Days Seven Through Nineteen: ENERGY!

Okay, I have not been ignoring this blog! What I really have been doing instead of blogging is enjoying this strange newfound energy that I have not experienced in a long time. I tell you, it's like someone upstairs finally saw that my batteries needed changing. And change them they did! I can't really recall exactly what I did most of the days, but I do have some fun pictures that I will be posting. All I know is that I did a lot of things, many of which would have killed me, and yet somehow, they didn't! Only those who deal with chronic fatigue and have to choose only one thing they can do a day know what I am talking about, and I tell you it was miraculous!

First, I got pretty busy with my music studio again, revamped some business cards, and gave them to my old band director to pass to kids looking for a teacher. I also began preparing for a recital, and prepping my students for that recital too.

At one point during the last two weeks, I ran out of underwear. My sister caught me in a swimming suit and wrap with a towel still on my head, waiting for the washing machine to finish cleaning my whites. And then for some crazy reason I asked her to take a picture! I thought that it was probably the ultimate mommy moment. And since I am determined to enjoy all of my moments, no matter how embarrassing (and since this was a little comical) I needed to record this event somehow.

The big thing that happened recently was the recital. I have a very small studio at the moment and so a whole month of preparation turned into about a fifteen minute recital. But it was so worth it to see those kids work hard to work up a piece to play, and then to see them perform in front of their families and afterwards feel that great sense of achievement! It was the highlight of my whole month, I would say. Even little Cuddlebug wanted to play the piano!

We held the recital on Valentine's Day. That made it easy to decorate for the recital. We held it in my old high school choir room where they had a newer baby grand piano. Oh, it was fun to see how my students were so excited to get to play on that kind of a piano. It made the event more special, I thought.

My old band teacher saw my little studio and said that it was good for my students (no matter how small the event) to have an event where they have to perform. It's highly motivating, and keeps them from "slacking off" he said, although I haven't seen any slacking off in my students. But I agree with him. Music is a performing art, and was meant to be shared with an audience. Recitals are certainly good things for the up and coming artist!

 But yes, it has been a crazy few weeks, but I was so glad that I had the chance to have a recital, and I have been exercising like crazy, and I am starting to love the way I feel after coming home from the gym--I never thought that would be possible! The energy I have had has been my own personal miracle, and I thank my loving Heavenly Father for that blessing. I has enabled me to do many wonderful things.

And, it's something that I can fully take advantage of without distractions this month!

Day Six: Grand Day of Recuperation for All

Day Six: I exercised! I did so with my lovely mother. And I am posting my sweaty picture! One day down, eleven more days of exercising to go to hit my goal of twelve days exercised this month.

And I celebrated my strength of will by having a super early bedtime! What a fabulous reward.

Also, I took Bug to the doctor. He seemed to have an earache, but it was just fluid, due to having a cold. Poor baby. He's still a bit grumpy, but he's doing better.

It was a day of rest and recuperation. Little Bug has a cold to recoup from, and I always have to recoup from an exercise day. One day, I won't feel killed when I exercise. But sadly, today is not that day.

Regrettably, I can't really find much to report, really, except that I did indeed resist my temptations.

And that I am getting dangerously close to the end of my book. I fear the withdrawal...

Day Two, Three, Four, and Five: Pressure Washing, Guitar Playing, Mommying, and then Near Death

It's been getting harder not to gravitate toward the TV/Netflix again, and it's only been a few days! I'm starting to remember why I got sucked into them in the first place. I'll describe it to you like this:

Friday, day two, I had an energy level that to me felt like I had a nuclear explosion occur in my body. So I turned into a crazy woman and decided that I was going to pressure-wash our driveway, sidewalks, garbage cans (as per Dad's suggestion), back patio, and brickwork. I had the sense to try and divide the work into two days. As I'm blasting sediment off of the concrete, the OCD side of me cheering with pom-poms in the background, a small voice in the back of my head starts singing Feelin' Groovy by Simon and Garfunkel : "Slow down, you're goin' too fast..."

I never listen to that voice when I'm a nuclear reactor.

And on a side-note, just so everyone knows: if your Dad tells you to put the end of your pressure washer wand into the yard debris can, and you have a dog, DON'T DO IT! Just say NO! And if there is no getting around it, wear a darn mask! In fact, get a hazmat suit! Because, as any physicist will tell you, anything that gets shot into a parabola will be SHOT BACK AT YOU. With the pressure washer, that means that it comes at you at a HIGH VELOCITY. And in this case, I had forgotten that that's where they put Duke's dookie when they mow the yard! It was not a pleasant experience.

I'm not in very good shape, and even worse after having had a baby. So, by the end of the day I was recalling that little voice cheerily singing "slow down, you're goin' too fast." Meh, I'm not hurting too badly, all things considered. Although, I did take a few ibuprofen to ease my aching muscles that night.

Day three, I was at it again. I had a little less energy, but I decided to make the attempt. And luckily I had no more garbage cans to do, so no more mishaps with dog poo flying at my face. But only a third of the time went by before I realized that my body was screaming at me to stop. Cue ibuprofen once more, and add valarian root. And I really do feel pretty wiped out. But I still manage to do everything without resorting to Shows! (Yay, go me!)

And in the morning on day four I wake up with a migraine such that I am unable to make it to church. Splendid. Yet, after having a long siesta while people are at church, it dissipates into a dull roaring headache, and I am able to move around again. Although I feel tempted to anesthetize myself with movies, I resist, and I have a GREAT time teaching little Cuddlebug to love the guitar and music. I was moving a little slow that day, but hey, it all worked out in the end.

