New Job + Moving = More Stress?

So, we are off on an adventure starting tomorrow morning.  Nathan has a job interview near Seattle.  Although we are imminently pleased with the interview part, I am not so enamored with the moving part.

Having lived there for almost 10 years many moons ago, I must say that this would be one of our less traumatic moves, but I am still ambivalent..

Life Lessons

As we both recuperate this weekend (kid-free thanks to G'ma and G'pa) I have realized that in order to live life to the fullest, we must allow ourselves to be in the moment at all times.  Worrying about what 'might' happen not only makes us anxious, but robs us of our joy in just being.


Here are a few things that I have learned in the past week.

• If you are tired ~ rest.
• If you are sick ~ sleep.
• If you are hungry ~ eat.
• If you are anxious ~ pray.

Sounds like a simple enough list to follow, but when you are a mother, or a wife, or both, if you have a job or just a life in general, these things tend to take a back seat.  Taking care of ourselves is often put on the back burner far too often and for far too long.  The result?  We end up right where we started - tired, sick, hungry and anxious.


Attention men!  I am talking to you as well.  Providing for a family has the potential to be one of the most stressful, time-consuming ,anxiety-ridden duties in life!  The key to a contented life is...wait for it...balance.
Life is a balancing act.


Look at all the things that we have to 'balance' every day:

• Checkbooks
• Diets
• Home and family vs. work
• Time spent in leisure with time spent in productivity

I wish I had all the answers to balancing, not worrying and just generally having a fulfilling life.  I don't.  I can only pass on what I have discovered for myself.  Unless I live fully in the moment, I am not fully living.  I am wasting my energy, time and health on things that are ultimately out of my control.  So, I control the things that I can, the best that I can; my anger, my tongue, my actions, my responses to others' actions and whether I choose to live in the past, worry about the future or just be in the present.


My motto for the day:


Live in the now.


'Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised and today is a gift ~ that is why it's called the present.'                                                                                                                                                       ~  Anon


Have a blessed day and enjoy your 'presents'!

Scared Healthy

Things not to do when you are 41

• Have a stroke
• Die
• Have carotid dissection disease
• Have an inoperable blood clot completely blocking your carotid artery

Unfortunately, I am writing this memo a little too late for my boyfriend.  He has managed (barely) to avoid only one of the things on my list.  Granted, it is the most important one since dying would have left no second chance to get healthy.  Trite, but true.  
As I write this, he is home recuperating from a stroke that landed him in the hospital for six days. 


Six horrible, terrifying, prayer and tear-filled days.  


Our objective is to lower the possibility of this happening again.  There are several factors involved when it comes to stroke and some can be avoided and others simply can't.


Some Avoidable Factors:

• Smoking
• High blood pressure - this technically falls under both categories, but early detection and treatment can lower your risk significantly.
• Being Sedentary
• Stress - of the undue variety

Some Unavoidable Factors:

• Genetics
• Race 
• Gender
• Having a disease

Having spent the last week in the hospital (literally) right by his side, I am exhausted and worried.  Hopeful, but, at the same time terrified that I will have to rush him to the ER once again; or, worse, call 911.


Our lives have now ceased to be about the future, but about the present.  Not even the day-to-day present.  Minute-to-minute, pulse-by-pulse, meal-to-meal.  We will make it through this.