Lisa rushed home from work today because Sophie and Lobo had their regular vet appointment at 3 p.m. I was working on blog columns at the kitchen while waiting for custom orders and other DIY Dog Mom Projects to dry. Lisa and I gave each other a rundown of our day in less than 2 minutes time. When Lisa Left with Sophie and Lobo, something peculiar happened.
Coco and Willa paced the kitchen and living room. Back and forth. Back and forth. Every time they paced the kitchen, and before heading into the living room to pace, they whined and scratched at the back door.
Willa has done something similar in the past, but not like this. And, Coco, nope. This was his first time displaying stress because his brother and sister had been whisked away in our vehicle. They were both in obvious distress.
I halted work stuff for a bit and sat on the kitchen floor with them. I gave them a treat and explained that everything was okay. It was just a routine visit. The same that Coco and Willa had that previous Sunday.
They calmed down immediately.
I got up about 10 minutes later. Sat at the table. Watched as Coco and Willa sat patiently sat at the door for their brother and sister to return.
That's when it happened. A deep sense of perspective. Understanding. The past 8 months finally made sense to me.
Last year, in December, I made an announcement at the kitchen table while Lisa and I were eating dinner.
Next year, as in 2018, was going to be my year. Our year. The batches of 6-week projects that I had been working on for a client for over a year would be wrapping up in February. I would be able to focus solely on building my business and blog. I was determined to reach each and every single goal. Etc.
That hasn't exactly happened.
I spent most of January and February wrapping up the last two 6-week projects for my client. Then, most weekends after that, we spent helping out with renovations upstairs. In May, Lisa took a week-long vacation so we could tackle renovations and Our Big Bodacious Painting Project down here.
Amid all of that, I hosted a couple of large, celebratory gatherings at our home. In May, I got really sick and that lasted for a couple of weeks.
I also changed my sleeping schedule. Instead of staying up on the overnight to work, I have adapted to Lisa's schedule. Although I go to bed later than she does, I'm up between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning.
I spent a good portion of the Summer months working on DIY Dog Mom Projects and custom orders. That's a large part of building my business so in that sense, a lot of progress was made.
In August, I went through a period of being extremely frustrated. I wasn't where I wanted to be with just about everything. Lisa took notice, listened to my many rants, and offered up some encouraging words. Not even that lightened my spirits.
Today, when Coco and Willa were pacing and whining and scratching at the door, I knew immediately what was wrong. I knew to grab a couple of treats and sit on the floor. I knew what to say as they rushed over to me. I knew when it was okay to get up and sit back down at the table.
That's when it all made sense.
I knew what to do because I pay attention. Always. As Dog Moms, Lisa and I are very intuned to our kids. They're our world. If one or more of our kids are troubled by something, we stop what we're doing to take care of them.
Lisa and I have applied that same level of attentiveness to other areas of our life over the past 8 months. We've taken notice of a lot of things.
I've published columns about most of this stuff over the course of the past 8 months so I won't bore you with all of those details.
Because we've applied that level of attentiveness, we've made a lot of changes both big and small. Our eyes have widened to a lot of things we hadn't taken notice to before.
Prior to that, we thought all of the eye-opening experiences that inspired us to make a lot of changes over the past few years was enough. Apparently, we missed some stuff.
What we hadn't taken notice of before were all things that we needed to be aware of. Address. Do something about it. Not waste our time on any longer. Etc.
I thought a lot about that tonight after I tucked Lisa and the kids in.
There have been many occasions throughout my life when I wanted to do something or make a change, but the Universe was like, "Yeah. That's great, but it's not quite time yet. You've got a few things left to learn."
I'm placing my bets that this is one of those times.
I've reached some of my goals this year. Most of that has been on the DIY Dog Mom Project end of things. Now that I have a workshop, it makes life a whole lot easier. I'm able to do more.
The goals I haven't reached are one that required a few more steps than I had anticipated. And, that's where the Universe stepped in and made damn sure I took those steps in full strides.
The changes we've made over the past 8 months were necessary.
It has restored balance in a lot of areas of our life.
Much needed.
Face forward, onward march.
There are a little over 3 months left of 2018 and you can bet we're going to make the most of them all the way around.
And, that attitude is going to strengthen and roll over into 2019.
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