Energy

It's Saturday! I decided this week not to waste time trying to sleep in, so sure enough, I woke at my usual weekday time-5:45 and got up without a fuss. I really felt great, and walked 3.3 miles in 54 minutes. That's pretty good since I haven't been training. Then I mowed and edged the front yard, and did the laundry and cleaned the bathroom and cleaned out the pantry....I was just full of energy! Now it is 7:30 and I am pretty tired. I wear myself out sometimes.

Relative importance

I really don't like to waste time. I always have many things to do. I decided to start this blog, because I want to write about my life for posterity. I am working on "My Spiritual Journey" because that seems like its pretty important. Because of this, I am not doing other things. Its always a tradeoff. And what is important today, won't be important in the future. For example, I seem to spend alot of time photographing the progress of my garden. I used to take lots of pictures of my kids, then it was all about the cats. I look forward to the day that I quit taking pictures of plants and have grandchildren to photograph.

Nature

I love taking pictures of flowers and bugs and this awesome caterpillar that was on the fennel plant.

My life today

I am what is known as "middle-aged." I have 54 years. If this is the middle, then I should live to be 108. Looking back, life is a breath. Looking forward, life is a mystery.

I am married to John Morris Tobin, almost 10 years my senior, for 11 years. I was married before for 23 years and gave birth, one at a time, to seven amazing human beings. I have two sisters (one has been gone from here for 33 years) and one brother. My mother died at age 80 six months ago, after 60 years of marriage to my father. He remarried last month. I plan to talk about these people individually in my meanderings. I realize that each one has their own story from their own perspective, but they are also part of my story.

I am a registered nurse and work Mon-Fri as a Case Manager at Bayshore Medical Center in Pasadena, about 20 easy miles from my home in Baytown. I like to crochet, do jigsaw puzzles, and walk in 10k's, sometimes. I have had a lot of other hobbies through my life, but this is mostly it, now. I like to stay connected with my children and a few others on facebook, and watch a good movie now and then. I also love to plant seeds and plants in the spring and watch how they grow.

I am a Christian. Johnny and I have been attending St Mark's Methodist Church since January although we are still members of Alliance Bible Church where we have been going since 2002. I have been singing in the choir and enjoying the many opportunities at St. Mark's, and really appreciating the richness of traditional worship.

Mostly, my days are happy and positive. I try to look for the good even in the midst of the trials that come. I have done good things, but I have also made choices that have hurt others. I have learned that it is important to keep seeking truth and to hold on to hope.

Blogging

I am trying to really understand this blog thing. I see other people's and they seem to flow and have some kind of design. So the first thing I am going to work on is figuring it out.

I really want to write about my life. I think if I did it right, it would be interesting. I tried to find an online journal/diary, but really didn't see anything I liked. So here I am again. I did the 2009 road trip blog, for which I am glad, but didn't get the technology of it quite figured out. I want the pictures that go with the text to stay together.

Also, I am working on being more transparent about my life and my choices, and the hard stuff as well as the good parts. I fight against "everything is fine." As much as I dearly loved my mother, that is a fault that I inherited from her, which I have realized makes having real relationships almost impossible. So I want to be honest and open here, not knowing who will read it at this point, or who I will deliberately share it with yet, but just wanting to write and share something that will be meaningful to both me and the reader.