Staying with the Grands – Part 2

What a week!  John and I are staying with the grands and while here we undertook a project to move granddaughter Libby from her little room to the room next door that was recently vacated by her brother when he moved himself downstairs to a yet again larger room.  He is loving the freedom and privacy that is his man cave.  We, John and I, spent the past six days painting the room which was no small task.  It hasn’t been done in 13 years and all the trim, the ceiling, and doors and windows had to be painted as well as the walls.  Primer coat plus two coats of the color were needed.  The room is gorgeous and was ready for moving day which was Saturday.  I loved the preparation and the team approach to painting and preparing the room for Libby to move into.  John and I work well together and to keep us amused we listened to part of an audio book that we started before we got here so it seemed to go quickly.  The actual move was exhausting physically and mentally because it involved a lot of decision making on Libby’s part.  Clutter clearing if you will.  As I have learned one of the best ways to do this is to have piles or boxes marked “Throw Out”, “Recycle/Give Away”, “Keep” and “???”.  This worked for the book shelf as well as the closets.  We delivered some brand new toys and some gently used toys and games to the church this morning for their Sunday School.  More items will go to the Thrift Shop and some will go on a table at the Transfer Station to be picked up for free by others.  The end result is Libby has a beautiful new room and the clutter has been reduced by 50%.  We celebrated by going out for fine dining at a local restaurant and toasted each other and our good work.  My heart is very full.

Course Work and Coaching Circles

There is an analogy in the preparation part of this week.  I am preparing to launch my health coaching business and as I prepare through classes and practice and even through coaching the clients I already have it is all just part of what it takes to make this move into the world of health coaching.  As part of our graduation requirements we are to attend four out of six Coaching Circles.  They are held every week at the same time, our choice of time is set at the beginning and we stick with it for six weeks.  My first one was this past Thursday and it was very interesting.  I found the coach and her approach to be quite an eye-opener.  She was terrific at drawing out the people on the call and helping them to solve their own problem.  It was watching a true experienced coach do what she loves and do it well.  Sandi mentioned the 4 stages of learning and asked us where we thought we were.  Most of us said level 2 or 3.  It’s like driving a car, we know how to do it, we have all the rules and guidelines now we just need the practice.  I do remember what that was like, do you?  For me I believe at this stage I am at the Conscious Competence level and that with practice and time I will make it to the Unconscious Competence level.  I just can’t see around the corner to what lies ahead.

Stress in my life

Our week’s lessons focused on stress in your life and your business.  I know that stress paid a huge part in my heart attack.  I don’t doubt for a minute that despite all my healthy eating and exercise and controlling blood sugar and blood pressure that the one thing I didn’t do well was control the stress in my life.  I have meditated my way through Deepak and Oprah and their Free 21-day Meditation programs and I like meditating but I think I would have to meditate upwards of 5 hours a day to control my reaction to stress.  I am emotional, I react to everything in my life in an emotional way and you know what, I can’t change that.  I walk a 100 miles a month sometimes more so I get lots of exercise and it does help – a lot.  Especially when the view I get is like this one.  I do not drink anything with caffeine in it just herbal teas and I drink wine.  I started a yoga practice this summer and I do think that helps quite a bit.  With my moving around it is hard to get involved in a regular program but they are out there if I look for them.  Not sure what else I can do.

Stress is back in my life again.  It comes and goes and now its back.  We made the difficult decision to rent our house in South Carolina for this winter so that we can be available to help Katie with the children when she travels.  The burden of supporting three homes, the one in Canada, the one in South Carolina and then supporting Katie and the children in New London is too much right now so we have reluctantly decided to forgo South Carolina and stay up north.  While walking this week I came to the conclusion that renting South Carolina was the way to go.  I had hoped to rent our house in Canada for the winter but that did not pan out.  If I wanted to rent it in the summer I think I could without a doubt.  I came home and sent an email to the folks in South Carolina that handle rentals and by 5pm that same day we had the house rented for the amount and length of time that we wanted.  Serendipity?  Maybe?  Timing?  Or just make the right decision that had been waiting for us to make for awhile.  We will commute from New Hampshire to Canada on a weekly basis as we cannot stay in Canada full time.  This will help us stick to the residency requirement and help with the grandchildren.  What this does for my coaching business I am not sure.  I am looking into continuing my education and will investigate what options are available to me.  Now I need to turn my head towards getting something going in New Hampshire.   So that is my stress.  We learned to do some deep breathing exercises this week and I am practicing them every single morning and have added a mantra to it.   Our instructor was Sue Neufeld and she is wonderful.  I give you here a link to her website Sue Neufeld’s Yoga for You.  Hope you like her as much as I do.

Birthday Celebration

It is my husband’s 70th birthday tomorrow and we are celebrating it tonight with a nice dinner and my nephew joining us from Hanover.  Libby is making the cake by herself from scratch!!!  She has done this cake before with me but this time she said she wanted to do it herself.  We use a recipe from Ree Drummond that I found a number of years ago on her website The Pioneer Woman.  The best part is that she describes it in terms and with pictures that Libby can follow.  My job is to clean up.

Free Consult

Please give me a call or drop me a line via email if you are interested in doing a FREE one-hour Health Consultation.  I would love to talk to you and hear your story.  This week and next I am doing my coaching using Skype and Facetime.