49 of my favorite things on my 49th birthday

49 of my favorite things (in no particular order of course...)

1. my kindle
2. my hula hoop
3. dancing with my hoop and hubby every weekend
4.  the trips I take
5. my ever optimistic hubby
6. watching and listening to my kids
7. playing and loving on my grandkids
8. the moon
9. my mini essential oil bag for my purse
10.  just mini and tiny things in general
11. a big old glass of unsweet tea in the summertime
12.  my swinging chair on my balcony
13. doing yoga trapeze
14. the sunset
15. my rosemary growing on my balcony
16. my cool steampunk top hat
17. all things Charlie Brown
18. walking, hiking, exploring new trails
19. Chaffles
20. my big funky earrings and bracelets
21. coffee...just coffee
22. puzzles
23. daisies
24. hummingbirds
25. It's a Wonderful life
26. reading books
27. sitting on the floor
28. dark dark chocolate
29. my yellow pointy toe flats
30. having my mani/pedis every 6 weeks
31. my chiropractor (and all the past ones I've had!) love chiropractic
32. maps and studying maps
33. musicals and watching plays
34. old black and white movies (especially mysteries)
35. fringe
36. yarn and knitting (I haven't in a while though!) but yarn! all the yarn!
37. Runny Babbit book
38. thunderstorms and lightening
39. kites
40. scarves
41. Haikus
42. tea cups with saucers
43. Eating keto
44. Starry night painting
45. all the skirts!
46. natural healing and wellness
47. unschooling
48. succulents
49. Puns!  ...ok here's one.. Bad puns are how eye roll! 😂😜😹

Crazy Times

So this is the first time in my lifetime anything like this has happened.  The world is shut down.  Weird.

We are all trying to be content in these times.

How did our grandparents do it?  No entertainment, no Netflix or Prime.

I'm reminded of my grandparents.  We used to go to their house in the country for weeks in the summer.  And we had a blast.  We just made up stuff to do.  We rarely turned on the TV.  It only came on to watch Mutual of Omaha on Sunday nights and Hee Haw.  Other than that, we entertained ourselves.  With no internet, tv, or movies.  Imagine that.

We made up games, we cut out magazines, we made mud pies out in the woods.  We played with the neighbor kids that lived down the road.  We rode our bikes, listened to the radio, tried to ride our roller skates on their old tar road. (that was tough!).  My grandma would let us play with flour and water on the kitchen table and make dough balls and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.  We took walks down to the railroad tracks and picked wild flowers.  We played school, and tea party, and made up our own songs.

We had so much fun and never thought one second about being bored.

So, now as an adult, as I sit here in this weird world where everything is closed.  I've found myself thinking.. there's nothing to look forward to, every day is the same, i can only clean our condo so much!

So what can we do during this time?

One thing we've been doing a lot of is walking.  We walk in the morning, we walk at lunch, we walk after work is done, we walk on our breaks.  Short walks, long walks, random no where to go walks, walks to our local restaurants to get a coffee or lunch, walks to just get out and get some vitamin D.

I've cleaned, organized, and cleaned out stuff.

We listen to sermons and podcasts and music.

I'm drinking a lot of tea and coffee.  Ha!

We dug out the old school WII and started playing some old games.

We've taken our speaker up to the pool and just hooped it up and had a great time dancing.

I need to find some good books to read and start that again.  I need to find a place to work my puzzles! (our dining table is covered right now in our work from home computers!)

I dug out my knitting that I haven't done in years.

A friend texted me yesterday and asked about revisiting our Philippians memorization. I had gotten up through halfway chapter 3 a few years ago!  I will work on pulling that back into my memory banks!

There's lots to do.  We just gotta have the right attitude.  (Which is super hard for an Eeyore like me).

Hang in there folks, be safe and healthy. Don't go berserk.  Don't freak out. Enjoy your time with your kids if they are home.

Who knows how long this will last..but we can still enjoy our time!

How are you all surviving this crazy time?

Something to lighten up your Friday

It's been a bit of a heavy week, so just to lighten things up--here's a few true funny stories that really happened to me!

