Thriving in August

Daughter Moves In!

In my quest to thrive each month, here's my much delayed review of August: 

Spiritual:

In August, I continued to focus on my spirituality as I continued to pray about my daughter's employment situation.  Which has now been resolved and I am very thankful for that!  I consider this part of my life to be thriving.

Daughter:

On August 1st, my daughter moved back home.  It feels good to have her home, again, and she says she's happy to be home.  The actual move was rather rushed because the timing was brought forward, but, the decision to move was made several months ago, at the beginning of the year, when she decided not to renew her lease when the early renewal option opened.    

We brought all of her moving boxes home during the first five days of August and she spent the rest of the month unpacking everything and trying to find homes for her items.  It has been quite a process as she decluttered her room and rearranged things.  We are still in the process of merging our household items.  

I can honestly say that my relationship with my daughter is thriving.

Health & Well Being:

In August, I had two medical appointments and a visit with a new dentist.  The lab test results for the doctors' appointments were mostly good and the appointments went well.  At the first appointment, the doctor put in a request for a referral to a dermatologist for me, which was approved (I had the appointment with the dermatologist in September).  At the second appointment, I received my bone density booster injection.  The appointment with the new dentist went well, too, but he had to refer me to a specialist and that appointment has been scheduled for September.  In addition, I had lost some weight in the months leading to August and that was confirmed at one of my weigh-ins at the doctor's.

I feel that I made good progress where my health was concerned, in August.

Family, Friends, & Community:

I had quite a few social interactions in August. too, with phone calls, emails, and texts, as usual.  I spoke with a friend I haven't spoken with in a long time, I called K (late neighbor T's daughter), and spoke with my aunt and cousins and friend R.  

In addition, daughter and I visited neighbor S and her daughters and we also went to the library.

I'm pleased with the amount of interaction with my family, friends, and community, in August.

Finances:

I was able to keep my finances maintained in August.  I increased my grocery budget since daughter is home now and I was able to keep to that new budget as far as grocery shopping was concerned.  Going forwards, expenses will increase; I've already received a notification from the utilities company stating that they are raising the solid waste collection fees by a certain dollar amount; they didn't give the rate of increase, but, I worked it out and it comes to just over 50%.  

Even so, I think I am managing well where finances are concerned.  

Time Management:

I continued to make progress with my time management in August, although I still procrastinated a bit. I am using my planner more, although some items get carried over to other days.  Daughter says I list too many tasks per day, but, they are all things that need doing.  It takes me longer to do those things too, than they used to.  Time management is still a work in progress and I can't say that I'm thriving; I'd say I'm plodding along!

Leisure/Hobbies/Crafting:

In August, leisure/hobbies/crafting activities consisted of blogging, reading, gardening, watching videos online, doing one craft project with daughter (didn't finish my piece, yet) and participating in August's monthly photo challenge.  I feel that I thrived in this area of my life.

House:

In August, as daughter unpacked her boxes, we began the process of merging our household belongings.  I am very glad that I had decluttered my belongings to the point that I had decluttered before daughter's things were added to the mix!  We soon realized that we needed more storage, so, we bought a shelving unit and containers for crafts supplies and a sideboard to store some of my dishes and glassware to make room in the kitchen cabinets for daughter's dishes.  They were ordered in August and received and assembled in September.  

Even so, more decluttering needs to take place because some of the kitchen appliances that daughter brought home are still sitting out on the dining table until room is found for them.  Daughter has promised to sort out the kitchen as soon as she has finished organizing her bedroom and the spare bedroom. In the meantime, I've been decluttering some of the duplicates as I come across them.

I think I'm making good progress in this area of my life.

Garden:

The garden continued to thrive in August, too.  I picked Asian pears and blue squash, as well as lemons,  from the garden.  M continues to tend to the garden, as he has done for over 30 years.  

Over all, August was a good month.  There a few small challenges to be faced, but, I stayed focused on the positives, made the best of things, and thrived to the extent that I could.

It is mid-September as I post this, but, better late than never!  So far, September is turning out to be a good month, too.