Retirement

I’m a structured, goal oriented person. I like routine and knowing what is happening on what day and  at what time. 

I’m married to the exact opposite type of person. He is spontaneous, spur of the moment, fly by the seat of your pants person.

He’s good for me and I’m good for him. I’ve learned to be spontaneous and he’s learned to be structured (somewhat!)

My whole life has been pretty routine so far. I went from school, to being married, having kids, homeschooling, then working.

Now I’m retired. Right now, I have somewhat of a schedule going to the grandkids 2-3 days a week. But I’m struggling with what to do on the other days. We will be leaving in the fall and I’ll have every day free then. 

I’m usually a good manager of my time. I volunteer or manage my household or minister in some way. 

But for some reason. I’m struggling now. Maybe it’s because I know we won’t be in a place for very long (rv life is awesome by the way) or maybe it’s just because I’m older? Or tired? 

I really don’t know. But this stage of life is strange. I am loving the flexibility of it and the relaxing part. 

But I don’t really want to have a job again. 

I want to be available to my kids and grandkids and hubby.

But what to do on the daily. I have no idea.

Pray for me as I’m in this transition!

FIFTY!!

So I am officially half a century old today!!  FIFTY!!! 

It seems crazy!  I don't feel fifty.  

It's been a great fifty years so far!  

In honor of my fiftieth, here's fifty things that have I've done, things about me, and things I have learned these last 50 years.

1. Been married 31 years to the same guy!!  haha! 

2. Most stuff doesn't matter, but the things that do matter-really matter.

3. Lived in lots of places. I think we've moved 15 (lost track!) times! 

4. Raised 3 kids and now have 4 grandkids!!

5. Dance (or hoop) like no one is watching.  It's so liberating.

6. It's never too old to learn new things.

7. I've been to 36 countries in the world!  That's 14.3% of the world!

8. I love going to places that aren't your typical "touristy" places.

9. I'm an accomplisher..but I'm learning to relax and chill.

10. Reading God's Word is life changing.  Especially reading the whole thing through quickly.  

11. Make a decision.  It's ok if you make another decision later.  Just move, go, do something.

12. Friendships only thrive if you water them. A text, card or call goes a long way.

13. Take the picture.  Be in the picture.

14. Enjoy the moment.  Even if you don't post it on social media, just enjoy the moment you are in, don't be in a rush to go to the "next thing".

15. You'll make mistakes.  Learn from them.  Be humble.  Accept correction.

16.  I've been keto now over 5 years.  It's a lifestyle that I love.  It's helped erase my heartburn, made me think clearer, and kept my weight down.

17. Love grows where you water it.

18. I love traveling.  I'll be glad when I can go overseas again. (dumb covid)

19. What you put into your body is important. Physically, spiriturally, mentally.

20. Who knows how many books I've read.  I wish I had a list! Sometimes I'll start a new book and think...this sounds familiar!  (because I've already read it!)

21. I've sold all our stuff so many times.  (because of all the moving) Stuff is stuff and you'll always have a lot of it.

22. I usually struggle with exercise but I love hiking and walking and really enjoy yoga and aerial yoga!

23. When someone asks you to do something new or go somewhere new.  Give it a chance.

24. I didn't think I could do aerial yoga at all, but my sister is a great encourager!  I actually surprise myself with the things I do!

25. I rarely wear makeup but I love jewelry.

26. The need to impress others wanes as you get older, and get more confident in who you are.

27. Give someone that compliment!  

28. I'm a natural blonde.  Never colored my hair.

29. My hair is fine and thin...makes it hard to curl, but super easy to get up and go.

30. Skirts are my thing.  Been wearing them now over 20 years.  I love how they make me feel feminine and they are good for twirling and dancing.