Or... so I thought.

That night, Bug hardly slept, which means I didn't sleep either. Poor baby, he was so congested that he could hardly breathe enough to even eat at all. He woke up five times that night.

That's when death ensued. Well, not really, but I sure FELT like dying.

Day five was me basically going comatose while my angel of a mother watched the baby for a few hours.

Moral of the story: I'm ridiculous. When I have it good energy-wise, I WAY overdo it, and then I feel like dying. Then all I feel like doing is melting my brain with tv shows, because I hardly feel like I have any energy for anything else.

So I have been very tempted recently. But I can already feel benefits from my little media fast. I am noticing that from out of nowhere I feel like I have way more time. It's so easy to lose track of time when engrossed in a film. And also, I feel my brain bulking up again now that I exercise it more often. And I exercise more often! Yeah, I totally lost three pounds last week... probably due to the fact that I killed myself pressure washing. But hey, I'll take my victories where I can get them!

Day One: Some Trees Had Noses, Others Had Roses

Yesterday was day one. It looked like day zero, mostly due to the fact that most of my time is spent with my little Cuddlebug.  In fact, it came to my attention yesterday that even with this goal, not much has changed really. I thought it would be super hard. It actually wasn't terrible.

Bug-a-boo was on one yesterday though. He was a grumpster! And a sleepyhead. It was a beautiful and sunshiny day and he wanted to spend it in bed! Well, luckily we had the opportunity to go outside for a walk.


As we passed by trees with faces, I thought about being a mom. Remember, part of my goal is to do something personally fulfilling. But really, that sounds pretty selfish. I'm supposed to be a mom, and here I am looking for self-fulfillment. As I took that walk with little Bug, I came to the conclusion that being a mom is very fulfilling to me (difficult, amazing, tear-jerking, and humbling too).

I thought, it makes sense. I mean, if my goal in life is to become more like Jesus Christ--that is, develop attributes like the ones He has: patience, charity, faith, etc--then I know of no better way to do that than to become a mommy. Being a mom means giving service to others. Being a mom has strengthened my faith (had to, for me it just was too hard to not learn to rely on the Lord more). You develop a truckload of patience, or you die.

 So really, being a mom is personally fulfilling.

That means, even if I don't do anything with my day other than take care of little Bug and being a mom, I've completed my goal for the month. Right?

Okay yes, I was tempted left and right yesterday to just pop onto the computer for a little jaunt and watch a little Doc Martin. But I didn't! Go me. What made it easier was when Bug woke up from his afternoon nap all happy for the first time that day, looking up at me with his gorgeous  eyes saying...

"Mommy, can we go for a walk? PUWEEZE?!?!"

Yeah, I about died from the cuteness of it all. Oh right, something else I just remembered about yesterday. I didn't have a ton of energy. What a terrible way to start my goal month right? The thought of going for a walk made me want to dive under my bed in fear like Kevin from Home Alone. In fact, all exercise makes me feel that way.

But how can you resist that FACE?

It was pretty ideal outside for a walk; gorgeous sunshine, warm, slight breeze. Happy babbling baby. I swear, he perked up just for the walk (because when we got home he was back to being grumpy). Guess that's a clue, right?

Time to sum up: yesterday my activity to replace TV and make my life more well-lived was a walk. On my walk, I realized that it's really being a mommy.

And seeing some beautiful flowers in January.

But mostly, being a mom.

And Then She Turned Off The TV

Yes. It has finally happened. I realized that I live life a bit like that girl in that one book... (oh mommy brain, please remember...what was it? Right The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli) where she reads a book that recites her life verbatim. At one point it says something to the effect of "Then she turned on the TV."

That was the end of her book.

Can I just say that I think about that scenario and I cringe? That's me! Granted, I did just have my very first baby a few months ago. I felt justified in convalescing postpartum  in front of a show on Neftlix. And really, I was. I mean, who has energy for anything other than taking care of brand new Cuddlebug? Certainly not me. So after my Bug goes down for a nap, Agents of SHIELD it is. Nursing for an hour at a time several times at night? No problem. I found The Blacklist to be quite exciting. Thank heavens for computers, by the way. Middle of the night TV programming is terrible, TV programmers. You guys really ought to do something about that.

Except now...

Bug is sleeping better through the night. I have realized that I am coming out of the haze of extreme sleep deprivation and depleted energy stores. I can't tell you how good that feels! And now that I have the energy to step out the front door, and do stuff, I don't WANT to. It's bad, Chucky. I'm an addict. I am a Doctor Who Aholic that rocks Cuddlebug to sleep and then bounds back into her bed either for a nap, or to watch another episode and eat chocolate. 

The first step is to admit you have a problem.

My name is Kristi and I've come to realize that my computer has a greater gravitational pull than the earth.

So, I have turned off the current show Doc Martin. And Minecraft. And anything else that wasted my time.

The goal?
One Month. Tomorrow to February 28th. No TV shows, video games, or things of that nature. Books are okay (a decision after my hubby told me that I did need to have something I could do to "unstring the bow," as it were.)

Instead, I am going to do something every day that is a personally fulfilling pursuit. Something I have never done before preferably, but not a requirement. Some of my plans include blogging this goal (super scary, because I have never even TRIED blogging anything before), successfully completing twelve exercises in one month at Curves for the first time, finding more students for my music studio, furthering some of my writing projects, and more things as I find them.

Ultimately, I want to get more out of life: I want to enjoy my baby more. I want to look back on the things that I did during the day and sigh with deep pleasure as I soak in a bubble bath.


I have only one question to ask:

Anyone want to join me?