June 10 2017

Expect (Five Minute Friday)

When you went to bed last night, I bet you expected to wake up this morning. You expect to live a good, long life and don’t think too much about how many more days you have on this earth. We expect things to keep going pretty much the way they have been going. Until they don’t go the way you think they will. Until one day something happens to someone you know and they are no longer able to be a part of your life for whatever reason. Did you get to say what you’d been meaning to say to them, or did you wait just one day too long for the right time to tell them how much they meant to you? If today were the last day you would get to be with someone you really care about, do they know how much you care? If not, why not? What are you waiting for? Don’t leave things unsaid. Don’t go to bed angry take a few minutes and tell that person how much you care about them and that you appreciate the part they play in your life. Don’t wait until it is too late. Expect the unexpected and say what needs to be said. Give the hugs. Resolve the differences.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!

The prompt this week is: Expect

The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write. 

Category: Five Minute Friday, Writing | 3 Comments on Expect (Five Minute Friday)
June 8 2017

25 Things You May Not Know About Me

25 Things You May Not Know About Me 
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  1. I love lots of bright colors in every part of my life.
  2. I used to run track in the 8th grade (50-yard dash).
  3. I like to write.
  4. My favorite color is purple.
  5. My favorite pizza toppings are chicken, pineapple, and green pepper.
  6. I sewed my wedding dress.
  7. I have won NaNoWriMo (The November Challenge) 4 years in a row.
  8. I LOVE creating forms in Microsoft Excel.
  9. I crochet hats for the homeless. They are quick to make, about 2 hours each.
  10. I have had eye surgery three times.
  11. I like to crank up the radio and sing along in the car, especially when I am alone.
  12. My first car was a 1974 chartreuse Dodge Colt Station Wagon.
  13. I was 16 when I met the man I married.
  14. I can avoid most sweets unless there is chocolate or pumpkin involved.
  15. I have never colored my hair.
  16. I have no tattoos and only 1 piercing in each ear.
  17. I have never had a bedroom to myself. Shared with a sister or two and then hubby.
  18. I have never lived in an apartment.
  19. I have always lived in Indiana in a house with a full basement.
  20. I have been to London, where I met 2 of the Osmond Brothers (Jay & Merrill) who were staying in the same hotel.
  21. I am not a sports fan. Seriously, no sports, at all.
  22. We have a pet snapping turtle and a bunny rabbit.
  23. My first job was an afternoon paper route when I was 11 years old.
  24. I used to play drums and bells in band during elementary and high school.
  25. I start my days with a Simple Green Smoothie.
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June 1 2017

The Elephant in the Room

There is an elephant in the room. I will attempt to eat it one bite at a time, but I am going to need your help. So, let me tell you about my elephant. When I was setting my goals for the year, I decided one of my goals would and should be to completely go through everything and do a serious and complete cleaning of the contents of my eight-foot square office that was a breakfast nook in its former life. I recently realized that somehow five months of this year have gotten away from me and NOTHING has gotten done on this goal. I thought it was a very doable goal when I was making it and having an entire year to accomplish it seemed more than generous.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I decided to take pictures of each area I needed to tackle to complete this project. I thought it might help me to SEE the mess without actually being IN the mess because this helped me years ago to get the attic organized. Part of me is hoping that if I post my mess here and tell the world about my goal that this will force me to actually get the work done in the next seven months.

I set a mini goal over the weekend of just tackling one of the small areas so I could say I had gotten something done. Unfortunately, I was paralyzed by the overwhelming impossibility of the task as a whole and couldn’t figure out where to start. So, I did nothing. Continue reading

Category: Organizing, Planning | 5 Comments on The Elephant in the Room
May 18 2017

Traveling in Tennessee

Sometimes, you just need a good long road trip. You never know what you will see along the way. It is also nice to not be the one driving so you can take photos when the opportunity arises. We hadn’t even gotten out of Indiana when this interesting truck was suddenly in front of us. I took the photo mostly because kid number two seems to like all things with mustaches. I also took it so I could figure out what it was all about. Thanks to my friend, Tina, I now know this is a reference to the movie Tombstone. The phrase was uttered by Val Kilmer, who played Doc Holliday.

During the week we stayed in the Pigeon Forge area of Tennessee, we took a side trip into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. The first stop was Cades Cove. This was enjoyable because there were lots of old buildings in a village like setting.  They had a little stamp you could use in your park passport booklet, but since I didn’t have one of those I asked if I could just stamp it on some blank receipt tape to put in my bullet journal later. They gladly let me have a small bit of their register tape and I stamped it and tucked it away. It wasn’t until later in the day that I noticed the stamp was dated the day before we went because nobody thought to change the date. My excuse is that I was on vacation and not thinking about the actual date on the calendar. Continue reading

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