I don't want to be totally AF......,

[actiongirl46]

Good for you Frances! What a great outing. Who cares what they thought but you did what you needed.

Blue - I forgot to congratulate you on your new car! that is awesome. I thought we were ready for a new one but we just fixed the old (again). Hopefully it will last this time!

Stay in touch - AG

[frances]

Hi all - church this morning - it's been 3 weeks - I am ready and in need of some worship time.

Instead of laundry, I wound up hanging curtain panels in my home office room - it looks so much better now! I also learned how to change a drill bit all by myself :-)

On new cars - we got one when my son got his license. It has been very freeing to have him drive himself places and pick his sister up/take her places too!

[actiongirl46]

Curtain panels?? Wow! Did you do a fun color?

My oldest just got his permit so I guess we will need to keep the old clunker around for awhile.

Good day here. Church, then I had a long walk with a friend, cooked and ate good food, and am trying to get to bed early (for me). I have a lot of deadlines this week. I think I'll be ok with the stress, it will be helpful to get back into a routine especially if I'm really busy.

Have a great Monday all!

[blue1]

Hi guys - I'm on a work trip so haven't had much time to check in this week. I have not been very well behaved . . . so back to square one for me. Its depressing. I know I'll get back into a good routine when I get home. I should be home later tonight.

You'll be alright AG! Don't be too hard on yourself!

[blue1]

Greetings!

Sorry to hear things haven't gone the way you would have liked AG - hope you can get back on track soon...Glad to see you here!

Blue - Pandora is a jewelry line - it is very popular - a lot of bracelets and charms but also some rings and I'm sure other things. I got my daughter the princess ring. It's cute - was about $50. A lot of their stuff is pretty pricey but some is not too bad.

I'm happy for you about the car! Hopefully it will be a double blessing and allow you to get your credit back on track too!

I'm home alone for the next few hours. Not sure what I'll do - probably some laundry and TV. Woohoo I'm livin' it up!

My husband and I went out to dinner last night with a couple of friends. We had a nice time - good food and conversation. They are big drinkers and I think my drinking so slowly held them back a little. We were there three hours and I had a cocktail before dinner and one wine with dinner and then one wine afterwards - everyone was ready to go and I still had half a glass of wine left. In the old days I would have had more than that for sure! Felt fine and no desire for more. That makes me happy :happy2:

Hope you guys are having a good weekend!

Frances you are on a roll Congrats!

Thanks about the car....God blessed us with the....now we're waiting for the new roof or new house....however God wants to do it is fine with us!

[blue1]

Greetings!

Sorry to hear things haven't gone the way you would have liked AG - hope you can get back on track soon...Glad to see you here!

Blue - Pandora is a jewelry line - it is very popular - a lot of bracelets and charms but also some rings and I'm sure other things. I got my daughter the princess ring. It's cute - was about $50. A lot of their stuff is pretty pricey but some is not too bad.

I'm happy for you about the car! Hopefully it will be a double blessing and allow you to get your credit back on track too!

I'm home alone for the next few hours. Not sure what I'll do - probably some laundry and TV. Woohoo I'm livin' it up!

My husband and I went out to dinner last night with a couple of friends. We had a nice time - good food and conversation. They are big drinkers and I think my drinking so slowly held them back a little. We were there three hours and I had a cocktail before dinner and one wine with dinner and then one wine afterwards - everyone was ready to go and I still had half a glass of wine left. In the old days I would have had more than that for sure! Felt fine and no desire for more. That makes me happy :happy2:

Hope you guys are having a good weekend!

meant to say with the car.....

[blue1]

Hi all - church this morning - it's been 3 weeks - I am ready and in need of some worship time.

Instead of laundry, I wound up hanging curtain panels in my home office room - it looks so much better now! I also learned how to change a drill bit all by myself :-)

On new cars - we got one when my son got his license. It has been very freeing to have him drive himself places and pick his sister up/take her places too!

How was church Frances?

We didn't want to get in debt for the car....but it feels really good riding around without smelling gas and smelling like gas....on top of leaving puddles of gas everywhere we parked and a trail wherever we drove.

[blue1]

Curtain panels?? Wow! Did you do a fun color?

My oldest just got his permit so I guess we will need to keep the old clunker around for awhile.

Good day here. Church, then I had a long walk with a friend, cooked and ate good food, and am trying to get to bed early (for me). I have a lot of deadlines this week. I think I'll be ok with the stress, it will be helpful to get back into a routine especially if I'm really busy.

