NaBloPoMo Check-in: Sleep
The other day I listened to this episode of The Girl Next Door Podcast, “Our Early Bird and Night Owl Habits.” Kelsey shared that she’s an early bird, while Erica is a night owl. I actually have a hard time defining myself as one or the other. When I was younger I was definitely a night owl. Whenever my schedule allowed, I loved to stay up late and sleep late. Then I had kids, and we all know what that means. I was forced into an early bird schedule, but I realized I kind of like being up early. On the podcast, Kelsey said that every once in a while as a treat, she likes to get up at 4 am on a Sunday and go to Starbucks. She’ll sit there for several hours working and return home before anyone else in her family is up. Erica said the thought of that made her nauseous, but I thought it sounds kind of fun- think how much you could get done! But I would want to take a nap later on in the day. I think my ideal schedule would be this: wake up early. Nap in the afternoon, then stay up late at night. Is there a name for that? What animal does that? A “cat-napper?” Let’s say I’m a cat-napper. This all brings me to my NaBloPoMo check-in. On November 1st I shared my NaBloPoMo theme, “Every day Counts,” and listed ways I planned to fully appreciate every day. One of them was getting enough sleep. So, how is that going? Frankly- not so great. I’m still staying up too late, and the latest I can possibly wake up on weekdays is 5:30 am. I’m probably averaging around six hours of sleep a night. BUT! I’ve had a mindset shift. A couple months ago I heard some advice on a running podcast: Align what you say with what you do. If what you’re saying and what you’re doing aren’t in alignment, then change one or the other. I’ve been talking about getting more sleep for a long time now. It was one of the components of my word for 2023- “Nourish”-as in, I’ll nourish my body with adequate sleep. Every time I do any kind of review to see how things are going, I say “I HAVE to start getting more sleep.” But I continue to not do it. Now I’ve decided to just be honest with myself. November is a busy month. I have work, my daughter to take care of, workouts, reading, NaBloPoMo, and to cap it all off my son will be home next week. Sleep just isn’t a priority right now. I know this isn’t ideal! It would be healthier to get more sleep, and I’ll address the issue again soon. For now I’ve revised my goals: I aim to get six hours of sleep a night. If I get less than that, I really don’t feel good. I take a nap most days- usually 30 minutes, but sometimes if I end up sleeping less than six hours, I’ll manage to squeeze in a 90 minute nap, a full sleep cycle. This is working well enough for now, and at least my words and actions are finally in alignment. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Is anyone else a “cat-napper” like me? Header photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash
A Daunting Task
It was a dark and stormy… morning? Today was a rare windy, rainy day in Florida. I got my run done very early, took my daughter to school, and then settled down at home to wait for the electrician. He gave us a window of 8-12, and as I looked outside I thought “How lucky am I to be able to stay home today!” Since I knew I would be home all morning, I planned to tackle my disastrous closet situation. Before I show you a before photo, let me explain. There’s a special challenge to South Florida houses. We have no basements. And we have no attics! Well.. we have a very shallow attic, but you can’t store anything up there unless you want to burn it to a crisp. Our house was built in the 1970s, and for some strange reason when they were building houses then they also didn’t think we needed big closets. What I’m trying to say is, we’re very challenged, storage-wise. Okay, you been warned. Here we go… I mean… I literally can’t reach the clothes in my closet. But don’t worry! The clothes I actually WEAR are over here… And, the clothes I really, really wear, like my workout clothes and work clothes, basically cycle between the washing machine, a drying rack in the garage, and back onto my body. Most of them never even enter the bedroom. So what is all that crap, anyway? A lot of it is holiday decorations. Since I’m the holiday decorator in my house, I’ve taken it upon myself to store it all in my closet. I’m currently reading this book: She likes to reframe things. Instead of “household chores” you should call them “care tasks.” Care tasks are morally neutral, as in, if your bedroom looks like, er, well…mine, it’s not a moral failing. And instead of saying “This place is a mess!” you should say “This space has reached the end of its functional cycle.” I think we can all agree that my closet had reached the end of its functional cycle. I dove in and found some interesting things. Like my Snoopy Halloween shirt that I was searching frantically for the entire month of October: And some wrapping paper I had no idea I had: I do have to wonder what I was thinking though. I mean… koalas wearing glasses? I’m usually pretty picky about my wrapping paper and can’t imagine buying this. Oh well. I filled a large bag with garbage, and another bag with donations to Goodwill. I didn’t actually try on any of the clothes in my closet (that was a little too advanced for me, in this session) but I did take about ten shirts I knew I would never wear, and put them in the donation bag. The end result is nowhere near perfect: That green bin and basket in the corner are filled with Christmas things, but I also felt like it wan’t the best moment to go through Christmas boxes. My goal is to pare down my Christmas things this year so when I put them away in January THEY ALL FIT IN THE CLOSET. No more spilling out. Oh, and you may be wondering. “What’s up with the little kid’s dresser?” Yes, I took that dresser from my son’s room when he got a new one, because I was tired of sharing a dresser with my husband. Maybe it’s time for some adult furniture? So, whew. I was really dreading that task, and now my closet is functional again. It was a morning well spent. Do you have any areas of your house that have reached the end of their functional cycle? Are you contemplating calling the Department of Health to have my house condemned? -Don’t worry- the rest of the house is nowhere near that bad!
