Wednesday, July 23, 2008

a gentle reminder to myself.

Life, at the moment, seems disorganized. Even though my house is ridiculously clean, my child is beautiful, happy, and learning so much, and my husband is still - after nearly 6 years - the man of my dreams, my brain feels... cobwebby.

Like I need to get one of those air blowers commonly used for keyboards, stick it in my ear, and have a go.

For a few weeks prior to my trip to California, I was getting up an hour earlier and doing yoga and meditating. Sophie impeded me occasionally, but often she would sit in the chair for a while, drinking orange juice and watching me, before climbing underneath my body on Downward Dog like I was her own little tent.

Around the same time I began my morning yoga routine, I also started cooking all our weekly meals on the weekends. I have found it increasingly difficult to work full time and provide a home cooked, healthy meal for Sophie. She is such a good eater (brown rice and broccoli, whole wheat pasta with blanched carrots) and I want to cultivate this. I missed the last couple of weeks because of the flu and then being out of town. I felt so out of sorts, knowing there was not something planned and easy that I could throw in the oven or reheat on the stove when I came home from a long day. I was able to cook again this past Sunday, and it was a wonderful feeling.

When I decided to give up my weekends to this sometimes massive chore of meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking, my trade off to myself was my morning time, my hour to be still. I suppose it's normal to, when push comes to shove, take a pass on yourself to better your family. To use that extra hour of sleep to... what..?

I need to remember that when I am better to myself, I am better to Sophie and Roy. When I take time to feel my body and listen to my thoughts, the patterns of the day somehow fall into line.

Tomorrow, I'll set my alarm for 6AM and begin again.

7 comments:

Leigh said...

Yes! You need to get back to the yoga. As do I!! Thank you for the reminder!

Hugs!

Anne and Leigh said...

You are so right AM! When my life isnt in order, I get all out of whack. It needs some fixing now, somethings you reminded me I need to work on.

Thanks!

Anne

Melissa said...

I admire the dedication to your familys health and nutrition, as well as your own commitment. I dont have a fraction of your motivation to cook all weekend long or to get up any earlier.

Heck, I dont cook at all - Kurt does.

You blog made me feel lazy! I am going to go home and use the WiiFit!!

beinmyOWNself said...

love you, banana, especially because you love yourself!

Nikki said...

so after reading your blog I called up my friend Suzie and asked her to help me get back into yoga. I use to take her class and LOVED it. It was so relaxing and made me feel better. With my pain, yoga was good for me because it stretched me out without over doing it. I can't wait to get back into it! Thanks for the inspiration!!

Modernicon said...

Yo-ga! Yo-ga! Yo-ga!

For one who seeks to scale yoga’s peak – but who has, as yet, not scaled it – yet who has discarded the fruits of works, but is not yet established in the yoga of meditation – for that one, yoga practice is the means. Bhagavad Gita Ch. 6 v. 3

Rae said...

Focus. Reenergize. Love. Be. Enjoy. Oh, I hear ya girl -- take the time for yourself, you won't regret it.

As for the cooking thing -- I have two suggestions:
"Fix it and Forget it" -- its a crockpot recipe book. (Tons of great recipes from people all over the country, including some from names you may recognize in Newton, other Menno areas.) Makes it easy to come home from work to dinner alerady on the table.
And
"Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer." My sister gave this to me this year, i haven't done a lot with it yet -- but its a lot of recipes that you can make ahead, assemble (but not cook), prepare, etc. and put in the freezer and have ready on any day of the week. It also has handy x3, x6, x9 recipe levels, so you can make a butt-load, and stick it in your freezer for later. Some are crockpot recipes -- freeze items together, thaw then put in the crockpot that morning, others are caseroles, breads, etc. With this method, you still cook one day all weekend long, but you make 1-2 recipes (instead of a week of food) and put all the extras in the freezer for later, then just pull out one meal per day, all week long.

We can compare notes and check out recipes in September! Whoo-hoo!