Ultimately...Acceptance

Oddly enough, yesterday was quite warm. I wore shorts as I cleaned and mopped. Took the vacuum apart to clean. Opened the windows. For awhile I even had the air conditioning on!

I wanted to show you my cleaning tote. I'm still using Mrs. Meyers. I ordered their products well over a year ago, and still haven't completely used it all.

Of course you have to take into account that I have a small space to clean. And that I'm only cleaning up after one adult and two dogs.

I've ordered my second shipment. I find that spending thirty some odd dollars a year for cleaning products is pretty cheap!

What I've Finished Reading...

I finished The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling. As well as Done With The Crying by Sheri McGregor. Here is what I thought of them:

  
The Silkworm: This was the second book in a trilogy that my daughter has read and then passed on to me. And I've enjoyed them both.

The books are complex and highly entertaining in my view. You become absorbed in the characters quickly.

I can't wait until she finishes the third book and I get to read it.

Done With The Crying: This book was monumental for me. I learned so much and am so very glad a reader suggested it to me.

I dog-eared many pages to refer back to. 

  
The various parents' stories really rung true for me. I found myself in bits and pieces of their own stories. 

Some adult children had only been estranged a few years. Some many years.

If you find yourself in this situation (and I wouldn't wish it on anyone), this book will help you to accept that which you cannot change. 

This book will help you gain tools in learning to embrace your own life in a whole new way.

I was floundering before I read this book. I found my emotions rotating from anger to shock to sadness. Bewilderment. Guilt, thinking if I'd only done this or done that at such and such a time.

At first, it will seem that that is all you have left. The wondering. But if you aren't careful, it will start to define you.

Oftentimes adult children merely change like anyone else. And with that change, you may not be accepted into their circle. 

When they were children, you could talk to them, try to reason with them. 

But once they are adults, they make their own choices. And you have to learn to respect that and the boundaries they set forth.

Even if you find yourself on the outside looking in. 

I won't say that the book wholly mitigates your pain. But it gives you good coping mechanisms to learn to live your own life, with or without your adult child.

Remember my recent post about regret? Regret is meaningless. 

It is just an emotion that feeds off the past, and keeps you from fully moving forward into the future.

The Bathroom... 

I think I may paint the bathroom in the white paint I already have from painting the lower half of the dining space. 

I can see I don't have enough of the tan paint. And I don't want to spend money on more. 

I may use the mirror I have between the wall quilts in my bedroom. I will see how the size looks anyway.

The vanity is scheduled to arrive today. I don't yet have Kenny's schedule as to what weekend he can work me in. 

And yes, I will have before photos to show you.

Simple Living... 

Each day I find that I'm learning more and more about simplifying my life. 

In doing so, I'm seeing all the little things that are glaringly obvious once you push aside all the unimportant things.

When it's winter time, I miss out on nature so much. So I have to find things indoors that give me pleasure while I await spring.

Like buying myself a bouquet. Or a box of chocolates. 

I did that recently. Before Christmas I was in CVS and they had boxes of chocolates on sale. I was getting prescriptions and took them to the counter to pay.

The girl said: "Oh, I see someone is getting the gift of chocolates!"

I said: "Yeah, and that's me."

Why not?

There was a time in my life when I wouldn't have done that. I would have waited on a man to do it on my birthday or Valentine's Day. Or done without.

Boy, have I learned a lot! I don't need a man to do that. I can take charge and do it myself. 

So go ahead and buy yourself that lovely bouquet or sweet box of chocolates. And enjoy them now.