B is for Blogging

This month marks my 14th anniversary of blogging. When I started, I wasn't quite sure what a blog was, but a friend encouraged me to start one to share some of the stories I had told her. As it turned out, the stories I thought I would be telling were not mine to tell, so I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. 

But I kept writing anyway, trying all kinds of things, hoping to find my voice. Sometimes, I wrote something meaningful, and other times, I felt like I had nothing to say. But I had made friends over the years, and this blog is where I visited with them, so I started Speed Blogging—meaning I'd set a timer (usually 15 minutes) and write for that long about whatever. When that was done, I was done. 

Some day, I am going to revamp and update my blog, but until then it will be my little place to share my thoughts and visit with friends.

But until then, below is my first post --the post that started it all.

___________________________________________________

Sunday, April 17, 2011

What's in a name?

I've been toying with writing a blog for a while now and decided it was time to put my thoughts into action. It all seemed so simple. Use one of the free blog sites and start writing. But wait, what was it going to be about, and what would I call it? My kids advised me that I needed a subject, or it would be nothing more than an online journal. Well, since I'm not that knowledgeable or passionate about any one subject, I decided that it would be personal reflections. My idea was to make comments about things I experience or see around me that other people may be able to relate to. Now, what to name it. It's not as easy as it would seem. With the millions of blogs out there, there's not much left to choose from.

My first idea was Observations of an Everyday Boring life. However, it was suggested that I don't need to tell people ahead of time that my life is often boring. Next, I played with Run of the Mill, Matter of Fact, and So on and So Forth. All taken. Next was Watching paint Dry, but that was taken also with actual web cams set up to watch paint dry. How about Dull as Dishwater?  Maybe that was giving too much away ahead of time again. (BTW, the original phrase was supposedly "Dull as Ditch Water.") 

I was going to have to get creative. The family started brainstorming. Running with safety scissors and Your guess is as good as mine. Taken. My personal favorite was one I thought up- Lend me your nose. A play on Lend me your ear but using nose indicating that you should Take time to stop and smell the roses. 

After several more hours of deep thought, I settled on Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. This title is supposed to indicate that no matter what happens to us, we can always learn from it, and the unknown can still be a little scary and cause us to toss and turn. Or maybe the title just means, that I was really tired and the rhyming of the words seemed good enough. This morning, my son asked me what name I came up with, and after I told him, he replied, "Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be." I don't think I will ever be able to live down, "Lend me your nose."

Until next time...

A is for A-Z Challenge

EEK! How did that happen? I have been toying with the idea of doing the A-Z Challenge, and now it's already April, and time for it to begin. The A-Z Challenge is a blogging challenge to post every day in April, except Sundays, with each post related to a letter of the alphabet. There are 26 days in April without Sundays, so it works out nicely. 

I've done this challenge a few times in the past and have a love/hate relationship with it. I find posting daily arduous, but I am often more creative when I have a deadline every day. So, I guess I'll give it a go for a couple of weeks anyway. I'll be traveling at the end of the month with unpredictable internet, so I may pick the challenge up in May, where I leave off. If I had been coordinated, I would already have my posts ready. But that didn't happen. 

People often post with a theme, and I tried that once but didn't find it any easier than random topics. I've been toying with the idea of looking through the Wayback Machine and reposting things from the past. I've been casually blogging for 14 years, so it could be interesting to take some trips down memory lane. And if past experience with this challenge has taught me anything, I never end up where I thought I was going to go.

So, without further ado, let the challenge begin.

Until next time...

Blog Files, Part 2

Here are more ideas from a folder I used to keep of things I might blog about. I last looked at it a few years ago, but it resurfaced as we were cleaning out our files. I found it curious to see what I might write about. You may or may not be interested, but here is Part 2 of things I saved in case you are. :)

Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian National Zoo

--Notes about our trip to the zoo to see behind the scenes in the primate area. I wrote about it here.

--A list of historic road sign photos and back roads Miss Landers and I took during a trip to West Virginia. I wonder if I could still find those photos and do a post about them.

