Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Lessons from the flu.

So I don't actually know if I got the bonafide influenza, but whatever I got, it laid me out for five days, and I continue to have a horrific cough and sore throat (ghost tonsils, I swear). While I was bed-ridden, I had lots of time to think between four hour naps and drug-induced hazes, mostly about my resolutions for the new year.

I have a ton of resolutions, so I won't bore you with all of them, but shout out to Ellen at Running with my High Heels on because she has some awesome goals! I was initially discouraged that my sick body could not possibly keep up with the highly productive schedule I had envisioned for 2015, but I've come to be grateful. I spend so much time flying around getting things done that I don't appreciate what I've done or what others have done for me. Right now it's all I can do to pick a single task when I get home from work and slowly go about accomplishing it. Yesterday it was making dinner and then cleaning up after. Normally I'd be making dinner while simultaneously unloading the dishwasher, mopping the floor, and straightening up the living room. But when I walked out of my clean kitchen last night after Brian did the dishes and I wiped down everything and swept, I thought it was a job well done.

While I was visiting Ashley and her family, she mentioned something she had heard about reducing everything we do by 10%. (This actually came in a conversation about how in England, they have automated toilet paper dispensers that only give you a couple squares, but I digress.) Applied to how much I get done, my gut reaction is, "No! I can't do less and still feel good about myself!" But the truth is, I can do less and I should do less. President Uchtdorf said, "We would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." I always thought my optimum speed was as fast as I could go. But thanks to the flu, I'm figuring out my actual optimal speed, one where I can enjoy life and progress without feeling overwhelmed.

PS--One of my resolutions is to try a new hairstyle for church every Sunday. We'll see how long that lasts, especially with church at nine now. I'll usually be instagramming them, but maybe once a month I'll blog about the last month of Sunday hair with little comments about difficulty, durability, and time it took me. Here was this past week's do:
We'll work on Brian's hair photography skills. I didn't check to see if it was a good picture. Please disregard the messy home as we had just gotten back from Rochester and I had the flu.

This triple inside out ponytail was inspired from here, although I didn't do the three ponytails first. I just did the top one, flipped it, gathered half the remaining hair and the tail of the first into a pony tail, flipped it, and then the rest of the hair and the tail of the second into a third bunch and flipped it. I used those tiny rubber band hair elastics. I hair sprayed everything at the end because I have more flyaways than you would believe!

Difficulty: super easy; only one try. Durability: lasted all day at work! That's better than a normal ponytail for me.
Time: > 5 min



Throw your hairstyles at me!

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