Rebooting, Refinding, Refreshing! (AND Win a Spring Bouquet!)

Well…the time has come, once again.  Throughout my life, I've found that there comes a time (several times, in truth) that I have to stop…or be stopped.  Yep.  Stop.  Last week I hit the wall.  I'm sure everyone knows what I mean:  You go along, run along, then trudge along…and one day you wake up and you're feeling like you can't trudge alone anymore, right?

When "the wall" jumps up in front of you and slams you in the face, the typical result (at least for me) is being knocked down and finding yourself sitting on your sitter staring up at "the wall" and thinking, "How am I going to tear this sucker down again?"  Right?  I know you know what I mean, so I won't go into gory details.  Suffice it to say, I needed to reboot, refind, and refresh myself!

I tried several different things over the weekend to reboot:  put some things in the Goodwill box so I felt like maybe I was de-cluttering a bit, tried not to stress (and failed), tried not to obsess about weight-loss (and failed-which, I might add, resulted in a BBQ Pringles, Cinnamon Poptart and Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie incident that we won't go in to)…and being that I was suffering with allergies and insomnia, I decided to take a dose of NyQuil on Saturday night…BIG mistake!  I don't know why I never remember how completely that stuff loops me out until it's too late!

Anyway, nothing helped…even sniffing my Pumpkin Butter Wood Wick candle!  It seemed all I could do was dwell on negative stuff…you know?  And that is soooooooooooooo not me!  But it was this past weekend!  Until finally…my hero stepped in and carried me away!

Yesterday, Kevin finally just sat me down and pointed out that I haven't been spending any time being ME!  He explained that he knows that I'm only happy when I'm flitting around sprinkling the world with sugar, enjoying entertaining conversation and/or being silly with one of my closest friends, etc.  He said he'd noticed that I'm never able to chill out anymore…that I put too much stress on my job…and when it came to that…that I needed to make sure I'm writing what my heart tells me to write (my friend Shannon confirmed the writing thing to me as well in a conversation she and I had yesterday) and not what I feel pressured to write.  Kevin told me I needed to pull back…to settle my mind and reboot myself to get back to myself.

Oh, I'm a great one for telling everyone else to do exactly what Kevin was telling me to do…and I always think it's so weird that I can never figure that out for me!  And my hero was absolutely correct!   I have hit the wall (again) and need to reboot!

Thus…I'm on it!  I settled myself right down on the sofa and began by missing my friend Gina and wishing she was there to watch Hoarders with me!  Well, she wasn't there…so I turned on the TV to flip channels…and VOILA!  Hoarders was on!  A brand new episode!

You see…Gina and I love watching Hoarders…but mostly together!  It's one of our 'things', you know?  We sit there on her couch and watch episode after episode, feeling such deep empathy for the people who have the disorder, and with her constantly reassuring me that I'm not a hoarder (even though I do tend to hold on to things like my kids's toys, all their little school papers, etc.)  Naturally, we both leave an episode feeling as if we need to go clean out our garages and stuff.  But anyway…the point is…I sat down, turned on the TV to find a new Hoarders episode was on, and instantly felt like Gina was just in the next room or something!  It was helpful to my rebooting!  (This morning, Gina texted me and told me that snow had mangled her primroses…which she was counting on to get her through gloomy old March…and suggested that perhaps we could watch Hoarders together while we're on the phone!  What a great idea!  She lifts me up, that Gina!)

After Hoarders, I came upstairs and called my friend Sheri (who you know as both my close friend, AND the incredible graphics designer that does my covers now)!  She and I purged some discouragement, made some rebooting plans and giggled over a little secret surprise that we have going for YOU!  That helped me, too…just to hear Sheri's voice and some of her incredible on-liners.

Yep…I'm rebooting, refinding and refreshing myself.  Though I'm not really sure I can lose 50 lbs. before the Ticket Holders Event next week…I CAN pull back, sniff my pumpkin candle, find some fun, random, and in-secret things to do for others (I did manage to hang a new hand-tuned wind chime on our neighbor's empty wind chime hook a couple weeks ago…I left a little note with it that said, "Surprise!  Have a great day!"  But I haven't done anything fun like that since.)…watch some Anne of Green Gables, start my Christmas list, and rewrite a couple of chapters in the book I'm working on to better fit my soul.  And that's what I'm doing!

I have a note sitting here on my desk that Kevin had me write:  It says, "Chill Out, Be Yourself and Sprinkle Sugar"…that's what he told me to do…and that's what I'm going to do!

Every so often we all need to hit the wall…it's necessary for our survival!  It's what pulls us back, settles us down, and helps to re-prioritize and realize that we are who we are for a reason.  The things that make me the most happy are sprinkling sugar (i.e. thinking of others first and doing things for them to lighten their load), being myself, laughing with friends, just plain silliness, and writing to make the world a better place.  So that's what I need to do.  That…and sniff my Pumpkin Butter Wood Wick candle more often through these late winter/early spring blahs I get!  Right!

And so…let's do a contest!  Just for the sake of silliness!  I need a good silly thing today!

The winner of the Applebee's Gift Certificate is…Christina Taylor!  E-mail me at marcialmcclure@cs.com, Christina, and I'll get that gift certificate in the mail to you!  (LOVED Christina's random thought!)

As for this week's contest…hmmm…we need something silly…OR at least refreshing!  How about this!  YES!  That's it!  A Spring Bouquet Arrangement from FTD!!!!  YES!  That's it!  Leave a comment with the subject concerning what helps YOU to reboot, and you'll be entered to win a Spring Bouquet Arrangement from FTD…delivered right to your door!  Yes!  I LOVE fresh flowers!

Meanwhile, I'm off on to take my 'morning constitutional'…to breathe in some sunshine and fresh air!