--Notes about the new neighborhood we moved to during our last move. One was comparing porch sitting in the suburbs and rural West Virginia. This could still be an interesting post.

--A note on the education my parents received. Not sure where I was going to go with that.

--Several paragraphs on my personal life, including my birth, transition to high school, my wedding day, and meeting Ward. I have mentioned many of these in one post or another. Also, were my preferences for color, food, books, and TV shows when I was 7 and then at 50 years old.

Age 7: Any color but red, milkshakes, Box Car Children, Gilligan's Island

Age 50: Green, cottage cheese and fresh tomatoes, Glass Castle, Andy Griffith reruns

This rock ad says something about Brown's Pills.

--Pictures of an old advertisement carved into a rock on the family farm. Unfortunately, I've never found enough information to write a post. However, I am still very curious about it.

-Information about washing clothes during my grandparents' time. This is interesting, and I will write a post about it sometime.

--A chart summarizing my results from measuring vampire electricity around my house. I posted it about it here. That was 10 years ago, so it might be time to repeat the experiment.

This poodle is in the race every year.

--Flyers from the Kinetic Sculpture Race. I have written about it in 2019 and 2016.

--Research on tattoos became this post.

Now I can cross "sort blog folder" off my To Do list. Thanks for sorting with me. :)

Until next time...

Blog files, Part 1

 I used to keep a folder of ideas that I might blog about. I last looked at it a few years ago, but it resurfaced as we were cleaning out our files. I found it interesting to see what I thought I might write about. You may or may not be interested, but here are some of the things I saved in case you are. :)

--Notes about differences in hot dog preferences in West Virginia. This came after visiting Hillybilly Hot Dogs in Lesage, WV. I learned a line running through West Virginia separates those who prefer slaw on their dogs and those who like chili. The details are more complex than that, and maybe I'll write about them someday.

--An article on George Orwells Six rules for choosing the right word. This was something from my mother, a writer in her later years. I have all but given up on proper writing because so many rules seem to be changing. As you have noticed, I have chosen a more conversational style than a more formal one. 

--Notes for the A-Z Challenge, 2018. In case you're not familiar with it, the A-Z Challenge is an annual challenge during April to post daily (no Sundays) for a different letter of the alphabet. I chose not to do it this year, but I always have mixed feelings. Coming up with a different post daily can be arduous, and I tire quickly of it. However, I have written some of my most interesting posts during these Aprils. Something about necessity is the mother of invention...

--Also, from 2018, an article about doing a podcast when I was toying with the idea of doing one. I'm still interested, but it would be hard to compete with the copious amounts of them available these days. In addition, I have no equipment to work with for any kind of decent sound quality. However, who knows? When I retire, maybe I'll look into it.

--An article from Mental Floss about why bird poop is white. I included some of this information in this post in 2018; B is for Bird.

--A letter to my mother telling her she had won a spot on a local TV game show. I think she won a TV, among other things. I was always fascinated with this story, but she didn't talk about it much. I still may do something on this.

--A copy of two utility bills from the 1940s that we found in my family's home just hours after one of the residents at my mother's nursing home told me that her uncle used to live in our house. The bills were in her uncle's name. It was one of several connections I made at the nursing home while visiting my mother. I wrote about it here.

--Playbills for Sweeney Todd, Fickle, Godspell, and The Magic Play. I never got around to writing about any outings to see these shows, but I did write about seeing Dial M for Murder. 

Tune in next time to see what else I pull out of the folder.

Time. Again.

I've been writing a blog for over 12 years, and I've covered a lot of material - some of which I don't even remember. So I come back to a theme then and again. And sometimes, I just rerun something I've written before because, you know, why reinvent the wheel. And that's what I'm going to do today. Maybe it will seem new to you like it did to me.:)

In the first post of this year, on New Year's Day, I started to write about time and its passage. However, I ran out of time and energy to do the research I needed for the post, so I punted and promised a post about it later. Well, you know what? I did a post about time a few years ago. And while it does not cover everything I promised in my January post, it does bring up some interesting points about time. 

