checking in

So, it's been a few days...

We had a wild ride here last night. The most sustained, raucous wind I have ever heard in my life. Rain pelting the side of the house almost vertically. Roaring. A tornado touched down about 9 miles west of us, half a mile from the business of a friend. It then cut a swath heading east-northeast, ripping across sections of roads that are about 4 miles from us. I don't know how far sound travels when a tornado is making it's way across the land, but I swear I heard that "freight train" sound. I think that is what woke me up. That, and the weather alert beeping on my phone from the living room. I noticed that Ken had gotten up, and sure enough, he was dressed and monitoring the reporting on TV out in his office/den. I'm all for a good adventure, but I decided that his vigilance was sufficient for both of us and I headed back to bed. With the dogs. This morning we have an extremely squishy yard (as opposed to really squishy, which it has been all month from beaucoup rain) and standing water in places. Yay! More muddy paw prints on the new floor! Wink.

I've been pinning up a storm on Pinterest since Valentine's Day is on the horizon. I used to make my own cards every year for the dear ones in my life. In recent years that habit has fallen by the wayside for a variety of reasons, but this year--I'm baaacckk! The list of dear folk has also exploded since the arrival of little ones to several of the people on my list. My biggest challenge? Making a decision about a design (or multiple designs, since multiple cards go to the same address in several cases). And then I discover that I don't have the right paper. Sheesh. With all the paper I have in my stash you'd think I could find something. Anyway, I'm having fun.

Too many things are going through my mind about what to do with my life. I met with my career coach last week. It's a bit of a challenge to summarize our time together, although one piece of advice I took away from that meeting was to reinvigorate my network. I'm starting to address that. Like working with a therapist, at this stage of our work together it's pretty much up to me to figure things out and put the pieces together. I get that, I really do, but can I just say that I've worn that groove down to the bone? Still, it's a process, and fresh insights, coupled with paying attention, are revealing some things. I'm listening to what I am resisting, and starting to ask myself different questions. That approach is starting to pay off. The big question still remains: what do I want to do? The short answer continues to be, "I don't know." The longer answer is unfolding a bit. I think.

I don't know if I mentioned that Ken has been dealing with a diabetes flare up. He has a new doctor that he really likes, so he is following her counsel (more or less) with some good results. For one thing he is more committed to eating better and losing weight. That that end (losing weight), space is finally cleared out in his office/den to set the gazelle back up, as well as a weight bench. He's been pretty faithful about getting on the gazelle multiple times a day for a cardiovascular workout. Since early fall he's lost about 25 pounds, so he feels encouraged in this effort. And me? I've actually gotten on the gazelle twice in the last two days. This is significant progress for me since I hate to exercise. I was planning to start walking regularly in this new year, but we've had rain six days out of seven, and I'm not really a fan of walking in the rain. It's never as romantic as those cliches try to make it sound. 

I finished my second book, Brené Brown's I Thought it Was Just Me. In short it's about the epidemic of shame experienced by human beings, and ways to combat and reverse the effects of shame in our lives. I found it to be very enlightening and helpful, including a "light bulb moment" that has helped me ask some different questions of myself related to my vocational journey. If I'd written this post a few days ago I could have told you exactly what that insight is, but in typical intuitive fashion it has been absorbed into the mass of knowledge and wisdom that equates to my internal database.  If it comes back to me, I'll try to remember to mention it. I refer to it here to relate my progress!

We're planning our menu for heavy hors d'oeuvres for the Super Bowl. We don't have a dog in the fight in terms of teams, though we will be cheering for the Ravens. Given that they are the arch enemy of our home team--the Tennessee Titans--this might seem odd, but they represent our conference. And, Michael Oher (The Blind Side) does play for the Ravens, and we are definitely fans of his. So far we expect to graze on chicken satay, grilled kielbasa with mustard dip, buffalo wings, crudités, chips and homemade salsa, and crackers and cheese. Ken will, I'm sure, enjoy a beer. I'll stick to my usual water, and maybe throw in a splash of cranberry to jazz things up a bit.

That more or less brings us up to date. What's been keeping you busy?