(Thursday morning)
Good morning, my friends!
Mom and Dad are off in the camper for a couple of days by themselves and my 9 o'clock coffee date got pushed back to 10:30 so I have some extra time before I need to get in the shower. Time enough to catch up with you on this summer morning!
If you know me at all, you know I love summer. It's supposed to be 90 today and while it makes some people groan, it makes me super happy. I feel about a thousand times better in warm weather. It's easier for me to dress in summer clothes, easier to get out and about, easier to have a good attitude. I used to love winter and I do still love the beauty of autumn, but I can't do cold these days. Well, I suppose if I could stay home by the fire with a book and a hot drink, I'd be okay with cold and snow, but going out in it is just a drag.
Summer life has been wonderful these past few months. My weeks are filled with all of my usual activities here in Denver: art group on Mondays, PT class on Tuesdays, counseling in Colorado Springs every other Tuesday afternoon, walking treadmill miles on Thursdays, massage therapy on Fridays, church on Sundays. And afternoons at the neighborhood pool when it's lovely and hot. Plus, coffee and time with friends when I have some free hours.
Life is good. I am driving all over the place and have enough independence to go where I need to go. (I do have a Life Alert device with built-in GPS tracking that I wear whenever I go anywhere on my own, which gives all of us an extra sense of safety and security. I push the button to test the system on the first of the month, but have only ever called for emergency help by accident, like when I sat on it at the pool after leaving it on my chaise while I was in the water and forgot to move it before I sat down again. The operator laughed when I explained what I'd done and told me several times that she was just happy I was safe and not in need of emergency help!
With increased independence comes some big goals. My counselor presented me with some goals of her own (well, goals she told me that God gave her in the middle of the night!) for me after we got home from Arizona at the beginning of the summer and I'm working my way toward meeting them:
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- Teach Bible study again. This makes me the most nervous since I haven't done a lot of public speaking since my stroke. Beginning on September 6, I will be teaching the Psalm 23 study I wrote and taught at MISSION Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona back in 2010. I will be teaching at Village Seven Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs. The group I'll be teaching is the group my counselor attends and the church is one I grew up in, so it's a familiar place and bunch of women. Plus, these women prayed for me when I had my stroke, so they know me and I already know a bunch of them! The study is six weeks long and I will finish on October 11 before we go back to Phoenix for a month or so to begin furnishing our new home there. I have been reviewing the study and planning how to put it together for them, since I've not officially published this study yet. October in Phoenix is beautiful, so going back there will be a great reward for meeting this big goal.
- The second goal is to take a trip by myself or with a friend. Fun, for sure. A friend and I are talking about a weekend trip to visit a third friend who moved to Texas a while back. It's still in the dreaming stages, so plans aren't quite made yet. However, as Mom, Dad and I have talked, we do have a plan for me to stay in Phoenix by myself after they come back to Denver this fall. I will then fly back to Denver on my own sometime before the holidays. We will have Christmas here and then head back to Phoenix in the new year for another four or five months until it stops snowing here in Denver.
- The last goal is for me to move out and live on my own. My response to my counselor was that she'd need to convince Mom on this one more than me! At this point, the plan is for me to try living alone next summer in an apartment close to my parents and so we are looking at apartments and making some plans for next summer to do an independent living trial run. If that goes well, we'll talk about a more permanent independent plan and perhaps invest in a condo or townhouse in the area. I am pretty excited about this goal since I've never really lived alone.I got married at 19 and was never single as an adult until a couple of years ago and I wasn't able to take care of myself or afford it after that. Living with my parents in my 40s was certainly not what I had planned or expected, but it's been really great and the three of us enjoy it a lot! Living alone will be a huge change after four years with them, but I'm excited to see how it goes.
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So that's what's going on here. I hope you're well and enjoying your summer wherever you live.
We're going camping in another couple of weeks for our big end of summer trip, so I'll check in before we leave...
Now it's time for a shower! Have a marvelous day, my friends. With great love,
Joanne