Without further ado, here is one from the files.

________________________________________________________

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2017

Time Flies, Sometimes

I turned around yesterday and realized that, somehow, it was the end of October. How could that be? In my mind, I just finished July. Time is a funny thing. It's a constant but seems to speed up and slow down at different times. How does that work? I stumbled across an article that gives insight into this question.

It all relates to how we process things in our brain, according to a study done in Munich, Germany, and reported by Scientific American. Researchers interviewed 499 people aged 14-94 about their perception of time. They found that in short durations up to a year, for all ages, time seems to go fast--especially when they were having fun. The difference came when time was examined in retrospect. Time from childhood went slowly, while time from later years (over 40) went much faster.

Here's how the researchers explained this phenomenon. The brain lays down memories for novel experiences. However, it doesn't do that for familiar ones. So when you experience a lot of new things, like everything in childhood, there are a lot of memories to go with that time period. However, when you experience fewer new things, like much of adulthood, you have fewer memories. So the same time period can seem either long or short depending on how many memories you have associated with it.

I'm not sure this explains how time seemed to jump from July to October, but it does explain some other things, like why I remember and quote more things from my childhood than any other time. This subject needs more examination. When I have time. :)

Do you notice time in different ways?

Musings

When I post, I like to have a point that I want to make, explore something I learned from an experience, or muse about an observation. And over the years, I've been able to do that - sometimes. But the reality is that kind of post takes more effort and time than I often have or want to do. So then I think about doing a post with just an update on what I've been up to. While that kind of post is much easier to write, I wonder how much I want to reveal about my life or those around me - even if I am using pseudonyms. Or if anyone even cares what I did last weekend. That leaves me indecisive, and I then end up not posting anything. Have you caught on yet that I often overthink things? Or another way to say it is I am a perfectionist. 

I was surprised when I figured out that I have perfectionist tendencies. I certainly didn't do everything perfectly, and many areas of my life were not perfect. However, the ah-ha moment for me was learning that perfectionism often results in an all-or-nothing scenario, and often, it's nothing. I pondered most decisions for a long time, not wanting to make the wrong one. I remember when I was a young professional and read an interview with the president of the company I was working for where he said making a decision, even if it is wrong, is better than no decision. If it's a wrong decision, you learn from it and move on. I was incensed when I first read that. What do you mean that a wrong decision is okay? After thinking about it for a while, I guess I saw his point, even if it didn't seem right. Since then, I've slowly learned to accept that fact and try to practice it.

The Frugal Girl said something the other day that I also had to learn. "Done is better than perfect." This blog, in particular, has helped me with that idea. I have had to accept that posting with typos was okay. Of course, I try to proofread, but I often miss things. I was really worried about that in the beginning, but I'm okay with mistakes here now (well, mostly). 

Over many years, although I've been working on letting go of my perfectionism, it still doesn't come naturally. I have to make a conscious decision to change how I think if perfectionism or indecision is getting in the way of moving forward. I have had to learn to trust myself enough to know if I make a wrong decision; I am strong enough and smart enough to handle it. 

But letting go of perfectionism doesn't mean I don't strive to do things well and make good decisions. It just means that I get to the action sooner. But with all things, including this one, I'm still a work in progress.

So what does all of this mean? I don't know. I sat down to write a post about how the baby shower went last week and ended up with musings on perfectionism. If I don't think about it too much, I'll tell you about the shower next time. :)

Until then…

Nothing to Say :)

 

Source?

My life is just going along with the ups and downs of everyday life, and I am enjoying every minute of this relatively routine, calm time.

Well, I'm not really enjoying every minute of it because it's not my nature to go without complaining for any extended period of time. Complaint of the minute. My eyes cause me a lot of problems with constant itching and burning. I have worked on this problem for years with various doctors with measured success. Besides the annoyance of it all, it affects my vision, and sometimes it's better than others. This makes it hard to get a prescription for glasses because what I can see one day clearly may be blurry the next. Nevertheless, I have new glasses, and I can see better. Yay! Now I just need to get past the breaking-in period. They're still giving me a bit of a headache, but past experience has shown me that this will pass. Enough complaining for now. That is what I've tried to learn to do over the years - not spend too long in a negative mood. Mixed results on that one, too. But practice makes progress.

