Tag: stress

Reading

I’ve gotten a good amount done today, given that I went for a miniature movie marathon with a girlfriend for several hours – which was awesome, by the way – yet I had only expected to be about two total. I did some tidying at home and some reorganization that seems to be a step very much so in the right direction. I stayed up way later than intended, but even got a lot of folding and putting away of laundry done, too. And, of course, I had an audiobook running that whole time, which was great use of my time.

Thank you, God, for the accomplishments and the love and friendship of today. Help me to make tomorrow another great day, sharing and living your love and helping to be my best self. Thank you for this life and this man and these opportunities. Please, heal those in need of healing and call to you newly all those who most need you. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Reading

I have four books to go before the end of the year. I’m already in the middle of a handful of them, so it seems a very doable task. I have one small book I can probably finish reading in less than an hour’s time. But kind of saving that one for when my man is around and I can’t make noise. Otherwise, I have a few audiobooks in the works. I had two that I was well into when they expired recently, and the hold list is forever long still. So, those won’t work. But I have a few other newer ones happening right now that I think I can get done reasonably. I definitely fell behind twice this year, similarly to last year, and so am rushing at the end of the year. But I believe I can do it with reasonable ease. It can be good to do a nice walk with a book, or even a bike ride with an audiobook these next few days. 36 down, four to finish – I can do this! (And I like doing this, truly!)

God, thank you for this life and for this man. Help us always to grow with each other, as well as to grow in your love with one another. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Coming together

Things are, by no means, sorted. However, they are beginning to come together. Little by little – 少しずつ sukoshi zutsu – they are starting to solidify, and possibilities are starting to make sense. As a result, my stressed panic has begun to lessen, and today specifically. We have lots to accomplish, but a big part has been just getting research done and finding certain things that we need. Today, we got a good handful of research done. Sure, there’s still a whole mound of it in waiting, but the first parts can be the hardest, as it all is still so new and unfamiliar. By the end of today’s research, I had a decent handle on several things about which I had previously known next-to-nothing.

So, progress. Today has been good in that sense. Yes, we had some yelling and crying and lots of frustration and ache. And we also had some important and valuable conversations that seem to have accomplished much on their own. We are growing, and we are doing it together. And we aren’t perfect yet. 😛

Thank you, God, for today’s many accomplishments. Keep my man safe, please, and me, too. Help us always to grow together and with you, and through you and each other. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Boots and belts

Today, for the second time, I went to a warehouse scratch-and-dent sale for this boot company that I love, Tecovas. I was going simply to meet my mom and stepdad and see if he might be able to find a pair of boots – his first pair of western boots, actually – for the upcoming rodeo season. He’s on a committee with us all now, so he needs to have at least one pair for the shifts he works for the committee.

Anyway, I went for them, grabbed some things to keep them available while waiting on them to arrive, since I live much closer, and I also grabbed a few belts for my man’s and for me, since the belts were half the price today that they had been Friday. Eventually, they arrived, and my stepdad liked and bought a very nice pair that I had grabbed for him. (When he tried them on and walked around, my mom and I both were impressed with how nice it made him look as a whole – what we wear truly does make a difference!) I was there an hour before they arrived. Then we three spent about forty minutes working on my stepdad’s boots.

However, it took me another two hours before I left. Why?

Because I asked my man about a pair of men’s loafers.

He got too stressed, so, yet again, I got to wait at this sale while he went to the regular store beer our house to try on boots in the store in order to confirm fits and sizes. And yes, you read that correctly. We did this already on Friday for a couple hours. One benefit, though, was that prices dropped while I was waiting, so we got them all for even less than they already would have been at the already-amazing prices.

Eventually, however, after four hours of being in the store with no bathrooms (because it’s a pop-up shop situation, not a real store), I left with, for the price of one pair of boots new at the store – approximately $300, though they are $600-$700 comparable quality – one pair of loafers, two pair of men’s boots, and five very nice leather belts belts. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I actually had a really great time doing it all, too. I also noticed how much I like to help people. I was consistently either chatting with a waiting person or helping people find what they were seeking or, get this, helping to organize the products. I even went through all the women’s belts to confirm that all but a few were size XS, pulled the few out and set them next to the huge plastic bins, and then adjusted the sign that read S to read XS, and split the XS belts in the two bins evenly. Yes, I pulled out a pen from my bag to write the X on the sign, very similarly to how they were adjusting all the signs around (one-time paper signs, you see). So, anyway, I had a good time helping people. And I also found great satisfaction and delight in getting things for someone that are both useful, solid quality, wanted, and a treat all in one.

