The Dash - (aka The Stuff)

This morning a few of my girlfriends and I went on a walk. Towards the end we hiked up the hill to the town's cemetery. Let me just say that this cemetery creeps me out, so this was the first time I'd spent any time in it. As we walked around we looked at the names, dates, and sayings that were on th headstones. I noticed one woman's headstone that was still unfinished. There was her husbands name and date, and then there was her name and her date looked something like this. 1950-     .... and there it was blank. I thought about this and realized the person was still alive. It then occurred to me that the most important part of someone's date was the - in the middle. It was clear all of a sudden. What ever was - happening, what ever was currently happening, what ever was continuing, that was the most important part. The "stuff" in the middle. Not the beginning, and not the end. But the middle.

I got to thinking how this applied to my life now. And I realized how amazing the middle can be. What fills the middle is really great stuff. The things we do with our middle. It's what matters. I asked myself what I was doing with my life now, and I was pleased with my answer. Had you asked me 5 months ago the answer might not have been so positive. There may have contained discontentment. But now.... there is contentment. I have goals, I have things I am working and towards. I have achievements no matter how little they may be.

But lets be real here. There are stuff I'm not doing so good at. Such as my diet. I have found a weakness. You know the time right before you go "big" grocery shopping, when the fresh food is almost all gone, and the fridge is running on empty. What do you do? You start to turn to the pantry. I found this is a crutch. I realized that I turn to the pantry because we're running low on food and I'm running low of ideas. It's frustrating because I don't know how to change that. It's not like I can go shopping when we're not ready yet. I talked to Wendy a friend of mine and she told me she struggled with that at first too. But then pretty soon you'll run out of that bad "pantry" stuff and you won't buy it anymore. Also she told me how she budgets her grocery shopping. I'm going to give it yet another adjustment and try harder. I also need to find an air popper for pop corn. How I am making it is just not acceptable.

So that was my day. Any suggestions on budgeting for grocery shopping and how other's do it I'd love to hear em.

So anyways, what are YOU doing with your middle? Anything good?