We have yet to have any accumulation of snow this Winter. February is our big snow month, but we usually have at least a few snows before now. In place of the really cold weather, we've been having a lot of dreary, rainy weather with temps in the 30s and 40s. Not conducive to much outdoor activity (at least for me), so I've been spending most of my time indoors. 

While indoors, I've been working on my Storyworth stories. I have another month or so before they publish the book with the stories in it. I find the editing and formatting of their program limited and slow to work with. Also, I've been spending time trying to find pictures to add to some of the stories searching among scrapbooks and boxes of pictures that extend back to my grandmothers. I have found a few treasures, but it's taking a long time to find some pictures I was sure I had. It's faster to go through pictures on the computer than through old boxes. But I think I will be happy with my effort and the finished product when it's done. 

Me at 5 mo. I didn't remember seeing this picture before.

And back to the topic of winter and snow, my storytime theme this week at the library is Winter. At the end, we're going to pretend it's snowing with bubbles from a bubble machine while a winter song plays. I think it will be a lot of fun. I also put together a scavenger hunt in the library for Lunar New Year that the kids seem to be enjoying. And I would say that I am enjoying my job, too. If only I had more time. It keeps me hopping.

Computer time is up for now. Next on the list is cleaning the litter boxes.

Until next time...

I'm joining the Tuesday 4

I read several blogs that participate in the Tuesday 4 ,so I thought I would join in this week. Here it goes.

This is the first picture I posted on my blog.
It was on my second post from which
came the idea for my Second Look series.

 

1.  Tell us about your blog.  When did you start blogging?

My blog is a personal blog with no particular focus unless you say that I like to share more flower and nature photos than any other kinds. I started blogging April 2011. 10 Years! I'm amazed that I've been doing it that long. And while there have definitely been ebbs and flows in my posting, I don't think I've gone more than a couple of weeks without posting over the past 10 years. Once again, I'm amazed. I didn't think I had that much to say, and perhaps, if you read some of the posts, you will agree. But sometimes, when I am able to express my thoughts and feelings in a clear and meaningful way, I feel like that maybe I do have something to share.

2.  What prompted you to begin blogging?

 Originally, I had stories that I wanted to tell, but soon learned that they were not my stories to tell. They involved others and out of respect for their privacy, I didn't share most of them. Over time, bits and pieces of some of the stories have come out, but most of the original material I thought I might write about is still bouncing around in my head.

My third post was about my cat, Annie.

3.  What was your first blog about and why did you choose that subject/title?

My very first blog post was titled, "What's in a Name?" and discusses how I came up with the title, Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. It's too complicated to explain here, so I will rerun that first post soon.
 

4.  How has your blog changed over time, and has it done for you what you hoped it would do in the first place?

In the beginning, I was trying to find a voice for my blog. Since I wasn't going to share the personal stories I had planned, I tried different things. I did cooking and recipe posts. I participated in food waste groups. I did my own set of inspirational sayings and photos. I documented some of our visits to various places both local and far away. I collected stories of others first memories of school. 

But I really hit my stride when I started doing my Second Look posts. Every Wednesday, I would explore my yard and look for details that I might otherwise not notice. We inherited an overgrown large yard that was hard to control and it wasn't until I started doing the Second Looks, that I truly appreciated it for it's beauty instead of  the work it needed. I also learned a lot about nature as I researched a bug, bone, or plant I would find. 

Looking for the positive in my yard spilled over into other parts of my life and in general made me a happier person. Four years ago, we moved into a new house with a smaller, better contained yard and the Second Look posts didn't inspire me in the same way as they did before. Eventually, I dropped them as a regular feature. I miss them and would like to find another focus to replace them. Someday...

My blog didn't turn out how I imagined, but it did something that I had never imagined that it could. It gave me a whole new set of friends that I would have never had the chance to know without it. Because of that, my little blog has exceeded all expectations and for that I am very thankful.

