Today is the last official day of My January Rest. Tomorrow is a new day and new month. Coffee with cream and sugar is top on my the list to celebrating January’s end. The store was out of half and half so my husband bought whipping cream. Sometimes life is like that; first you get nothing then you get cherries on top! The coffee is going to go down easily and if the weather predictors are correct, it might be a snow day. I’ll sip, sip, sip coffee all day long and read–until the Big Game!
Even though today is still January, I had two celebratory outings. The first was a facial. I used my coupon and my birthday money from my mother-in-law. The idea was good, but the facial was sad. In and out in a half hour flat and I was somewhat uncomfortable on the table. I was bummed because I saved the coupon for two years. If I splurge again, it will be my favorite spa, Fox N Hounds, for sure. The other was with my husband. Our daughter had a party which opened the opportunity for us to go on a date and celebrate a work accomplishment. Dinner was wonderful–my husband and the food.
For those who didn’t read the previous post, I committed to no cream and sugar until February, but a few of my other MJR objectives, ceased early due to life circumstances. The Rest is about refocus, not rules. When it becomes legalistic, it fails to serve a higher purpose. Besides, I’ve learned when to say uncle. When you have two house guests staying for weeks and you need groceries, it is time even if it is few days before January’s end. Plus we had a business dinner meeting with friends last night, and tonight a night away from our daughter.
So, tonight at dinner, I had decaf–freshly brewed. It shows up with a small creamer and some hand-formed sugar cubes. I look at them and my husband indicates I should enjoy. Then, I tell him that I committed to rest from cream and sugar until tomorrow…a mere few hours away. He says, “It’s up to you.” I said, “I’ll keep my commitment.” He pops a white cube in his mouth and smiles. I decide I want to try the brown one thinking it was brown sugar. It is sweet (of course) and hard. I try to suck on it to get it to dissolve and no, it isn’t melting. I have a big lump of raw sugar in my mouth that won’t melt, so I take my cup of coffee and take a sip. It begins to melt and I smile. My husband says, “Is that cheating?” and I answer, “Sort of.” But, it wasn’t a deliberate cheat. It was more of a it just sort of happened…but it was good!
Here are a few more MJR notables. Our daughter has food coupons, from school, she earned. We need to schedule using some of them, because we still have several from a couple of years ago. We don’t eat out a lot and when we do, we aren’t thinking of a sub sandwich or an individual pizza.
We did run out of flour tortillas. They seem to be a staple in our home. We use them for quesadillas, tacos, pizza crusts, and Asiago and garlic chips for salsa. I found a recipe to make them, but we didn’t have time to try them yet. They look easy enough and it would be a fun with my daughter and her friend. We did not, however, run out of cornstarch. I found three boxes! That isn’t a stock up on item, so how that happened I have no explanation for.
I’ve polished off some shampoo samples again this year. Where do they come from? I rarely bring any home when traveling, because I know I’ll be trying to use them up next January. I ran out of calcium and waited until a few days before the end of January. I had a $10.00 store credit that I used.
Shopping freeze: my mother-in-law lost one earring and I have a friend who makes them. I started to contact her to get a replacement until I realized that was shopping. A friend raved about how good the pears were at Kroger. I thought about getting some because we love pears. But, I realized that was catering to my tastes and I hadn’t planned on going to Kroger too…so no pears. Yes, I pouted a little. And, when we shopped on January 28th, what we did buy was mostly necessity. We put the rest of the items on a list to purchase later, while we continue to use up other items in February.
I am an artist who loves color. Add to that, I have thin lips that, I deduced came from my English heritage. They are my excuses for having too many lipsticks. Some taste bad. While I didn’t get through sorting them, I hope too. Otherwise, that might be next years hit list or this year, paint, taste and pitch as I go. Along the same lines, I need to ditch some old foundation that I rarely use.
We have a cabinet mirror that needed fixed and I chose to wait, but I did say yes to the carpet cleaning. That is spending money, but not shopping. I’ve done well at not looking at sales flyers and emails. Funny, I had a new magazine show up at my house that said I got a years subscription because of something I bought at Wal-Mart. Hum. Really? It’s Better Homes and Gardens and I will enjoy it in February.
I found a stash of last year’s chocolate bars from Christmas and moved some of my surplus to the studio to consume. While there, I found a stash of old coffee and tea bags. Pitched. One thing I am grateful for was the water that I had for the studio. If I had ran out, I was going to haul water from home instead of buy.
A new idea surfaced and I began to rest from acting on new ideas until February. That gave me some cooling off time to think about if the ideas were really how I should invest my time and talent.
Within a few weeks, I’ll review 2015’s My January Rest and look for themes. I want to grow to be more grateful for all of the blessings I have in my life. Thank you God for all the blessings we have.
February is going to be the month I finish a couple of outstanding projects. I think I’ll call it Finished in February.
Uncovered 