Meredith's Monday Musings: Snow

Hi All!

Happy Monday! Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? I’m still working on all of the leftovers. They are might delicious though!

Today’s topic for Meredith’s Monday Musings is: Snow!

Who here likes snow? I do and I don’t. I do like snow because it is so pretty right afterwards. The ground and trees are all covered in that beautiful, glistening powder. It makes me feel like I’m in a snow globe or a winter wonderland. It’s just so pretty and really helps make the winter season gorgeous. 

Furthermore, getting to play in snow is pretty awesome! Getting to build snowmen, make snow angels, etc is a blast! My personal favorite is getting to go sledding. Well, as long as it isn’t too steep of a hill and I am facing forward. I had a horrible instance when I was in fifth grade and my sled got turned backwards and I ended up getting a conscious when my head and a big boulder created. Ouch! Besides that, getting to go down a slope is so much fun. Plus, it’s a great work out!

I’m not crazy about snow however when it comes to driving. This white powder stuff slows traffic down a bunch and makes the road slick, which leads to more accidents. I don’t like that one bit! Plus, I park my car outside, so in the mornings when I leave for work, I have to wipe all the snow off, warm up the car, and get the ice off that’s hiding under the snow. It’s a blast…NOT!

When it snows too, that means it’s cold outside. I don’t know about y’all, but I hate it when it’s super cold out. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind having to wear a sweater and pants to stay warm, but when I have to wear a sweater, coat, ear muffs, gloves, boots, and a hat, the cooler temps aren’t fun. 

Possibly the worst of all, (in my opinion), is when it snows, it’s the perfect time to go skiing. I don’t mind sledding, but oh my gosh. Skiing is by far the worst sport ever. I hate it. A few of my friends wanted to go once and never again. I barely can walk with two feet planted firmly on the ground. Me in a pair of skis is a danger zone for all around me. You never know which way I’ll fall. 

That’s it for me! Have a great week, everyone!

Meredith's Monday Musings: Thanksgiving

Hi All!

Happy Monday and (soon) Thanksgiving! I can’t believe that Turkey Day is this Thursday all ready. Is everyone prepared for the holiday and maybe some Black Friday shopping? I’m not! I still have a lot of cleaning to do!

Today’s Meredith’s Monday Musings topic is: Thanksgiving! 

I love this holiday for so many reasons. The main one is probably because it’s a time where my whole family can get together. With all of us being adults now, having full time jobs, and starting families, it’s really hard to get all of us together. Holidays are great days where we get to come together as one, reminisce about memories, and share what’s going on in our lives. So, that’s pretty awesome. 

This might sound bad to say, but another reason why I love this holiday is the food. Let me start off by saying, I love all food. It’s delicious. I probably eat too much on a daily basis, but on Thanksgiving, oh man, I indulge myself! How can I not, though? The food is all SOOO good and there’s so much of it. Mmm. Truth be told though, my favorite part about this meal is the leftovers. I’m a huge fan of Shepard’s Pie. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically where you take a bowl, put whatever left overs you want in it, you can mix it up or not, heat it up, and eat it. It’s really good!

Another reason why I love Thanksgiving is the meaning behind it. As a human who lives in a first world country, I can say that I don’t think about how thankful I am as much as I should. I think it’s pretty safe to say too that most first world country humans don’t. Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s my opinion. Anyway, I like that Thanksgiving makes us think about how all of the things that we’re thankful for. It gives us a chance to reflect how lucky we are for the things we have and maybe because of this, ways that we could help out others who aren’t as lucky as we are. I think if more people did that, thought of others and how they could help them out, our world would be a much better place. 

Well, that’s all I have for today. I hope y’all have a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

Meredith's Monday Musings: Anxiety

Hi Everyone!

Happy Monday! How’s everyone’s week going so far? Mine is going pretty good. I had a very fun Halloween. I hope y’all did too!

This week’s Meredith’s Monday Musings post is all about: Anxiety! 

I have anxiety with just about everything. I’m here to say that it sucks. Oh my gosh, does it suck big monkey balls. I don’t think I’d wish this on anyone. The constant worrying, the over analyzing of every situation, the physical symptoms from all of this (insomnia, physically getting ill, fingers and toes going numb, the sensation of being about to faint). Needless to say, it isn’t fun.

Ever since I was a little kid, I always worried. I wanted to make sure I didn’t upset anyone, that I got good grades, that my parents were happy with me, etc. It wasn’t until I was in my third year of college that I noticed my “worry wart” tendencies to be getting worse. I spoke with one of my teachers who had very open in the past about her own anxiety issues and with her help, I was able to go talk to someone and learn how to deal with my anxiety. 

Two years later, I’m doing much better than I was. Don’t get me wrong, there are still times when my anxiety is worse than others. For instance, when I got a new job. The first couple of months were hard because I was in a new place, having to deal with a whole different type of clients than what I was used to, etc. The feeling to want to crawl into a ball and hide under the covers came back with a vengeance. But, I knew that wasn’t an option. If I did that, I’d be letting the anxiety win. So, I pulled myself together, did a few deep breathing exercises, reminded myself of what was the worst that could happen, and moved on. I’m glad I did because my job is going great now!

I’m not writing this post to get sympathy. In fact, I hate it when people treat me differently because they know I worry a lot. I’m the same person, I just sometimes can’t stop worrying, even when a situation seems small or not that big of a deal. I shared this post for one, to let others out there who experience anxiety to know that they aren’t alone. In fact, it’s stated that 14 million adults have anxiety. That’s a lot of people! What’s sad is that, it’s also stated that only 36.9% of people who have anxiety, get help from it. Coming from someone who has gotten help,  trust me, it will make a world of difference! 

The second reason why I’m sharing this is because for the people who don’t have anxiety, I want you to understand it a bit better. I don’t worry to get attention, I literally just can’t help it. Trust me, if I could stop worrying about everything, I would in a heartbeat. So please, just be patient and whatever you do, DO NOT SAY “Calm down.” or “Can’t you just relax?” When I hear those words, it makes me want to punch the person in the face because if I could do either of those two things, I would be doing them already. Any person who has anxiety would be doing them too. The best thing a “non-anxious” person can do is: be understanding, ask if there’s anything you can do to help, reassure the anxious person that everything will be okay, and let the anxious person do whatever they need to calm themselves down. These four things will help the most. 

That’s all I got for today. I hope that everyone has a great week!