One day I was poaching an egg in the microwave.  I pulled it out of the microwave after it was done and I was standing there face over it looking at it.  When all of a sudden the egg explodes!  Right in my face! BURNING HOT!  Larry, being the quick thinker that he is, was standing at the sink and he pulled the sprayer out and sprayed me right in the face. Well, it cooled me off, kept my face from burning.  But now I was standing there in my pjs, covered in egg and soaked head to toe.  I just died laughing!

Another one..this one kinda recent.

As we were walking back to the hotel in Amsterdam, it was cold and I had my hands in my coat pockets.  There was a small little bump in the sidewalk.  Just enough to catch my shoe.  As I was falling toward the sidewalk, hands in pockets, I thought -Man I don't want to hit my face-so I turned ever so slightly and landed rather ungraciously on the sidewalk on my elbow and knee.  I wasn't hurt bad but still... had to laugh.


One from my childhood. 

My sister and I were so excited that the snow cone man was coming down the street!  We ran to get our change and ran out to get our yummy snow cones!  As we were walking back to the house, my sister was just eyeing her snow cone and just couldn't wait to dig into it..  the newspaper guy just happened to be driving down the street right at that time.  He threw the paper into our yard and it hit my sister right on the back of the head causing her snow cone to just fall right into the grass.  Poor thing!  You can't really wash a snow cone off either.  Was that newspaper guy aiming at us?? 

Ok..one other.

For some reason, things fly out from the sky and find me.  We were all sitting in our backyard one time, playing a game at a table when all of a sudden a baseball flew down and landed right in my stomach!  No one else saw it fly down but there I am on the ground! And then, another day, we were at a playground when a bicycle helmet came flying out of nowhere and conked me on the head. Ha! Still don't know where that thing came from.

Life is so very short

A friend from high school passed away today.  We went from elementary through high school together.  I just saw her at our 30 year high school reunion a few months ago. She was my age.  That's surreal. 

Over the last few years I've had friends that have passed away.  As I get older, it will be more frequent, I'm sure.  We've already lost my parents, my in-laws, my brother in law.  I lost my grandparents long ago.

Death is a part of life.  Life is so very short.  Except for those long days in school when that clock would not budge!

It's something we all know.  Life is short.  Yes, got it.  But we forget.  We get caught up in the mundane.  The tedious.  The drama.  The wastefulness.

Our lives go on after the memorial.  But theirs will forever be changed.  Her husband, her daughter, her family.

Stop and smell that rose.

Hug your friends and even your enemies.

Take time to dance.

Enjoy the sun.

Make a difference.

Smile.

Make someone else smile.

Take that vacation.  See that bucket list place.

Most importantly though is this.
Get your spiritual life in order.  There's only one way to Heaven-through Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:9 "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved"
.
Don't take a chance with your soul.

Our life here on earth is short but our soul lives on forever.

Love and hugs my friends.

Amsterdam!

I absolutely love traveling.  I love the planning, the going, the seeing.  Everything.

We just got back from a quick trip to Amsterdam and it was fabulous!

We flew from Dallas to London and then onto Amsterdam.  We landed in Amsterdam around 2 in the in afternoon.  I had printed directions on how to get from the airport to the hotel.  But somehow we got on the wrong train or something and ended up going the long way to the hotel.  There's trains, buses, metros and trams and I only researched metros, because that's what I'm used to riding in Europe.

Anyway, we were both really tired and Larry had suggested we stash our luggage in a locker at the train station because we had tickets to see the Anne Frank museum at 5:30.  These tickets I had to buy in advance because they sell out days in advance.  I really wanted to get to the hotel and change clothes, brush my teeth and refresh so I insisted we get to the hotel first.  Well, we ended up on the longest metro ride with about 17 stops! and our hotel was at the end!  ugh...  Well, we got there, freshened up and had a moment to collect ourselves. Then we got better directions to the Anne Frank house.  A bus!

So off we went.  We got there in time for our reservation. I showed them my printout.  They said we only had bought one ticket.  What!!  I thought I bought two!  Oh no!!  Well, I kinda lost it from sheer exhaustion.  But Larry was ok walking around and waiting for me to go.

