Recognizing the Winter Doldrums for What They Are!

Busy, busy, busy. Alexa (one of our beautiful cats, the only one interested in working) and I have been so busy lately that we haven’t even had time to breathe.  We have a few deep breaths scheduled for early next week though and are looking forward to them.

But you know what?  I love it!

When our oldest two daughters were growing up, sometimes they’d spend the day at their grandparent’s house.  (The youngest didn’t because she has never been a fan of being out of Mom Range for too long at a time.  And you know, I can’t recall ever minding.) When they came home, their words would run all over the place as they excitedly tried to fill me in on their day.  Emily would give the precise details of everything that happened, at the precise time on her Little Mermaid watch when each took place.  She’d tell what they had ordered at McDonald’s… what they’d EACH ordered, including my parents!   She’d tell what conversations took place, the jokes my dad had told, what their dog and cat were up to, which cartoons they saw, and so on.

Brittany?  Well, she would recount everything she’d gotten into.

My ideal night is one in which I look back on the day, like Brittany, and can’t possibly name all of the things I got into.

As a mother and, most of the time, a human being –  I’ve always found that the busier you are, very often the happier you are.  Any time my daughters have looked kind of downtrodden, I’ll do my best to find something for them to “get into.”

With Self Help Daily and Out of Bounds, I get a lot of e-mail. Love it!  A few nights ago, one of my girls walked by and noticed my inbox said “200.”  She said, “Wow!”  My response?  “Yeah, it’s a slow day.  Where is everybody?”  I’ve noticed a trend lately, like over the past three months.  It honestly breaks my heart, but more and more people are feeling really sad, not enjoying things they once enjoyed, and are experiencing relationship problems left and right.

How could relationships NOT suffer if everyone’s sad and not enjoying life?!

If you’re experiencing anything at all like this, I’ll tell you what I pretty much tell everyone else:

1. Doldrums are common during this time of year. We aren’t getting enough sunlight OR activity and, as a result, many people begin to feel “run down.”  The good news is, pretty weather is on the way – it’s in as big a hurry to see us as we are to see it.  Grab a jacket, if necessary, and get the heck out of the house or office.  Spend at least 20 minutes outdoors, preferably walking.  Sit on a bench at the park and watch the squirrels and birds during your lunch break – a Subway sandwich and bird watching are a beautiful match.
2. Do something each day. If you combine the advice in #1 with this one by, say, doing yard work or cleaning out your car or garage – then you’ll be racking up bonus points.  Pick up limbs, sweep off your walks, scout out places to plant flowers and/or trees, put out bird feeders, clean out the garage, wash and wax your car, and so on.  Fresh air, sunshine, AND activity?  Forget about it, you’ll be so happy you won’t be able to stand yourself.
3. Do something for someone else. Do a totally wonderful deed for someone else without even considering the pay off for you.  Bake a cake or cookies for someone who’ll cherish each bite or call someone up to see a movie – your treat.  You’ll both feel as giddy as an 8 year old in McDonald’s.
4. Don’t buy into all the gloom and doom you see in the media. Everything’s going to be fine!  God’s still in Heaven, after all.  If He ever walks out on the job, then I’ll worry.  I’m not trying to say there aren’t real problems around us – I’m not saying that  AT ALL.  My head isn’t in the sand, but it’s not hanging either.  If everyone gets down, no one will be up to get the work done!

If you feel down, get moving and grooving and do it in the great outdoors. If it’s still chilly where you live, grab a jacket!

One of the reasons my updates on Self Help Daily and Out of Bounds haven’t been as frequent as usual is the busy-ness I alluded to.  The past few weeks have been filled with online projects.  I’ve done a few things for my husband’s company and a few others for another client.  Add to that the maintenance of our own websites and blogs.. this chica and her gato grande (I had Mexican for lunch, it always affects me this way) have been grinding it out.  But, as I said, loving it.

I’ve also put up another blog.  Actually, it was a website that I’d had up for years and dearly loved.  One of the hats I wear is that of a dreamologist, and this particular site addressed that fascinating field.  I’m not talking about hocus pocus or “If you dream about kissing a frog, you’ll meet your prince or princess tomorrow.”  That stuff is deliciously fun, mind you, but about as accurate as my check book ledger (or as it would be if I kept one).  I’m talking about the fact that our dreams give us insights into what’s going on in our lives and in our heads.  Many times one dream will tell us more about ourselves than a whole year of soul searching.

This website was Dream Prophesy and a while back, when everyone and their grandmother was hacked, it was one of our casualties.  It kind of figured, really.  It was the largest of my sites, with the most comments, and interaction. It was also a Search Engine beast (that’s a good thing).  Of course it went down!

Even though I got a lot of e-mails from people wanting me to put the site back up, the thought of starting all over was SO completely overwhelming that I just kept responding to their e-mails and telling them, “Maybe someday”.  I mean, this site had hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of pages, articles, posts, dream analyses, dream guide entries, etc.  What was I supposed to do, go back and make page one all over again, then page two, and so on?

I think I’m up to a whopping 16 pages now.  But hey, that’s better than none.  Right before I decided to “go for it,” I remembered advice I once gave to  someone who was completely overwhelmed.  She asked, “What are you supposed to do when you have two billion things to do?”  I said, “Number one.  Then, number two.  Then, three…”  So I decided to heed my own advice.

I used the marvelousThesis Theme to build the site.  Love me some Thesis. Get this, the site was down for about a year and fell off of Google’s map.  I just put it back up this month (the 12th) and it already ranks number 1 in Google for it’s main search terms – Dream Prophesy.

With the last theme I used, it took months to get to the top spot.  I’ll let you know how it goes, but I have a feeling Thesis will help it rank really high for all of its keywords.   Because, well, that’s just how it rolls.

EDIT:  Apparently I didn’t have time to breathe or proofread!  I just added an “e” to breathe that had refused to show up for work.  I guess it took Friday off.  Don’t you HATE when you know full-well how to spell a word but your fingers get ahead of your brain and you look like you skipped spelling class.

Snap, I loved spelling class.  It was math I bailed on.