So, March came and went. I purposefully didn’t set any goals for the month beyond scheduling surgery, going through with surgery and recovering from surgery. I spent the first two weeks of the month being as active as possible – running and walking whenever the weather wasn’t a complete drag, and cleaning, organizing, cooking my way through the other hours of the day. M asked me one weekend night if I wanted to watch a movie and I declined – because that involved sitting.
I figured the second half of March (during recovery) would be perfect for rounding out a few of the things I didn’t get to on my January and February to-do lists. Some website cleaning up and some photo sorting. That was some wishful thinking. I did nothing for two weeks straight, and I haven’t done much since. Turns out I’m not so great at doing nothing. And when I try to do something (read, watch TV, etc.) I just get jittery and distracted. So March was a bit of a bust beyond the surgery.
So it’s April, and I’m still mostly housebound, outside of work and occasionally sitting in the car while someone runs in a store or the family plays at a nearby playground. I’m still going to keep it simple this month, but I’d like to start setting some small goals to keep me from going insane. Last week I started sketching again, thinking about the house and future projects, and that kind of focus and inspiration really helped me get out of my funk a bit. It seems a little strange to make the house one of my goals this month, but I’d like to get some of these ideas better organized and then maybe even look at next steps. We’ve had so, so many things on hold for so long that we’ve gotten used to them being that way. I feel like we need a little kick start to get back into them. Time and money are always factors, but so is decision making sometimes as well. Maybe if I had things a little better organized it would be easier to bite off pieces here and there and get them done – or find someone else to do them.
My second goal for the second half of the month is to begin studying for some long overdue professional exams. It’s hard to carve out time from family for this, but this seems like a good time to do it. It’s not like I’m busy out running the trails right now! M took these exams several years back – stretching them out over several years because the intensity of study time really does a number on the rest of the family (and sleep). Right now I feel like such a drag already on the family since I’m not contributing in ways that I usually do, so I might as well combine two drags into one. That’s my weird logic anyway.
To-do’s related to that theme:
1. Finish editing the rest of the house tour posts on the blog.
2. Organize a list of outstanding projects and schedule some of them for upcoming months. Take a more active role in completing some of them so that it’s not simply a honey-do list.
3. Get (a little more) serious about some of the big projects we’ve been talking about for ages – garage, addition, yard. All of these are linked, and because of that we’ve put them all off for too long. We need to make some decisions, and move forward on some of them.
4. Pick up study materials and get started. Set aside a comfortable space for studying and elevating feet at the same time. (Easier said than done.)
Learn something new:
Hopefully I’ll learn a lot of new stuff, and then remember it enough to pass some tests.
How I want to feel at the end of April:
Let me state the obvious: I’d like to feel less pain, more movement, and get behind the wheel of a car again. Broader feelings: I’d like to feel like I’ve given myself a bit of a break. To be completely honest, I’m not doing so well at that. Last night I was completely exhausted and depressed at my current state. I was starting to feel better earlier in the weekend and I pushed myself a little too much and paid for it with pain and frustration. It’s just so hard to just sit and feel like your body (and mind) is turning to complete mush. So here are my descriptive words for this month – healing, hopeful, and mentally stretched a bit before the physical stretching of May therapies begin.
Hi Kristin! I’m a longtime reader, but just realized a couple of days ago that I couldn’t remember the last post I’d read from you. Sure enough it had been 93 days, so I got to wondering (and worrying) and just now discovered your move to WordPress. I was following you via feedly, and therefore as soon as you made the switch, I wasn’t getting your RSS feed anymore. According to the feedly stats, your old blog has 100+ followers, whereas the new one has like 10-15 — you might consider making one last post over there on Blogger if you’re so inclined and still able to do so, so that it will show up on those peoples’ feedly sites. Or not, if you prefer the extra privacy. Anyway, you probably knew this already but just wanted to give a heads up if you weren’t aware!
Thanks – I will do that. I set it up so that Bloglovin’ transferred over but probably got distracted and didn’t do them all. Still working the kinks out.
Thanks for the heads up. 93 days, that’s a lot of catching up to do. 🙂
I’m so inspired by you with every post! It will be one week tomorrow since my surgery and I’m a bit of a mess. I can’t concentrate on anything and I feel like a slug. You seem to be so organized and are taking control. I love that! I hope that two week mark finds me as well off as you are. What are you studying for?
Stacey recently posted…Decisions Decisions
Stacey – I was a complete mess too. Don’t let any of this fool you. Two weeks seemed to mark a turning point, and I was feeling a bit better. Even this past weekend was fraught with frustration and pain. It does get better. Hang in there.