Blog Thoughts

I've been super slow at the blogging lately. Any attempt at something more than a quick note about my day seems to turn to long-winded navel-gazing or sparks into something I decide is more appropriate elsewhere. If any of that elsewhere ever gets published, I will certainly share the link!

I must also admit that I've fallen further into the clutches of Facebook communication. I find I'm beginning to enjoy the brief, conversational forum. Less me on my soapbox all alone here, more like talk over morning coffee with friends you might not be able to meet up with on a regular basis otherwise. (If you're there -- feel free to "friend" me.)

Freelance writing work was going gangbusters this year, and now the pace has slowed considerably. I am happy for it. June and July seem to always be the months when we fill up the calendar with stuff to do. I guess it's my time of year to leave my cave and stretch my legs and drink up the sunshine while it lasts. I'm just starting to find myself eyeing the calendar, beginning to long a bit for another change of season--autumn, the cozy life that winter will bring.

But I'm content that for another three weeks or so we will stay busy, busy, busy with travel, 4-H, and a few extra extracurriculars.

Among victories of this summer have been hubby's oddly placed tomato plants. We dropped them right in the middle of the yard this year so that we could just mow around them. They aren't leafy or bushy or pretty in any way, but seem to be more than capable of producing lots and lots of tomatoes. Did I mention, Yum?

One of my consistent writing gigs has been on the topic of healthcare - management methods and guiding philosophy of some of the major hospitals and health organizations in the United States and Canada. It is, at times, fascinating work and it has kept me very busy wrapping my mind around the various aspects of healthcare. Unfortunately, the more I learn, the less sure I am about the direction we should be going. My own conclusions regarding the state of healthcare in our nation have a bit of a disastrous, cataclysmic, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it sort of ring.

I'm just not sure I'm ready to go there, but some days I really do feel my inner pessimist showing.

In the meantime, hubby and I have been seriously looking at ways of enhancing our wellness, which seems to me to be the ideal way to manage the whole healthcare crisis anyway. Let's just stay healthy. Let's pour all our efforts into eating good food and getting lots of exercise and see how far that takes us.

This week's goal has been starting each day with an 8-mile bike ride. In an ideal world, this sort of thing would be routine. It's not so much the physical effort, but making/taking the time to prioritize the activity that is difficult. Yesterday we had a slight variation in schedule, but made the ride anyway with two of our three kids. There was an unfortunate tire blow-out incident, which meant that I ended up walking one of the bikes about three miles home, but that was okay. Walking is good for you too.

We're shaking things up with a new goal next week, because I guess I'm motivated by goal setting, or just too easily bored by the same old thing, although hubby said something this morning that made a lot of sense.

If you make a goal to do something good for you every day for five days, at the end of the five days you have succeeded. If you make a goal to do something good for you every day for the rest of your life, when you miss on day six you have failed.

I suppose it's a sort of living in the moment thing. Extended moments, but achievable goals.

Ah, the mind games we play with ourselves.