Steven gave me this pretty flower necklace for Christmas.

Last week, after a lunchtime run and a quick shower/getting dressed, I put it on and headed to the kitchen to make a salad for lunch before a call. I finished one bag of butter lettuce, opened another, and tossed the empty bag in the trash. Then I opened a container of carrots and added some to the salad. As I grabbed a few pepper slices to cut, I looked down and noticed something long and shiny hanging from my neck…

… and realized I actually hadn’t clasped the necklace closed.

I grasped at it hoping, somehow, that the flower charm was still on it.

Nope.

Ensue panic.

I had put it on in my office, walked all around the kitchen, gotten a million containers out of the fridge, put tiny pieces of salad together, thrown some of it out… IT COULD BE ANYWHERE.

And in true Kim fashion I had just the right amount of time to make a salad and eat it before my call, not time to also search for a missing charm. But the charm took priority.

I started in the office, running my hands over the floor to see if I felt it. Nope – but found some cat toys!

There is so much random junk on the shelves by my desk (okay, let’s be honest, and around it) that I skipped checking through all that for the time being cause that would be a PROJECT.

I crawled along the kitchen floor, running my hands over it to try to feel the charm (did I mention it’s not very big?). No luck, I just found some food bits that I cleaned up.

I looked in the fridge. I felt my hands all over the counters to see if I felt it (our counters are this ugly dark granite that makes it really hard to see things on). I got into the garbage and looked through the lettuce I threw away. I looked through the garbage. I looked through my salad.

This was not promising. But it had to be somewhere between the office and kitchen, right? I didn’t go downstairs with it on, did I?

I was losing my mind and panicking more and more.

I was about to give up, forget the salad, and get on my call, when I looked over at the open dishwasher. We don’t use heated dry, and when the dishwasher cycle is done, we pull the door down, pull the shelves out (and shake out the annoying things with lips and put them on the counter on drying mats), and let everything air dry. Yes, there are always dishes drying out in our kitchen unless we have guests over, in which I pretend I put them away promptly when the dishwasher is done.

So the bottom shelf of the dishwasher is pulled out with plates/etc. drying (I had already put away the top shelf – I have a strange process), and I push it in and guess what I see, sitting in the middle of the dishwasher door.

The charm.

Phew.

I put it back on the chain, and put it away until I could focus on actually clasping it, finished making my salad, and ate part of it before my call then didn’t finish the rest.

But at least I found it.

As I was commenting on Stephany’s blog this morning recapping her 2024 goals and writing “Goals/resolutions are not for me, but I like reading about other people’s!” I remembered, hey, I did set ONE goal for 2024!

My goal was to stop rushing around so much – no more stacking appointments back-to-back, wearing myself out, and ending up super cranky because of it. I had a bad habit of cramming ALL THE THINGS into one day, thinking I’d be able to relax that evening or the next day, but it never quite worked out that way.

I didn’t turn it into a SMART goal, but I still achieved it over the year by practicing being lazy and putting things off. I started the year still stuck on the idea of trying to reach a “clean slate” to-do list – which is impossible. I had to reteach myself that my world won’t end if I push something off to another day. I had to trust myself to know what my family’s and my own priorities are, and let the rest wait.

In essence, I had to embrace a less structured, more flexible life. For example, no more rigid Sunday morning workouts – now I just wake up, relax, and work out later if I feel like it. Simple changes like that made a big difference.

It’s much better now and more apparent when I’m slipping back into the old habit. The week before Christmas, I had my annual vascular appointment and realized it was on the same day as my manicure, in two different towns. Since it’s hard to reschedule the vascular appointment (and I tried with the mani but Lorena was off the next day), I kept both and filled the in-between time with other to-dos even though I knew it would completely drain me. And I was right. Just the reminder I needed to avoid that in the future!

I also mentioned a few weeks ago that my snister picked out three words for me for 2024 – calm, adventure, and healing.

That just shows how much my snis knows me, because those were big focuses for me this year.

Calm – everything I mentioned above about being less structured and actually relaxing. It’s a work in progress but much better than 2023!

Adventure – so much adventure! Lots of fun travel – Europe, Colorado a few times (1, 2, 3a, 3b, 3c), trips to Iowa, I went to Seattle, etc. We went on at least 13 flying trips. We had adventures at home with our visitors (Stephany, my parents). I ran that marathon. And other things I am too lazy to look up.

Healing – Physically, I got to a much better place with keeping my blood thinners at therapeutic levels (meaning I go in less to have my blood checked!). And mentally, I did a lot of work on my relationship with food.

On to 2025! Happy New Year!