- It’s been one of those weeks and I want to think everything that happened worked out for the best.
- My son’s girlfriend was having issues with a guy harassing her at work which has been resolved and she is able to keep her job.
- I met my friend Jen out for lunch. She had her yearly cancer screen this week and her cancer has not progressed and continues to remain stable which is great news.
- This past week I redeemed the spa package I won and had an afternoon of pampering with my daughter Angel.
- I got my new glasses.
- Volunteering with my husband and going out to eat afterwards with the center’s manager and his girlfriend. We all seem to get along really well.
- Paul and I went out to eat with my brother Matt for his birthday along with my mom and his autism group and care staff. I’m grateful that he is involved in a really great program that goes out into the community to work on social skills.
- Ladies group.
- Paul and I went out to eat and saw a local favorite Pink Floyd tribute band perform.
- Tickets to a comedy show.
- Angel had her annual work review and they gave her a hefty raise.
- I attended a volunteer orientation webinar through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to volunteer this summer to do restoration work.
- I set up an appointment this week to get my third tattoo.
Friendship
Gratitude week 167
- My mom and I were able to go snowshoeing this past week. We are having another snowstorm, so I see more snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in the near future. It’s been a very snowy late winter.
- My daughter and her husband got a new kitten this past week. I’m grateful she is adding joy to their lives.
- Volunteer time; it was good to go back after taking a couple weeks off.
- I had an eye exam this past week and will be getting new glasses. I’ve been having some minor problems with my eyes, mainly sensitive, irritated eyes with blurry vision caused by a blocked tear gland. I can’t even cry right anymore. Seriously, at this point I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry. I’m grateful to find out what is going on and that it will be a long time before I have to go back again.
- I signed up for a motorcycle class at the local Harley Davidson. I’ve been thinking about it for years but have been nervous about signing up, so now I did.
- I saw my first robin this past week. Even though there is tons of snow on the ground and more coming…spring will be here soon…right??
- We had a volunteer night at the sailing club to put our summer sailing brochures in envelopes. Previously our friends Harv and Kate were doing it themselves and it took them 6 hours. With a large group, we got the job done in a half an hour.
- It was nice to see Harv and Kate again. They are somewhere around 90 years old and Harv has been in poor health. I’m grateful to have some wonderful older friends to look up to. They have been married for 62 years and are a great example of what marriage can be.
- As a Christmas gift, we had our pastor and his family over to grill out and swim. It was a lot of fun to see the little kids having fun in the pool.
- We also had our friends over for trip planning last night. Next month we are taking a road trip to Traverse City, Michigan. We had a good visit.
- While our friends were here last night, we saw a red fox walk right by the window. That’s not something we see very often.
Gratitude week 161
- We met up with our best friends and new friends to plan a road trip to Traverse City, Michigan this spring. We ate supper together, played a game, and laughed a lot. It was a fun evening.
- Angel’s mole that was removed is benign.
- Angel just signed up for her first half-marathon. It’s pretty cool she is following in my footsteps.
- Volunteer time, it feels good to be able to help other people.
- Couples therapy, I think we are making a lot of headway.
- We hosted a planning committee for the summer sailing season.
- I did a lot of planning this week for work and for fun. I could literally sit and plan for hours and enjoy it.
- I’m grateful my son is spending his time when he works limited hours to work on the garage apartment remodeling project. There are two unfinished rooms upstairs. One that is very small which he wants to use as a recording studio. His buddies and him are putting up the wall and put in a door. Then there is a very large room which they are planning on making into a living room that they are drywalling.
- This seems to be a relative period of harmony where everyone is working together. I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.
- I was able to spend time with my kids this week and that is always a good thing.
- Paul, Dan, and Alex are working on my son’s car today as some parts came in. It is bitterly cold outside so the car wouldn’t start. It looks like my husband finally got it started.
- Fires in our fireplace on cold winter evenings.
Gratitude week 159
- A lunch date with my friend Jen.
- My best friend came over and surprised me with a gift, a beautiful design she cross stitched and framed for me.
- The salvage yard came and took my son’s car which hasn’t been running since this past summer.
- Volunteering and feeling like it makes a difference. A woman came in with her baby. It was cold outside and the baby didn’t have a jacket. The woman found a sweater for him to bundle him up in. I’m grateful to be a part of an organization that helps families in need.
- My husband and I had a nice visit with my cousin from out of state.
- I started working on my book again.
- A lunch date with my husband and daughter Angel.
