Couch vs Exercise & a Chihuahua

It's 3 a.m. and the Chihuahua woke me up.

I think she was either spooked by maybe some thunder rumbling in the area (I heard nothing) or she was hungry.

Now I'm wide awake and she's snoozing on the couch beside me. Oh, the things we do for our pups. She'll also get to sleep all day while I go to work. I think I'm going to have to take her for a nice long walk tonight to make sure she sleeps through the night.

I've walked two miles a day for the past few days. When I finish my legs feel like lead. I don't remember this from when I used to walk...age? I think no matter what happens after 50 we tend to blame it on age. Eyesight? Thinning hair? (Take the Hair, Skin, Nails vitamin in the pink box.) Sore joints?

Bah! I'm thinking it's not age that got us there, but inactivity. As we get wrapped up in life, exercise takes a back seat and that couch looks better and better. Then the couch becomes our habit and it's all down hill from there. So from now on my mantra is; Exercise before Couch. If the couch calls, I must earn the couch time with walking and weights.

Except at 3 a.m.

Good night ....again.

The Empty Nest Syndrome

Life changes dramatically after the kids grow up and leave the nest.

I think this hits women more than most men. When my kids lived close, it wasn't so hard. We'd meet for shopping or dinner. It was a fun relaxing time. They were still here, just a little over there.
Now my kids are states away from me and it's very hard. I've given up our usual shopping haunts for online shopping because I can barely step into those old favorite stores without tears. We used to go out for coffee and lottery tickets. We'd sip our coffee and scratch the tickets and talk. I love coffee and lottery tickets. I've bought some scratch off tickets, but now can't bare to scratch them. They sit in a forlorn little pile on my desk. Who knows? There might be a winner in there somewhere that I'm missing.

Maybe I'll just mail them to the kids.

I know enough about loneliness and loss that I should keep busy. I lost both my parents while i was still in my 20's. I think the only thing that kept me going then was my kids. They weren't even in school yet so they kept me very busy. I think they saved me then.

I write. I have a couple of books up on Amazon and I'm working on two more. I have a full time job. Things that keep me busy, but weekends are hard. I know I should just schedule writing hours or painting hours or blogging hours or exercise time, but for some reason I hold back. Guess I have to kick my own butt here and DO SOMETHING! Plotting to move and job hunting in that far away state where my kids are consumes a lot of time, but when nothing tangible shows up, it's depressing.
Still its time to shake it off and DO SOMETHING. I think I'll start with setting up a weekend schedule.

New Saturday Schedule

• Clean till noon
• Write till 3 p.m.
• Run errands (Always better to do this in the late afternoon as most like to get this done early. Less crowds in the afternoon.) 
• Exercise-probably walking

New Sunday Schedule

• Exercise-walking
• Painting till noon
• Laundry -all day :)
• Write

Wish me luck!  All advice welcome! Please leave a comment and let me know your best advice for Empty Nest Syndrome.