Ho ho ho, crossed that finish line

Wow…I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted anything here. December has been crazy busy, as usual. But somehow I managed to make it to Christmas. Not sure how…I’m exhausted, in more than a little bit of pain, and getting sick. I’ve been fighting a cold (or something) for the past several days. I’m going to have to give my doctor a call Thursday and see if we can get me on some good drugs to nip this in the bud…haha…always think of good old Barney when I say that…nip it in the bud…

I just wanted to quickly check in here and wish you all a happy holiday season…however you choose to celebrate, I hope you find joy and peace.

Monday can be a fun day

Monday Morning too^ On the Job Monday – NARA – 534696 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I know, I know…most of the time we all dread Mondays.  That day when we have to go back to work after a nice relaxing weekend.  The day when it hits us (once again) that the job we’re doing isn’t necessarily what we thought we’d be doing.  The day when we question just how much does the job we get paid to do benefit the world.  Or am I the only one who thinks about things like this?  I can’t imagine that I am, but…

Anyhow, I somehow got distracted.  Despite all of these Monday questions, Mondays can still be fun.  On the first truck day of the month, we always have a pitch-in at work.  Well, today is that day.  We try to come up with themes for our pitch-ins (do you realize how difficult that can be with who knows how many people shouting their suggestions at you?).  Well, Chris (our silly, funny, wonderful boss) came up with this month’s theme.  Brace yourself…it’s a strange one.  Bring something that starts with the same letter as your name.  Really.  Who knows what we’ll end up with.  Could be all desserts, and other than the sugar highs and lows, that wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

I do know that one of the guys is bringing stuffed manicotti (Salvatore), so I’m sure we’ll at least have something good to eat.  I baked pumpkin bars last night.  Kind of a pumpkin brownie deal with orange frosting…fits in with the theme (you know, pumpkin…Patti) and it’s got that whole seasonal thing going on too.  I have a whole pumpkin board on pinterest so you might think I’d have made something from scratch, but no…I saw this mix when I was at Kroger the other day and thought it would be good.  And it’s okay…but not as good as the pumpkin cake I made a few weeks ago.  I’m kind of wishing I’d have made that again…but it’s a tad too late to worry about that right now, isn’t it?

Whatever (don’t you hate it when people say that?  I couldn’t resist.)…we’ll have lots of goodies to share with our work family today and it’ll make the day go faster.  So wherever you are today, whatever you’re doing and whoever you’re doing it with…make your Monday be a fun day!

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Pay it forward

Random Acts of Kindness : Owl (Photo credit: ericarhiannon)

You know, returning the favor, doing a good deed, even a random act of kindness.  Those are all ways we can pass along a little bit of our own good fortune.  Not too long ago, I was the one in need of a helping hand.  I didn’t have a car and couldn’t really afford to buy one.  I had a couple of good friends who were always there for me when I needed them (you both know who you are).  They took me places that were not always easy to reach on the bus or by walking…and they did it often.  They certainly made my life easier during that time and I’ll always be grateful to them.

Now I’m in a better place financially…have a good car and a little money put back.  So when my neighbor asked me yesterday if I could take her to the grocery store this afternoon, I didn’t even have to think about it.  I told her I’d be glad to do it.  And I really meant it.  I gave it some thought in the evening, recognizing that I didn’t feel pressured to do it or that I was being used.

As I continued to mull it over, I realized this was my way, not of paying my friends back (this won’t help them in any way at all), but I guess it’s kind of my way of paying the universe back.  I’ve often heard the phrase “pay it forward” and this is exactly what it’s about.  You return the favor to someone else entirely, someone who had nothing to do with helping you out originally.  My hope is that this lady may do some act of kindness for someone else in the future, but if not, that’s okay too.  If even half of us would do something nice for someone else can you imagine how much better our world would be?

Anyhow, this isn’t to demand that you go out and perform good deeds.  I’m simply throwing out there the thought of doing what you can to help someone else when the opportunity arises.  I kind of think you end up gaining more from it than the person you help does.  Have you ever had that experience when helping someone out?

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Enjoy the good days

You know, whether or not you have any kind of physical ailments, we all have good days and bad days.  Every single one of us.  That’s something I’m trying to keep in mind.  On the bad days, I remind myself that the good days will swing around again.  And on the good days, I remind myself to enjoy every minute of each of those days.

Take pleasure in the things that lift your spirit.  Find the time to smile and laugh.  Do something that you feel passionate about.  It doesn’t matter what any of those things are.  They’ll be unique to each of us.  What matters is that you do those things for yourself.  Take the time to observe the joy that surrounds you.  It’s there, each and every day.  You’ve just got to open yourself up to it.

Each day that we open our eyes in the morning is a blessing…make the most of it!

sunflowers make me smile

 

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After living below the line…

Bread (Photo credit: ulterior epicure)

…grocery shopping.  Okay, not that I really needed to go to the grocery store.  I have plenty of food in my house, plenty.  But I was hungry when I got off work today and found myself wandering the aisles at Kroger.

