Thursday, January 30, 2020

Blog Jambalaya

It seems the month of January is sorely lacking in ready made blog fodder.
What to do, what to do?

How about we make a list?

And since it's Thursday I'm going with thirteen items because that used to be a thing. When there's a whole lotta random and just a tiny bit o' meat a list works-

1. Hubs and I drove to N.J. last week to spend a few days with my mom. She was recovering from the flu, but was feeling a lot better by the time we arrived. We were able to get her office mostly organized for 2020, and see my brother and sister both which was really nice.

2. The flu is wicked this year. My teacher daughter says it's slowly making it's way around her classroom which, UGH! Pass the hand sanitzer please.

Also the Lysol, Emergen-C, clorox wipes, and more hand sanitizer.

3. Hubs and I have decided we don't want to do 12-hour car trips in a single day anymore. We can do 8 hours no problem, 10 hours if we must, but 12 is two hours too many. Plus coming home we were forced to make an unscheduled stop when hubs realized his diet coke cup had a pinhole in it and was furiously leaking into the cup holder. Good times!

4. This guy was with us-


And was not happy I claimed the front seat.
He loves a car ride and is a good traveler.

5. Our other dog which I know is technically daughter2's dog had a minor accident requiring an emergency run to the vet for a leg full of stitches. She's healing really well now, but about two weeks ago this sweet girl slipped crossing a sewer grate and in went her leg. She promptly yanked it out, and chaos ensued.


Truth be told the chaos was less about the dog and more about the fact that hubs was walking her alone and couldn't reach me. I was in the shower and didn't have my phone with me so he had to carry her a fair distance home.

Do you take your phone with you into the shower? Asking for a friend.

6. This little nugget is officially three months old.


7. His hair! Grandson number one, aka the mancub, has always had the most fabulous head of hair which I did not think could ever be topped, but this little man is giving him a run for his money. The mancub had more of what we liked to call 'boy band hair'. This one is rocking something like a mohawk and I can't get enough of it.

8. Grandson number two needs a blog name, but I haven't landed on just the right one yet.

9. Perhaps if I made a trip to S. Korea and spent more time with him?

10. I've been reading a lot this month, currently finishing up our book club selection for February-The Amateurs by David Halberstam. In short it's the true story of four young men trying to win a place on the 1984 Olympic rowing team. Once you sort out who's who it's a good read.

11. Still have not tackled my 30-day home organization plan although I did get the frig cleaned out and hubs painstakingly cleaned all the light fixtures til they sparkled. That's something, right? February is a shorter month so perhaps we'll knock the rest out then.

12. These winter sunrises y'all-


13. Absolutely breathtaking-


Thursday, January 16, 2020

Happy New You!

We're only halfway through January so not too late, right? It never feels like a brand new year to me until somewhere around January 5th or 6th anyway. This year I'm still waiting. Still sipping tea, reading books, and finishing a jigsaw puzzle instead of tackling my 30 day home organization plan I was going to start two weeks ago. Not feeling guilty about it either.

Not too guilty anyway.

My grandson likes to wish us a happy new year when we Facetime, only he says Happy New You!  and it's completely adorable. Will there be a new me this year? I always have high hopes as January 1 approaches that there will indeed be a 'new me' in the coming year. An improved version of the old me, someone with grand plans to do all the things who then actually does them, but I think this year I'll be content with doing a few small things well.

Last year I made a list of 19 things to accomplish in 2019 (read it here) and it was a little depressing to look back and see I only managed to complete six of the nineteen. To be honest number one not happening threw us all for a loop in a hundred different ways and while I may not have done all nineteen I did a number of things that didn't make the list.

Giving myself a high five and leaving 2019 in 2019.

Have I mentioned my birthday? Hubs would say not so far today but the day's not over. Ha! I have a big birthday this year (months from now, but whatever) and I'm feeling some imaginary added sense of pressure to make every minute count. I read the most fabulous thing a gentleman shared online recently about how his 64 year old mother in law revealed to the family at Christmas that she'd spent the past year learning to play the fiddle and then she played (beautifully) a dozen songs without looking at the sheet music.

No one had any idea and they all were completely gobsmacked, it was something she'd always wanted to do so she did it. Keeping it a secret made it all the more special and while I don't want to play the fiddle I do want to think about what it is I've always wanted to do and then do it.

Let's go ahead and make a new list. I'm not going to get bogged down right now in the 'how to make it all happen', but we're sixteen days into the new year and I gotta start somewhere. Here we go-

20 in 20-

chase a dream
pray more
go somewhere I've never been
exercise
write letters
read books
be good to my skin
listen more than I talk
help somebody every chance I get
laugh a lot
clean up my phone
my closet
my desk
see waterfalls
our state capital
nearby historic sites
make some homemade gifts
try some new recipes
write stuff here
leave it in His hands

Happy New You everyone...may 2020 you be the best you yet!