Yikes! Where's My Brain?

Do you ever have those days when you feel brain dead? Boy, I am SO there! I can’t begin to count all the things I’ve forgotten this week alone – because I’ve forgotten them again! My thoughts are just slogging through some kind of resistance that feels like thick mud.

I thought it was just all the pressure – I work, I have kids, I’m doing NaNo, plus arguing with the phone company every couple of days because they’ve messed up our phone – that’ll take a lot out of ya. And writing so fast! I don’t see how authors who write books in less than two months do it! That is really not something I’m capable of and still able to have a life – and a brain. I can fast draft for a bit, but I can’t maintain the pace.

Last night, I took a nice hot bath, shut down the computer, and piled up in the bed with my Kindle to read. I needed that break. But this morning, I still don’t want to get back into the swing of things. Sometimes I wonder if I should just power through, but then when I finally DO rest, it can be difficult to pry me out of bed (or off the couch) for days. Ugh!

But today, its back to the grindstone. Gotta make up for the words I didn’t write yesterday! And I might just reward myself with more of the book I was reading. What are you rewarding yourself with today?

Angel

Coming Soon!

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!! The Playground is celebrating its 6th birthday this Friday! Drop by for the cyber-party and comment to win one of two “birthday presents”. See you then!

Guest Blogger: Tomorrow we welcome Editor Emily Rodwell, who works with Harlequin Love Inspired!

When the going gets tough, the tough get thankful

This time last year I just wanted to find a big hole, crawl in it and emerge sometime after the new year had started. My whole life had been turned upside down and my future was filled with uncertainty and doubts. I'd never lived alone and there I was, in a new apartment and starting down a new life path.

Fast forward a year and a lot has changed. My divorce became final one week ago today. It's a bittersweet event -- something I really had no other choice but to do, but also something I'd never imagined and definitely not where I expected to be as I slid toward my 60th birthday. Yes, gentle and prodigious readers, I will be 60 years old next spring.

I've become very involved in a divorce and grief recovery program called Beginning Experience (or BE), and one thing I am very thankful for is my therapist who was an absolute lifeline for me in the early days of the divorce process. She also referred me to BE, and it's been one of the best things I've done for myself. Through reading, journaling and discussion groups, I've begun the process of working my way through the stages of grief -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

And now I'm in the 6th stage, which is reaching out and helping others. I'm so grateful to the facilitators who've helped me along the way (and I'm by no means finished with the grieving process) and I'm glad I've been able to reach out and help others cope with the death of their marriages and the end of their dreams for the future.

So included in my list of things I'm thankful for are the Playfriends who've stood right beside me and even gave up a Saturday to help me move last fall, my family members who never once faltered in their support, my wonderful therapist who has patiently listened to me rant and rave and who helped me get through the holidays last year instead of crawling in a hole, the new church I began attending last fall when I felt I needed to fill a missing spiritual aspect in my life, the BE gang both in Huntsville and Birmingham and my new BFF who I met through BE. When I had to have surgery on my foot a few months ago, she took me to the outpatient surgery center, brought me home, fed me and stayed the night to make sure I was okay. Oddly enough her daughter and my son were in the same high school graduating class, but until we met during the divorce process, our paths had never crossed.

A very good friend gave me a card recently and on the front it says "Now when people ask you 'What's new?' you have an answer... 'My life!'"

I have a new and hopefully wonderful life aheadd of me now, and every day is another step in the process of learning who I am now. For 37 years I've been someone's wife or someone's mother and grandmother. I'm still Mom and Grammy, but now I get to figure out who I am.

I'll leave you with two sayings I think sum up the past year's journey.





Do you have any favorite sayings or pearls of wisdom that have helped you along life's way?

Life's Been Tough

Dear Blog Friends,

Sorry to say this, but this will be my last blog. Things have been tougher than usual lately and life is getting shorter and shorter every day. I want to take time and smell the roses. So I am going to quit writing and blogging, and instead I'm going to travel full time with a biker gang to see the country and enjoy life while I still can. Don't worry about me - they all seem like really nice people. It has been nice knowing all of you. But it's time to say good bye. A photo of my biker gang is below. Don't be sad, just smile.

Love Ya,









P.S. And remember my motto: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a glass of go Cabernet in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!

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P.P.S. Gotcha! Or maybe not. Maybe y'all know me well enough that this is the absolute LAST thing you'd expect me to do. But don't those guys look like fun? ;-)

Anyway, tell me your favorite email joke and one lucky jokester will win a book from my stash.