I missed another month’s column in February, because I was careless, forgetful and busy. I have definitely decided to pull back a little and schedule fewer hours outside my home. I love doing all that I do, but it is getting stressful to be out and about so much of the time that I simply forget to do the basics like writing this column. When I started working for Home Instead I wasn’t working at The Center for the Prevention of Abuse, and I’m finding that two different jobs is just too stressful, and I am going and coming half of my life. I will give up Home Instead, although I enjoy helping seniors in their home or even in nursing homes, I’m not getting my own life prioritized, and am getting very little done in my own home.

I took a long walk with Kaja this morning which was very calming. I have been so busy and running so much that I take her for short walks, and it doesn’t really help me de-stress, and she is getting fat. Jason, my son, tells me I feed her too much and perhaps I do without even thinking about it, so I will try to more conscience of what and when I do feed her, and cut it down a little. I know it is unhealthy to feed a dog table scraps, but I always seem to rationalize by thinking that what I give her is healthy like multi grain bread, and turkey bacon, but I need to stop doing it at all.

I know I, like so many am so ready for this long, long winter to be over. I think if we could have more days of sunshine, not to even mention the snow on the ground melting, it would help. I look back with fondness to my winters in Colorado where I grew up, and what I remember are the sunny days most of the winter. Even if we had a driving blizzard with zero visibility in the morning, it would be sunny with blue skies in the afternoon. I think it is a sign that I am getting old when I look back to the good old days. I better get with the program and deal with today. But as I said last winter I could finally understand why people went off to warmer climates in the winter. I don’t anticipate doing that, but I can dream.

I still very much enjoy my work with the children at The Center. I always seem to feel better if I am helping someone, and hopefully I am doing that. I know that those of us who work with the children can not solve their problems, but we can provide a safe place and a loving, fun environment while their moms are trying to put their lives together again.

Anyway I will continue there and give up the other job, and try to spend more time at my own home in just being aware of each day and doing the best I can. I am going to Lakeview pool three days a week and doing a workout, which is essential. I am not teaching any pool classes at this time and that is a change from what I did for many years. I have always been pretty physical and realize if I’m not exercising something is missing. I really miss teaching at Bradley which I did for over twenty years, but the new president thinks the new wellness center is for faculty, students and staff only, and the pool is not even open to alumni except for weekends. I really miss going there and miss the participants also, because we were like a family.

Lives do change a lot as we grow older, friends move away, die or we lose contact with them, and it becomes harder to reach out to others when we are not in the work force or our children are not in school. I just lost a dear friend who I didn’t see very much, but I will always hold her in my heart. Her name was Delvera Collins and there was a tribute to her in this morning’s paper, Saturday, the 27th. I worked with Delvera at Common Place for several years, and I would say she was one of the most caring, down-to-earth people I’ve ever known. Although I didn’t get to see her as much recently, I always knew she was there, and I could call her. I miss her already. Connie Voss, the director of Common Place wrote the tribute to Delvera and it was so, so appropriate.

I’ve done a little more escape through television by watching the Olympics a little every night. I usually tried to watch an hour or two each night, but what I wanted to watch wasn’t always available to me when I could watch. I love watching the figure skating, and that was often on after ten at night, and ten is my bedtime which is another sign of getting old. I enjoyed the skiing quite a lot and marveled at the superb, physical condition the athletes were in. Some of the falls by the skiers made them look like dolls bouncing down the course, and I didn’t see how they even survived, but they did and who like Lindsey escaped with just a broken pinkie. I truly admire their work and dedication to becoming such great athletes. It is a great deal of hard work, and they make it look easy gracefully.

I haven’t done quite as much reading this month, I actually finished up several books that I had started and put aside because I was reading some pretty light titles just to relax. I finished up Barbara Kingsolver’s new book and Bill Moyers’s book Moyers on Democracy. His program on Friday evening on PBS is one of the best on TV. I also finished a book by Iris Murdock which was a little more difficult and had more depth than some of my lighter reading. It was entitled The Sacred and Profane Love Machine: The Wittiest, Profoundest and Most Compulsive Black Comedy. The fourth one was Traveling with Pomegranates: a Mother Daughter Story by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor I had read two others by Sue Monk Kidd and liked them a little better than this one. Enjoy the sunshine when it finally gets here!