Stupid, Random, Silly Stuff

Hi all,
I've been away way too long...just doing stupid, random, silly stuff. That's the name of my oldest daughter's new blog and I recently realized how fitting that is for a lot of what occupies our time. Not to say that this silly stuff doesn't need to get done, most of it does, but it's not necessarily how we want to spend our time.

Which is exactly why I'm adopting my new drop/add way of thinking. Each day, as I'm getting ready for work or in the shower or brushing my teeth, I think of one thing I can drop that day and one thing I can add. The key is to drop a "drain" and add a "joy." For example, today I dropped paying bills (there was nothing pressing or due) and added spending a half hour flipping through the latest issue of my favorite magazine. Sounds like a minor adjustment but I can't tell you how much I enjoyed that down time. Yes, I felt a little guilty about "wasting" that time but decided that if it's something that relaxes me and that I enjoy, is that really a waste? I'm going to say no and hope that, over time, and with a lot of practice, my mind follows suit and really believes it. Baby steps.

Tomorrow I'm thinking I will drop laundry and go for a bike ride after work. It's something I have to consciously think about each day but hope that it will become second nature after a while. It's a work in progress so I'll let you know how it's going. It's also a subject matter I'll be covering in the book that I'm currently writing (which is not stupid or random or silly) about slowing down and reveling in a little "slacker" time. Yeah, that's coming from an extreme Type A control freak overachiever so again, the writing is a kind of therapy for me.

Tom and I leave for Mexico in a couple weeks and we are beyond excited - it's our anniversary present to each other (14 years!). The girls will have the pleasure of hanging with my parents who will be coming back north to spend the summer in New England and will begin at our house! More on that in my next post. Time to go work on the book.

Sue