Howdy!
It’s been a little over a month since my last post, and although I am way past my self imposed bedtime today, I’ve decided to hop on here to write.
Firstly, let’s catch up. I’m still gradually adjusting to life without socials, but here’s some of the things I’ve been up to:
Discovered a love for old stories and books: I purchased two books containing Jane Austen and the Bronte sister’s collection of novels a while ago. Since I haven’t the time to read them yet, I did what the average college student does in a book report situation- watched the 2005 movie and 1995 series. Yes, the one with Keira Knightly! *insert screaming girl noises* Can I just say, whatever was in Jane’s water when she wrote the P&P novel, I need it urgently because, it has been quite some time since I fan-girled over a fictional book character..*cough*…Darcy…*cough* The series was also reallllly good, and filled in more of the story for me. Can we also talk about how good British old english sounds? Talmabout “you have bewitched me body and soul“, and “utterly and incandescently”. The vocabulary was givingggg! I felt my IQ rising rapidly with each scene! A solid 10/10! Need I say more? I CANNOT wait to read the novels!
Decluttering: I have a habit of organizing as a coping mechanism. Subconsciously, I have control over my stuff, so when I feel overwhelmed with other things in life, I organize my stuff to give myself a sense of control. I think there’s some old saying that goes, your environment is a reflection of your mind, and I can tell you for a fact that when my room is a mess, there is a 90% chance my mind is a larger mess. Hence, my most recent declutter. I would say I have come a mighty long way since freshman year of college, when I didn’t know where anything went and hoarded massively. Now, I have a system going where I only keep things that spark joy (Marie Kondo is quaking) or hold strong sentimental value. I also organized my online drives as much as I could. My mind was definitely clearer afterwards.
Water: Brethren, while I am not a gym or fitness junkie (at least not yet), I have made it my goal to not be dehydrated this year. I honestly think I have been dehydrated my whole life, but it wasn’t until last fall when I constantly felt sick, did my brain put two and two together concluding very matter of factly, that going 24 hours with just a few sips of liquid is utter foolishness. For some reason, I just don’t like drinking water (s/o to my kidneys for doing the heavy lifting). I don’t like water, because it’s not tasty. That may be the dumbest statement in existence, because water is quite obviously meant to be tasteless, BUT…even though, upon still! I just don’t feel the urge to drink it, except I am thirsty, which for me was in between meals. I used to go almost an entire day without water in the past, using excuses like, the dispenser is too far way or I left my bottle at home. But last year’s stress had my body on the verge of collapse. My head banged like it never had before, and I honestly got worried. Lo, it was water which was my missing element and eventual savior. Fam, as I write this post, on my right is my trusty companion, a half gallon water bottle. I’m still not a fan of the tastelessness, but I realized drinking with a straw makes it better. It also helps that its always in my line of sight (out of sight, out of mind right?), and it’s a pretty bottle. Folks, 2023 is the year of hydration!
Vivid Dreams: A fun fact about me is that I am a dreamer. I don’t mean in terms of strategic planning and goal setting, I literally dream, a lot. The frequency and number of dreams per sleep cycle oscillates, but I probably dream every night. The problem I had in the past was that I would have a ton of dreams, but forget them all once I woke up. Now, I am starting to recall a lot of my dreams. I even have a folder in my notes app where I write them down. A lot of them are very trippy, like being schoolmates with DC superheroes and having a beat down at middle of a street with a Jaeger. Some are apocalyptic and extremely distressing. Others are quite odd. I use odd because most times, my dreams feed off what is currently going on in real life, or movies I have recently watched, or things I have talked about. Odd dreams are those I have no current reference for. Dreams where I see old elementary and secondary school classmates, and we just talk, many times deep convos. Dreams where I see people I have never met in real life, and we just talk. Well, sometimes we break into spontaneous song and dance, or start crying together, but that’s besides the point. It’s these dreams that feel so vivid and so real. Maybe it’s my subconscious letting me know that I miss home, and old friends. I don’t know, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Curbing unhealthy spending habits: Finances have been for the most part of my life, alien territory for me. I was raised with the privilege of having financially supportive parents, and never having to worry about managing my money. That is, until recent years. What I discovered was that I have a huge knowledge deficit in this area. When I started earning income, I never had a budget, never established a savings threshold and never monitored my expenses. Basically living paycheck to paycheck for the longest time, and engaging in bad habits like retail therapy and major unplanned expenses. The retail therapy one really had me in a chokehold, and it wasn’t until recently that I had it identified as a problem. I shop when I’m sad, bored or anxious, most times ending up buying things I don’t need or like even. Sometimes, I just have a strong craving to spend money on new things, kind of with the illusion that new is better. Well that idea is a smoking pile of hot garbage. New is NOT always better. At the end of Q4 2022, an audit of my spending almost made my knees give way under me. Although I had acquired the habit of saving, I needed to cut down on a lot of unreasonable spending. I drew up budgets and increased my savings threshold for the current year. While it is still a struggle, I would say that so far, I have made reasonable progress. I recognize that being financially responsible is a necessary life skill, for now and for the future.
Scripture Memory & Study: Thought I could go a whole post without talking about God or the Bible? Gotcha! I saved the best for last. My goal for this year is to complete the Old Testament, or at least complete up until the book of Daniel. It has been a slow journey through the first five books in the first four months of the year, but I finally completed Deuteronomy this week, and things are looking up. I also got a new bible, my first premium Bible. It’s the CSB Thinline bible in genuine leather. It was on sale so I figured why not. In trying to be intentional with only possessing things I use, I had to give away a couple of bibles this year. I then realized I needed a physical CSB Bible. I previously used the Bible app on my phone to access the CSB translation, but there’s just something about having the hardcopy version of the text. The CSB translation is perfect for me right now, especially for hard to understand Old Testament passages. For New Testament, I use the ESV. I also plan on doing some scripture memory this year. I once watched a Youtube video on Coffee and Bible Time’s channel, where she was in the process of memorizing the book of James. I would like to memorize a chapter of the New Testament this year. I am quite good with cramming so, scripture memory doesn’t make me anxious. In secondary school, I once had to memorize and recite the genealogy of Jesus. Guess who still knows who fathered Nahshon, this girl! *lol*
Thank you for reading. Please share with me in the comments or via email what you have been currently up to. Would love to know and engage with y’all!
Email: jessinthemundane@gmail.com
Until Next Time, Stay safe and groovy!
Warm hugs,
Jess ❤
jessinthemundane 