Windmill Musings

Today is day 2 in 2 new health endeavors, and the third is day 22 (well, since I started it but not everyday). Lets go backwards and start with number 3 (though the numbers 1 & 2 are what prompted me to write this blog). About 3 weeks ago, I started a morning breathing routine. You can call it yoga but its really just 11-12 minutes of breathing in very simple, focused positions - no crazy poses, downward dogs, warriors, etc. Just the floor, against the wall, seating crossed legged. That's it. And it changed my daily thoughts a bit. It has helped center me more for what the day brings me. And if I do it at night, it helps me sleep. But I've found that I live in a house that is not conducive daily to this practice. I need to find the right time to do it so I haven't been consistent enough. Thats my goal for the next month - establish consistency of this early morning wake up reset.  My second health goal is to figure out my eating issue of coughing with almost every bite ...

I WAS tired 😫 but sleep decides to steal away and my constant back if my throat allergies continue to make me cough when lying down. So sleep will come but not now. In the meantime, I saw a post and wanted to comment on it. It said, and I'm paraphrasing, "Don't look for someone to make you happy...you have that ability yourself. Find someone to ADD  to your happiness." So, so true! I have met so many in bad relationships or looking for "the one" for the wrong reasons - and the biggest bad reason is that they'll be "happy" or what they are "missing" in life.  Its a lie! Not one person can make you happy for every day of your life - that job is your choice, the choices you make. No one can make you feel good or bad unless you let them. You.  I haven't had a serious romantic relationship for about 10 years, so maybe you'll take what I say with a grain of salt but here is why I know that post is true - after I set up my personal ...

I have been asked multiple times by friends and family to start writing a blog about my wine tasting trips. So today, after going to bed early and getting a good amount of uninterrupted sleep, and not having Bible study this morning, I'm motivated to finally write the first post. And it is a doozy!  Back story on Napa: to be honest, it isn't my favorite place to wine taste and that is based on the fact that I'm about 50/50 there - about half the wineries I visit each time I like both the wine and the experience. The other half? Well, either one or both criteria suffer in my eyes. However, I do love the terrain that I get to taste in so that sometimes outweighs the experiences and the 2-2.5 hour drive there (depending on if I go all the way to Calistoga or stay in the Napa Valley). One more addendum: most of the wineries on this list are actually in the St. Helena/Calistoga area, not in proper Napa Valley.  Anyway, here is my list for my current* Top 5 Wine and Experience i...

 So I think I've told the people closest to me the following: I'm dating again. Technically, I started back in March when I spent just under $400 for a year with eharmony. I figured since I had nothing better to do, could see that I would pay off my debts by the end of quarantine (a 3.5 year feat), and was in a good place mentally and emotionally, that it was time to enter back into the dating arena - which those who know me know I kinda hate. Yes, I'd like a man to hold me when I go to sleep at night, and to usher with me into our twilight years, and kids to wake me up at the wrong hours of the night - but its so much more for me than that. But to understand that I have to reveal a bit that will make me very vulnerable (but if you read my eharmony page or any of these blogs, you'll already know that) so here goes... I am a bad dater. Its not that I'm awkward or not confident, but I don't always know how to have a conversation unless its "conversational...

What a new normal! But also, its the same. I still teach but its just through a computer scrern with a mask on. Its a "pivot" we had to make, and its one that only makes us all better.  Pivoting. Pivot. Words that are currently a part of my vocabulary. Sometimes things happen and we have to change something - about us, about our work, about our priorities, etc - but most people hate change. In fact, they'd rather stay in the same bad patterns than do the work to break them - and yet they'll complain. I don't want to be one of those people. No excuses, no staying in the same place. I cant control what others do around me but I can control what I do. So im learning to pivot at work - and if you see me spending less time posting anything negative, spending time less with negative people or organizations, its because its time for me to be who I am and thats a fun, optimistic person. Period. I fully know im imperfect, but if im going to be a better person, letting the ...

Today was a really good day - and I'm including 2 incidents that were unfortunate but they had to do with the wrong things sent to me so its not of consequence to post about.  So, you know why it was a really good day? I spent most of it in Bible study or zooming friends. That was my Funday. I'm relaxed, I'm thankful, I'm content. Though I have technically one more day for my weekend, Im trying to focus on Sunday still being the end of my weekend. Though Monday I don't go into the studio, its still my work from home day. I'll check up on our TIs then work on my writing or doing research for other projects. So today was a good day.  My weekend as a whole was also good. Im filtering into a part of my life I closed off. But I also believe that God will make things happen at the right time. I can't control His timing but I can be available now. Yes, Im being vague because no I don't share this part of my life with many until there's something real. But I...

That's what today is for me. Truly, today I RESET this year. I began by taking a short walk (to Starbucks and back is 1.4 miles) to begin my first day of the first week that I am working (almost) our new schedule. Our new schedule is 4 days and I'm working 8 hours the majority of 4 days. We are still only working half day Fridays, but as we pick up virtual lessons that will change.  So this week, I'm working a 4-day week for the first time since March 16, 2020. Oh what a year its been so far, huh? But, truly (theres that word again), I think we've all needed to RESET in some way. Even our world needed a reset - and it got what it needed in my opinion. To see the landscape clear so drastically, then see the reappearance of the dirty sky as we started to go to work again - its just mind-blowing how just a few weeks gave us such clear skies and a resurgence of nature around us! A definite sign that we can do better to help this planet. A reason that we need to reset some o...