Surfing Life’s Waves

I have no idea what to title this post. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I have a HUGE backlog of reviews to share, and I’m finally catching up. Knock. On. Wood. The last few years have been a constant barrage of waves of life stuff. To be honest, I’m quite tired of the midlife milestones hitting all at once. As readers know, we had COVID come through our house in April/May 2020. My oldest is still dealing with the organ damage that caused him – plus he got it a second time in January.

I won’t bore you by backtracking too far. Suffice it to say, 2022 has decided it’s going to be a jerk as well. I had COVID again in January AND March. So many family members and friends are sick with various things that I’ve lost count, and it feels like the waves just keep coming. Add in all that stuff with trying to get my medication dosage right for postpartum depression, pandemic fatigue, and just being generally run down and I hit a wall.

Sink, Swim, or Surf

Many people say you can choose to sink or swim. I feel like swimming when waves are coming is just going to cause you to sink and then come up and sink and come up… instead, you’ve got to surf those waves.

How do you surf those waves? Well, a big part of making it through hard stuff is self-care. Now, I’m not talking here about things like taking a shower or going to the grocery store alone. Those things are necessary care tasks, but they’re not really “self-care.” When is the last time you unplugged?

I can tell you now that I hit the wall because I was trying to double-down and work even harder swimming against those waves that just. kept. coming. I didn’t unplug. I plugged in more. Finally, when I’d had enough of a beating, I decided to take a different approach. I made a commitment to get away from screens every day – I work on some diamond art or my cross stitch or another craft project. I made a commitment to read more. To “be here now” and fully engaged with things. I did things that would refill my bucket.

I’m finally starting to feel like “me” again.

So What Now?

I’m slowly becoming unstuck. The round of COVID in March really knocked me out – not because of lung issues, but the fatigue and brain fog were terrible. I’d get headaches every time I looked at a screen. Honestly, it felt like it did when I had a concussion years ago.

I’m working through a grand unf*cking of my house. I’m working on following Clean Mama’s routine. I’m catching up on work. I’m working on life routines again and getting back into habits I’d lost through the pandemic. I found a really fun book Rebel Badge Book by Charly Lester, which has a variety of badges adults can earn. So you’ll likely see posts about those things.

We’ve been taking a more unschooling approach the last few months to homeschooling. Girl Scouts is wrapping up for a minute, and I’m taking a little downtime before planning our summer events and our next membership year. We’ve signed up for Hello Fresh, which has taken an enormous mental load out of menu planning. *The Hello Fresh link is my link to share a $120 discount. If you sign up, then I’ll get a $10 credit.

I’m riding the waves.