Weekends And A Discovery

Good Monday morning friends. I am writing this from my car dealership in Knoxville where I am getting my oil changed and my tires rotated. Who gets their oil changed at 7:00 AM on a Monday morning? Me that’s who. It’s quiet and I’m usually the first one here. I love it!!!

My maintenance required light and tire rotation has been coming on for a little bit. I knew I was due an oil change and tire rotation but just kept putting it off until after Christmas.

So here I am at the Nissan dealership at 7:15 AM to get this taken care of. Mark and I have a trip to Nashville this week for a routine checkup for Mark at Vanderbilt. That is about a four hour drive each way for us. I wanted to get the maintenance taken care of before we went. You know I am a procrastinator, nuff said. I had to leave my house at 6:15 to get here when they opened. I scheduled online before I left the house.

So I am sitting in the dealership waiting for my car. It’s not so bad I have coffee, snacks a huge TV, and about an hour of uninterrupted knitting. Heck I may just move in!!!!

Back to the weekend. You know from my previous blog post that I always pick a word for the year. I am not a big one for making New Year’s resolutions but I always pick a word for the year. My word for this year was discovery. I discovered something really important this weekend. It’s something I already knew but it really hit home over the weekend. It is SLEEP. My weekend was very strange because my sleeping was all jacked up.

It started Friday night when I couldn’t sleep. This threw me into feeling tired all day on Saturday. Mark and I went to the Assisted Living Village, where his mom is, for a visit and to take some supplies. I also took down all of her Christmas decorations and put up a Valentine wreath on her door. We got back home around 5:00. I had been reading a great book so I decided to lie down on the bed to read for a little bit. So delicious. You see where this is going right? I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 9:00 PM!!!! I couldn’t believe it. My Saturday night was gone! I know I am not a social Diva with lots to do on Saturday night but I do love my Saturday nights doing whatever I want. I felt like it was wasted. Now if I had been really smart I would have just gone back to bed for the night. But no. I got up and started watching a couple of movies. I had some snacks. I finally went back to bed at 2:30 AM. I then overslept and didn’t get up until 7:30 AM on Sunday morning. People that is really late for me. I felt terrible. My body felt out of sync all day. I drank coffee and it didn’t help. The only thing that remotely brought me back to life was walking the babies outside in the crisp winter air. There is something to be said about getting outside and enjoying nature. Especially when you are in a FUNK!!!

Look at my Molly girl she is getting old you can see the white on her muzzle.

Scruffy always up for a walk and an adventure.

This is Molly and Scruffy together. It is really hard to get a pic of them together.

So I guess my first word and discovery for the year is to remind myself just how much sleep I need. Thank you very much. After the walk with the fur babies I started feeling a little more like myself. I made sure I went to bed early and drank plenty of fluids, that really seems to help no matter what, and I am sort of kind of feeling back to the old me. Good or bad or whatever.

How has your New Year been going? No matter what always remember.

Love your day your way!!!!

The Pina Colada Song

Do you ever feel like a worn out recording of your favorite song? I am really telling my age now. But do you remember this song? It was actually called The Escape. It was about a man that was tired of his “lady” because they had fallen into the same old dull routine. While they were lying in bed one night, I guess it was night, he was reading the personal ads and he came across one that suggested if he liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain and wasn’t into yoga and had half a brain and loved making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape then he should write to her and they could plan their escape.

He replied back that yes he loved all of those things and he would meet her at a bar and they would plan their escape.

When “she” showed up it was his own lovely lady who had been asleep in bed beside him while he was trolling the personal ads. She said “Ah it’s you”. and then they said they never knew that the other liked all of those things including the Pina Coladas. The song indicates it opened a whole new world for them yet no one questions what might have happened if it hadn’t been him who showed up at the bar and just why his lovely lady put the ad in the paper to start with. O.K. I’m getting side tracked sorry, that often happens to me. Anyway you get the jest of the song. I think it was always called The Pina Colada song.

So I ask again? do you ever feel like a worn out recording of “your” favorite song? I am not referring to a spouse, partner lover or even a friend but YOU!!!! Do you ever feel like you just go through the motions day after day and you do the same things over and over. Do you eat the same things for breakfast, wear the same clothes, take the same route to work? same routine day after day? Why not change it up a little? do something totally different and unexpected!!! I challenge you. Let me know how it goes. We know that there are often big things in our lives that we can’t change for one reason or another so we will deal with that. But lots of little things in our lives can be changed and maybe make life a little more interesting and make the big things easier to deal with. So here we go:

For myself, and yes people it may be baby steps, this is what I am going to do every week or every day.

*Call or talk to a loved one that I don’t see often.
*Eat different foods, try a new food every week or try a new recipe.
*Watch something I am usually not interested in.
* Wear something different
*Read a book that I normally would not read or be interested in, (I have Harry Potter on my night stand). I know I know I Can’t believe I have never read this book.
* Volunteer for an organization.

I think you see where I am going with this. Just do something different. There are so many things about ourselves and in this world we can’t change. But as for the things we can do a little different, why not? This is our one life, enjoy, live, love

So yesterday I decided to wear these kind of blingy earrings I hadn’t worn in about six months and I did my hair different. You know what? I felt a little different, in a good way.
I mean you just can’t wear Blingy earrings without feeling a little sassy.

