New Day

 Maybe others do not have the same problems that I do, but I think everyone has something they struggle with.  For myself, when I come up short on goals and plans I have set, I sometimes need a marker to help me get back on the wagon.  Markers might be Sundays (a day of rest and refreshment at Church).  They might be Mondays (a new week starting).  And most notably, they might be the start of a new month.  Yesterday was the start of a new month.  I had a medical appointment which may have helped me get back on track.

So as a result last night I set my alarm clock for the first time in years.  I never needed an alarm because I was able to awaken when I needed to.  Recent years I have had few days when arising early was critical so I have gotten out of the habit, thus the alarm set.  I set the alarm on my phone and wondered if it would wake me up with an alarm on my watch.  It did.  Of course, I had been awake for more than two hours and had just dropped back off to sleep so the buzzing on my wrist did shock me!  So I got up.

My appointment yesterday encouraged me to become regular, have a routine, and stick to it.  So I ran my numbers as I always do, read my scriptures as I always do, put on the clothes I had laid out last night so I could find them in the dark as Dear One slept, then went downstairs to have oatmeal, blueberries, banana, and almond milk with a shake of Great Grains on top to tilth it up a bit.  Following that I disarmed the alarm, opened the garage door, and grabbed my stroller.

After shutting the garage door again, I remembered I had promised the plant pot which was full of dead petunias to a lady a few streets over in our complex.  I yanked out the very very dead plants, dumped the dirt beside the trash bin to mix in with the soil there, washed out the pot, then headed off. I figured since it was almost a week since I promised the pot to her that the lady might have found a better one, but when I got to her house she still had the same planter that she thought needed re-potting. It made me smile to have come through, even though pretty late in the game.

On I walked and came onto Niblick Road.  So many houses have gone up in the past few months and four more are now ready to fly.  

You can barely see the cement pads that have gone in this week for four more homes there behind the dumpster corral. I will be interested to see if these have a different style than other houses nearby.

As I walked across the dam I looked for the alligator but he was not visible though I did hear him when I was up in the night. I checked to see if he was visible behind our house.  I think he has a cave just beyond the brush at our property line...and for this reason I have NO INTENTION EVER of removing that brush!

This photo is closer up but taken from the dam so you cannot see the imagined cave area.  The crepe myrtle here is actually on our neighbor's property but our crepe myrtle is right beside it and also in bloom.  So pretty.  Crepe myrtle is all over the sap works here in town. So many different colors and shades.

This picture was taken from the sidewalk just at the end of the trip.  If I had waited just a moment and stepped back a few feet I would have had a picture with both flags flying.  Makes my heart sing.

Anyway, today was the first day of the rest of my life. Again! I hope I can pull off a few more days with the new routine until it becomes automatic and health and well-being for both of us improves!  Wish us luck...