I Must Ask . . . How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Sleep is perverse as human nature,

Sleep is perverse as legislature....

So people who go to bed to sleep

Must count French premiers or sheep,

And people who ought to arise from bed

Yawn and go back to sleep instead.

–Ogden Nash, Read This Vibrant Exposé

It's been a couple of weeks since I asked, but I want to thank everyone who offered up a prayer or sent good thoughts to those who've lost homes in the fires that are going on in the Western US. I hoped to have my quilt for Phoenix Quilts finished to show you. But it's summer and I'm taking life a slightly slower pace than usual, enjoying the moments that count. I've got just over half the quilting finished, and it was exactly as scary as I thought it would be and also exactly as uneven and not perfect as I thought it would be. But as I knew it would, it got easier after the first stitch and I'm enjoying the learning experience. Here's how I left it on Tuesday evening. My goal is to finish it on Saturday and get it in the mail on Monday.

I had a little trouble falling asleep last night. I'm actually doing a lot better than I used to with being able to fall asleep quickly and doing my sleeping at night and being awake during the day. But last night I was awake until 2:00 am. I think it had something to do with the migraine I enjoyed today . In any case, when I rolled out of bed at 8:00 this morning, my first thought was six hours is not enough. The last couple of weeks, I've been going to bed pretty early {for me} , and since it is summer, I've been able to get away with 10 hours of sleep and still be up and going at a respectable time in the morning. I love it and wish I could get that much sleep every night. I would have climbed right back into bed this morning, but Grasshopper had violin lessons at 9:00 and we had plans to go swimming right after that.

That's when I decided that I must ask . . . how much sleep do you need? Then I remembered I had two other questions I want to ask, and have debated back and forth all day which way to go. But I'm going with the sleep question because it's what's on my mind right now and the other two will keep. I suppose that you should vote for how much sleep is healthy for you, rather than how much sleep you'd really like. I've been getting by on 6 or 7 hours a night for the last two or three years. It is not enough. I really need eight, and I'm working on giving myself that because it is healthy. It it hard to quiet that voice in the back of my head that says stay up just a little bit more and get something else done. You'll be tired in the morning anyway, so what does a few minutes more matter now? But I'm working on it. It would be lovely to have 10 hours of sleep, if only there were about 18 waking hours each day. I guess I'll have to settle for 8 hours of sleep and 16 waking hours. Vote for your required amount of sleep and then tell your sleep "wish" amount in the comments.

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While I was debating about which of three questions to ask today, a fourth question came to mind. I decided to ask that question today as well, but it is unofficial. Yesterday I bought a new swimming suit. It is a cute suit, but a little on the boring side in the color department; black with a grey and white print. Today, we went swimming and I have to admit I was a little jealous of all of the pretty prints on the other suits there. I've considered making myself a swimming suit every time I shop for a new one, but making swimming suits {and jeans} are my least favorite kinds of garment construction. I've done both and it takes a lot to get them to come out right. Part of the problem is that the patterns are . . . well . . . not really what they say they are. And working with Lycra or spandex is always an adventure. But perhaps I can use this new suit to make a pattern, because I really like the cut, fit and style, and if I can find some pretty fabrics, I can make the perfect suit.

I mentioned yesterday that I would never post a photo of myself in a bathing suit. Ever. I'm not the shape I used to be and it has been hard to get used to. Making peace with what is and finding ways to feel beautiful even though I'm less than perfect has been a pet project of mine. When you shop for shoes, you don't blame your foot if the shoe doesn't fit right or doesn't look good. You blame the shoe. Buying clothes should be the same way. But there is a tendency to blame our bodies when the clothes don't look right. The trick is to take the emotion out of it and realize that it is the clothing that doesn't work and not your body. I have to remind myself of this a lot. And I have to remember that it's not what's on the outside that makes me beautiful, although I do have some nice features. My eyebrows, for instance, are zero maintenance. No plucking, no sculpting, and they are completely awesome. I also have really nice legs {below the knee, which is all you'll ever see of them, unless you stalk me at the pool, and even then the skirt on my granny suit does a pretty good job of covering most of what I don't like to show} and ankles. And I love that I have blue eyes {thanks, dad}. As to the character traits that make me beautiful, well, I think that loyalty is a pretty good one.

I must ask . . . what makes you beautiful? As I mentioned, this question is unofficial, but I'd love to hear what you have to say if you're comfortable with that, and if you'd rather not share I understand. Take a minute and seriously consider the positive about yourself. Don't let that negative voice talk you out of believing that there is beauty in you. Tell it to be quiet and find the voice that tells you what makes you special.


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You're insecure
Don't know what for
You're turning heads when you walk through the door
Don't need make up
To cover up
Being the way that you are is enough

Everyone else in the room can see it
Everyone else but you

Baby you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed
But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell
You don't know
Oh Oh
You don't know you're beautiful

If only you saw what I can see
You'll understand why I want you so desperately
Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe
You don't know
Oh oh
You don't know you're beautiful
Oh oh
That what makes you beautiful
–What Makes You Beautiful, lyrics by Rami Yacoubm, Carl Falk and Savan Kotecha, performed by One Direction