A Happy place

Do you have a happy place?  A place where if you are feeling down, you can go and feel your soul get a little lighter?

Of course, my hoop is always my happy place.  I love dancing to live music out and about.  But it's been a few weeks since that's happened. 

Seems like I've been down lately and my happy place to go is my balcony.

We live on the 3rd floor right by a canal.

I bought this basket swing chair about a year ago and it was the best purchase ever!

There's something about swinging.  Maybe it takes me back to my childhood.  Some of my greatest memories are swinging at my grandparent's house (on the porch swing drinking tea!)

I also love looking at my little garden.  I have all kinds of herbs, flowers, and aloe vera out there.  It just makes me smile.

The garden has even gotten so big that it's peeping out through the railing.

My balcony is my little slice of relaxation.  

I can go out there and close my eyes, pray, think, cry.

Even when the sun is shining down on me...it's a nice place to sit.

Everyone needs a happy place.

Where is yours?

My big fear

What are you afraid of?

I used to be really afraid of the dark.  And even now, if I'm alone, I sleep with the light on.

But it's heights that always get me.

So where does my sister want to take me for my birthday??  An adventure park where you are up high!

So we had to wait for a few months to go...because Covid had shut everything down around my birthday.

But Trinity Adventure Park finally opened and we made our reservations.

My sister always pushes me to do things I'd never do on my on...ahem....Trapeze!!

And I go, because she is my sister and we've only got each other.  And I know she really wants me to try something new!

So when we get there, I see several levels.  A lower level (that's still pretty high), higher level and somewhere up at the top is the highest level.  We got all trained on how to hook and unhook, clip ourselves in and such.  And off we went.  

I managed to go over the first obstacle ok. 

Then came this log.

I froze.

I don't know if it's because I felt like I would fall off, or the ropes were hard to hold or what?  But it took most of my effort, and some deep breathing to make it across.  I had some tears when I got to the platform, but I actually did it!  The rest of this level, I did pretty good.  I surprised myself!  It's amazing what you can do with everyone encouraging you.

Well, we finished the first level, got back on the ground and took a rest.

Then we were going to the second level (I really think we skipped a level but oh well)

First, we had to climb this crazy ladder!  It was so spinny and turny and it took all my upper body strength to climb it.  It was no joke!

My niece and her friend were rock stars on the course!

Everyone was ahead of me, and then I came to these pogo looking sticks with pegs for feet, and pegs for hands.  There were about 7 of them, and they all dangled and swung around.

I froze again.

What got me this time, was I looked beneath me, and there was that log (where I froze the first time).  My mind immediately started talking to me and saying, you were scared on that one way down there, what makes you think you can do this!  and look how they swing around.  There's no way you can do this.

My sister going across the pogo sticks!  The log I froze on is below that!!

Our minds are powerful.  

I stood there a long time.  Tears and everything.  I finally got the gumption to get on the first one.  And just talked myself out of it.  I just couldn't get past it.

The staff were so kind and came up and rescued me. So embarrassing....

So fear is real.  Sometimes we can conquer it.  Sometimes we can't.  Sometimes we need a little encouragement, sometimes we need a whole lot.  Sometimes it doesn't matter who or what the encouragement is..we just talk ourselves out of it.

Maybe next time, I'll get a little more brave and do a higher level.  I'm excited I did the first one!  I mean, you gotta start somewhere right?

What's your fear?  Where will you start?

Dance like no one is watching! Dance in the rain!

So things are starting to open back up.  And with that comes LIVE MUSIC!  It's one of my favorite things to do on Friday and Saturday nite!  Go hear a live band, local bands, some kind of tribute band!  It's so much fun just dancing with my hoop.

My hoop has made me a different person.  You see, I'm an introvert.  I'm not a "Look at Me" type person.  AT ALL.  

But somehow the hoops brings out my creative side!  It's freeing!  It helps me dance like no one is watching. 

I love this about my hoop.

I love that it's my circle of fun.

My circle of safety.

I can dance and move in my hoop and shut the world out.

Even though they are watching.  

I want people to be encouraged.

I want to bring a smile to someone's face.

I want the band to know--y'all are ROCKING IT!! C'mon!!

So breaking out of my comfort zone, I grab my hoop and start to dance.

Even last weekend, the rain came in.  Everyone ran for cover and I just stood there hoopin' and dancing in the rain.  THE BEST FEELING!!  

So even though I never thought I'd be THAT person in the crowd.  I am.  And I love it.  

And I look forward to every weekend.

Does your comfort zone need to be pushed a little?  What's something you thought you'd never do but find yourself doing now??

Peace and love my friends.

💓💕✌

New kitchen & bath!

We are redoing our kitchen and bathroom! or should I say--having it done!

We've done it before for rental houses and houses we were moving out of.  But we've never done it for a house that we are living in!  I'm so excited to actually enjoy it!

We are getting new cabinets, backsplash, counter tops, and all new flooring throughout.

Seems self indulgent.  The ones we have work fine right now but it just needs updating.

After 30 years of marriage, I guess it's ok to splurge a bit. 😜

These are the "Before" pictures!

We go this weekend to pick out all the things and then comes the hard work of getting everything moved around!  haha!  

I'll keep ya posted on the "After" pictures!  Hopefully in a couple of months!

What the world needs now

I haven't blogged in a while.  It seems the world has gone mad.  First covid-19. Now the riots.  Economy on the brink. Chaos. Fear.  What is happening to people?

I heard a song on the radio the other day...

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.

So true right?

What is love anyway? 

It's the commitment to the good of others.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love of self pervades society.  There's too little real love out there. 

They will know we are Christians by our love.

Perfect love casts out all fear.

Praying for our world today.  They need the Lord so much. 

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?