What do you do on the weekends when you are sober?

Isn’t it boring?

No.

It’s not.

It’s relaxing, productive, and fulfilling.

I had no idea how to spend my time when I first quit drinking.

I was antsy, irritated, and annoyed.

Alcohol had removed my ability to find pleasure in anything but alcohol.

For the first time in a long time, this weekend I had few plans and obligations.

I thought this would be a perfect example of what a “normal” weekend looks like.

Saturday I woke up early and had coffee with my husband,

in our quiet living…

I have had nothing but JOMO this Labor Day.

The Joy Of Missing Out.

JOMO is new to me and I am still a bit shocked at just how much JOMO I have.

This makes me question my past decisions, but anyway…I am here now.

Please do not confuse me with being a bore, or a prude, or a homebody.

Actually, I am those things too, but still…

I am an extrovert.

A party girl.

I am someone up for adventure.

Most of the time, I still party sober.

I go to lakes, pools, boats, and bbq’s on summer holiday…

Will I lose weight if I quit drinking?

This is one of my most asked questions.

I can’t guarantee anything about the scale, but I can share my experience.

When I quit drinking, I let myself eat whatever I wanted, with abandon.

I didn’t have a sweet tooth until I gave up alcohol.

Without wine, my body craved sugar and I indulged.

Alcohol had a hold on my brain and giving it up was hard.

Super hard.

I let myself consume whatever I wanted, craved, and needed.

I only had one exception: no alcohol.

That was the only simple rule…

Along with another chaperone, I took my 15 year old daughter and 5 of her girlfriends, to a lake house in Michigan, for a long weekend.

The weekend away was like a mini vacay.

A sober, alcohol free, rated PG, delightful vacation.

Is it possible to have fun without drinking?

When I was drinking, I didn’t think so.

When I was newly sober, I wasn’t sure either.

Now my vacations have gotten even better because they don’t revolve around alcohol.

When I was drinking, alcohol crowded my thoughts.

Bringing drinks, mixing drinks, getting more drinks, keeping drinks cool, finding the…

My friend, Becky died a year ago today from alcohol.

It is so sad and it is not fair.

Becky and I were just casual friends, but we had a lot in common.

We both come from the same small town in Wisconsin.

We were both on the Poms squad in high school.

We married good, steady guys who loved us dearly.

We both gave birth to two daughters, a few years apart.

Being a Mom was the most important role of our lives and meant the world to both of us.

We were as proud as peacock’s of our…

My Grandma died just before her 89th birthday in her home yesterday.

I am 44 years old and until yesterday, both my Grandma’s were still living, so I am one incredibly lucky Granddaughter.

I have two good Grandma’s.

In my experience most people get one good Grandma, that they like, and then a mean Grandma, that they like less.

Is this true?

I was gifted with two very different people for my Grandma’s and I love them both dearly.

Grandma Alvina was my Mom’s mom.

Alvina’s Mom was adopted and came from Poland.

When I had kids we started calling…

If you think you can’t have fun without drinking.

You are right.

I couldn’t either.

That is because as much as I hated to admit it, I had become dependent on alcohol.

I needed alcohol for a good time.

So much that I didn’t feel good without it.

As a daily drinker, I would wake up with a hangover.

The only way for me for me to feel better was to address the withdrawal my body was experiencing.

Alcohol directly influenced the chemical activity in my brain which caused issues like depression and anxiety to exacerbate.

It disrupted my sleep…

It’s no joke that we can turn to alcohol in times of stress, and for some it’s a slippery slope.

With more people working remotely there is less separation, between work and home.

When telecommuting, there is no physical transition between work life and home life, and the lines between personal and professional, can get blurred.

You as an employee, have more freedoms and can more easily hide behind a computer screen. On the other hand, managers may reach out for assistance during non working hours, so you might feel like you are always on. …