What I learned in July

I was reading a blog post in June, and was inspired to chronicle what I learn in the month of July.

I don't look like a supermodel and that's OK. I wore a bathing suit in public, in my hometown! Since becoming pregnant almost 7 years ago, I have not had enough confidence in myself to put on a swimsuit around anyone except close family. We always go to a friends house for the 4th of July where they set up a huge waterslide. My Vet always goes down with the girls, but this year his back was hurting so it was my turn. **Gulp** My girls were so excited, I couldn't disappoint them, after stalling as long as possible I went into the house and got changed. I came out into the yard and not a single person pointed at me and snickered, laughed, or vomited! Oh yeah I'm hot. OK well I wasn't down there long, and my kids didn't want to go down with me anymore, so I quickly covered back up, but I did it!

I'm not completely over my body issues, I still need to workout more and eat better, but I like who I am and want my girls to like themselves as they grow too.

How to can cherries. A local grocery store had a phenomenal sale on Bing cherries, so I bought a bunch and grabbed by canning cookbook. I made Cherry Preserves and Cherry Pie Filling. I then made notes in the cookbook for future reference. For example I should have added Fruit Pectin to thicken it. I will just have to fix each jar as I open it with corn starch or something.

It's OK to be spontaneous. I like to plan. Life is good when I am organized and prepared. Often times, I say, we'll have to plan that for next year/time. Part of that knee jerk reaction is budget related, often it is because I like to have time to be prepared mentally. I think that is OK even good most of the time, sometimes it means we miss out. I woke up to a Facebook post about the circus being in town for one day. Just a couple hours later we got to see the elephants and even an acrobat! Later in the day I was so busy, working on my planned garden project, I didn't feel up to going to the actual performance, and we missed out. I will still take them some time, but I doubt it will be as convenient. A last minute decision also gave us the opportunity to listen to bagpipes and run across this.

I concurred my fear. I learned how to post a video to Youtube. No, I have never done it. Yes, I realize how old that probably makes me. I recorded myself exercising and posted it on Youtube for all the world too see. I'd say that was pretty fearless.

I need help. I know how to do a lot of things, I'm even pretty capable but that doesn't mean I need to do everything by myself. When I don't ask for help I take on too much and get forgetful. I can also get bitter, about having do to so much while other's watch TV, sleep, or even get mad about what I miss. I still don't come to the conclusion that I need help quickly, but when I muster up the courage to ask, I really need it.

We should be constantly learning life lessons. What have you learned this month?