Three-Week Reset

Oh, hello!

Things have been a little rough around here for the past few days. Zoe is not a happy girl.

I had some serious cabin fever toward the end of the week. Zoe and I were both miserable from being cooped up in the house, so we ventured out for a bit. We went and visited her class at school (I had to teach two Junior Achievement lessons), and we went to Chick-Fil-A where she had ice cream and Sprite. She chose the destination, and then when we got there, she had a mega meltdown because she couldn't have chicken nuggets and fries.

I get it, girl. Food is everything.

She's been complaining of pain a lot more, and she's been very whiney and disagreeable. I understand. I do. I'm incredibly cranky when I'm in pain, too, and I take it out on everyone else. But I'm having a really hard time remaining patient and compassionate. Have I ever told you that I'm not a patient person?

Like, not at all.

And let's talk briefly about that tonsil breath. Whoa, Nelly! That's some nasty stuff.

We're almost half-way through recovery. Almost on the downhill side. We can do this.

(We can do this, right?)

One more week.

Some friends have asked if I think it will really take that long for Zoe to feel better. Based on how things are right now... yes, I do think it will take that long. She's really uncomfortable right now. She cries off and on throughout the day and says her ears hurt - that's the best way she can explain her pain. She thinks it's in her ears. She holds her head between her hands and curls up in a ball on the couch and cries. A small amount of it is for dramatic effect, but I know she's really in pain.

She does get up and play every now and then when she's feeling better, but for the most part, she's laying down in misery. Poor girl. The thing that gets me through is knowing that this will go away eventually. My heart goes out to mothers who have children who are in pain but do not know if and when that pain will go away. Bless those moms and those sweet children!

Anyway, I just wanted to throw out an update for those who are interested.

In other news, I've been struggling with various personal things lately, and I've decided to do a three week reset. Why three weeks? That's a time frame that works well with my calendar. In that time, I'm going to:

• Put spending on hold. I always fail at this, so I don't know why I'm even bothering. But the goal is to continue working my way through my freezer and pantry and only spend $20 per week on groceries (for fresh produce and milk, mostly). I've already mapped out a three-week meal plan. 
• Only make Black Friday purchases if they are on my list. I have a spreadsheet of what I would like to buy for Christmas, and my goal is to not stray from that list. 
• Stay on track with a goal I set to read the New Testament before the end of the year. This, too, involves a spreadsheet where I've tracked where I need to be at the end of each week. The spreadsheets on my phone pretty much dictate my life. 
• Finish a Book of Mormon project that I've been working on. 
• Refrain from social media use. 
• And the hardest of all... I will be stepping away from blogging. It could cause my untimely death - going three weeks without blogging - but I need to do it. Mostly because facebook is my main source of blog traffic, and a cease-blog will help me stay away from facebook with more diligence. 

Stay safe. Stay warm. I'll see you sometime around December 8!