Birthday gifts and sleepless nights

Hope you all had a great start to your week. Monday is in the books.

It was a good day around here…I really wanted to start the week off strong. I had just wrapped up one “section” of some work on Friday and was starting on something new yesterday, so it felt fresh… which inspired a productive mindset and in turn, a quite productive day.

A healthy lunch and spin off of from the enchiladas:

I ate while I worked, but that was a choice. I exercised over my lunch break and wanted to shower after, so, I ran out of time to have a leisurely lunch, too. Oh well. I prefer to get a shower in more than a relaxing lunch.

After work and piano lessons, the boys and I ran a few errands. *Someone* is turning 40 on Thursday (and it is NOT me!!! Phew.). We are now stocked with some fun decorations and a couple gifts. The boys were happy to end up at Dick’s Sporting Goods because they love to play around on the putting green upstairs. Fortunately, at 7 pm on a Monday, the place was dead and no one cared that we were not actually going to be buying a putter. Free entertainment.

Asher captured this beautiful sunset on the way, too. Never mind the dirty, streaky window. I was driving, of course, and he said, “Ooh the sun looks so pretty, hand me your phone to take a pic!!” That’s my boy. 😉

After reading in bed for a bit, I very intentionally watched the clock and hit lights out by 10:30 on the dot (my “bedtime”) so I could get my 7 hours in (10:30-5:30). Until I WOKE UP at 2:50 a.m., wide awake but still with that dry, sleepy feeling in my eyes. I could not fall back asleep for a long time and I was super annoyed. The last I checked the clock it was 3:30 but I guess I eventually drifted back sometime after that.

Ironically, I had just read and chuckled at this passage from my book, referring to how all of the Count’s various worries and concerns would come dancing through his mind in the middle of the night:

I thought this was a really interesting, accurate and vivid description of this strange phenomenon….WHY does this happen when we lie awake at night?? I love the part about how the “concerns” will “bow with a flourish” so that the next problem can then take its turn dancing to the fore. So well stated.

“Like in a reel in which the dancers form two rows, so that one of their number can come skipping brightly down the aisle, a concern of the Count’s would present itself for his consideration, bow with a flourish, and then take its place at the end of the line so that the next concern could come dancing to the fore.”

Yep! That’s exactly what happened to me, too. All of these odd little things just go pop!! into your brain at 2:57 a.m. Sigh. After enough of this, I tried to turn to my “count your blessings” idea instead. It maybe helped eventually, and at least was better than just laying there mulling over a bunch of weird, random thoughts that kept skipping into my head…

Probably going to be tired today, though.

Thought of the Day:

“I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves.” -Louise Hay

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a SUCCESSFUL little shopping trip and a night out with the boys.