Whatever

When I write a post, I like to have a purpose and a particular thing I want share. This often hinders me from writing because it seems too difficult to try to form coherent thoughts without a clear reason for sharing. That's a bit of perfectionism, I guess, and that along with the feeling that I don't really have anything very interesting to say leads me to irregular posting .

When I started this blog nine years ago after encouragement from a friend, I didn't even really know what a blog was. I had ideas of what I wanted to write about, but I soon figured out that I wanted to tell other people's stories and those were not mine to tell. I tried all kinds of things trying to find my blog's voice. I did Food Waste Friday with the Frugal Girl and I made up recipes and shared what we ate because I saw that was what others were doing. It didn't matter that I didn't like to cook. 

In addition, I wrote about musings from my kids in their younger days and did a round of posts on school memories from different friends and family. I did a series on differences between boys and girls that I had observed and participated in the yearly A-Z challenge. Also, I regularly posted encouraging sayings for myself where I would caption one of my photos and did Thankful Sunday posts to practice gratitude. 

I skipped along from here to there until I started doing my Second Looks. Then I was excited. I enjoyed exploring my yard each week trying to see the flowers and not the weeds or actually trying to see the weeds as flowers. I learned all kinds of things about the plants and critters that lived there and the discoveries were exhilarating. That was when I hit my stride. But I have a different house and a different job now that take up both my physical and mental energy most days. And the blog shows that.

But, I'd like to do more and thus, my dilemma. 

So what does all of this mean? Well, it means that without a clear idea in mind, I don't know what I'm writing. I sat down to write about the massive picture deletion project I've been doing and I ended up never getting to the topic, but let me see if I can wrap it up. While going through old pictures, I've also thought about old blog posts and I am going to start sharing some of those just like I am sharing some of my old pictures with family and friends.

Until next time...

Here we go again.

Well, gosh, darn it. My attempt to post more frequently is not going as well as I had hoped. In fact, I'd say no change so far. But after posting regularly on this blog for 8 years, I'd say it's pretty remarkable that I am even still doing it. Especially since there is no theme to guide the posts. Well, it's either remarkable or I don't know when to quit. But I'm going to give it a go again. : )

Here's another time Annie was not happy
after a trip to the vet.

Last week was filled with appointments and meetings plus the ever-present work. We are moving ahead on the porch that we want to replace our rotting deck with and had another meeting with the architect. Now we are starting to contact contractors. The cats had to go to the vet where she found both of Annie's ears infected. Let's just say Annie is NOT fond of the drops she needs twice a day. I hosted my book club where we discussed a very interesting book (more on that another day).  And we're still figuring out what to do with our good crop of pears. And yadda, yadda, yadda or if you prefer, blah, blah, blah. You know, just a lot more of the same.


Now onto the subject of the day:

Bumble bees vs. Carpenter bees

It wasn't that many years ago when I didn't know that carpenter bees and bumble bees weren't the same thing. I just called every big bee that was gold and black a bumblebee. Well, doing my Second Looks taught me differently. I learned that bumblebees are fuzzy on the end and carpenter bees are smooth and shiny on the end. (I know entomologists are out there screaming with my over simplification, but you gotta start somewhere.) See below. These pictures were taken a couple of years ago at my old house.

Bumblebee on the left and carpenter bee on the right. Notice fuzzy vs. shiny.

Carpenter bees may not always desirable to have around. Notice the round holes on the fence board above the woodpecker. Those were made by carpenter bees and our fence is full of them. They can do the same thing to your house. However, they are good pollinators just like other bees.

Here's your quiz. Look carefully. Is this a bumblebee or a carpenter bee on this Mexican sunflower.
(Hint: Is it shiny?)

Until next time, Happy Trails to you ....

