Getting My House Back In Order

Many people just do “Spring Cleaning” each year. But I believe that you’re supposed to do a re-organization of your home at least twice a year.. that’s once in the Spring and again in the Fall. It’s harvesting time right now. Back before modern times, people had to prepare for the Winter. We’re fortunate now that we have stores that have the supplies we need all year around.

That being said, I need a whole revamp of my home. To be out with the old stuff and in with the needed new stuff. I’ve let my place become so out of order since after the pandemic hit. I had a good routine when my daughter was in school. I would send her off to school. Then I would be able to clean up house before going to my part-time job. Once the schools closed Friday March 13, 2020, my whole system changed. My whole focus had to stem around my daughter. She was set-up all day to be online for school so I couldn’t interrupt her. That made it very difficult to do anything around the house quietly enough to not distract her. Also, I was working from home as well. There was no real time to be able to clean up properly. The place was clean in the necessary areas but my home wasn’t organized.

My daughter graduated from high school in 2021, but she’s still in pandemic mode. Since she’s on the autism spectrum (HFA – high functioning autism), she’s regressed a lot from when she was in school. She also suffers from anxiety and depression. I’ve been focusing on trying to get her back on track among other things. It’s been a long and hard process. So for me “getting my house back in order” is not just about cleaning up my home, but it’s also about having my daughter and me be better mentally and physically.

After my accident back in 2015, I was doing better right before the pandemic. Then the gyms closed and I no longer had access to get my regular physical therapy appointments. So I also regressed from before the pandemic. Right now we’re in transition. There’s a lot of work to be done here in our home and with our minds and bodies. Fortunately, our inner bodies are good. I make sure that we stay on a predominantly healthy meal plan. Being healthy is mostly about what you intake for food. The rest is about taking care of yourself externally.

All of this is important to continue to have a healthy lifestyle.

Ready For the Summer?

Fall is actually my favorite time of year. Spring time can be beautiful at the start with the lovely blossoming of flowers. But summer? 🫩 I can take it or leave it. I don’t like the heat. Also, the electric bill goes up with the A/C being on. Need that air conditioning. It can be soooo uncomfortable without it. Summer was only great for me as a kid. You get summer vacation from school. But that was only during K-12 grades for me. But actually through 9th grade because I was working full-time babysitting during the summers and then doing retail when I was allowed to start for my age here in America. Once I was college, I was in summer classes almost every year to push ahead or catch up from past semesters and I was still working. Whew!

What I can enjoy about summer is getting into the pool. I love the water. It can be so refreshing. Jumping off the diving board to get that direct first hit of cool water when it’s so hot can be the best thing ever. I had no worries as a kid and young adult about being ready for the summer. I was an athlete, so I was never concerned about my body’s appearance. But now as a middle aged adult, it’s a total different thing. I don’t even want to think about putting on a bathing suit right now. The idea of showing my body in public gets me anxious. But I haven’t given up. I’m still a work in progress to getting back in shape after my past accident among other things. I’m working on staying consistent with my physical therapy and to make sure that I continue my healthy food journey. Then I can look into a good exercise regimen to keep losing weight.

One of the magazines I follow is “Good Housekeeping”. Besides giving me good ideas for a healthy weekly menu, it also has some other things in it about exercise, etc. I’m not sure about publishing rights for this. But.. Below I’m going to share just one page that motivated me. 👇

Hopefully, this can motivate others. I’m going to keep pushing.