My kids were all home for supper tonight.  It wasn’t a planned event but I am so very thankful for the time with them.  As we approach a new season as a family, I will take that time when it’s just the 5 of us as often as I can.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy their ‘friends’ as we call them at our house, I just know it warms my mom heart to have the 5 of us together once in a while.

It was great to hear them laugh together and tell stories of their weekend adventures.

After the kids returned to The City, I got a text message from my youngest daughter asking if I though it would be a bad idea to take a walk with a friend.

‘Why’ I asked her, ‘would it be a bad idea to take a walk?’

‘Well I have stuff I could do for class on Tuesday.’

‘Nope.  Take the walk.  It’s a gorgeous evening! Stuff will wait.’

‘You are right. Thank you.’

It made me smile.  I’m not trading this life in for anything.  Just sayin’.

There are just things I don’t do.  I think once I realized that it was perfectly fine not to enjoy some things, my life became more joyful.

I used to feel guilty when I said yes to things I didn’t enjoy and guilty when I said no. Basically, I was feeling guilty all the time.   That feeling had to end.  Guilt can suck the life out of me like a teacher sucks the life out of a Dr. Pepper on a Friday of a four day week (because we all know that 4 day weeks are the longest. weeks. EVER).

So when I gave up doing things that made me feel guilty, I could actually do the things that I enjoy doing.

I don’t do outside of school staff functions.  When my kids were younger and in day care, I couldn’t bear leave them with a sitter at night as well.  As my kids grew, we were busy doing their things at night.  Now?  I have to recharge.  Recharging for me is spending time with my family, a book or one of my current Netflix addictions.

I don’t do church committees. I have tried and they are not for me.

I don’t finish books. If I read 25 or 50 or even 100 pages and I am not captivated by the book, I just check it back in. I used to think if I started a book, I had to finish it. Turns out there is no law that says I must finish a book.  Life is too short to read bad books.

I don’t run.  I know plenty of people who are enamored with the high that running gives them.  Fortunately, I came to my senses early on about this one.  I don’t really enjoy all my parts shaking their groove things in different directions.  Also, running was never easy for me.  I had to be taught to run when I was 8 years old.

I don’t eat off brand meat.  By off brand meat, I mean deer, pheasant, quail, buffalo, goose, or duck. I have eaten all of those things in my lifetime and some of them, like pheasant, I actually liked.  I don’t like them enough to burn calories on them.

I don’t spend time with people who suck my energy.  This was a tough one.  When I realized that I had been teaching my kids to spend time with people who made them better people and I wasn’t walking that walk…OUCH.  This one took a lot of time to work through.  I had to say ‘no thank you’ to invitations, shift friend groups, join activities that did make me a better person–none of those things happened overnight.

None of these things happened overnight.  I had to dig deep and find what worked for me.  Just sayin’.