All About Muffin
This post is long overdue. I’ve been wanting to write about my cat for a long time because she is the BEST CAT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Now, we do have two cats… We love Charlotte. Like all cats, she’s funny and quirky and has her own unique personality. But she’s not very affectionate. Sometimes I wonder if she even likes us. We had her for about three years when we decided to add a second cat to our household. In addition to not liking us, Charlotte also hates all other cats. At least, according to the woman who gave her to us. She suggested that Charlotte should be an “only cat.” Our brilliant solution to this was to get a KITTEN. A little kitten would be non-threatening, and we could sneak her into our house without issues, right? My daughter really wanted a calico, so we went to the Good Karma Pet Rescue website and found a calico kitten named “Greta.” We contacted them, talked to the woman who was fostering her, and she arranged to bring “Greta” over to meet us. Well, as soon as she entered our house there was no way she was leaving. We immediately loved her SO MUCH and the kids renamed her Muffin. Her foster mom told us her history: Greta-Muffin and her siblings were found in a dumpster when they were a day old. Luckily a sanitation worker heard their mewing, and called the pet rescue. Only Muffin and one sister survived. When they were a few weeks old they got very sick with a respiratory infection. Here’s a picture from the facebook post at that time: SOB! Muffin was once a SICK DUMPSTER BABY. Again, we didn’t know this was going on at the time- we learned it all after we adopted her, became facebook friends with her foster mom, and went back to read her old posts. It’s incredible that Muffin and her sister survived! Muffin’s sister was also adopted a couple weeks later (again, we learned from the foster mom’s facebook page.) We’re so incredibly grateful to the pet rescue and foster mom who saved our little girl. We got Muffin in July of 2020, and here we are at Christmas: And here’s the cake I made for Muffin’s first birthday: One of the funny things about Muffin is her “meow.” It sounds more like “ngar.” We like to joke that she never had a cat mother so she never learned how to meow properly. And her meow (ngar) sounds extremely sad- “Ngar, ngar!” she’ll say plaintively, and we’ll go rushing over to her- “Don’t worry Muffin, you’ll never be in a dumpster again!” Muffin is now three years old (so, an adult in human years) but we still treat her like a toddler. She’s an incredibly affectionate cat- she loves to snuggle, and if you come to our house she’ll run to the door to greet you, and possible even lick your hand. So… how do she and Charlotte get along? Well, Muffin loves everyone and wants to be friends. Every single day she’ll run over to Charlotte happily, as if to say “Hello, best friend!” Every time, Charlotte hisses angrily. But Muffin is undaunted! She seems to believe they WILL be friends someday. Do you have a favorite pet? Did you have a favorite pet growing up?
Basically the Best Long Run Ever
I’ve had a couple people express horror, astonishment, and concern for my sanity about getting up early on Sunday morning to run eighteen miles. Well, let me explain! In February I’m running a 50 mile race. Although maybe “race” isn’t really the right word. I’ll be making my way 50 miles from point A to point B before the time cutoff. Maybe “event” would be a better word for it, or even better yet, “adventure.” Let’s try this again. In February I’m participating in a 50 mile trail adventure (there, that’s better.) To prepare for it, I’m gradually increasing my long runs. Since the race is a trail race, I run on trails whenever possible. This past Sunday I ran eighteen miles on a trail near my home. I was really worried about the heat (it was in the 70s and 93% humidity when I started), but it turned out to be one of the best long runs I’ve ever had. I got started at 6:30 am and first ran a 10 mile loop (well, actually it was out-and-back, but somehow the trail looks different on the way back so I think of it as a loop.) I had my double hydration vest, so I could carry two bottles. One had water, and one had Tailwind, which is a powder that you mix with water. According to the package, Tailwind has “everything you need.” It has calories, carbohydrates, electrolytes, and the raspberry flavor also has CAFFEINE. Well- I can tell you that somewhere around four or five miles into this run I started to feel AMAZING. Was it the Tailwind? Very, very possible. After 10 miles I ran back to my car to switch out my bottles for cold ones, and went back out for an 8 mile loop. I kept waiting for the heat to get me, but it never did. At one point it even RAINED, just a light sprinkling of cool drops, which is the best thing that can ever happen during a Florida run. I finished the run actually feeling energized, and it wasn’t until after I stopped that I realized “Hey, it’s pretty hot.” I checked the weather and the “feels like” temperature was 89F. HOW DID I NOT FEEL THAT??? I have no idea. I felt awesome. I know it sounds hard, and maybe even unpleasant, but honestly there’s no place I would rather be on a Sunday morning than out on the trail. Do you have any trails near you? If you run, have you ever tried Tailwind?