The Ebb and Flow of Blogging

I've been blogging for over seven years now and it seems like just yesterday when I started. And sometimes, it seems like forever. When I started, I wasn't even sure what a blog was, but was I encouraged by a friend to give it a try. I had all kinds of stories kicking around in my head that I wanted to tell. However, I soon found out that most of these were not my stories to tell because I needed to respect the privacy of those around me. So I experimented until I found a comfortable rhythm. 

There were periods when I posted every day and usually there were no more than a couple days that went by without a post. It wasn't until recently that the frequency of my posts dropped of markedly. Even then, the longest I have gone without posting is two weeks. I find that pretty remarkable for someone who has never embraced writing. I was the person who managed to get out of college with only one English class and avoided classes with a lot of papers like the plague. However I found out with this blog, that although I thought I don't like to write, I do like to share my thoughts with others.

During my time as a blogger, I have made many friends. That's been the unexpected benefit to this experience. However, overtime, I have gone through at least four sets of blog friends. People whose blogs I read and people who read and commented on my blog. It was interesting as we shared our experiences and got to know each other. But life changes for everyone, and blogs and blog friends came and went. 

So I find myself in an ebb of blogging right now. Most of my current friends only post occasionally and I find myself doing the same thing. Part of the reason for this is I only have so much mental energy. As simple (and mistake riddled) as my posts seem, they take an effort to compose. And the energy to do this is taken up with other things.

So what does all of this mean? I don't know. Part of me is just tired and bored with the whole thing and feels like I've said everything I have to say. Another part of me wants to jump in to revamp things and create new content. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Until next time...

This and That

You may have noticed that these days  months year, posting on my blog has been a little thin. And while I enjoy sharing things with my friends out there in blog land, I've had other priorities. First Ward was sick, then we began the odyssey of buying and selling houses and moving. We have been in our new house for a couple of months now, so is my time freeing up? Well, sort of.

There is definitely less stress than there has been for a while, but things are busy all the same. During the throws of house excitement, I cancelled several appointments. Now I'm rescheduling them and catching up on all of my yearly/semi-yearly visits such as to the dentist.

There's also a lot of work to be done in the new house. While we have most of our daily use things unpacked, there are still several things waiting to be uncovered from their boxes. However, we're still trying to figure out how our things fit in this new space as well as painting to be done before we put much more in place. In addition, there's the tree trimming, yard work, electrical problems, leaky pipes, etc. to contend with. All of those things that have to be dealt with when you own a house.  Add in a declining cat and sick relatives and my time seems to be pretty filled.

However, I could manage it a little better. For example, when I sat down last night to check my email and start a blog post, I got a bit distracted. I came upon a quiz to see how many of 100 popular TV shows from past and present that you could identify. I'm not sure if I should be proud or not, but I got 95/100 correct. :)

Also, Ward and I are taking a little time to explore our new area and just spend some unstructured time together--meaning not doing a chore. This part has been fun and we're making it a priority to keep it up.

So while I'm still busy (isn't everyone?), I really hope to pay more attention to my blog now. If nothing else, I need to update the Who-am-I type things, because they've changed since I started this blog several years ago. But we'll see. Until next time, thanks for checking in.

Y is for Years

Y is for Years, Five Years that is

April marks the 5th anniversary of writing this blog and I am amazed that I've been doing it for that long. When I first began, I wasn't totally sure what a blog was except it stood for Web log. I just knew that I walked around with stories in my head that I wanted to tell, and a friend encouraged me to start a blog as a place to record them. Funny thing about that. Once I got it going, I realized that this was not the place for those stories, so I wandered around other topics and tried to find my blog's voice. I'm still looking for it just like I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

However, there is one area that has found a place here. That's my Second Looks. They are one of the best things that have come from my blogging experience. I have learned so much and really enjoyed my time exploring my yard each week.

Also, there's a question I have often thought about. How much of my world do I reveal? You really don't know where I live, what I look like, or the real names of anyone. You don't know about the intimate conversations I have with my friends and family. You don't always know what keeps me awake at night.

But on the other hand, you know many other things. You know that my father died and my mother's in a nursing home. You know that we are empty nesters, and there have been many health crises with close family members. You know where we have been on vacations and what food we've wasted. You know that I don't like to spend time in the kitchen and we have cats. And you know I don't get pedicures.

