Apparently, my blog is six months old today. If I were a more organized blogger, I would probably have already known that, but I actually found out by accident when someone asked me how long I’d been blogging and I had to go back and find my first post to figure it out. “Huh,” I thought, “I guess it’s been six months already…”

Upon realizing that I have been blathering on about cats and whatnot for half a year now, my usual thought process began to take hold. I am, what you might call, a recovering pessimist. I naturally see the bad, the wrong, the things that should have happened, and so I can have a hard time patting myself on the back for things that aren’t what I deem to be “perfect.” It’s not necessarily a Debbie Downer attitude (I don’t ruin children’s birthday parties with stats on feline AIDS), but I have this incessant need to have everything within my control be an A++ job, or I consider it a total failure. This attitude makes for a very good student or study buddy, but it can bring unnecessary stress when you solely focus on what didn’t get done to your usual standard and you don’t give yourself a break now and then.

I call myself a recovering pessimist because my husband Todd is as easy-breezy, laid back, hammock in the shade, Sunday afternoon nap, televised golf game relaxed as you can get. Thankfully his half-full attitude rubs off on me the longer we are together and I can see a lot more good in situations than I could before. All that to say that once I realized I’d been blogging for six months, my natural instinct was to list all the things I hadn’t accomplished at this point (not posting enough, not as good at photography as I should be, etc.), but the Todd side of my brain took over just in time, and instead of feeling critical for what I haven’t done or what I can’t do, I’m grateful for all that I have learned so far. Do I still have goals for what I’d like to achieve in the next six months? Sure! Goals are great to help guide where you want to go, but I’m learning to enjoy the ride a bit more and reassess what “winning” looks like when you get to your destination.

Thanks for riding along so far. MWAH!