If life makes you a "basket case"...

I'm sleeping a LOT, and today is also a rest day for my Piyo program, so thought I'd use what's recently been my daily workout time to share what I experienced yesterday, as I do have many wonderful family and friends reaching out and wondering how I'm doing...

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you already know that the winds of life have been blowing lots of waves in my direction (https://isitaspergerssyn.blogspot.com/2018/09/riding-waves-of-life.html). Recognizing this, I booked myself a week of vacation last week, with goal of just relaxing and cleaning up my office room, where a family situation meant I suddenly needed to dump a bunch of clutter back in August (https://isitaspergerssyn.blogspot.com/2018/08/new-house-rules.html) that has been weighing on my mind since.

As I've been inclined to say lately, it seems God had other plans last week.

Someone wise, years ago, once said to me that we all live "many lives" at once. We live our work life, family life, volunteer life, church life, etc. Sometimes, it can feel like we are living too many lives at once, though we love all of our lives. Those words could not have been more true last week. The biggest wave in my "family life" crested last week, and so this week I've been on medical leave under doctor's orders to rest so I can get my blood pressure back in check. Not easy for someone with "many lives" in progress to do!

Still, I have managed to do a lot of resting. My goals of last week were not really met. That is quite evident by the state of my office room and dining room table.

 

I started to make progress last week in clearing clutter, by giving away a boxspring that was sucking up lots of space, and by taking bags and boxes of paper stuff from the pile and making portfolios for each of my kids. Portfolios are binders displaying achievement certificates earned, as might be helpful toward getting jobs someday. Proud to say my kids have a LOT of these! I threw away two full garbage bags of paper last week as well though, and now have largely been stalled all this week in trying to finish clearing the paper piles on the table and then moving to sort the rest of the boxes. At least now each of my kids has a portfolio started, covering about the last 10 of 18 years, so that's a start!

If you are a new parent, hear me on this..  Do NOT pile your kids papers in bags and boxes. Deal with them AS THEY COME IN, so you do not end up with this mess to clean later! You're welcome :-)

I managed to clear the table enough yesterday to give space for a visitor. I enjoyed my first "pastoral visit" in my home. I am grateful for this, as we "talked out" various things that have been bothering me for a while. Being the kind person he is, my minister has offered this many times, but I've always felt sort of odd about taking him up on his offer. Stepped out of my comfort zone here, and finally "let him in" to talk. Again the life lesson of "stepping out of your comfort zone" bringing benefits comes up! The "old ways" of going to your minister for support really do make sense :-) Up to now, I had being doing quite a lot of this with my minister via email, and I thank him for that, but that was getting exhausting for both of us (though he never complained). I think this different approach will be better going forward!

More good news is that, after a wave crests, the wave also tends to crash down and subside completely. That is where we are now. The wave from my "family life" has crashed, and so I'm able to rest and eventually will meet that goal of cleaning my office space and returning to my "work life" as I had intended to last week. I'm optimistic that I will be ready by next Monday, after another week of rest, that I will go back to work and then also get the house in order again. (Better if I can do that in reverse order, but I think I'd need more time off for that.)

It's often said that a good way to address mental health issues is through art, so I decided to go to our monthly Women's Institute meeting last night. The activity was much more difficult than I expected, but now I have great appreciation for what people used to go through to prepare to gather food - and still do go through in some parts of the world - glad I don't live there! Much like everything else in life that is challenging though, if you persevere, it may turn out a little "rough around the edges", but there is usually something good at the end, too!

If life makes you a "basket case", try making a basket!

(No, Nollie, you will not fit inside this one.)

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