I was pleased with most of what I brought home..watermelon, sugar snap peas, pico de gallo, chicken, artisan multigrain bread, sweet potato crackers…and then there was the diet Pepsi…oh yeah, and the ice cream sandwiches…ha!!  I told you I had a hankering for something with chocolate…not that the chocolate in those things is particularly high quality.

It sure tasted good to have a slice of that artisan bread rather than the store brand stuff I’d been eating all week.  Granted, we can all make our own bread and it most definitely tastes tons better than the cheap stuff you can find in the stores…but we usually don’t take the time to bake our own bread.  And I really don’t know why.  It doesn’t really take that long…it’s not like you have to stand over it the entire time it’s rising.  Surely it would be less expensive to bake our own bread rather than buy even the cheap stuff, wouldn’t you think?  Maybe I’ll have to do a study on that one…

Anyhow, I’m glad I took part in the challenge…and oh so thankful that I don’t have to live like that every day.

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Happy Easter

It's the Easter Bonnie! (Photo credit: Tabbymom Jen)

I hope everyone was able to spend some time with family and/or friends today.  We had a beautiful spring day here in Btown…now back to work tomorrow…all good things must come to an end, right?

Believe it or not, Spook wouldn’t eat the bite of ham that I offered her…but she had plenty of her little cat treats to make up for it.   No Easter basket for either of us…guess that old bunny got lost on the way to my house…oh well…I must admit, I did have some Reese’s peanut butter eggs…bad girl.

I hope all of my friends and family that I didn’t see (well, and the ones I did see too) had a blessed Easter.

 

 

 

 

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Birthday treats

logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, today really isn’t my birthday…that was last month.  But my step-sister took me out to lunch today as a birthday treat!  And it really was a treat~

We went to Olive Garden where we both ordered our usuals..soup, salad and bread sticks along with iced tea….yum!  Then we sat there eating and talking for 2 hours!!  We haven’t been able to do that since I don’t know when…you know, everyone is so busy nowadays and it’s so difficult to coordinate our schedules.  But this was just the best way to spend the afternoon.

I feel so blessed that, when my mom and Kathy’s dad married, our families blended seamlessly.  I didn’t grow up with a sister, but I honestly feel like Kathy is the next best thing to a blood sister…heck, maybe even better…seems like when you grow up together you carry a lot of baggage in that relationship.  We all still get along well and enjoy spending time together…now if I can just see a little more of my niece and nephew and their families…

I’m still smiling over the pleasant visit we had today…thanks, Kathy…talk to you later!!

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There’s a bad moon rising…

Image via Wikipedia

We’re right in the midst of a batch of tornadoes…somehow the terrible weather has kind of split when it came to our part of Indiana…some of the storms went north and some south.  The southern part of the state has been hit hard, several fatalities…lots of damage…I hate to see it.

We’ve been very fortunate in that all we’ve had all day was some rain and some wind…one of the guys I went to school with down in Mitchell is gathering supplies to take to one of the hard hit small towns tomorrow (if any of my friends from the area are interested in contributing, let me know…I’ll get you in touch with him).  I’m always touched by how normal, every-day people manage to jump right in when disaster strikes…providing food, water, clothes, really all of the necessities we need in situations like this.  People can be so good~

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Aww…Valentine’s Day…

 Do you celebrate this holiday?  Do you even care?  It’s nice to receive flowers and candy…even nicer to receive expensive jewelry…but is this really what this day should be about?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we did something special for someone who totally doesn’t expect it?  Like give a little box of candy to the elderly lady down the road who has outlived her husband and doesn’t have anyone else in her life.  Or give flowers to the struggling single mother. Or homemade cookies to the overworked teacher in your kid’s classroom.

And then I think, do we really need a holiday to do these nice things for people?  Maybe we do, but I don’t think it should be that way.  I think we would all be happier, and our world would be a better place, if we consistently did things to brighten the days of others.  Can you imagine how so many things would change if we all did that?  If, instead of focusing on what I want, we focused on how to make someone else’s day better?

So…Valentine’s Day?  How did you celebrate?  I took a cute little knick knack to the elderly lady down the street, left it anonymously…maybe she’ll think Cupid paid her a visit!!

(Image: http://wordplay.hubpages.com/hub/valentine-hearts )

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I’ve been smiling all day

When I got the mail today, I had a letter (wow….that happens so infrequently any more, doesn’t it?).  When I opened it, this cute little thank you note was there from my great-niece, Allison…now I’m not saying she wrote this herself, she’s still pretty little and I think Mommy may have had a little something to do with it (thanks, Sarah), but I’m sure the art work on the letter is all Allison.

I put this on my fridge so I could see it frequently (not that I’m getting in the fridge all that often, but it does catch my eye every time I walk into the kitchen)…it brings a smile to my face every time I see it.  I’m blessed to have the family I have, but there’s just something about the little kids that’s special.

Aunt Patti loves you, Allison!!