31. Being best friends with your spouse is awesome.

32. Looking forward to the next 50 years!  I wanna be that funky, hooping, crazy grandma.

33. I love hats!!!!!

34. Coffee, coffee, coffee...and tea.  Yes!

35. One of my favorite things to do is go listen to live music on the weekends with Larry.  Hoop and dancing!!  

36. When meeting someone new, ask them about themselves.  And listen.

37. I'm loving this stage of my life.  Being a grandma, retired, rv living.  ummmm yes.

38. Take the love language test.  It's how you show love to others and how you feel loved.  I'm service and gifts.

39. If I'm cleaning, I'm either showing service or really upset.  ha!

40. I like music of all kinds.  Bluegrass, classical, rock.. pretty much anything!  But I love the 50s music a lot!

41. It's ok to be in pajamas at 6pm.

42. I want to learn to embroidery.

43.  Love playing backgammon with Larry.  I'm so glad my dad taught me how.

44. It's so exciting to see your kids as adults!  To see them grow and learn and thrive!

45. When someone presents to you a new theory or idea.  Don't immediately dismiss it.  It's a great opportunity to research what your own beliefs are.

46. You become the thoughts you feed yourself.

47. You are never too old to change! 

48. I started learning the ukulele last year.  I've been practicing every day.  It's so hard to strum and sing at the same time!

49. I don't like to cook.  Larry's does all the meal making...thankfully!

50.  Turning fifty sounds old, but old is only a state of mind. :)

Big changes!

Big changes in the last few months for us!  We've bought an RV and hit the road!  We are spending the summer in Colorado and hanging with the grandkids!  When the fall rolls around, we will get on the road again and see what happens!  

Life changes quickly!  We sold most everything. I've retired from my job.  Larry continues to work remote.  We leased out our condo.

I'm excited about the RV life!  We are learning so much!  How to hitch, how to dump the tanks, etc.  Still figuring out reliable internet. 

But life is short!  The grandkids grow up so fast.  We have a window of time here to be part of their lives for now and we decided to jump on it!  My grandparents were a huge part of my life and I want to be that to all my grandkids.

Plus, you really can't beat Colorado in the summer.  Although, we haven't seen too much of the summer yet!  We had snow as of last week!  brrrrrr!  But when summer does arrive, we will be enjoying the beauty of Colorado!  

Life goes so quickly!  You have to enjoy the ride!  

Anyone lived the RV life?? Tips?  Youtube has helped us so much on everything!  If you are in the area, we'd love to visit!

Family stories and history

My mom and dad and grandparents have all passed away.  Their stories of growing up and meeting and living their lives are only left in my memory.  I wish I would've written down their stories.  I wish I would've paid more attention.  Now, how exactly did yall meet?  And why did you move down here?  And what made you quit college?

My dad was an amazing story teller.  He did write down some of his anecdotes, thankfully. But I still have questions that I wish I would have asked.  I still wish I would have listened a little closer.  But as a kid, it's just the same old stories that mom and dad tell, blah blah blah.

But as I get older, I am curious.  I don't remember my great grandparents at all.  But I'd love to know their stories.  My mom documented all the family genealogy. For that, I am grateful.  But they are just names.  Dates of birth, dates of death, counties of marriage etc.  Who were they?  Why did they fall in love? What were their triumphs? their defeats?  their life changing moments?

I'd love to pass some stories down to my kids and grandkids.  But I'm sure they are about as interested as I was at their age.

That's part of the reason for this blog.  My social media posts will be lost to history someday.  FB and Instagram will be as obsolete as Myspace.  But hopefully, the stories I've written in this blog can survive.  And hopefully, someday my descendants will stumble upon them and know a little bit about who I was.  I wasn't just a date of birth and date of death.   Maybe it will shed some insight onto their own journeys and personalities.  Who knows?  

So ask your living relatives now their stories!  Video them!  Write them down.  Save for your posterity. You might not be interested in it now.  But someday you will and you don't want that moment to be lost forever.

The Love of the Library!

I grew up surrounded by books.  My dad was an avid reader and always had a book in his hand, or laying on his chest during naps. hehe.

We had this set of encyclopedias that I was just enamored with.  Back in the day - the encyclopedia was our internet.  If you wanted to know about something, anything, you'd either read an entire book on the subject or you could find the encyclopedia that started with the letter you needed and read a short entry about it.

