Finding a great balance in one’s life is not easy. We are just returning from a 2 week vacation with three work days back under my belt. The time away was great and allowed me to reflect & discover…one of which… at 56 years I am still a kindergartener in life’s classroom! So little time and so much yet to learn. I have decided that adulthood isn’t all it is cracked up to be…responsibility is way overrated! I yearn to giggle and play like our 4-year old granddaughter, who we were fortunate to spend several days with. She just gives you that booster shot needed to be amazed, excited, and amused. I thought at one time I was sort of still like that and then that word “serious” came in my front door of life and wouldn’t go away. Family and friends pretty much know that I have always been somewhat of an insomniac but instead of counting sheep I lay awake and think, wonder and worry. However, I recently came up with a plan to combat this. It is using an imaginery eraser that I pretend to have and use it to erase all of those thoughts that are on my mind’s white board. I go to it like a Servicemaster supervisor and wipe it down squeaky clean. I then hit the replay button on my imaginery DVD which only stores files loaded with happy and pleasant things…crackling fire, star-lit heaven, a granddaughter blowing the seeds of a dandelion, a son’s lovingly affectionate smile to his wife, our dog proudly displaying the squeaker just ripped out of a new toy! Okay..truth is out….I am certifiably “nuts”…but hey, whatever it takes to save on having a shrink bill. Here’s to more fun and laughs for everyone.

Have been camping this weekend with good friends  – enjoying the beginning of spring  — new buds on trees, green grass, birds, bugs, and warm sunshine on our faces.  Sitting around the campfire last night reminded me of how many times this last winter I had visualized and dreamed for that amber glow.  There is something so soothingly hypnotic about a campfire!  We have lots of plans for more campouts in the upcoming months – exciting times!

Also ahead – just three weeks away from now our son, John, and his fiance, Abby, will be getting married.  They have put so much time and thought into making it such a special day.  We already know she will be a very beautiful bride and John will be so dashing and handsome in his tuxedo.  Exiciting times are ahead – not just for the sharing of the wedding day, but being involved in their new life as a family together.  They have a wonderful apartment which will soon be filled with their own expressions of life through their decorating.  It will be a great little home to begin making their lifetime memories in.  We are thrilled for them and wish them all the happiness life can bring.

Our youngest, Jeff, with wife, Jennie, and daughter, Julia, have also had exciting times moving for the first time from apartment complexes to a nice duplex home. Delivering our backyard playset was a first priority as Julia now has her own play area and no longer has to go to a park to swing or slide!  Their nice privacy, fenced-in backyard is a safe environment and their little dog, Casey, is lovin it with no more short-leash, doggie tie out.  Jeff has now cut his own lawn and Jennie loves to follow with her own personal trimmer.  They are becoming quite the little suburbanites!

Exciting times for us are watching our family enjoy life.  A parent couldn’t hope for any more outside of having them alll have good health.   It is always the little things that seem to marvel me.   The freshlly painted pink room  that Julia’s Mommie and Daddy spent loving hours on, seeing a handmade emboidered towel  proudly hanging from the new stove in Abby & John’s kitchen, the reference of “our room” when we come to visit. 

These a truly exciting times!

Have been camping this weekend with good friends  – enjoying the beginning of spring  — new buds on trees, green grass, birds, bugs, and warm sunshine on our faces.  Sitting around the campfire last night reminded me of how many times this last winter I had visualized and dreamed for that amber glow.  There is something so soothingly hypnotic about a campfire!  We have lots of plans for more campouts in the upcoming months – exciting times!

Also ahead – just three weeks away from now our son, John, and his fiance, Abby, will be getting married.  They have put so much time and thought into making it such a special day.  We already know she will be a very beautiful bride and John will be so dashing and handsome in his tuxedo.  Exiciting times are ahead – not just for the sharing of the wedding day, but being involved in their new life as a family together.  They have a wonderful apartment which will soon be filled with their own expressions of life through their decorating.  It will be a great little home to begin making their lifetime memories in.  We are thrilled for them and wish them all the happiness life can bring.

Ou r youngest, Jeff, with wife, Jennie, and daughter, Julia, have also had exciting times moving for the first time from apartment complexes to a nice duplex home. Delivering our backyard playset was a first priority as Julia now has her own play area and no longer has to go to a park to swing or slide!  Their nice privacy , fenced-in backyard is a safe environment and their little dog, Casey, is lovin it with no more short-leash, doggie tie out.  Jeff has now cut his own lawn and Jennie loves to follow with her own personal trimmer.  They are becoming quite the little suburbanites!

Exciting times for us are watching our family enjoy life.  A parent couldn’t hope for any more outside of having them alll have good health.   It is always the little things that seem to marvel me.   The freshlly painted pink room  that Julia ‘s Mom mie and Daddie spent loving hours on, seeing a handmade emboidered towel  proudly hanging from the new stove in Abby & John’s kitchen, the reference of “our room” when we cometo visit. 

These a truly exciting times!

