Today’s post is going to stray from my usual family history posts.  I’m in a Blogging 101 Class through WordPress.  The assignment a couple of days ago was to read blogs and comment.  I decided to read blogs that were not about Family History.  They were on gardening, Alzheimer’s Disease, vacations, and self-care.  I commented on all four.  Now today’s assignment is to write about one you commented on.  I chose the self-care.  I wondered if there was a way I could tie this into family History.  The only way to tie this to family is to say that I take after my mother and grandmother, who did not take care of themselves in the same way that I do not take care of myself.  I’m much better at taking care of everyone else, and putting myself last.  The blog I read that has inspired me to take better care of myself is Getting Through Life.

Recently, I have been going through some rough times.  First, it was my brother’s diagnoses of terminal lung cancer last November, and his death in January.  He was single and no children, we have no other siblings. So all his affairs were left up to me, and I was grieving during this time.  My husband is Ill and cannot walk, and I have to do a lot for him, and do the chores he use to do.  In April, I felt so stressed and felt ready to collapse.  I went to the doctor and he found a couple of things wrong, but nothing life threatening. He did tell me I need to take better care of myself.  The first thing I did was to start telling people “no”.  I made some people mad because they were not use to me saying, “no”.  I lost one friend because I could not help her out.  There are only so many hours in the day, and I was doing something for someone else most of my waking hours.  This had to stop.  Then I started eating better, going for walks, and getting more sleep.  Now I am starting to do activities that I enjoy, but stopped doing.  Now I am back to reading, sewing, and of course genealogy.   Recently, I saw how to make a quilted bag on YouTube and enjoyed making one.

Last weekend made a trip to the Lake Front in Kenosha, Wisconsin on a beautiful summer evening with my son and grandchildren.

My husband and I use to go to the lake front quite often, and we haven’t been able to do it because of his inability to walk.  We use to camp and have a trailer, but no longer can do that because it is just too much for him to hook it up, and I simply do not have the strength.  I miss camping, it use to be my time to recharge. Now I am trying to find other things I can do to replace the camping.  Last night we had a campfire in our backyard.  It’s the time of the year for meteor showers so we sat by the fire, looked at the beautiful sky and watched the meteor showers.  I started out counting, but then lost count.  It was a beautiful summer night and a very relaxing evening.  I haven’t had time to garden this year and now the summer is almost over.  But I can still prepare the yard for next year, and if I keep taking care of myself, maybe I’ll be able to garden next year.  Some of the other things I have planned is to light some candles and listen to music, take a bubble bath, write more in my journal, and visit with friends.  Maybe a trip by myself.  Well, this post was certainly a change for me.  I’m not use to writing about myself. Don’t forget to take care of yourself too!