Happy New Year!
We survived another holiday season. Fancy foods have been consumed and
subsequently purged from the fridge while the purgee made heart felt promises of NEVER
eating half a ham ever again.
Gifts have been wrapped, opened, admired and put away
while pondering the thought process that brought the giver to think the box of
plastic hockey guys would truly be loved by the 61 year old recipient.
Loved ones near and far have been hugged and made to promise
to visit more often, all the while hoping that the ukulele concerto will truly
become a real thing.
Resolutions have been made. Goals have been set, which is
really just a kinder, gentler way to say resolutions.
And now it’s January 5th. And if I don’t get this
post up by Tuesday, I will have blown my goals for 2020, one of which is to post
here once a week. And being as Jan 7 – which technically is a week from Jan 1 –
is Tuesday, I figure I am still good….
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am not great with goal
setting. I don’t like putting them out
into the world as I seem to take that as a challenge to see just how quickly I
can screw it up. But, as the holiday season one horse open sleighed right over
me, I decided it was time to change it up.
Truthfully, I prefer the option of picking a word to
represent your plan for the new year. I toyed around with ‘reset’ and ‘reconnect’
but finally – This Morning – settled on Time Out.
Not the sit in the corner and think about what you did Time Out,
but more of a last 20 seconds of a football game, there’s no way they can win
but maybe if they run the clock out there could be a miracle Time Out.
I can’t quite figure out why I don’t seem to have any free
time these days. Time where I don’t HAVE to do anything. Or, more honestly,
have time to do the things I really enjoy doing.
I blame my upbringing.
I grew up in a house where you did your chores before doing
fun activities. Those activities became the prize for dusting that stupid
dining room table with the giant carved legs and cross pieces requiring me to
crawl under it and then crack my head as I crawled back out – all the time
hoping I hadn’t passed out and missed Johnny Quest.
This philosophy was reinforced by my 5th grade
teacher, who noted on my report card that ‘Laura does not use her time wisely’.
Apparently, completing my homework and then quietly reading a much more
enjoyable book at my desk was not satisfactory. It only reinforced my believe
that I needed to always be productive, although at this writing I suddenly
realized that perhaps it was more of an insult to her worksheet producing abilities.
And now I am picturing her tiny, support hose wearing body hunched over a desk,
late into the night, trying to create the ultimate mimeograph sheet of
questions set to finally, at last, stump that little Schloz girl…
It isn’t easy to break those habits reinforced nearly daily.
(Don’t get me wrong, my childhood was not a coal mine of
constant household chores. I had plenty of time for Barbies and imaginary
adventures and getting trapped in trees. And 5th grade was, in
reality, pretty fun, except for this teacher’s penchant for spraying the room
down with Lysol daily and discussing her varicose veins.)
And that philosophy has served me well throughout my adult
life. I have run a tight ship around the house, and I hope, impressed my
managers with my great work ethic.
But I have a terrible time doing fun things when I know
there is another load of laundry crawling up the wall, or a fine layer of
protective dust on the furniture.
So, to that end, I have made my Word of 2020 – Time Out.
(Fine, it’s two words. Just me, overachieving again.)
And to manage making this a year of Time Out, I
needed to set some goals.
Goals such as ‘reading for enjoyment every day’ and the afore
mentioned blogging goal.
But the biggest is to just allow myself some TIME.
And it hasn’t been easy.
Into the new year by 5 days, I have managed to read a little
each day, however, it took every fiber of my being to stop taking down the
Christmas decorations to take a ride up the river for some music and a glass of
wine.
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| a cold day on the Mississippi. the barge is parked. taking a Time Out! |
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| Bluffs along the river road |
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| sunset at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Illinois |
And at the end of the day, as I was making pancakes from
scratch with the odds and ends of dairy and non-dairy products I had in the
fridge as I have yet to grocery shop this weekend, I had to agree, those hours
were truly Time well spent.
So I will again wish you a Happy New Year from the Coast of
Illinois.
May your New Year be as productive as you need and as fun
and exciting as you want!
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| me and the Bronze Fonze |
(while the above pic was from a quick before Christmas wedding trip in Milwaukee, I had to include it because....Aaaaaayyyyyy,,,, it's the Fonze!)
See you next week!!
