I started off my day at the gym sweating away on an adaptive motion trainer (the kind that combines the motions of a treadmill, elliptical, and stair climber all in one), and the above quote appeared on the tv in front of my machine during the morning news “Monday Motivation” segment. This could not have been a more fitting quote for today as I am shaking up my whole routine and continuing to decluttering my life both physically and mentally.

One thing I have mentioned many times before is how my daily schedule makes it very hard to work out in the evenings. I am simply exhausted by the time daycare is finished, but then have to go straight into making dinner, running kids to activities, cleaning, laundry, running errands…I need about 42 hours in a day to get everything done that I need! So, beginning today, it’s awake before the sunrise to workout at the gym at 5:00am. I’m sure I’ve also mentioned at length how I have hardly slept in 2 decades…yeah, this new schedule (I’m hoping) is going to have me falling asleep before 10:00pm every night.

Another new routine I’m beginning are some online classes in a subject I know NOTHING about — coding. As in computer coding. For Christmas, I got my son a Black Friday deal on an enormous bundle of online coding classes through the CNN store. We get lifetime access to these classes, so we can go back and review information anytime we want/need. I’ve decided I’m going to do them, this is way out of my comfort zone, not to mention a subject which I know little to nothing about to begin with. But I think it is extremely important in this world today to have multiple skills sets..jobs aren’t guaranteed, people are overworked and under-appreciated and become burnt out at careers they once loved, and most households need multiple streams of income. I’ll see how these classes go, see if I can grasp a basic understanding of several different coding languages…enough to where I would feel confident adding these classes to my resume. 😄

If these classes go well, there is another bundle that offers instruction on more artistic computer skills in a complete Adobe CC bundle. Now those are things I’d be really interested in learning! Photoshop, illustrator, animate, sound splicing, etc…

An update to my weekend with Symphony in the Flint Hills….*drum roll*…..it was cancelled. 😭 We rehearsed all Friday afternoon and night learning the music, choreography, how to hold and move the giant, lighted sculptures…only to have a huge storm blow through in the early Saturday morning hours and destroy most of the event site. I met lots of new people, work with giant art sculptures, and spent some much needed time with one of my high school friends of 25+ years. The experience was not for nothing, we’ll make those sculptures come to life again someday, Kansas weather just didn’t think June 15 or 16 were the days to do it.

My change of plans for weekend freed up lots of time, though. My younger 3 kids and I ventured over to Geary State Lake and trekked back to the waterfalls! We hiked, took tons of pictures, swam in an old timey swimmin’ hole, were terrorized by giant black water snakes 😳…Then, we drove North to Milford Lake and discovered the flooding around this lake to be much worse that our own Tuttle Creek Lake in Manhattan. We came upon a creepy, flooded park named “Wayne’s World” in Wakefield — looks like the apocalypse meets Waterworld, doesn’t it?

It was a full, eventful weekend leading up to the fresh start of a brand new routine today. Wish me luck, and I’ll check back in tomorrow!

A good song for today is Labrinth’s “Don’t Fence Me In”. No matter the obstacles I face in this weight loss endeavor, my limitations run only as deep as I allow them. Other people and unforeseen circumstances will always be getting in my way, but I need to find a way to hop over that fence and move on with or without them. You’re either coming along for the ride, or I’m leaving you behind! Until tomorrow…

~~ Amie