There may be an age limit to sleeping on a yoga mat

As you may know if you've read my posts in the past, I like variety and change. Doing the same thing day after day is soul-deadening to me. However, the older I get, the more the issue of COMFORT also comes into play. Thus Experiment 1 for today:

Experiment 1, Tuesday, March 15th (ides of March). I've been reading about minimalistic living. One such post told about giving up the bed and sleeping on the floor. He said it took about two weeks to get accustomed and that he still would find a mattress far more comfortable but was OK with sleeping on the floor now. He appears to be just a bit older than college age. This is relevant, as you shall see.

Last night I decided to sleep on my yoga mat Getting settled in was difficult and even with the mat, the floor still felt pretty hard. I wasn't able to lie on either side so I lay on my back. I usually sleep in this position in bed, so didn't think it would be much of an issue. My sciatica soon set in because of my flat back, so I tucked a small pillow under my knees. Better, but still not anywhere what one could call actually comfortable. It was around 1:00 a.m. or so and I was tired so did finally fall asleep. Many times. I normally wake up quite a bit even in bed, so I changed position slightly each time.

I actually slept, off and on, until around 5:00 or so. At that time my back was sore and no matter what position I took I couldn't fall back asleep. Spent what seemed like several hours changing positions and trying to go back to sleep. Finally looked at the clock again and it was only 55 minutes later. I tried lying on my stomach but that wasn't comfortable enough to go back to sleep either.

The yoga mat was perfect for stretching out my sore back, neck, legs, arms and entire body before getting up--still far too early--without enough sleep.

I took a long shower and did Experiment 2, which I'll write about later when my hair is dried and I can tell what it looks like.

Are you a routine-sort-of-a-person or do you like to change it up like me?

Gotta have a Goal

It seems as though I always need to have a goal or a project to work on. This is probably true of most people, so I don't feel like I'm really super-special or anything! Lately I've been reading minimalist blogs. Before that "living simple" books were one of my passions.

The ironic thing is, if you saw my house, you would laugh. It's quite far from living simply and further still from minimalistic living. Yet, that's my goal and my dream, to someday live in a tiny little place, with barely any furnishings or belongings.

Wait, that was sort of like my tiny little studio house in the country, at least before my son moved in with me. So I've already (sort of) done it. That's good news and encouraging because right now it seems quite daunting to subtract most of the things contained in this (much larger) house.

My bedroom is piled with heaps of clothing, sorted and rejected from the clothes-hangers to await disposal. I have a lot of clothes. They weren't purchased new but gained from friends, rummage sales and thrift stores. There are altogether too many boxes of decorations, too much jewelry, too much furniture and too much paper. There's a lot of clearing out for me to do!

What's your current or latest goal, and how is that going for you?

Arrrggggghhhh!

I have a sick three-year-old in the house who is driving me crazy. And yes, I agree that sounds rather unkind of me to say. But unless you've been through it--and if you have children, you certainly have--it's hard to describe how hearing the same thing over and over for 48 hours can WEAR on a person! I love the little fellow dearly but hearing all the whining and repeating the same three lines again and again has driven away what little sanity that still remained. Yikes! Living child-free was so wonderfully quiet and peaceful. It's nearing seven months of living together as an extended family in this 2-bedroom house. I really don't know how people did this in the "olden days" haha, probably only because there weren't any other options!