While my dad was a reader, my mom was a researcher.  She had the genealogy bug and we would spend a lot of Saturdays at the library.  (Now you know why I'm such a nerd 🤓)

Some of my best memories are just being "let loose" in the library.  We could roam around and explore.  Which book caught my eye?  I could just walk up and down the aisles and browse or if something peaked my interest, I'd head over to the card catalog and look up some books on that subject.

Oooh, the smell of the books.  The perfect organization of that card catalog.  All those type written cards, and numbers all perfectly labeled and ordered.  My OCD was in hog heaven.

While my mom was going through the microfiche machine and scouring old newspapers and death certificates,  we were reading. We were learning.  We were learning to love the library.

So when I had kids of my own, I had to introduce them to one of my favorite places! We went to the library at least once a week.  I would let them have the same autonomy and roam the aisles.  Although, there weren't any more card catalogs, and computers and entered the scene, the kids still had just as much fun as I did in the library.

We would take home heaps and heaps of books and I would lay them out on the coffee table for random reading sessions.  I would read to the kids, they would read to me, and sometimes I'd just curl up on the couch and read my own book, or something the kids had picked out.

Now all my books are via Kindle.  I still love a good book in my hands though.  I just started reading this book that is about a library fire!  It got me reminiscing about libraries.  It brought back a lot of great memories.

I hope my grandkids are readers.  I hope to introduce them to the library someday too.

New Year in progress!

This is a new year.  

Really every day is a new day.  His mercies are new every morning.  No matter what choices we've made, we can make new ones.

Sometimes it seems so overwhelming.  How do I eat right, read my Bible, do the dishes, be a good wife, drink all the water, fit in my 12, 000 steps, close all my rings, oh and be a good person???  How???  Every. single. day???

It's tough.  I get it.

I've always told my kids, how do you eat an elephant?  

One bite at a time.

Not that elephants taste all that great.

But you get the gist.

Take one step.

Do the next right thing.

Read the ingredients.

Put back that cookie.

Open God's Word.

Say a kind word.

Take a drink out of that cute cup you got.

Just one thing.

Then another,

then another

and before you know it, you are doing all the things.  Just wake up and do one thing again and you got this!

You can do it!

Sometimes, you'll take a step backwards, but that's ok too.  Just start over.

It's a new year!!  New you!

The GOOD of 2020 Year in Review

We all know what a weird year it has been.  So for this year in review, I'd like to tell you all the GOOD things that have happened this year. (in no particular order)

We got to go to Amsterdam before everything shut down! (one of my bucket list places!)

Fun girl/sister trip to Cabo!

We had a beautiful kitchen/bath/floor remodel

Lots of great aerial yoga classes with my sister!

Took a trip to North Carolina to see family!

My sister took me on an adventure course!  Terrifying but fun!!

So many fun concerts, outdoor music, hooping times!

I turned 49!!!😜

I learned a little bit of the ukulele!  So I can learn new things! haha!

Got to vacation in Dominican Republic!

I had my 2nd grandson born (my 4th grandchild)!

Many trips to go see grandkids!

So I guess it wasn't such a bad year after all!  Like the old song goes, "You've got to accent the positive and eliminate the negative and latch on to the affirmative and don't mess with mister in between." 🎵

Here's to a great 2021!!!!  

🎉🥳😘💗🙏

Lamentations 3:23-24 

"Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.They are new every morning;Great is Your faithfulness, “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Couple more Christmas stories!

 Couple more Christmas stories...

Once when we were kids, we woke up Christmas morning to find 2 strings beside our bed.  We followed those strings around the whole house!  Under couches, under beds, through the backyard, under bushes, around trees, back into the house, down the hall, under doors, when we finally made it to the end.. there were 2 nice presents!  I think I got a stereo and my sister got a bike or vice versa...can't remember.  But I remember following that string around the house!  

Here's a fun one:

When we lived in Colorado one Christmas, my parents mailed the kid's gifts up to us.  We stuck them under the tree and waited for Christmas.  Larry came home that week and said, I have good news and I have bad news.  What you want first?  Me-bad news of course.  He said, I lost my job!  Yikes!  What's the good news (he's a glass full kinda guy)  We get to go to Texas for Christmas!   