At various times, I get bored with this blog and feel like I don't have anything else to say. I think that I need to change things up with both content and appearance. But those things never make it to the top of the To Do list. So for now, or least until I recover from this A-Z Challenge, I will keep blogging in the same way and share a little of this and a little of that with you, my wonderful friends, that I have found during this blogging experience.

Computer Time

I try to limit how much time I spend on the computer every day. There are no official rules, I just know when it's been too much. And recently, I've reached too much before I've had time to post here.

Lucy as a kitten. (Not related to anything in the post. Just like the pic.)

So what have I been doing? First, there's my regular routine of checking my email and dealing with whatever business comes up. This may be something with my mother, a bill, or other family concerns. I've also been working on a couple of newsletters that have been plaguing me. Paragraphs have been written and erased, written and erased, written and erased. Finally, they were written and declared done because I ran out of time. Throw in a little blog reading and Facebook checking and it adds up to too much time on the computer--that indeterminate amount of time that just feels like too much. But now that the newsletters are done, I have a little more time open for other pursuits like my blog.

But a little more time is the key word and I've run out of it for the day. It's time for me to move on so I can fix supper. Yes, that's right. I said fix supper which is going to involve cooking. On the menu is leftover homemade chicken pot pie from last night, a green salad with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pears along with roasted cauliflower. And for dessert--brownies.

So see you next time. Do you ever feel like you spend too much time on the computer?

What was I thinking?

I have a yellow folder that I put things into that might be a good idea for a future blog post. My mind is kind of busy these days with uninteresting things to the rest of the world, so I thought it was time to get some ideas from there. The problem is that I don't know what many of the things mean any more.

Here are a few of them in no particular order except how I pulled them out.

Written on a piece torn from a brown, paper bag. "Yellow (big)-rabbit bush, Yellow many-flowered--viguicva, Yellow--satisfy, Yellow--dessert blazing star."  I think these are flowers from our Southwest vacation that I was going to do a special Second Look post with. I don't think there's any chance that I could go back to my pictures and figure out all of these different yellow flowers. However, who knows? It might be a lot of fun to do that on a frigid January day.

Root beer floats--now I like root beer floats, but I have no idea what I was going to write about them

Should have returned Sharon idea--no clue

Daughters of the Mountain--a book about women coal miners. This could be interesting, but will take a lot of research

Capitol Steps program--Capitol Steps is a group that does political satire with songs and skits. We went to see them last January. Not sure what I was going to write, but anything I heard then would be outdated now because they do very topical material.

Godspell program--I actually do remember this one. We went to a performance and I got to go on stage from the audience. I was going to talk about the stage ham that I used to be (or still am.)

Johnny Appleseed--I think I was going to do more research and follow up on an earlier post.

Different light--microwave, pressure cooker. Anyone out there know what that means?

And as happened with many of those ideas, I've run out of time. Gotta wrap this up or I'll be late to work.

Until next time...

This and That

If you read here very often, you may have noticed that my blog has been a bit anemic recently--meaning my posting has decreased to just Second Looks and Thankful Sundays. There are several reasons for this, but in a general way, it is because I have been feeling overwhelmed. Some of that comes from chronic stressors I have and some of it comes from a busier than usual schedule the last few months. But it has all left me too tired to do much thinking when I have time to sit down at the computer.

Here is where I think my perfectionism is getting in the way. In my mind, there is a certain quality I want my posts to have that I haven't had the energy to figure out recently.  I have started a couple that need more research before they're ready to go and I'm ending up with nothing in the meantime. So I'm going to try to just post. I'm not sure what about, but you'll hear from me. I miss hearing from you on a more regular basis in the comments. But you don't have any place to comment if you don't have anything to read.

