Thursday Thirteen...

I am going to try this again! In keeping with yesterday's thoughts that kind of fizzled after I got distracted, I will post 13 things I am doing to "get a life!"

1) Planning my 25th wedding anniversary. It will be the Wedding I never had. I only have 28 months, whatever will I do ;)

2) I am doing some of the foundational planning for Kayleigh's wedding, which will be in approx. 15 months. I get to make all the mistakes with hers, so that mine goes perfectly..lol

3) I am going to invite a few close friends over for a cook-out and sing along within the next two weeks. Dirk and I share just a few good friends, but the ones we do have seem to get lost in the shuffle of life and I am going try and stop that.

4) Once a week the kids and I are going to visit a historical site here in the area. That will at least get me out of the house.

5) I am going to convince Dirk we need to start dating again and just like when we were young the dates have to be cheap! They were always more romantic then anyway :)

6) I will be doing lots of house and grounds renovations because, I was just told moments ago that we will be having family that I haven't seen in at least 10 yrs coming to visit Mom this summer. I was already considering the renovations because the fall back plan for Kayleigh's outdoor wedding is here at the house, and the house is starting to look pretty shabby since we have done little to nothing to it in 7 years.

7) I am going to be dreaming up and implementing ways to come up with the funds to do said renovations, in a hurry!

8) I want to find and take a local cake decorating class. I think my interest in food and art are getting closer and closer.

9) I am going to write all the ethnic and music festivals on the calendar! Kayleigh used to 'drag' me to them, but now I am remembering how much fun they were-- when not too crowded.

10) I am going to start going to the gym every morning! I only have 4 more months on this membership and if Dirk doesn't start going with me, I am switching back to Curves in the fall.

11) I have to decide on pool membership or buying a pool from Sam's. They are the same amount of money because this really nice pool is on sale there and it comes with pumps, filters, and everything! It would be more than big enough to do water aerobics and almost big enough to swim laps if I swim in a circle :)

12) I am going to get better at keeping up with friends through writing. I want to try and write actual letters by hand (gasp!), and just be quicker at responding to friendly emails.

13) I am going to rework my way through The Success Puzzle this summer. It is a project that is important to me and I need to do it like an assigned class. Hey, maybe I'll have the kids (or just Nathan) do it with me!!! Things always make a lot more sense to me when I teach them.

That was hard. I have wanted to do all these things for a long time, but zoning out or curling up with a book is so much easier!

What does "getting a life" mean?

A few of my friends have been blogging about needing 'real life relationships.' I have been feeling a need for this too for a couple years now. I joined two book clubs a serious theological one and a fun light hearted one. I didn't really find what I was looking for with either. I try to keep up with them, but I have to admit that when things get busy they are the first to go on the back burner.

I have been trying to be even more active at church and I have to say that while Sundays are nice, Wednesday nights feed my soul more. On Wednesday about 20-25 (adults and kids combined) of us share an informal Mass, dinner, and ideas. Sometimes we have a scheduled topic and other times we just talk about life.

When I really think about it, these Wednesday nights are the only reason I have to leave the house now. With Athena driving and Dirk home (and driving again), I can send them on any errands I need done. My 'work' comes to me and I no longer play chauffeur, so I don't hang out with other moms and wait on kids any more either.

Here is what I think I am missing that I used to take for granted:
A workout partner-- I loved getting up every morning at 6am and meeting B. at the gym. We had so many things in common and our kids did lots of stuff together, so we always had lots to talk about.

Dance/ gym moms-- it was a huge part of my life for so many years to sit and wait for hours and just talk to these other moms who were doing the same thing, had kids the same ages and were going through many of the same life issues at the same time. When I first started the Center I was too busy to realize how much I missed this and then the kids started driving and so none of the old moms were hanging out anymore, I miss them more than I ever thought I would.

Working on a college campus!-- I think I miss this one most of all. It has been 6 years since I taught a college class. I don't think I missed it at first because Dirk work at U of L for a few more years, but now that neither of us are on a campus and have no real need to go to a campus I find myself with a huge whole. Taking classes is not currently an option, and the funny thing about what I taught is that now IUS only hires people with terminal degrees to teach it! I started their TV production program with a degree in Film and my teaching partner had a degree in electrical engineering, now that the program is so big they want to hire phd's in Communication or Journalism!

Taking college classes whenever I wanted in whatever struck my fancy-- one of the best perks of working on campus or having a spouse working on campus. Even when I didn't take one, I knew I could.

The challenge of starting something new. The Center is working so smoothly now it is easy to manage. I need a challenge, one that costs no money, but has the possiblity of earning money! I need something that totally consumes me that I can get started and watch grow.

g2g...more thoughts later

An Amazing Memorial....

These are some Dirk took of the Korean Memorial. I think it often gets over looked because of the more "popular" memorials, but it is really breath takingly beautiful and important in its own right!

Pentecost or Shavuot

The Law or the Wisdom, which should we celebrate? If both why do so few Christians know that Pentecost was a Jewish feast long before it was a Christian one. Today is the day I celebrate all of God. God the Father who gave Moses the Law so we could live in a Covenental Community, God the Son who continually taught us to see into the fringes of that Community and do something about it, and Hagia Sophia, the Wisdom of God that gives us the gifts to do the work necessary to live in Community.

Okay, time to get messy!

I am going to admit it now. I guess Dirk was not the total reason I was having trouble getting through the Success Puzzle this time. I also have tons of things I wanted to post this last month, but didn't because I wanted a perfect six set of Success Puzzle posts. Now that I realize that is not going to happen, I can let go, get to the Success Puzzle posts as I can while still puttering and pondering about life here.

I am feeling like I do when I get out my paints. I have to make the canvas messy before I can start my painting. Solid white space that I am supposed to create on almost leaves me paralized. So this post is just a bunch of babbling so that I am comfortable enough with my messy space to begin thinking and processing again!