So we packed up the car, and the unopened gifts that my parents had sent and made the 14+ hour drive down to Dallas for Christmas.  While we were here, we got to talking about what to do next since Larry was out of a job.  We decided, hey let's just move back to Texas!  We talked about it all the way home (put the presents that my parents had sent back in the car!)  By the time we got back to Colorado, we had decided! Yes we'd move back!  

FIVE days later we were packed up in a moving truck (along with those presents!  which at this point had gone from Texas to Colorado to Texas to Colorado and now back to Texas)  and off we went!  

It was the year of Y2K so, we waited till that morning to see if the world had ended and since it didn't, we drove down to Texas. :)

The Slim Christmas

 Another Christmas story....

Larry works contract a lot and it seems like in the past, right around Christmas, he'd get laid off.  So one Christmas, he lost his job and money was kinda tight.  I didn't know how I was going to get Christmas gifts for the kids.  They were big enough that they'd realize if I chinzed on Christmas... so what to do, what to do??

Well, I scoured the house for anything I could sell and had a huge garage sale!  I thought, whatever I made, I would use that for the kids' presents.

So after all the smoke cleared from the garage sale, I had a whopping $150.  

That was going to be tough to spread between 3 kids!

Somehow, I managed to find sales, bargains, and other such treasures and got things wrapped.

It seemed like a skimpy Christmas and I needed something to make it more fun.

So I made a Scavenger Hunt for Christmas Day!  

I hid the presents all around the house and made clues for each and every gift.

Christmas morning came and we had the most fun!  The kids loved finding all their presents (almost more than the actual presents!)

It was a wonderful Christmas after all!

Reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas movies:

"He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!"

Christmas time is here

Christmas is one of my all time favorite holidays.  I have so many wonderful memories as a kid with my grandparents at Christmas.  

I'm going to share a few stories the next few blog posts about some of my favorite times.

We used to go to my grandparents for our Christmas break.  They lived about 2 hours away.  We would drive an hour and they would drive an hour.  We'd meet halfway at the Dairy Queen, grab some burgers and a dilly bar and load up in Mamaw and Pop's car and head to their house.

When we got there, the Christmas spirit would begin!  My mamaw would have several small wrapped presents for us to open each day heading towards Christmas.  Now, they weren't wealthy by any means.  But she would find the simplest little things and wrap them up.  I remember we'd always get a tiny Hallmark calendar (that you'd get for free at the store), and some pens, and just little trinkets that we thought were just divine.  My love language is gifts so it was especially nice for me!

Then Pop would say, let's go get a tree!  🎄We'd go in his back woods and us girls would want the biggest tree.  Pop would say, "How about this one (kind of a small sgraggly thing that he could actually drag back to the house)."  We'd get excited and bring it in.  Mamaw would put it in a nice pot and put it up on a table.

When we'd get to decorating!  We didn't have store bought decorations.  So we'd pop corn and string cranberries, make paper chains, and cut pictures out of magazines! It was the most beautiful tree!!

Christmas morning we'd wake up before the sun was even thinking of coming up! We wanted to  go open our presents so bad!  After several, "Go back to bed girls-it's too early!!", they'd finally relent and let us get up!

                                        

Paper and boxes would be flying as we opened all kinds of goodies!  My pop would put on a roaring fire in the fireplace (no matter if it was 80 degrees!) to burn all the paper and boxes.  We would always lose our instructions to the new games or pieces to stuff because Pop was cleaning up and throwing stuff in the fire just as fast as we could open it!  (hmmm, wonder where I get that cleaning bug from!)

Meanwhile, Mamaw was in the kitchen making everything yummy!  Little mini pecan pies, ham, fresh veggies, those rolls! Yummmy!!  

We'd all enjoy a nice meal, and play with our new stuff and enjoy each other's company. 

Lots of laughter and good times.

Happy 31 baby!!