Here it goes. My brain dump about nothing in particular except what I see around me. :)

This morning as Ward was going out the door, he noticed a water stain on the ceiling. Never something that you want to see. The stain is below the corner of the garage roof and I hope that it is the result of hard rains and winds and not a fatal flaw in the roof. New roofs are too expensive to contemplate right now. Or ever, but are a very necessary part of home maintenance. It is supposed to rain this afternoon and evening, but clear up over the weekend. Hopefully, we can assess the situation then.

The freshly painted shed.

However, this week we did get our shed fixed up by Beto and Beto--friends of Carlos and Carlos who took down a couple of trees for us recently. (Yes, there are two teams of men working together with the same first name.) There were several places of rotten wood and squirrel gnawings on the shed that needed attention as well as painting. Ward had fully intended to do this project this month, but he really didn't have time. He has work for his regular job most every weekend as well as helping his dad prepare for his annual pig roast next weekend. Last weekend we were there helping with the planning and this weekend we plan to go to help with some preparty cleanup.

Lucy on one of her good days
sleeping in a basket of dirty clothes.

But for now, it time for me to do some errands--mostly picking up medicine for Lucy, my cat, and meeting some friends for some walking and talking--one of the ways I'm trying to take care of myself so maybe I won't be so tired.

Until next time....

Thankful Sunday--April 5, 2015

I am thankful for the A-Z Blogging Challenge.

I had gotten into a blogging slump where it was easy to be distracted by other things and not have much energy left for composing posts. But the thing is, composing posts got the ole creative juices flowing and gave me energy. This challenge has helped me focus and organize my time, so I am back to blogging. And for that I am thankful.

(I am finding it a bit of a challenge to figure out a topic for every letter, but four down and only 22 more to go. Wish me luck.)

A is for April

Maybe I can get some ideas from here.

During the month of April, I am participating along with over 1500 other bloggers in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The idea is to blog everyday starting with a topic that begins with A and continue with one for each letter of the alphabet. If Sundays are eliminated, the 26 letters will take us to the end of April. Some people are doing a specific topic for the month, and others of us are going to be here, there, and everywhere with our posts. Meaning, we I don't have a plan yet.

However, I'm excited. My mind has been busy trying to think of topics for each letter but they're kind of jumbled right now. So far, I have today's, eight for the letter B and none for the letter D. Oh yeah. I need to slip a C in there. Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

My Blogging Approach

Some of the everyday things I have blogged about.

Before I started this blog, I thought about stories I wanted to tell. They were stories about personal struggles and triumphs. They were funny stories and serious stories. However after two years, I haven't told one of those stories here. That is because they involve details about other people who didn't ask to be part of my blog. They were about friends and family who would rather not have some important parts of their life shared in a very public way. So, I have tried to respect that. 

Therefore, you may know what my family had to eat last week and that we went on a hike, but you won't know the individual struggles we are having--the ones that make us angry with each other and the ones that make us cry for both sadness and joy. You may know that we got a good deal on a garden tool but you won't know how that savings fits into our overall budget. It's not that I think that others shouldn't share these things on their blogs. In fact, some of the most meaningful and inspirational stories come from reading about others personal journeys.

 As time has gone on, I have thought of my blogging community more like a family. I am ready to share more personal things like the death of my father, but others still are not ready for me to bare all. I ask permission if a post involves anyone other than myself before I publish it even though we all have an alias. You may have noticed that most of my pictures don't show faces or show them only from a distance. If you see a whole person, the picture is quite old or a stranger I have gotten permission from. Some place names are real and some are not. If you read much, you should know what area of the USA I live in, but not much more than that.
  
"With this blog, I am trying to take time to notice everyday things around me with both appreciation and curiosity."  That was one of my early statements about the purpose of this blog and I think Live and Learn-Toss and Turn has helped me to do that. I do know that this blog has made me a happier person overall. I spend more time appreciating the outdoors around me with A Second Look. I take time to be reminded of the simple things I'm thankful for with Thankful Sundays. I remember fondly Wally and Theo's early years with Ponderings and Boy vs. Girl. I am eating healthier and more frugally with Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions. And the list goes on. 

Upon reflection, I declare my blogging approach a success for me. For now, I will share some of my personal stories with just my family and then enjoy reading yours.