Commit some serious thought to remedies for stress in my life

that would certainly help me deemphasize the focus on all of the bad in life right now. I talked with my friend Tarah today about going to visit her in Oklahoma next month. It’s about a 13 hour drive, but I’ve done it before so I know what I’m in for. Anyway, she is lonely because her husband is stationed four hours away for the next six months due to training, and I am in need of a visit with my good friend right now. I think it would do us some good. Plus, our dogs love each other, so my little beagle would be happy as a clam to see his girlfriend again. Maybe, just maybe…

like I need oxygen. I can’t change the fact that life-consuming stress triggers surround me for now…and will continue to do so. Alexa has cancer. We fight constantly with her mother, who is mentally ill and very resentful we’re back in Ohio to help with treatment. Alexa is moody, scared, anxious, and resentful that her parents can’t get along and she fights our visits and cries every time she comes here. I had to leave a wonderful, life-changing job behind when we relocated to Ohio, and I am still grieving. I can’t decide if I’m going to work here in Dayton, and the choices in employment at the moment are less than appealing. We just completed our fourth move in two years. My husband and I have been trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant for a year now. The stresses keep piling up, and I haven’t taken enough steps to find healthy outlets for all of this stress, and it’s TIME that I do so! I’m started to feel worn down, beat up, tired and lacking inspiration and motivation. I have been trying to brainstorming ideas, big and small for ways to improve my coping skills and mood, even if I can’t change what’s going on in my life at the moment. Some random thoughts:

1. Take a yoga class
2. commit to an exercise routine with regularity
3. Disengage altogether with Alexa’s mother: no returning phone calls, texts, emails
4. get a massage
5. see a counselor
6. have one “me” afternoon per week where I try something in my new city, like a museum, coffee house or bookstore.
7. get a pedicure
8. devote an hour per day to leisure reading
9. scrapbook again
10. spend more time with my friends

more later…