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The sky that night was AMAZING, which was what the photographer and Jodi were hoping to capture when they set this session up. This was just 6 weeks ago - a lot of life has happened since then! I am a big fan of Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius, and I've been trying to incorporate some of her advice into my life. Two biggies have been taking things slowly and more deliberately and leaning into "no" when something isn't working for me. Her podcast this week was about some things that aren't working for her (and many things that are!) - I think hearing someone process all this is helpful; she helps show you how you can then apply it to your life.
None of the above is easy for me - ha! I'm naturally high energy, then add that to "I want to do all the things" and my default which is normally "yes" (whether I really want to or not). . .I tell you all this to say that I'm still high energy - I mostly get my energy from doing and being around people - but I'm choosing less things to put in my day, taking time to do things that I previously wouldn't "allow" myself to do until 1-2-and-3 were done (like social media, watch a show or read a book) and making sure that optional things I say "yes" to are things I not only WANT to do, but things I have TIME to do (like this blog). I would like to write and read blogs every day for 1-2 hours, but if I do that I'm rushing through or not doing things I NEED to do well. It's been a process, believe me. . .
So. . .on the blog end, I'm still taking pictures, reading blogs, and constantly thinking about what I would write/share in this community. . .but it's not really "fitting" into my life really well right now. I used to take my (early) mornings and either write (which I'm doing now) or read and comment on other blogs. I mostly read blogs - all on my sidebar - that INSPIRE me in some way. . .I feel like some of these ladies are friends I would have in real life if we all lived in the same city, or some give really good advice that I want to try/follow, some are people I have followed for 12-15 years and it's just great to keep up and watch their lives change and grow. . .but I no longer have the TIME for it all. If it wasn't forty-three degrees out right now I'd have Radar at the park but being warm trumps him getting out - ha! I am very much loving early mornings at the park with him though!
This is Week 6 of not working. It's hard but I'm falling into it. I usually wake up between 5 and 6 without prompting and Monday-Friday have a 7 a.m. "Let's Start the Day" alarm set - I am someone who has always lived on alarms/timers, even before having an app! Previously I used that alarm to signal that my blog reading/writing time was over (or whatever else I was doing) and it was time to start getting ready for work. Now I use it as a literal "Start to My Day" - it will go off in about 10 minutes and I'll stop writing and go do something else. If I didn't "make" myself stop then I would sit here for hours because I do enjoy it, but there's still a need in my soul to be productive - ha! Today I only have two things on my calendar where I "have" to be somewhere so it probably will be a slower, less-directional day.
One thing I'm ADDING to my life is a little more attention to what I/we are eating. Amy is helping/inspiring me to eat/get more protein into my meals. She shared with me her protein iced coffee which I'm making most days now:
I've done it with both vanilla and chocolate Fairlife and then shared it with another friend recently too. 
It's WONDERFUL having more time to plan and cook meals that are good for us. Tom has always had a restrictive diet and it's become more so over the years. This weekend he made a list of "foods to avoid" and it was a LOT. I put them all into ChatGPT and asked if it would help me plan some meals/recipes for us.
We chose what we wanted and it created a grocery list and provided the recipes:
Tom wrote a list of ingredients/foods he's trying to avoid and the shopping list generated for us :) Last night we made the chicken broccoli cheese casserole. I need to prep the turkey meatballs for tmrw and we'll have the Greek chicken bowls on Friday. (I'm now writing on Wednesday evening. . .see? It takes me forever to get these done, but I do enjoy keeping track of "life" when I do have the time.)
Isn't that remarkable!?! She played SO WELL. Then we went back out together last Monday, and we won a game together (she had the winning shot!). At this point she was also one week into radiation. Her friends were amazed. Then, on Thursday, while I was helping our youngest son move to his new digs, I got a call from Tom that he had to call the squad because she had fallen a couple of times and really couldn't tell anyone what was happening. After a day in the ER she was admitted to the hospital for observation. So here I am again, last Friday morning, heading in to see what the day may hold. . .
Turns out all of the medical personnel tending to her were suggesting a pacemaker. They were able to do that for her Friday afternoon, I spent the night with her that night, and she was released on Saturday. As of right now, Wednesday evening, she is doing GREAT. This just goes to show what great genes, regular exercise and sunshine, and a good diet can do for you :) We were back at radiation Monday:
The other "side" thing going on during this time was Fred was pretty ill so we were also tending to him and making sure he was eating and getting the medication he needed. Never a dull moment around here!! He, too, seems to be back to "himself" as of right now :) How incredibly fortunate that I've had the time and space/flexibility in my life to do all these appointments and driving for them. 
Saturday was a GREAT day!! I spent some of the morning at the hospital with Tom and his parents, then got to play in our first 4.0 Early Start USTA match with my very good (very tall!) friend. . .we lost but it was a very close match on a very windy and somewhat cold day. In the meantime, these two were downtown preparing for the annual Third Saturday in October game and ran into our good friend Connie:
Look at this. . .the Vols win!!!
A couple weeks ago I was playing tennis Friday night and we stopped playing to get these pictures - wasn't this sunset fabulous???
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