So, I Forgot I Was Journaling

For the past few weeks, I've prayed until I fell asleep and awoken the next morning praying. And I've gotten great sleep in between. I'm not sure if there is a corelation or not? But it has been an amazing way to start and end my days lately. I think this may have started just before my trip or as the trip began. I don't recall the exact day, though.

I've enjoyed being able to walk around the little pond near my apartment again. I haven't walked as much this week as I did previously. That's mostly because of the time change. It gets dark by the time I'm finished with my dinner. It doesn't get dark as early as it does in California in their timezone, though. I suppose I could take a walk before I have dinner?

I'd like to get back to jogging as well. I do miss getting my heart rate up to that level. I'm no longer aiming at a race or in need of losing any weight. I just enjoy jogging...hehehe I love walking the most, though. So, it's great to be doing that at least. I walked quite a bit in California, by the way.

I didn't really eat a lot when I did eat last week. Coupled with how much I walked, I didn't gain any weight on the trip. I'm in maintenance mode now with my diet and exercise. I'm happy that I was able to mostly continue that while I was away from home. The only bad thing about it was that I wasn't able to eat the wholesome foods I do at home. Not everything I ate was bad. But some of it was definitely very bad...LOL

I set a goal to stop eating out for a while after the trip. I'm happy to say I haven't eating out once since I got home. I went to the grocery Monday morning to stock up on food for the week. For breakfast, I've been having my cinnamon sourdough toast. For lunches, I've been having soup. Monday's dinner was chicken fried rice. And last night's dinner was chicken tacos. I think for dinner tonight, I might make chicken and rice with veggies. I'll do the chicken in the air fryer, steam the veggies, and use some of the extra rice left over from Monday.

I receive emails from my favorite restaurants almost daily. I thought about unsubscribing from their lists for a while to avoid the temptation of eating out. But I've decided to allow them to keep coming for now. After the past three years, I am finding it best to face these things. It leads me to prayer. Each time an email comes through, I pray a little and it has gotten easier to not think about going out...hehehe

I remain undecided about how long I'll be in Indiana. Work is the issue. Things are really ramping up and December is a huge month for my projects. With how I deal with these projects, I think it is probably best for me to remain home. Which means I might only go up the week of Thanksgiving and only have the holiday off while working the other four days from up there. That way I'm back home for the month of December to focus on the work that will really need my undivided attention.

That would mean this will be the first time I won't be in Indiana for Christmas. I've thought about flying up for a weekend in mid-December. But I think that won't actually work out. If I planned to stay up there for two weeks, I'd do the week of Thanksgiving and the following week; as it's the first week of December. So, regardless, I hadn't planned to be up for the day of Christmas anyway. I'm just not sure that's a good idea to be away from home the first week of December.

This is good to write about it, though. As I've stated several times, writing helps me process such things. So, talking about being on the fence about this is a good thing for me. I don't have a lot of time left to decide, though...hehehe

I've now taking 2 one mile walks today. The temperature and humidity are pleasant. But it sure is windy today...hehehe I had a meeting at lunchtime. So, I had a late lunch. This will afford me the opportunity to take a walk after work and before dinner. Yay! I'll get in 3 miles today...hehehe

After watching my video of the New Orleans Square street band, I decided to have gumbo for lunch today...hehehe I added some Gulf wild caught shrimp to the gumbo. It turned out really good! I used the last of my sourdough as well. I went through an entire loaf in three days...LOL But that's okay. They are small and I had some with my soup for three days and did cinnamon toast all three days as well. I normally just use it for toast.

Work has been a little challenging today. Not as in stressful. Just a lot of waiting. I've had meetings and the work I'm doing has required me to stop and ask questions from busy people...LOL It feels like a hurry up...and...wait kind of day...LOL I think once I get past today's hurdles, I'll be able to be extra productive for a week or two. One day at a time, right?!?

Bwahahaha...I just sat down to do some writing on a new book idea I started last night and just realized I stopped journaling early in the day. I forgot I was journaling today...LOL Like yesterday, I was somewhat adding throughout the day without the timestamps...hehehe

I was able to take that third one mile walk after work. It was nice. The temperature had dropped a little and the wind was starting to die down a bit. The sunset was beautiful. I'm so glad I was able to get out there one more time today...hehehe

Dinner turned out fantastic. As I earlier stated, I did end up doing the air fryer chicken, steamed veggies, and rice. I decided to go ahead and post about it. I've missed posting my food...LOL

I also posted my emotional photos from my first day at DCA...hehehe It was a series of selfies with the Inside Out characters. I'm glad I posted those. I think this was my first official post from my time at Disneyland Resort? I didn't specifically state that is where I was, though. Wes asked me if I had done Dapper Day on my Threads post. As of this writing, he was the only one who asked about that. But Mack did mentioned how dapper I looked on my Twitter post. And Tyrese mentioned how animated I was on my Instagram post...hehehe There were other comments. But these few stood out the most as of this writing.

As briefly mentioned above, I started a new book idea last night. Cherie inspired me to take a stab at a fictional work. At first, I thought about doing a short story. But as I brainstormed about it, I had this idea for a series of somewhat related short stories. So, it will be an anthology of sorts. I'll take my time working on it and see what happens. It won't be a project I announce or talk about in general. But I'll keep Cherie updated on it.

I'd still like to make progress on my non-fiction book. I still have plenty of notes already organized to work on it. I just haven't been motived to spend any time on it for a while. I think I stopped working on it in August or early September. I'm not going to make my original goal of finishing it by the end of the year. I'm okay with that, though. I'm learning to take my time and only work on such things when I'm inspired. It isn't like I do this for a living. I want to keep doing it for a loving...hehehe

Well, I don't have much time left in the day. And I'd like to get some work done on this new book idea. Something is stirring in my brain as I type...LOL