The Daily's

My totes lame post from yesterday reminded me that it's not often I use this forum to update on our personal lives. The sad truth behind yesterday's "Status Updates" is that I do much of my "every day writing" on Facebook, through pictures and short status updates. It's the modern day equivalent of keeping a daily journal or diary, I suppose, only not nearly as romantic or scandalous for my grandchildren to uncover in a dusty attic trunk years from now. I wax poetic here far more often than I just write about what's actually going on in my life. This is ironic, because I read many, many blogs and the ones I enjoy most are people who write about their daily life. It's like literary realityTV. Perhaps I avoid these because I just don't think anyone will find my life that interesting, but then the Kardashians DO have a mass following, so anything's possible. We'll experiment:

So here's a little bit about our January. First, enjoy a random dog butt.

Along with trying to eat better, starting back up with my trainer, and generally reevaluating our lifestyles, I've been practicing domesticity. This includes, keeping up with the house in a daily fashion, rather than once a week. It doesn't give me quite the same satisfaction as deep cleaning every weekend and then enjoying a spotless home for exactly 2 hours before it's dirty again, but I'll admit it is more manageable.

I also realized today that I can only count four times in the whole month that we ate out. (And two of those "nights out" were actually dates where we ordered food and a movie at Alamo Drafthouse - and one was on a gift card! So boom.) This is huge. Really huge. (Pssst: you should be impressed.) It's no secret I hate to make grocery lists, shop for groceries, or turn those groceries into anything but cookies and pumpkin gingerbread, so the fact that we have been eating out of our refrigerator on a seriously regular basis is a tremendous accomplishment for me and mine. More impressively, we have not only been eating out of the refrigerator, but we have been making our own food. You know, like people used to have to do, before your neighborhood Chinese takeout and hamburger joints existed.  I'm really patting myself on the back for this, and you can pat yourself, too - just so you don't feel left out.

Tim's life goes like this: Monday he hates his job, Tuesday he loves his job, Wednesday he hates his job and comes home at lunch to WFH (work from home), Thursday he likes his job okay, and Friday he usually comes home early so he hasn't decided if he loves his job or hates it yet. Then he drinks some beer and the weekend starts. And the next week it's all of those same mixed emotions but maybe in a different order, on different days. I think this is all because he's nearing the big 3-0 and still not in his dream career of brewing craft beer in the Netherlands. Just a hypothesis. We struggle for contentment in this family, we surely do. In his spare time, he's been doing crossfit workouts (on his own, not a with a CF gym - yet), and is starting to run again. He has to prepare for all that craft beer he's going to be brewing...

In the last month, I've reconnected with my old friend Katie, from my theatre days in high school. This was super fun as she hasn't changed an inkling, except she has shorter hair. So as we sat and sipped coffee, I totally felt like I was staring 16 in the face again and we were "playing adults." (Because had I actually been 16, it would have been a Dr. Pepper in front of me, not coffee.) Hopefully, when I'm 60 I'll still feel like I'm "playing adults." I can only pray I'm that young-at-heart. She brought her scrapbooks to our coffee date, and wow - let me just say - some things do improve with age up to a certain point. I'll take my almost-28-year-old-self and sense of fashion over my pre-18-self and sense of fashion any day, thank you. Cheers to old friends!

Also on a friend + coffee note, I spent many Fridays last year catching up with my friend Christina (also from high school years). We lost touch during our college and immediately-post-college years, but then found ourselves living just a few blocks away from each other in ATX in 2011. What a blessing this girl has been to me, and I'm so thankful for all the Fridays we have in 2013 to grow our friendship. We both think we're right 99% of the time, so fortunately we agree on many things. We are similarly picky, both love home interiors (although she's a professional and I'm an amateur), plants, Anthropologie, and our dogs as if they were actually birthed from our loins. Apparently taking your friendship from high school to adulthood means escaping homes, husbands, and yes - even dog-babies, on occasion - to meet up "for coffee." This usually means cake is also involved, because - oh, yes I forgot to mention - we also both loooooove cake. So nice to have a local wifey-friend to spend Friday afternoons yaking with about our middle-class domestic lives. It's just a huge plus our husbands and dogs also get along. Thank you baby Jesus!

(Are you worried about how much coffee I'm drinking?)

We spent Super Bowl Sunday with the Stareys (that sounds like the title of a book; the aforementioned Christina and her husband Earl), and their friends and relatives, in their newly acquired home. Oscar had fun running around and stealing rawhides from their long-haired dachshund, Sophie. The boys smoked brisket and ribs, and we all played washers in couples-teams. It struck me that it couldn't have been a more picturesque American Super Bowl Sunday if we tried. I was also struck by the fact that had you asked me five years ago if this was the life I imagined I would be living, my answer would have been a resounding "No." (By the way I really hearted the "God Made a Farmer" Paul Harvey commercial. What beautiful shots. Sadly, I quickly remembered, with the help of this depressing article, just how "commercial" is that commercial - you can watch the video by following that link. Also, read some Wendell Berry.)

I went to yoga twice in January, and was only reminded of how good it is for me, and how much I need to get back into practicing on a regular basis. Even if regular is just a few times a month, it does my body and soul good to get out of my head. I was "blessed" with an awful lot of free time this January. I'll summarize that situation with a quote I saw on Pinterest: "Even if you gave me 25 years to accomplish _______, I'd still wait until the night before to do it." I have periods of great productivity and energy, and periods of lethargy and melancholia. It's like transitioning from being a classroom learner, to a self-taught learner. I'm trying to enjoy it. I'm trying to remind myself I might never, ever get the chance to do whatever I want all day, every day, ever again. I'm having to motivate myself, set goals and hold myself accountable, and be patient that there is more for me on the horizon.  I'm just not sure exactly what yet.

Next time I'll try to not to give you all of the Dailys all at once. Sure, you're welcome.