It was so interesting to see the actual place that the Frank family and several others hid for almost 2 years.  The actual place! (not allowed any pictures inside- so this is all I got)

The next day, we had reservations to see the Corrie Ten Boom house in Harlaam.  It's about a 15 min train ride from Amsterdam.  Trains are easy breezy there!  Nice ride, beautiful countryside. Harlaam is a quaint little town.  

The house where Corrie Ten Boom's family hid the Jews during WW2 was so interesting!  We got to crawl inside the place where the hiding place was!  We heard all the stories of their bravery.  So interesting to see the perspective of this one from Anne Frank's house.  Both were hiding places, one was a more permanent place, one transitionary.  Corrie Ten Boom's house was bathed in prayer and scripture and Jesus.  No mention of any of that at Anne Frank's house.

The next day, we hit the ground running in Amsterdam.  We ate good food, took a canal cruise, enjoyed lots of coffee and tea.  We went to the Dutch Resistance museum and learned how the Dutch resisted the Nazis.  Some people resisted, some collaborated, some adapted. Really interesting interactive museum with lots of displays and things to read and listen to. 

The last day, we made our way by train to the town of Zaanse Schans (every town had at least 2 A's and a couple of J's, K's or Z's).  It was windy and rainy there but so cool to see the Windmills!  

As we were walking down the street, we noticed a church just starting their service so we went in!  It was such a unique experience!  An older lady came over and translated for us.  They were very welcoming!  The service had no set "program".  There were about 50 people and we all sat quietly.  When someone wanted to sing a song, they announced the page number and everyone sang!  No instruments or big production.  When someone wanted to pray, we all stood and prayed.  A Scripture come to someone's mind, they read it.  Communion was passed around.  We loved worshipping with other believers!  As we left, the lady that translated for us says "Until we meet again!"  Yes!  We will see her again!

Loved our time there!  Sad for vacations to end.  Now to catch up on my sleep!! Ha!!

20 Difficult things to do

Things that are difficult that they never tell you (in no particular order):

1. saying goodbye
2. learning new habits
3. being the bigger person
4. keeping your mouth closed/or not commenting
5. walking away
6. changing the saying on the letterboard
7. knowing when the avocado is ready to eat
8. when/how to help or not help
9. self care
10. getting the perfect weather to fly a kite
11. what to do when things don't go your way
12. striking a match from a matchbook
13. learning what truly matters
14. knowing when to let go and when to hang on
15. how much to be involved
16. unclogging the kitchen sink
17. hanging up a picture when the hanger is in the middle of the picture
18. saying I'm sorry
19. loving with no return
20. not buying stuff at Target

When things don't turn out like you thought they would

Life has so many twists and turns.  You are going along just fine, you think your life is on this certain trajectory and then boom... something changes.

And then there's the times that you expect something to turn out a certain way...and it just flat out doesn't.

Expectations can cause some major anxiety and a lot of disappointment.

I live in Eeyore world.  I always see the rainy cloud, the glass half empty blah blah blah.

But I'm married to Tigger.  Thank the Lord.

He can see the positive in almost everything.  Even the bleakest of the bleak, he can pull something positive out.

I remember many many moons ago, he came home unusually early from work and said "I have good news and bad news."  Which would you like first?  Well, me-I want the bad news first.  He said "I lost my job!"  Ok, how you gonna pull some good news out of that one??  Then he said, the good news is we get to go home for Christmas!  He turned a sad situation, into a happy, family time.

Rarely does life go the way you expect it to.  I generally get disappointed at the people around me, including myself.

But it's all in the perspective.

Is my expectation the "right" way.  Maybe it is, but maybe there are other ways.

Sometimes I just gotta go all Elsa and Let it Go! Let it Go!

Do you have a Tigger in your life?  Everyone needs one, or needs to be one for someone else! 

Life's tough.  There's gonna be disappointments.  People won't always be or do the things you'd like.  

I can only change myself.  I can only work on me.

And that's a lot of work!