- My cat is back on his meds. With the vet office closing, I had to switch his OTC arthritis pills around. Also, his thyroid meds were on back order so he didn’t have any pills for several days. I noticed he seemed more agitated than usual. He was crying more, scratching, and biting at his paws. He is 16 years old and sleeps 90% of the day. He was awake a lot more and uncomfortable. Now he is back to normal and that is a good thing.
Gratitude week 158
- I’m grateful this past week is over, it was a rough week.
- I had my dentist appointment with no problem areas.
- I went thrifting afterwards to treat myself. Although I didn’t find much it was nice to take some time to do something I wanted to do.
- One of my favorite cousins from out of state will be visiting and spending the night here in a couple days.
- Last night my husband and I went out with a group for my best friend’s birthday. We ate at a new to me Mexican restaurant which had the best Mexican food and went to a comedy show.
- It felt good to laugh. I haven’t done a lot of that this past week.
- I think there is a lot of potential that we will become friends with the other couple we went out with for my friend’s birthday. Possible new friend group??
- Today I went out to eat at the Indian restaurant with my daughter Angel and her husband. Afterwards Angel and I sorted donations at the place my husband and I volunteer at. I’m always grateful for the time visiting my daughter.
Gratitude week 156
- Spending Christmas with my kids and their significant others.
- Spending three weekends in a row celebrating Christmas with my kids and their significant others. I am really blessed to have adult children living nearby.
- Spending Christmas Eve with my husband, best friend and her family.
- The candlelight Christmas Eve service.
- My son and his girlfriend got into a car accident on Christmas Eve. A lady blew a red light and hit them. I’m really grateful they were safe in the accident. I am really, really hoping and praying his car isn’t totaled as he has only had it for a month.
- My son Alex does not always wear his seatbelt which his girlfriend and I have been giving him a hard time about. He said previously if he thought he was going to get into an accident he would slip it on real quick. I asked him how that worked out for him. He said from now on he is going to wear a seatbelt.
- I gave and got some really cool gifts. Among my favorites are the Lake of Tears vinyl record, several books including A Father’s Story by Lionel Dahmer, and a magnet fishing kit.
- We had a white Christmas.
- The wind chills are finally above zero.
- We had a great night on Friday sampling beer, eating pizza, and watching the Bucks game with our employee and friend James plus Angel and Dan. Because it was incredibly cold and snowy not all the pizza places were open. When the delivery driver got here, she said she got stuck in someone’s driveway and was sorry she was late. I’m grateful for people who show up to work on a holiday weekend with bad weather conditions. I gave her a good tip.
- Volunteering at Christmastime. Seeing the joy of people in need receiving special gifts at Christmas time. There were a lot of clothes donations at Christmastime, so my mom, Angel and I helped with the sorting today.
- In addition to our own counselors, Paul and I started seeing a couples counselor familiar with our family history. Our marriage is not in trouble. We thought it would help us get through some difficult areas we need to work through mainly with family of origin issues. After one session, she has already been very insightful and I’m hoping it will enhance our relationship.
Christmas Eve Eve
Season’s greetings from blustery Wisconsin. We will surely have a white Christmas this year. It’s been snowing off and on for the last couple of days. It’s been windy and cold with sustained winds of 25mph and gusts up to 50mph bringing the wind chill between 25 and 35 below zero. This is our second named winter storm of the season. Last year apparently we only had one named winter storm. This is the third day this week my son has been doing snow removal. He has been gone for almost 12 hours now and I worry with the brutal cold. The wind is whistling through all the cracks in our house.
I like winter storms but I don’t like the thought of my son and other people working outside in these harsh conditions. I don’t like slippery roads. I don’t like the livestock and animals facing the cold. We are used to it though and life does not come to a grinding halt like you might think it would. If it did we wouldn’t get anything done in the winter. Paul is going to take Will to work tonight. It is too blustery to bike and he doesn’t have a car. He works second shift and I’m not sure how he is going to get back home. I’m trying not to worry too much.
Other than that, we have plans tonight. One of our employees from our previous company and who currently works with us on a limited basis now is coming over tonight. We are going to do some shop talk and then we will do some beer tasting, order pizza, and watch the Bucks game. Angel and Dan will be joining us.
The winter storm is supposed to end by tomorrow evening and we have plans to spend Christmas Eve with my best friend Cindy and her family. We started spending Christmas Eve with them a few years back. Then in the evening we will go to their church’s candlelight Christmas Eve service.
We will be spending Christmas day with our kids and their significant others. I’m starting to bake and prepare for that. Decades ago my MIL got me an ice cream maker. I haven’t used it in years and decided to dig it out and make some homemade ice cream. Today I made molasses cookies. There will be a lot of feasting over the next couple of days. I sure hope we don’t end up losing power with this storm. But the good news is that our freezer food should be just fine this time. We’ll have a lot of roaring fires in the fireplace. ‘Tis the season for dark, cold, and snowy days.