What room freshener do you like the best?  Seemed like the trend for awhile was vanilla, but now a more popular one on the shelves has to be “fresh linen”.  Ever wonder what the appeal is on this scent?  Could it be the reminiscing of days gone by when fresh clean clothes were brought inside after a day of hanging outside on the clothesline? (Do I have that smell in your head yet?)   Along with that maybe you are remembering that particular chore — who you were with — maybe a little sister jumping up to release the clothespin holding the dangling sock or a mother in her ”June Cleaver” skirt and blouse pulling out the metal pant pleaters and neatly folding the trousers in the basket.  I’ m thinking those research analysts have it pretty well figured out as to what plays on our emotions and what makes sense to market.    Maybe you are like me and you find you have moments now and then that are a bit complicated or even disappointing.  (Watch the nightly news!)   Just join with me in bringing out an imaginary can of “fresh linen” and spraying a good dose all about.   The fresh scent might help clear the bad air and help make sense of what really matters in life.

Don’t know why I am at the point in my life that I just want to play, take life easy, and avoid responsibility but I am.  It is pretty obvious if you walked into our house right now–the riddling of Diet Sunkist cans on end tables and unopened mail setting in several stacks, not to mention the far too many craft projects cluttering about, are all pretty good tell all signs.  What is happening?  Where is my control?  I try to rationalize to myself  –could it be because I have been in the work force for 37 years (yikes!) and I’m just plain ‘ol tired of working?  Could it be that without children in the house anymore the need for setting a good example is out the window?  Or, have I finally stopped worrying about what are really trifle little things and started to really let myself slow down, relax and enjoy life?  They say the pendelum of life can swing hard to the right and then hard to the left…guess  I’m doing that hard swing to the left.  I’ll keep working on finding the happy medium (or sanity!).   For those around me, please be patient –I’m not done growing and I might get a handle of this life thing yet!

Did you realize it was the Romans who invented the mirror back in 4000 BC?  Was wondering one day who to blame so looked it up on the web.    It is one of those items in my house that usually is smeared with toothpaste splatters and hairspray residue and is one that I like to avoid – no matter what size . The last reflection I had in it was not too pretty…there stood in front of me two eyes looking back with this flappy matter hanging down amongst them.  I’ve been comparing my face lately to some odd things…movie theatre curtains, the “too thin” shelf  barely holding our extra heavy basement microwave, Jello jigglers –you get the picture (sorry!) .    My husband has always said that he doesn’t like it when I wear makeup.  He says he likes the natural look.  Natural he wants…natural he gets…Grand Canyon creavices and all!  So, if you can relate to any of this, thanks for keeping me company and if you are a lot younger and can’t relate, stop decorating with mirrors and get the smallest of smallest medicine cabinet they make…you’ll thank me later.

Just asking myself what I really want out of life…over-easy days — those that are completely layed back with no stress pulling at me or a scrambled day with lots of life’s challenges and interesting moments.  In all honesty, I crave scrambled.   Looking at the big “60″ in the not too distance future, I feel like I need to stuff as much in the shopping bag as possible, fill the page past the margins, and speed like an Olympian to take in as much life as I can.  Hopefully you won’t see me broke down along the way…if you do, just pull straight in front of me, hook up the positive cable only and give me a jump start.  I promise to to do the same for you.

Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day.  Ours is always double fun at our house because my husband, Chuck, celebrates his birthday as well.  What an awesome moment his mother must have felt when she found out  she would deliver her new son on this “love” day.  Being a mother of two wonderful sons, I cannot imagine the feeling she had in her heart.  Each time our sons were brought into our lives, an incredible feeling swept over me.  Holding them in my arms and having their heart beat against my heart created a oneness – a connection I knew I would always have with them.  Similar connections have been made in my life with others as well.  I have great memories of time spent with my mom, dad, sister and brothers, both collectively and individually.  My extended family means a lot to me as well- - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews (now great nieces and nephews!).  They have been and are now such fun people.  Chuck’s family, who are also my family mean a great deal to me.  They have treated me like their family and I have some wonderful memories with them.  I have also had some tremendous friends who have let me into their lives. Now I have a wonderful daughter-in-law and “soon-to-be” daughter-in-law who I hope will allow me to be not just a new “mom” in their lives but a close friend who they can share fun times with.  Lastly, but not leastly our granddaughter, Julia who has this fantastic happiness in her soul.  She finds joy in everyday and it radiates to all around her. 

My intention of this blog is to be more inspirational and creative — to keep looking at life lightheartedly and to enjoy every moment we have.  Sorry for being so sentimental in the above.  I know it probably sounds like a lot of sappiness – but I’m entitled due to the holiday, right?  Anyways, thanks for being my family and friend.  You have enriched my life in ways you will never know.

Alright, I admit it.  I have said that I live for the weekends like so many others but if I were to follow my own philosophy at “maxing out each day” from my previous blog, I may start changing my tune.  The upside with weekends though is there is more time to spend with family and friends and, of course – PLAY!  I do have to tell myself that unless I want the Board of Health at my door, there has to be time spent on the weekly (?) routine household chores. Blah!!!  We do have two pets: Molly, the cat, and Patch, a beagle/terrier mix, and they tend to share their apparel with us.  Trust me, if you have been to our house with black pants on you know! Anyways, although a good share of our daily lives our spent at our places of work, I’m thinking we just need to treat each day like there are only three chocolate chip cookies left in the cookie jar and we need to snatch them before anyone else!!  Have good days — not weekends!