"Life moves by pretty fast, if you don't stop to take a look
around sometimes, you could miss it" -Ferris Bueller
This was taken the other day from my car! I actually had 2 days off in a row! It's kind of funny after working 2 almost FT jobs, balls to the wall for the last year, well 2 days off in a row feels like I'm somehow cheating the system - HA!
When I posted this on my FB page someone texted me and asked if it had been airbrushed, nope! I had to make a run to the town of newton to get weather stripping for the garage as well as a double breaker switch for a small heater to be installed in the garage (Don't ask that will be another post entirely - I am still trying to wrap my head around heating the garage, sounds like air-conditioning the deck to me but my friend Joe and my boys need to work on ATV's so we can hit the trails in spring) So be it.
Anywho onto Newton... I decide to take the back road from Sussex which winds past some pretty stunning scenery. I was going to stop at the Chatterbox and grab lunch for Joe then continue on to Home Depot & Lowes. The sky was surreal, as you can see, so I rolled the window down, glanced in the rearview, slowed to a crawl and shot this pic. I was thinking of photoshopping the car window frame out but ended up leaving it - Cause that to me is how life happens folks!
Any major decision I've made in my adult life can be traced back to one of my Life Books (these are a series of journals/diaries/meltdowns/bitch sessions/gratitude logs and goal keepers). Im sure my mental Tennis Match over leaving the second job took up more pages than it should have but as I simmered it all down to a reduction in thought sauce the pros and cons list of leaving that job simply read this:
CONS: Loss of small second income.
PROS: Gain of
More time with the boys, hanging out with them, driving them to their sports and school
More time to make them healthier food- less take out
More time to pal around with them after work without being so exhausted
More time for projects together,getting outside together
More time to talk to them before they go off on their own life
More time to hang with my father as a friend (i.e. go to movies, putter in the yard, thank him in a way for the time he gave me)
More time to see my Brother and his family
Bond with the crazy Mexican/Irish Dog Bella
A Cleaner house with time to do the projects that I love-cooking, sewing, decorating in my foraging way (read thrift junk shops)
More time for community and friends (at this writing a girls night is planned with my realestate friends a.k.a The Vagina Mafia)
Time to work on my writing projects (yes!)
More time to work on my prepper closet -- yes i do have a modest one-im a freak like that
Time to fix up house/painting etc
More time for me and my personal health (i.e. long walks past my favorite farm)
More Yoga/ Meditating/higher thought
More time to research and try my homesteading mission
More time to declutter my closets and my brain.
More time to explore my area and photograph it
Farmers Markets.
Local Vendors.
Back Roads.
And on and on this list went for about 4 pages of a college ruled notebook! By the time I reached the somewhat finish of it my face was damp with tears, my heart swelled with gratitude, my gut excited with anticipation - and my soul felt richer than any king there ever was.
I've still got my FT gig at the hospital - 3 12-16 hour days a week - w good benefits for the boys and I, Paid time off, extended illness bank, tuition reimbursement, a very small automatic savings account (VERY SMALL...for now), a view of the exit sign with debt repayment, a small retirement account (dont get excited I'll be able to financially swing retirement at about age 125! - all the more reason to homestead!) and well I've still got me. The balls to the wall with so much is almost over and yet I feel like another journey is beginning...because it is. And I know that God and my family and all those that came before me gave me the fortitude, the tenacity, and well the rocks to keep going. I sat on my bedroom floor 5 years ago terrified of my life, not equipped to handle what was in front of me. So I got out markers and poster board and made signs of what needed to change, and a lot of it has.
Work hard and try to do the right things. Take the time to view your progress once in a while and remember to stay grateful. Don't compare yourself to anyone else because in the end - the race is only with yourself - God Bless and btw...
WORKING A BIT LESS AND ADJUSTING MY LIFE TO DO SO IS ALREADY SO MUCH MORE!
Namaste
