How are you kind to yourself

Since I work at a parish, this has been the most stressful busiest year ever. Mind you, it's still the best job in the world. The thing I do for myself is take the occasional day off. My pastor even insisted that I take a full weekend off and have some quiet Masses after Easter. I had taken the vacation time (I have oodles of it accrued) at Christmas, but had to come out of vacay to play and prepare 4 funerals of persons who died Christmas eve. None of the related to one another. So Christmas about did me in, physically and liturgically. Was very stressful. So when I take time off, I drink lots of iced water and do jigsaw puzzles. Mindless stuff, but it keep my mind wandering back to the office and worrying about things. I just purchased a new grand piano (my old one needs to be re-strung, so is now in storage) and I am enjoying that.

Clare you do too much. You see too much. You need a vacation to margaritaville. Wherever that is.

Congrats on new piano!

A few years back I bought myself a Kindle Fire and since I retired it has been my window on the world. I have several news feed services that update me daily on what's happening. Every morning I get the Catholic Loop that provides a Catholic slant to their reporting but I also view secular news agencies with various viewpoints. I'm a definite news junkie! To try and keep my brain cells active, I enjoy playing mind games on my Kindle like crossword puzzles, find a word, card games, even a jigsaw puzzle now and then. I wish I could do Sudoku but haven't mastered that yet. My Kindle is my way to keep in contact with my family members and love the fact that I can experience life events with the pictures and videos that they send. Cooking has always been my one creative outlet so I look at and search on my Kindle for recipes to try or to share with my daughters. In 2020 I did a lot of bread baking and still make a loaf about every couple of weeks. It's hard to go back to store bought after having homemade bread. Some other culinary adventures that I did last year was make my own oat milk and creamer, homemade yogurt, cabbage Korean Kimchee, sprouted mung beans and restarted my sourdough starter! My Kindle is my prayer book and I use Laudate frequently to add to My Prayers on it. On Sundays my Kindle is set up on my tray table as a mini altar to listen to The Sunday Mass.org. with votive candles and a mini floral arrangement. Then there are Podcasts to listen to like Fr. Mike Schmitz or medical podcasts to keep aware of the pandemic and vaccines. When I want to reminisce with some music, I go to YouTube to find a specific song. Recently I found the video 'Alive and Kicking' and adopted it for my current status statement on this forum. Not only does the title reflect exactly where I am in life, the video brought me to tears because the band Simple Minds had recorded it in the Catskill Mountains where my husband and I used to hike. It's beautifully done and an unexpected pleasure. I rarely find myself bored but I do get frustrated with the fact that I can no longer do what I used to enjoy doing like roller skating or running. I try to dwell on all that I still can do and not on those things that I can't. All in all I feel my life is still full and to quote Bishop Sheen worth living.

Lately, I've been turning off my phone.

I only have me on silent in church, but Father has been known to text me in the choir loft from the sacristy. But parishioners text or call me as late as 11:30 PM!
I wish people still used email!

Clare, Clare,..set up “do not disturb time” with your phone.  You can make it so only certain people can get through, or it will sound if more than one message from the same person if you like.
Mine has the sock stuffed in it from 8:30pm to 5am.
I had to do it.  I am a light sleeper, and one night, near midnight the phone lit up and “went off”.  Startled me in a bad way. It was an amber alert, about 100miles away.  I doubt I would have seen anything to report from my bed, WHILE sleeping.  I get up at 4:15-4:45am depending on the day.  That fouled up a much needed time for sleep.  Couldn’t get back to sleep after. 
Dominus vobiscum

Not certain I understand the kind to myself idea, but it is probably because I am wired a bit differently.

Between running my business, doing stuff with the K of C council, Boy Scouts, and family, what free time I do have I spend doing projects around the house, and picking at the guitar a bit.

Yesterday on a day I took off from the office, I started out by loading up the tractor and both trailers, son and I and went to some acquaintances house to remove a dead tree that the buyers of their house wanted gone. It filled up a 14ft trailer with just the trunk of the tree. Came back to the house, unloaded it on the burn pile. Loaded up the mowers and went and mowed the lawn at the K C hall, then mowed my office, then went by the Scout Office and looked at a project of building stands for a couple of wooden banners. Went home unloaded all the mowing stuff, and got stuff ready for son to have half a dozen friends out for dinner and more fireworks.

This was after being woken up at 3 a.m. by the crack head woman who stays next door because her and her "husband" got into a fight and she decided to come ring my doorbell and knock on the door to tell me she was hiding in my carport until she found someone to come pick her up. I think I fell back asleep for about a couple of hours around 5 a.m.

Staying busy is enjoyment to me. Seeing what has been accomplished in a day gives me gratification.