a reasonable amount of stuff in a given day. (That hasn't always been the case especially when pregnant.) I have been going to bed early-ish for the most part for the last while and working out fairly often. I have been eating better than I used to, more good stuff and slightly less bad than I used to.

I am working on some self-improvement things as well as trying to strengthen relationships. That's always good. I have been striving to learn a new way of motivating and encouraging myself without guilt. It's truly a paradigm shift and has left me a little unsure of my footing and yet feeling more free and happy.

I have been very interested and motivated lately but rarely anxious. This is true even though the calendar has WAY too much black on it in my opinion. You know how sometimes a month just gets out of control without your meaning it to? So far so good though. I just want to keep working and working and working.

In case anyone's curious, some of my projects lately include:

• Homework. On fairly short notice almost a month ago I registered for a class and have had 2 class sessions and quite a few hours of homework since. We have class via conference call. The homework is interesting and stretching. I have no problem wanting to do it. It's a little difficult to make it really happen while not neglecting my home or family. One assignment for last Saturday was to read The Last Battle - book 7 in the Chronicles of Narnia. Matt and I have been wanting to read those together since before we got married. He had read some but not all; I don't think I ever read them, or maybe just The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe. We both knew we wanted to and that it would be so fun to read them together. So we finally had a deadline. We read 6 books together in less than 2 weeks. (I read LW&W by myself since Matt remembered that story well.) We finished that Last Battle with 6 hours to go before class - and those were sleeping type hours. We loved it, had a blast, and did not sleep enough. We're glad to be done and glad to have finally read Narnia!
• Cataloging Books. In August I started the process of cataloging all our books. We have hundreds and hundreds of books (literally) because we have recently inherited large portions of the libraries of Matt's mom and dad and my parents. So this process is huge. I have less than a hundred books to go. I also still need to put together the new bookcases we bought. (I LOVE doing that. I don't know why it's so fun to me.) Then we put up all the books. This has been such a big project - so many hours spent on it. It has been really fun, and I will be very excited to have it done.
• Freezer Meals. The freezer meal bug bit my cousin recently, and her enthusiasm wore off on me. So I have made double of whatever I'm making a lot lately. I love having good meals ready in the freezer. This groove I'm in with cooking is awesome (and it doesn't really happen that often.) So I'm going to just keep going as long as it lasts. And when I get into another one of those funks - they're inevitable - I'll have a bunch of meals all ready.
• Babysitting. Somehow many opportunities have come up recently to babysit. Babysitting is my favorite form of service at this stage because it doesn't change much for me. I am going to be taking care of kids anyway; it's just the number that varies. And sometimes the kids coming over make so much fun for my kids. I'm not saying it's always easy and smooth sailing to babysit, but I'm happy to help when people need babysitters. (Many of you friends reading this are welcome to take advantage of that. Don't forget you can email me and ask when looking for babysitters. Not so many takers (thanks Launi - sorry more weren't interested!) on the babysitter exchange/ co-op idea, but we're often up for a trade or to just babysit for others.)

Anyway, I am so grateful for this current time when things feel great in my life.