21 for 21 list
This is my August update for my 21 in 21 list. I’ve done (or am doing) several of the items. Some aren’t going to happen and some are kind of up in the air.

1. Personal & Spiritual

1. Blaze and Zoey for a weekend-They came for a weekend and stayed back in March plus Serenity and the kids have come and visited for a couple of weekends.
2. One sentence journal each day-I’ve been doing this each day
3. Devotional/prayer journal-I’ve been doing this each day

1. De-cluttering/cleaning

1. Finish cleaning out basement-I’d say this is mostly done. Still a few odds and ends, but nothing like it was.
2. Go through Tom’s stuff-the kids came in May and we went through Tom’s stuff. They chose what they wanted and we donated and got rid of a lot of stuff. I have a few things I wanted to keep that I need to go through and figure out how to store it.
3. Go through boxes of pictures-started but have made very little progress. It was harder than I thought it would be because I kept running across pictures of Tom.
4. Organize digital pictures/get them printed?-not even a little bit

1. Health

1. Increase steps to 20,000 three days per week-This one is not going to happen. My heels (I’ve had plantar fasciitis for years) started flaring up again as I increased my steps. So I have mainly been sticking to my 20 minutes a day walks.
2. Develop  or find healthy eating/living self-talk scripts, record to listen to daily. Not really…

1. Facts of Life book

1. Will/power of attorney/advance directive (this is done; just need to decide best way to store it: fireproof lock box? Safety Deposit box?)-Got a lock box for the paperwork have gathered most of the info listed below, except for the house info and I am not sure how/where to get that.
2. Bank information
3. Recent tax returns
4. Original deed of trust for home
5. Car titles and registration
6. Credit/debit card
7. Personal records: (full name, social security, legal address, date/place of birth, Names/addresses of spouse/children, birth/death certificates, marriage certificates, divorce paperwork, adoption papers, medication list…)

1. Business

1. Take a class on using MS Office/365-No, but an online assessment I took on Indeed showed me I definitely need some sprucing up in this category!
2. Take a class on using Zoom technology-I’ve watched some videos and read some books/articles on it so I’m going to say kind of for this one.
3. Create a signature for my gmail-completed
4. Pyramid Model training-completed 2-15-21
5. Create 18 new classes-Way, way, way behind on this. I’ve created five (and two of those were one hour informal trainings that I did for a center). I just totally stopped on that. ​

​Here is the wrap-up for July’s resolutions:
 
Walking 20 minutes a day: I did this every day
Tracking blood sugar: did this each day
Tracking food: did this each day
Devotional/journal: did this each day
Blog: posted 19 of 31 days
Read 21 minutes a day: did this each day
Fruit/veggie goal: 21 of 31 days
Drink 80 oz of water per day: did this every day
 
Most importantly, I checked my chart and filled it out each day which had been my big struggle the last few months, I wasn’t even looking at or doing the resolution list. 

I have done fairly well keeping up with my resolution list this month after slacking off for the last several months. I was not perfect in getting everything done everyday but I did keep track of what I was and wasn't getting done (which was a huge improvement over the last few months. 

Here are my goals for August. I'm still keeping it fairly simple. I'm going to choose a small reward for myself if I manage to keep track of my progress again this month. 

​

1. Walk 20 minutes a day, #walk20in20, #walk20in21
2. Track blood sugar and food intake
3. Drink 80 oz of water a day
4. Read 21 minutes a day, #read21in21
5. Digital de-clutter: spend 15 minutes a day (Monday-Friday’s) working on digital clutter. For example, I really need to clean up my contact list on my phone.
6. Blog
7. Devotional/journal
8. Fruit/vegetables: eat two servings of fruit and two servings of vegetables a day

​Tom’s birthday was Wednesday. I went out of town Tuesday and came home Thursday. Josh made arrangements for us to meet at Olive Garden (one of Tom’s favorite places to eat) on his birthday. I didn’t think I could stand to wander around the house all day on his birthday alone, so I decided to get out of town for a couple of days. Through all of this, I have been so thankful for our children and grandchildren. They have been so supportive and so intuitive of what I needed. They are truly a blessing.
A year ago today, we signed Tom up with hospice. It was a hard decision for us to make, but we were so thankful for them during the last few weeks of Tom’s life. If you are in a position where you and your family are having to consider hospice, I do highly recommend the service; especially Hospice Circle of Love out of Enid.
Serenity and the kids are coming today to stay a few days and I am really looking forward to lots of grandkid hugs. 