So what will you try different? So let me know how it goes. What might you discover?

Always remember

Love your day your way

A Valuable Thanksgiving Lesson

Hello friends, I hope you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!! Something happened this week and has made me realize how wonderful my life is and just how much I appreciate everything and everyone in my life. I wanted to share with you.

Stock Photo

My mother in law lives in an Assisted Living facility. She has been there for a little over a year. There are probably about thirty people who live there. These are people who may need a little assistance and can’t totally live on their own. The people there are of various ages from 62 to over 100 years old.

The “Village” as we call it is beautiful. Each room is like a small apartment with a bathroom and sitting area and a small kitchen area. So each resident can eat in their room or go to a dining room where everyone is served.

Several times a month I go and have lunch with my mother in law. Each resident has their own table that they share with three other people. Some of the tables are full and some are not. Addie, ( not her real name) sits at my mother in law’s table. She is 95 years old. She is really unbelievable. Other than not being able to walk and needing a wheelchair to get around she is in really good health. Her memory is amazing and she keeps up with all current events. She doesn’t wear her hair like a lot of the other ladies. Her hair is cut in a short bob and it is a beautiful solid white color. She wears two plastic tortoise shell combs to hold her bangs back. Although her voice is soft and whispery she loves to talk and talk. She always asks me about my job and if I have been busy. She is very inquisitive. Her manners are impeccable. My mother in law told me that some of the other residents don’t like to talk to Addie because they can’t understand what she is saying. She said she stays by herself in her room a lot.

A few days ago I was eating lunch with my mother in law and Addie and we were talking about Thanksgiving. I ask Addie if she was going somewhere to be with her family for Thanksgiving. I know she has a son who lives in Georgia and another somewhere an hour or so away. She said ” well I have been invited to Georgia but it is a long drive and someone will have to come and get me and take me there and then bring me back here. She looked sort of wistful for a moment and said” You know I am good right here. I am in a nice safe place. I have food and people around me. I have everything I need right here so it is o.k. if I just stay here. She seemed content with that.

Once when Addie and I were talking she told me about her life. She lost her mother when she was fourteen years old. That left Addie, her dad, her four year old brother and an older brother. Addie’s dad had to work to make a living for his family. He hired two young girls to take care of the four year old brother so that Addie and her older brother could return to school. Her dad believed education was everything. The two girls that were hired to take care of Addie’s little brother were very mean to him and physically abused him. When Addie and her dad found out what was going on they stopped the girls from coming and Addie said she would quit school and stay home with her brother. Her dad was upset that Addie would not be attending school and he made Addie promise that as soon as her brother started school she would also return to school.

Addie at the age of fourteen cooked and cleaned and took care of all of her family. Her life was not easy for a fourteen year old but she felt like she was doing what she needed to do. When Addie’s brother started to school she returned to school as well. Addie continued with her education and became a nurse. She married a man who was a preacher and they had several children and lived in several different states throughout their married life.

When Addie told me that she was content and happy with where she was it really made me think. Here is a woman who has been through so much in her life. She is happy with what she has. I know that her family rarely visits, and she desperately misses her husband who recently passed away, BUT. She is content and happy and makes the most of every day. She wears the sweetest smile and is always positive. I just love her and she is definitely someone we can all learn a lesson from. Why can’t we all be a little more like Addie, thankful for what we have in our lives.

I thought about Addie all week. It made me realize I am happy and thankful for everything I have in my life. Thank you Addie.

Happy Thanksgiving friends I hope you have had a wonderful day!!

Always remember:

Love your day your way!!

What Does Your Favorite Day Look Like?

Hello friends I have so been enjoying the cooler weather. The leaves have turned a little. This year we just didn’t have the beautiful fall foliage that East Tennessee can be known for. A lack of rain and the heat made the leaves dry and brittle and lots of them fell off of the trees before they even started turning colors. This past week it has been cooler and lots of fog in the mornings on my way into work. I love taking pictures in the fog it gives everything an eerie but soft look.

I got all of these pictures this past week on my way into work. I have been traveling so much lately it actually seems like a pleasure to do something familiar even if it is going to work. People probably think, who is that crazy lady pulling over to take pictures?

When I have to be gone a lot I start thinking about what my favorite day would look like. A day when I could do whatever I wanted to do all day long. I guess sometimes when I am gone from home thinking about what I will do when I have that down time is what gets me through. So here goes with some of the things I would do. Yes they are all about me and that might seem a bit selfish but these are things that I would love to do. Sometimes I think you have to be selfish with the time you spend for you.

I would spend time with my loved ones. Thinking about a day when I could spend time talking and sharing and just reconnecting with loved ones sounds like heaven.
I would create. I would knit, or paint or make something special. Sometimes when I am stressed and needing to get out of my head I will bake or sew or knit and that puts me totally into the moment.
I would read. I love books and reading. I love to lose myself in the character. It almost feels like I am right there with them.
I would take pictures. I would drive around and go from place to place pulling over when I see something that catches my eye. Much the same way that I did with the photos on my way to work. But I would have a lot of time and wouldn’t be in a hurry.
I would go somewhere new. I love visiting new places that I have never seen, and experiencing new things. This is so exciting to me.

These are just a few of the things I would do if I had a day to do whatever I wanted. So now tell me what does your favorite day look like? And when will this day happen?

Remember no matter what
Love your day your way