Have a great Monday all!

Yeah....what color panels Frances?

[frances]

Hi there! The curtain panels are a seafoam green (light color) with a beige moroccan tile pattern on them. Every time I look at them I'm tickled at how much better the room looks than just the plain window with no curtains (which is what I had before...just a shade but nothing else). Wish I had done it 16 years ago ;-)

Church was good for me - I play in our handbell choir and we played at two services - always fun! It was pledge Sunday so the sermon was about giving but also being thankful and grateful for everything we have even if it's not much at all. It was good!

Sitting here with my seltzer water trying to figure out what to have for dinner. The rest of the family is eating out since they are out doing things (sports practice then shopping for cleats) - I'm sure I'll come up with something. We've been working on budgeting and it's been good - we're wasting so much less now that we are restricting how much we can spend each week on food.

Hope everyone has had a good day - I will check in again tomorrow for sure!

[actiongirl46]

That sounds great! I am such a minimalist as far as decorating. I hardly have anything up in over nine years . . . but always big plans in my head! Oh well.

I am right back in the swing of things here at home. Thanks Blue for reminding me not to wallow around feeling sorry for myself. There's certainly no time for that. I still feel like I am much stronger and learning so much. I agree, I am all right, at least today : )

Off to bed, another early and busy day tomorrow - AG

[blue1]

Happy Friday all!

Your panels sound very pretty Frances!

Yesterday was me and hubby's 35th going together anniversary....we had hoagies from this very popular spot. I had mushroom cheese steak....delish!
Sometimes it shocks me that I have been with him since I was 15!

Hope everybody is having a successful day!!!

[frances]

Hi Blue and everyone!

Happy Anniversary Blue! Wow - 35 years - that's incredible. Truly. Through thick and thin. Wonderful! The hogie sounds delicous too! Yum!

Yesterday was my 2 year anniversary being successful with my battle with AL. 9 months AF and 1 year 3 months moderating. I've mentioned before that I track every time I drink...it was ~7% of the days in the past 1 year and 3 months. And the majority of those times was one drink, and then sometimes 2. I have had 3 on just a couple of occasions when it was a long event. Never drunk or hungover, not once in 2 years. Wow! I don't know why it is working for me and I feel truly blessed. I have a completely different 'feel' about alcohol - I rarely think about it. As I've said before, I know from where I have come, and so I still stay cautious and mindful and I realize this may not last but I'm satisfied with where I am right now. I just wanted to mark the occasion :sohappy:

Hope you all have a great weekend!

[actiongirl46]

Happy anniversary Blue!! 35 years, wow, that is awesome. What a milestone.

Frances, I am so happy for you! Great job on setting up a way to track your success. I also like that you don't think about it. Do you credit that to your 9 months AF? Nice work, keep sharing and keep it up!

[frances]

Good morning!

Yes, AG, I do believe that the 9 months AF had a lot to do with my being able to abstain so much now and to not have AL thinking take over. There are two things that I've often thought have contributed to my success now: first, the 9 months abstaining, which allowed me to really break my daily habit - I remember somewhere about 3 months into it when after a stressful day when driving home I started thinking about the nice cup of tea I would have when I got home instead of thinking about wine as I had done for so many years previously. I was surprised. The additional time, I think, engrained that further. The second thing is that I don't drink often at all now. In the past when I went back to drinking and tried to moderate I would go right back to drinking multiple times a week. A little less frequent but within the moderating guidelines. Each time, that just took me right back to where I was before. I think that now, because I drink so much less frequently, I don't get back into that old habit again.

I know for sure that this is unusual and there are many (if not most) cases of people who abstained for a long time (year or longer), and as soon as they drank again went right back downhill to where they were before.

Long story short is YES I do strongly feel that a long time AF is needed to break those physical and mental habits. For me 9 months seemed to be enough to do that so of course my mindset is that it shouldn't be much less than that.

[actiongirl46]

Thanks Frances . . . lots of good things to think about. One thing I have noticed in racking up so many AF days (for me) since December is that I no longer think about or dread the "witching" hour. I used to get antsy around 4:30 or 5pm . . . now 99% of the time I don't think about it. I'm grateful for that.

I did my numbers for Jan/Feb. and I was at 70% AF days for the two months. I feel "meh" about that. On the one hand, happy for so many, on the other hand, for my own goals, I'd like to do better. Fortunately, it is a new day and a new month today.

Take care all!