A year ago today, I wrote the following post for the Let’s Support Team Tom Facebook page. Little did I know at the time, we only had a few weeks left together. However, looking back at this post today, I still feel the same way despite everything that happened. I am forever thankful for God sending me Tom and our happy lives together. No matter how hard it is without him, I am thankful; always thankful. And I am sure you guys get tired of me saying this, but I’m saying it again. Life is short, enjoy the time you have with your loved ones. Forgive. You never know what tomorrow (or even later today) brings.

Last Year's post in Let's Support Team Tom's Facebook page:

This may be a long one, so settle in lol. I've been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to have been in such a wonderful marriage with someone who loves me (and I love) for all these years. I met Tom Hinton in 1991 shortly after I got divorced. I may or may not have flirted shamelessly with him in the Wendy's dining room where I was the manager at the time. Almost as soon as we started dating, I just felt an immediate connection to him. We could talk for hours and hours about everything and nothing and it was magical. He took to my kids and they took to him-which was good since we were a package deal. (Before our first date I told him that if he didn't like kids, there was no point in even going on one date lol). People have kind of made fun of us because we still acted like newlyweds even after many years of marriage. It never really bothered me, because I was (and am) crazy about him. Don't get me wrong-we have arguments and we both have said and done things to hurt the other. But we've always been able to talk it out. Watching Tom go through this illness the last 3+ years has led me to love him and admire him even more. He's been so strong and I am honored to have been by his side through it all. So no matter what the cancer brings us over the next few months-we've still got each other and we've had many happy years together. For that, I am forever grateful.

​Tom’s birthday is Wednesday, and we almost always took our vacation around his birthday. He got his birthday off with pay, so it was a way of saving vacation hours for other days he wanted/needed to take off. So a lot of my Facebook memories around this time are of things we did together while we were off. We went to a comedy club a couple of times, one year we went to Vegas together, and in 2016, we went to see Weird Al Yankovic in Enid. Looking at that memory made me realize that was our last week of “vacation” together. By the next summer, he was fighting cancer and was saving all of his leave for that. Our son had moved to Colorado in 2016, and we had planned to go visit him there in the summer of 2017. Unfortunately, by then our lives had become all about Tom’s battle and we never got to go. I miss you Tom and I miss our vacations and staycations together. No matter what we did together, we always had fun. We could turn a grocery trip into a date night and both be happy to just be spending time together. 

​I have been listening to some audiobooks and podcasts by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. He is a British doctor and one of the things I like about him is that so much of his advice is practical. He believes that the best way to help one make positive changes in their life is to fit it into their life in a way that works for them.
One of the things he talked about in one of the things I’ve listened to (sorry, can’t remember which one lol) was to say three positive things to yourself in the mirror each morning. I had been working on my self-talk for quite a while, but this brought it to a new level. There is something really powerful and emotional about looking at yourself in the mirror and saying positive things out loud. My three things have been “You are smart.”, “You are strong”, and “You are brave”. These are things that I need to remind myself of everyday because I often forget that I am all of these. I have not yet managed to do it without tears coming to my eyes.
If you were to say three positive things to yourself each day, what would they be? Share in the comments. 

​So, we are at the end of the first two weeks of July. So far, I have managed to keep track of my resolution chart everyday so I am going to reward myself by buying a book I want. Here’s a wrap-up of Week 2:
 
I walked everyday
I kept track of my blood sugar and my food everyday.
I did my devotional everyday
Posted in my blog six of seven days
Read everyday
Met my fruit and vegetable goal five of seven days
Met my water goal each day
Overall, I am happy with myself and how I am doing on my goals. I am going to be deciding on another small reward for myself if I keep up with my resolution chart for the rest of the month. 

​Tom’s birthday is next week and I already knew that was going to be a hard day. What took me by surprise was yesterday being really emotional and hard. It was our youngest daughter’s birthday. Tom adopted Serenity and Josh after we got married so Natasha was our only child that Tom was present at the birth of. Floods of memories of that day ran through my mind yesterday. None of the ultrasounds had been able to determine for sure if we were having a boy or a girl, so we still had no idea when we were in labor whether we were having a boy or a girl. We had chosen a boy’s name but were still discussing girl’s names. At one point, I looked at him and said “You realize since we can’t decide on a girl’s name, we are for sure having a girl?” and we did. 

I was able to check all the things off my list today! That is 12 days in a row that I've kept up with the list, go me!