 Next week, Larry and I celebrate 31 years of marriage!! In this day and age, that's kind of a shocker.  

We had a whirlwind romance,  our first date was on my 18th birthday.  We went to Reunion Tower in Dallas and had a big fancy dinner and I was impressed!  We were engaged 3 months later and married 3 months after that.  Larry asked me to marry him on the top of a mountain in Colorado!!  

Larry took me to Lake Louise, Canada for our honeymoon!  Growing up in Dallas, I had never really seen snow before.  Well, in Canada in November, there is a LOT of snow!  We even went skiing!  We stayed at the fancy Chateau Lake Louise, right on the frozen lake.  It was an amazing adventure!  That started my love for travel!!  I was like, there is a giant world out there and I want to see it!

A lot has changed in the last 31 years!  3 grown kids, new son and daughter in law, 4 grandkids!  We moved maybe 14-15 times.  We've gotten to travel everywhere!  Come see our push pin map sometime!

But the thing that's changed the most is my love and devotion to Larry.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into (in general with marriage, but also being married to LARRY KILGORE!😜)

It's been a fun ride and I can't wait to see all the new adventures we take.  It's just the best with you, Larry!!

Happy 31 years!!!  💕🤟  Here's to many many more!

The Holidays are here!!!

The Holidays are upon us already!!!  I haven't even thought about what to get everyone for Christmas or what to fix for Thanksgiving.  

Some of my most favorite memories from childhood are of the holidays.  

Thanksgiving was always at my grandparents house.  She would go overboard cooking and baking for days.  We'd pick the remaining stuff from the garden, start mixing, stirring, cooking and in a few days there would be a FEAST!  My grandma had this giant bar in her kitchen and we'd get it all cleaned off and just start piling the food on! So many yummy memories of her homemade cornbread dressing, gravy, turkey, sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes. And she'd make these tiny little individual pecan pies! My favorite!

If it was nice outside, we'd go eat out on the porch or if it was cold, we'd gather around the wood stove or fireplace.

Christmas was much the same.  Lots of family and food.  My mom was an only child and we were the only girls.  Seemed like we were the youngest in the crowd too.

Now, we are all grown up and everyone's gone pretty much.  It's sad, you don't really know how much time you have with someone.  

So many things I wish I would've learned from my grandma.  She was a quilter, gardner, painter, canner, beautician and so much more.  I was only 23 when I lost my grandparents.  They never got to know my kids.

Holidays are for family and friends and food. It's a time to put aside differences and enjoy each other's company.  Play games, take walks, sit by the fire.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Praying you all have a wonderful, thankful time and ENJOY!!

The number one rule of womanhood

 The number one rule of womanhood is you never ever ever ask a woman if she's pregnant.  NEVER.  I mean, even if the baby is coming out...don't even hint at it!

We were hiking yesterday and I let this lady ahead of me.  I said "Go ahead, I'm slower".  She said "You're pregnant right?"  

😕😟😠😭😡😢😱

Larry quickly said, no but we have 4 grandkids!  HA!

So the rest of the hike, that's all I could think about.   I eat really good, I exercise every stinking day.  I close all my rings on my apple watch so faithfully.  I guess I could use the excuse everyone else is using right now...pandemic??  I really don't know. I've gained a few pounds but geezzzzzz.

You see, I've birthed 3 kids (granted it was 24 years ago-but still).  That poochy belly is my badge of honor.  It reminds me of the amazing body that God has created.  My body stretched to an enormous size.  And out of that misshapen body, I now have my 3 beautiful grown adult kids now and now my grandkids!

That pooch shows me that I'm not perfect.  I still have work to do.

That pooch reminds me to watch what I eat and to keep on exercising.

But this is my body.  

Words hurt.  I've dealt with hurtful words my whole life.

Words can also change someone's life for the better.

So women,  if you feel the need to say something to another woman, please just say "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!"

Or "I Love your hair today!"

Or anything along those lines.   You have no idea where someone is in their journey.  Having babies makes crazy bodies.  But they are beautiful.

Let's be an encouragement to one another at all times.  But especially now.