Warm wishes of a merry Christmas to you and yours. Yeah, my son just made it safely home from work!
Gratitude week 154
- Lunch with my husband and daughter getting Indian take out.
- A free car wash.
- Hosting Christmas at my house with my husband, kids and their significant others, my mom, and siblings and family with no drama. Everyone seemed to have a great time together and that is pretty close to being a Christmas miracle.
- My mom’s Christmas gifts came in the mail in time for the party.
- My brother Luke and his family spent the night.
- The futon couch I ordered came just in time for my niece to sleep on it.
- Volunteer time.
- A date night at the community theater with our elderly friends Harv and Kate. They are in good health and we had a wonderful visit.
- Christmas lights, music, and trees.
- Eggnog
- Having a good visit with my mom.
- Playing gin rummy with my husband.
Gratitude week 150
- The election is over! We are done with the crappy ads, middle of the night texts, an overflowing mailbox, all day phone calls, the surveys, and the constant pressure to go out and vote which had the opposite effect on me but I did anyway.
- Mom and I went in for a spa day.
- We had game night a couple times this week with Arabella. One evening she stopped in to do laundry and we ended up playing games.
- Paul and I had our date night at the arcade. It was something different to do. We surprised Will as he was cleaning up a spilled drink by me telling him someone puked all over the place. This was not true but it was funny. I think he was happy to see us.
- We got a lot of work done this week filling the dumpster. Yesterday Paul and I yanked out all the overgrown shrubs in our yard, probably somewhere around 20. I’m still on a plant killing rampage apparently. It needed to be done and I wanted to to do it right before the ground froze to avoid nesting birds. At least I’m not killing the birds.
- We have great friends who are helping today finish the flooring. I hope by next week’s gratitude it will be done. I will post pictures.
- Last night I went to a friend of a friends 46th birthday party. It was over the top. The birthday girl rented the biggest limo I ever saw, rented a hall, got a band, had an open bar all night, catered in wings, had a baker cater in gourmet cupcakes (the same as our daughter’s wedding), and rented a hotel room. I did feel bad because I know they can’t afford it. I’m grateful my husband and I are on the same page as far as finances go.
- Talking about finances, we had our annual visit with our financial advisor. It went really well and he gave us a lot of things to think about. It’s time to update our will. The last time we updated it was when several of our kids were minors. My mom is listed as our power of attorney for healthcare and it’s time to switch that. It’s strange to think I am at an age where I start handing the reigns to my children. I even had to update forms at the doctor’s office and gave them my daughter’s name with her married name. The receptionist noting the different name asked if she was my daughter. She didn’t ask if she was my mother.
- Tomorrow I go in for my annual physical. I’m really hoping for gratitude next week on that. I had my blood work done on Friday and so far everything looks good.
- We had another week with record breaking warm weather. That was strange with the combination of darkness at 4:30 PM. We were able to get out and enjoy the last bit of warmth we’ll be receiving in a while. Yesterday we had snow flurries and we are expecting snow this week so I think it was the last of it.
Gratitude week 149
- The first half of the week was unseasonably warm and sunny so we were able to get out and about walking on the area trails.
- We had a plumber come out again since one of our pumps was clicking almost non-stop. Turns out we had multiple leaking toilets and once those were serviced it fixed the problem. So, yeah, another home maintenance problem fixed.
- I’m also grateful we have a well and are not on a water line. Oh my gosh would that be expensive.
- Lunch with my friend Jen at a restaurant I’ve never tried before.
- My husband is going strong on his detox diet and is almost halfway done.
- We got a dumpster a couple days ago and not only is the future office painted but now the carpet is torn out. I did most of the work myself. Physical labor feels great and doing a home renovation project has always been on my bucket list.
- With the dumpster I’ve felt more motivated than ever to get rid of stuff and declutter.
- I’ve also been motivated to do a little redecorating. We bought our house furnished and I am satisfied with most of the decor. However, there are some things I really don’t like. The area rug under the dining room table is ugly, stained, and worn so I just ordered a new one I like.
- As strange as it sounds for someone my age, I feel like I am really starting to figure out who I am and what I want. I guess that’s the benefit of having adult children and a mostly empty nest. Most of my life I felt the need to be responsible for other people even people I shouldn’t have had that expectation for such as my mom and disabled brother. I’m done with that now.
- I’m grateful to have more time to volunteer. It has been a really enjoyable experience to help those in need. I volunteer through a program supported by area churches to give out diapers and kids clothing to families in need.
Outrunning my demons 