PadawanOfHappiness

I absolutely love the Happier Podcast with Gretchen Rubin and her sister Elizabeth Craft.  They had asked for success stories for Walk 20 in 20 and this is mine. I had proposed this challenge to my sisters late in 2019 and we all agreed to give it a go.  So starting on January 1st we all started and we checked in with each other via text each day. I walked outside and inside, when it was hot and cold, raining or snowing.  I walked to relieve stress, I walked to clear my mind, I walked to get some time alone.   I walked the rehab/nursing home halls while visiting my aunt, I walked the hotel halls with my sisters when we gathered for her funeral. I walked the neighborhood of my Mom's youth when I visited to help her deal with her sister's estate.  I walked my current neighborhood and the neighborhood my childhood.  I paced inside my house if the weather was too horrible or I simply was so busy I didn't have time during the day. For the first 2.5 months I...

  I have spent the final months of the previous school year and this summer caring and proving for my kids in this strange environment.  Trying to show them compassion because they don't really understand why they can't see their friends nor their grandparents at certain times.  I am tired of being compassionate to those that scream BUT SCIENCE and spread hysteria rather than being thoughtful and cautious.  I am tired and I have compassion fatigue . All households break their responsibilities down in different ways that work for them.  However, with COVID I kept my regular responsibilities and then also added in, school proctor, summer day camp provider, organizer and de-clutter in chief.  I am just tired.  I miss my solitude. Look all over the internet and you will see the 'experts' say take care of yourself, practice self care.  Well the reality for myself and probably others as well is that is only possible to a point.  This ...

I saw a friend of mine post on Facebook looking for hacks to survive quarantine and the discussion was about how their kids put them to bed now.  How much was tongue in cheek I don't know but it got me thinking that overall I am doing better than I thought I would be. To be honest I think it has largely been due to the fact that for the most part I have embraced my nature and what works best for my family.  I am going I am going to share what works for my family maybe it will work well for yours or at least inspire you to make some changes that allow you to embrace your nature and how your family works. Schedules Oh I have always loved my schedules, and for once I tried to just let go of control and fly by the seat of my pants and schedules be damned.  I really did, I thought everyone seems to say just let go and enjoy the ride so why not.  Well the thing is that there was so much out of my control that letting go left me even further adrift.  Once I got back to...

I would love to pack up my kids and husband and send them to spend the weekend with my in-laws.  I would stay home, I would have snacks and beverages, books, and cheesey tv. I wouldn't have to get out of my pjs and the dishes could stack up and wait, the noise I would hear would be my movies, my tv, or my music. Seriously, I love my kids and husband  and they have been pretty great all things considered.  But today is day 70 and this introvert is coming to the end of her rope even more rapidly than I had been in the past.  My best guess is (and please pardon the mixed metaphors I am about to toss your way) now that I can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and I am fairly confident that Lucy is not going to pull the football from me again, it has triggered something in me that says it is ok to break rather than bend now. It is amazing what we can do as humans and how resilient we are, and for that reason along with my faith I am still reasonably sane....

For the most part I am fairly quiet about my faith, it is just part of me and I do what I feel fits my practice of faith.  I don't shout about it often and I certainly would not be classified as an a person that goes out to evangelize, that simply is not my speed. I am hardly a perfect person and nor is my practice of my faith perfect, it is nowhere near close to that at all.  I struggle sometimes a little and sometimes a lot.  I don't pray nearly as much as  I should and I find that my faith comes fairly easy when I am feeling good and secure.  Recently as I find myself more hopeful and confident that we will be able to resume 'normal' life I find myself filled with more anxiety and worry in general, I am not questioning my faith or God.  But I am allowing myself to be drawn into worries that I know I need to let go of but yet I need help to do so.  I find myself in these times doubling down on certain things to help me get a grip on reality and calm ...

One thing I keep hearing people freak out about is the number of "new cases" but what does that mean really?  Just the number of new cases means nothing really because lets think about it, not everyone that tests positive is symptomatic, not everyone that tests positive needs to be hospitalized, not everyone that test positive but needs to be admitted to the hospital is put in the ICU, so what is the big deal about new cases, without other information around it is a big number that is meaningless in my opinion. So the graphic below can look really scary if you think of it on its own. A similar chart This is a very serious illness for the elderly and those that have underlying conditions, I don't think that is any debate about that.  But I have to wonder why now that we have more data is this really that scary to those that are not in the high risk category?  Look at this chart...based on this combined with other stats, yes I want to be cautious but this is not as scary as...