By Dixie 
Friday night and everyone online is eating at a five star restaurant with their gorgeous, adoring husbands and perfectly angelic, smiling kids. Or they are at a girls’ beach weekend with a magnificent sunset behind them, all wearing matching khaki shorts with white cotton shirts and holding frozen margaritas. All lovely pictures of lives well lived.
You are at home in your jammies drinking out of a chipped wine glass from a cardboard Box O’ Wine and eating microwaved kettlecorn, too tired and broke to go anywhere. There is no husband gorgeous or otherwise, and honestly there aren’t too many besties with who you would want to spend a whole precious weekend. Definitely do NOT want to get the selfie stick out tonight.
OK, so your life isn’t picture perfect. Guess what? Nobody elses is either.
Those perfect people at the restaurant? Probably sometime during their perfect evening they will wish they were at home in their jammies eating something within their budget. Those kids? They fight, cry and whine just like every kid does. Those besties at the beach? It is always challenging to be around the same folks for more than a few hours, despite endless margaritas and party pictures on Facebook. And BTW, those perfect pictures likely took several takes and a lot of frustrated sighs from the waiter/photo guy.
No life is perfect.
But it sure seems life isn’t as interesting as it could be. How do you put the life back in…well, LIFE?
ONE: Count your blessings. Stop whatever rant you have in your head right now, and simply start listing all the things in your life for which you are grateful. Maybe that chipped wine glass is the last of a set and reminds you of a long talk with a friend years ago. And those jammies are pretty soft and comfy, right? The rain on your roof sounds relaxing and the stars are starting to come out in the sky. Keep going. Write it down. Keep a gratitude journal and simply list whatever you are grateful for every day.
TWO: Make a plan to do something productive for a few hours tomorrow. Pick a project or two you have needed to do-something that stabs you with a little guilt when you walk by every day like folding that big pile of laundry, finishing painting the trim in a bathroom, or clearing the papers off the dining room table. Make a list of what you need to get done, put a reasonable time next to everything. Just for a few hours, not all day.
THREE: Make a plan to do something fun for a few hours tomorrow. Take a walk on a trail nearby, call a friend and go to lunch or a movie, read a great book, research a vacation, find a zipline and sign up. Do something you don’t ordinarily do.
FOUR: Lastly, for tonight, let yourself be yourself. It is OK to rest, it is OK to be comfortable, it is even OK to have wine and popcorn for dinner. Enjoy your alone time. Tomorrow you can get something done, and have some fun.
You can even get that selfie stick out to show off your new bathroom trim AND get that Facebook photo finish of your zip line adventure!