Sunday Gratitude: The Gift of Aging

So this past week brought a birthday for me, my 59th! I started my day at my gym, Burn Boot Camp. I try to get in there anywhere between two to four times a week depending on my work schedule, and I do a good three mile power walk through my very hilly neighborhood on the days I don't make it to the gym, so most days, I'm doing some sort of exercise. This photo was taken after camp the morning of my birthday with one of our trainers, Xavier. For reference, I'm 5'10"!! So Xavier is ... very tall!! It was a cardio day, so I'm super sweaty. 

I don't take this for granted! I'm 59 years old and am pretty darn healthy. Yes, I have chronic vertigo, but I manage it pretty well. And yes, I have bad knees, but I'm getting one of them replaced - total knee replacement - in March. And I have those bad knees because I spent years beating them up as an athlete. So I feel that the fact that I'm 59 and still exercising every day is a thing to be grateful for. I'm now five years older than my mama was when she died. That's not lost on me. I'm thankful everyday for my health and my family to share it with. What are you grateful today?

Best Shot Monday: Willow Wick Cosmos

There is a street near my house in Tallahassee called Willow Wick, and on the corner of Willow Wick and Huntington is the most magnificent yard garden. The house and garden itself is just gently well-kept, and it looks a bit of a jumble at times, but it's masterfully planted so that different things bloom throughout the year. When I walked by on one of my morning walks about a month ago, the cosmos had bloomed, so I used the portrait mode on my iphone to capture this pretty bloom. I think sometimes we fail to see the beauty in the every day. I've met the man who planted and tends this jungle of a garden, and he seems just the type to slow down and appreciate that beauty. I appreciate him for sharing something that makes me slow down as well. 

Anything but not Everything

I completed this spread in one of my art journals recently. "You can do anything, but you can't do everything." This is something that I have to remind myself of often. ⁣I saw a video posted by @awomancalledgeorge over on Instagram recently (I LOVE her) that really struck a chord with me. She shared that she had been diagnosed with adult ADHD and was struggling with that. As I listened to what led her to be formally assessed, I was shaking my head "yes, that's me too" constantly. (And it's not lost on me that perhaps that's why I relate to this woman so much in general) I'd never really thought about it, but once I did, I realized I have a lot of, um, tendencies? (not really sure what to call them? behaviors? characteristics? habits? tendencies?) that truly did point to that. So I took a free online adult ADHD test, and then another, and then another, and then another. I took at least four or five over the course of a few weeks. The questions varied, but the results of all of them pointed to the same thing: that I definitely show clear signs of adult ADHD.

Sunday Gratitude: What I'll Miss

Way back here right about 10 years ago, I told you about an impending move to a new job that also involved living in a new city ... not a new-to-me city since I attended college there, but a new-to-my-family city. Now here I am nearly 10 years to the day that I started this job planning my exit strategy. It's not a quick exit strategy - I'm looking at 12-18 months - but I definitely have a plan in the works. 

When my hubs was in Tallahassee with me a couple weeks ago for the football game, we were driving to the game when he asked me if I'd miss Tallahassee when I retired from this job. So yes, I will miss parts of Tallahassee. I will miss what is essentially the small-town feel of this town, where you truly can get anywhere you want to go in less than 20 minutes, and in my new place I told you about last week, it's even less than that. I can be anywhere I need to be - either work, Publix, Target, campus, my girls apartment - in less than 15 minutes. Last weekend, we went to a little arts festival at which I saw several friends and from which my husband was literally able to walk home when he got bored. You don't find that in a city as large as Jacksonville, the largest city by land mass in the 48 continental United States. But what I'll miss most is serving on the Chi Omega advisory board, a board of women who give their time to serve and guide our collegiate Chi Omega chapter here at Florida State University. Sure, I've loved having a group of "my students" again with the actives that I advise, but what I'll miss more is the board itself, and the women that comprise it. 

Best Shot Monday: Zodiac

I finally got back into the shelter last week after about four months out just due to a variety of things - lots of work travel, some family travel, dealing with a very cranky knee.  So it was a little slow going getting back into the swing of things photographing the dogs. This guy made it easy though!  He's a Border Collie / Lab mix named Zodiac. Super friendly and playful and quite the ham for the camera! 

Our shelter in Tallahassee is going through quite a sizeable renovation, and losing access to 50 dog kennels during this first phase of the renovation. Shelter staff did an amazing job getting dogs out to foster and pushing hard for adoptions so that the loss of those kennels wouldn't be quite as challenging. It's always still challenging as there is unfortunately never a loss of dogs needing sheltering, but it's been really great seeing all staff, volunteers and the city come together to work through these times. It'll all be worth it when the renovation is complete! As I write this, Zodiac has already been adopted!