Thank you, God, for such a lovely start to the day today, and thank you for the lovely continuation and finish it has had. Thank you for this beautiful life. Please, heal those in need of healing and help them to ask for healing and forgiveness in all ways. Thank you for this love I receive. Please, keep my man safe. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Thickheadedness

My brother comments on how he didn’t realize the message I’d sent to the family was a save-the-date for our wedding. Why? As I said to him tonight after dinner, if he ever actually called his sister and had an actual relationship with her, he would have known already all about it, even before the text… I wasn’t mean, of course, but I also wasn’t wrong, and he knew it. 😛 He always stops being a good family member whenever he starts dating someone. As silly as it sounds, that’s okie thing I actually really liked about his wife before – she usually made a clear effort to keep him in touch with us. She didn’t let him disappear, and thereby had a large role of her own in my life, in all our lives…

Anyway… addiction really sucks.

Post-a-day 2023

Creating an image, or creating stress

We still haven’t created our wedding and reception and honeymoon, so it has become increasingly stressful for me to arrange the details of them. If we had a clear image of what we’re aiming to achieve, it’s be easy to figure out how to meet that image. But I’m currently working only on what I have created, and then on what my man throws out suddenly in disagreement with upset. Not a successful method for accomplishing things, and definitely not one for accomplishing them with joy, love, and ease.

God, help us, please, to create the wedding and reception and honeymoon we both truly long to have. Help us to see clearly what we want, and to communicate that clearly, effectively, and promptly. Help us to find exactly what we need for all of this. Thank you for this opportunity. Keep us safe, please. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Communication

It’s a good thing we’ve been working so much on having good communication with one another. It made all the difference today, turning what was a very stressful situation into an absolutely wonderful one.

Thank you, God, for this man and for his willingness to let you guide him and for his love for me. And thank you for my love for him and the grace that we both give to each other. Thank you for this life and this love. Help us to continue to pursue and fulfill your will together, being our best selves with one another always supporting. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Theatre

We went to a show tonight. It was a one-man-show about Katharine Hepburn. It was called “Tea at Five”, I believe, and was a delight. And it was about Katharine Hepburn from the 1930s, not Audrey Hepburn from the 1950s. We looked it up afterward, and discovered that she and Audrey were related only distantly by a great-great (and maybe a few more greats) uncle, who ended up being a husband to Mary Queen of Scots… something like that, anyway. But Audrey wasn’t even her niece or anything reasonable. 😛

Anyway, the show was great. I’m exhausted, though. I almost cried after I got home when I realized that I don’t have to go to school in the morning. I was so relieved, because I’m just so worn out from the semester as a whole, but also from this week in particular.

Granted, we’re doing breakfast with my dad in the morning, so we have to be out the door at 8:30. But I can still rest well tonight.

Thank you, God. Keep my man safe, please. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Sleep, at last

I stayed at school today to work. I waited to work out, because I was able to be productive during last period. And then I kept being productive… until I finished with everything. Exams are done and ready and sent off for approval. All grading has been completed, even the late grades. When I finally finished at nearly 8pm, I was done. Time to go home and go to bed without dinner.

Actually, I had the final breakfast taco and a few bites of pumpkin pie as dinner. But still. Barely ate that, I was so tired already.

I’m really glad I got the work done – my brain and nerves needed it. I feel such immense relief now, and I can also show all the essay stuff to students tomorrow, which they’ll appreciate greatly, I’m sure. (Most of them, anyway!)

But I’ll have to do a workout Saturday or Sunday, or do two tomorrow to make up… so, we’ll see… 😛

Dear God, thank you for the Christmas lights going up tonight. Thank you for my home. Thank you for my man. Thank you for my job. Help me to do well by them all, please. And by you. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023