A New Plan!

As you can imagine.  I do not have time to lay around. Since I have no choice at the moment, I’ve decided to come up with a plan for myself. I’m calling it my Personal Research, Learning and Development Project. I’m analyzing and researching a few key factors in my life. Basically, I’m a happy person and have been happy with my life—but not always with myself. Actually, I mostly hate my physical self. If I didn’t think I was such a fun, person, I might really feel hopeless. (At least I felt this way prior to my surgery when I thought I was this discrepit old woman who couldn’t even think about leaving the house for fear of walking around and breaking something). Instead, I’ve decided the embrace the good news the doctor imparted to Butch—I have strong, healthy bones! Nothing should hold me back!

I’m taking control of my life—well, MORE control of my life. Here are the key factors in my Personal Research, Learning and Development Project.

Physical—

Activity program—treadmill plus weights (I’ve already started with the weights along with the ankle exercises assigned from the doctor).

Bone health—bone density test; OsteoStrong program 

Establishing a walking club—this will include walking prior to our Movie Mondays and Stitching Tuesdays.

Walking with the family—each at their own pace.

Biking (but that’s a long way off as I gain balance and confidence. I still hadn’t made it off the driveway without falling in to the landscaping). 

Yoga--or specifically working on balance. That's one thing the doctor told me to do when I was recovering from my other broken ankle last fall. I'm a good patient/rule follower, but I didn't get in to the habit of working on my balance. I really need to work on that.

Get in the habit of wearing my fitbit again

Cleaning out this house. I’m putting this under physical because it will be a physical task to do it. Every closet and drawer is stuffed to the brim. I/we don’t need all this stuff. I should also probably list this under spiritual as it will make me feel really good to get a handle on what we have, need, want. 

Nutritional—

Healthier eating 

Focus on protein and calcium rich foods; fresh fruits and vegetables

Continuing to share meals out with family/friends

Limiting meals out—and choosing some healthier options than just the 1/2 order approach.

Continue with Lean Cuisines a couple times a week. I like them, so it’s not that hard. I just need to add a salad or veggie to make them seem more like a real meal. 

Go back to drinking water—just about exclusively. 

I know I should be doing something about eliminating processed foods, but I’m not ready to go there. I’m giving myself time to get a handle on other areas of nutrition. 

Eliminate artificial sweeteners. I only use Equal for my tea. I’m down to about 2 packs a day already, so this should be so hard. I’ll go back to sugar if necessary.

Spiritual—

I’ve been interested in getting in to a Bible study for a long time, but haven’t taken any steps along those lines. Mostly, I’ve never liked the times those things meet. I don’t want to do things at night—I’m a morning person. Instead, I’m turing to the internet. I just want something simple to remind me to think about my spirituality and count my blessings every day. 

Maybe even just dusting off my daily devotional will be enough. Just something to keep me mindful of the fact that there is more to me than just me and to be grateful for that.

I want to spend more time in my garden. I have plenty of nice places to just sit and reflect. But, it’s the mosquitoes and use of bug spray that deters me. I need to change that. 

I also used to say the Rosary every day while on the treadmill. I can add that again.

Learning—

Everything computer related falls under here. I want to watch a lot of tutorials.I think I’m giving up the foreign language thing as I don’t want to study too much.

I love to learn, but don’t really know what else I’d like to learn. I’m sure I’ll make some fun discoveries.

Along the lines of learning and nutrition, I’ll try to focus on simple, yet tasty, low calorie meals. Is there really such a thing? Well, I’ve already signed up with Cooking Light to give it a try. I’ll be sure to share the recipes.

Giving Back—

I’ve been a full time volunteer most of my married life. I officially retired from all of the fund raising in 2000—with just a couple projects since then. I’ve always felt like I’ve “done my part” by the time I retired. And I feel like what I do spend time on regarding organizing my friends and their memory keeping is worthwhile. I try to keep the focus on telling the stories of our lives. But maybe I need to do more.

I’ve already volunteered to head up a committee that would make sure the scholarship recipients at St. Cecilia would be able to more fully participate in options closed to them due to financial need. That’s not off the ground yet, but I have quite a few ideas. And plenty of people to call on to help—there’s winter formal, prom, winterim programs, senior pictures, yearbooks—I want those girls to have the full SCA experience. 

Just Plain Fun—

Stitching

Reading

Netflix

Blogging

Scraobooking—Album planning—develop AYM workshop for 2017 (already done. I’m pretty excited because this new concept is not ANYTHING I’ve seen done yet! My girls will be happy!)

Update Making the Most of My Memories Workshop and get ready to teach it again.

Visits from friends

Fishing—I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I fished for the first time in over 30 years. I really liked it, got a new rod and reel for Christmas—and have yet to try it out. 

I’m going to re-design my garden around the pool. I have some ideas, just need to do a little research before I set the plan.

OIrganizing—-EVERYTHING—yes, this is fun to me (So far, I put nearly 400 photos in to an album for Mindy’s wedding. I’ve already cleaned up and re-organized digital photos on my computer. Add to that—I re-organized ALL of my fonts. I added at least a hundred new ones. I love fonts.)

Outings—

I had already planned an outing for September to the White’s Creek Flower Farm. I’ve had to postpone that. Spring might be better anyway.

I need to get the beach trip with my cousins back on the books—since I’ve had to cancel. (Already done. We’re going in March. It might not be the best beach time, but just being together will be fun no matter what we do.)

Reschedule my trip to Charlotte for January or February. (This will be easy to do once Sandy gets the school schedule.)

Plan my winter trip to St. Louis. I like to go twice a year—January and August.

Our girls trip to New York is next spring. I had only done some preliminary planning for that. (I’ve gotten this back on the books and have done some planning).

Our book club has a trip to England on the calendar for next September to visit our friend/member, Diane. That’s definitely something to look forward to. (This is in the very preliminary stages, but I’ve put together a list of things to do when we’re there. For many it will be their first trip to England. I’m determined to get to Hampton Court this time—no mater what!).

So, you might be thinking—this looks like a pretty ambitious plan. Really, it’s not. I’ll just be adding a few things to my life that might be a little more satisfying—giving me the feeling that I am a bit more in control. My hives will continue to be a problem. There’s nothing I can do about that. All I can do is what I think is right for me. Luckily, I have family and friends that are willing to go along with my schemes!