The Chronicles of Nani - Creative Inspiration

Here's this weeks new vlog. It's a little artsier and a little more opinionated. Enjoy?

The Beautiful, The Happy, The Noble and The Abused

Yes, I need a non-rain day and some gardening tools!

The Beautiful

Preferably, that non-rainy day is sooner than later. I have ragged weed-rose stalks and dead leaves strangling the flowers in my back flower bed. But the crocuses are still beautiful, blooming in spite of them. It’s still MY flower. It blooms despite adversity. Abundance of snow? The crocus still grows, little green shoots waiting to be discovered as the snow melts. Snow on it again? The crocus still blooms. Cluttered area filled with obstacles and the crocuses still fill-in and burst with color. That’s me. Sometimes I feel the challenges are so cumbersome I’m smothered in snow like my calls will never be heard. Sometimes I just cry like I’ve been covered with snow again. And sometimes I just see the defeating clutter of difficulties all around me. But I force myself to learn, to grow and choose to bloom. I love my crocuses because they are my spirit-flowers.

Here are a couple closer looks at out fashion colors this year:

Bright yellows

The paler purples inside the purple and white striped petals

The Happy

Yesterday was a beautiful day, although it was still cold in the morning when I was waiting for the bus to take me grocery shopping. In the late afternoon it was a bit warmer, mid-60s, so I could got out to get the mail without the need of a coat over my sweatshirt. I’d opened up the front door so the cats could look out the “tall screen TV” so I took my camera with me to get a picture of them from outside. Trouble was that when I went around to the front of the house there were no cats in the door! I got the mail and came back in the back door. I went in door one onto the porch an locked it behind me. When got to the top of the porch ramp I looked in the double door window, where I usually see Marco waiting, and saw all three of the kids waiting to get onto the porch! I opened the door and Marco and Kaline went right onto the porch. Carla is a little more skittish about the power chair so she went out as soon as I was in.

Kaline by the door to outside

Carla on top of the cat tower

Marco was trying to get into the Christmas tree box and I didn't get a picture of him!

It was fairly warm on the porch and the fresh air outside smelled so good, I left the doors open until it got chilly later in the evening. Ahh, Spring!



The Noble

My fundraising for Walk MS is going slower this year, but I really thought it might. Walk is also later this year so maybe there will be more donations closer to the date.

http://walkoha.nationalmssociety.org/goto/nani

My battle cry this year is EVERY DOLLAR IS HUGE. And it’s true! As I’ve said before, you never know which dollar will be the last one needed to help someone with MS afford a wheelchair or other assistive device, afford their medication or fund the nominal amounts we use to facilitate our self-help support groups. You could be donating the dollar that will complete funding for research that will diagnose the disease sooner or before the symptoms start to tear someone’s world apart. You could send a gift that contains the dollar that will by the last test tube that will unearth the cure. Even if it’s not that celebrated final dollar, the dollars underneath it are essential for that dollar to ever exist. See? Every dollar really is huge! If you can afford to even drop a cup of good coffee and a muffin, $5, it helps, it adds up.

If you want to repost my Walk MS link in your social media or even email signature, please accept my gratitude big time and copy and paste anything you’d like!

 

Click photo to donate

If we reach goal we'll turn off the account

 

I’m still working on fortifying that GoFundMe account for Sheri. I wish I could personally do more. Looking at it now I wish I’d chosen a different funding site than GoFundMe, there are others out there.

The Abused

I’ve seen GoFundMe abused too much. Most recently and notably a fund set up by someone to buy a man a car because he was walking to work ended up with him refusing 2 cars offered because he wanted a different one and now he has financial advisers because, with some media attention, he got way more than he needed for a car and kept all of it.

I have an issue with that because there are GoFundMe accounts, like the one I did for Sheri, that aren’t coming anywhere near goal and people donated to buy him a car, not make him wealthy. Considering that people who can barely afford it are likely to give what they can to help others, that's a statistical fact from data collected from giving, it’s just wrong to keep accepting donations for something specific after the goal has been met. It’s likewise wrong to keep all the overage. I’d have kept the first car offered and maybe enough for the first year of insurance on it. The rest I’d donate to another less funded GoFundMe account.

Donating to the next GoFundMe charitable account accomplishes 2 things. One: it keeps the faith in the GoFundMe idea by not taking donations from the poor to make one person rich. Two: the story of the person who made the news with a need that was met to overflowing with generosity passing that generosity on to someone else would give that account publicity and help fill its need. Helping others could have been passed on and on instead of filling one bank account. A story like this makes me less likely to give to accounts set up like the GoFundMe system. It’s sad because GoFundMe and sites like it really have helped people pay devastating bills like Sheri’s or start a business or recover from destruction like a house fire or flood. To see it abused, giving someone the equivalent of a lottery win without buying a ticket and strangers pay for it with their charitable donations, is just sad.

Thoroughly Thursday

First, let’s talk about the weather; BRRRR! It’s mostly in the 70s here and in July 80s is okay, really! There have been some hot days, but this is mostly a very mild summer so far. I hope it means there is a mild winter ahead again. I wouldn’t be happy if Global Climate Change ends up meaning Ohio Cooling Change. If we have the Polar Vortex winters every 4 or 5 years and very mild ones in between, that’d be fine. I can plan vacations accordingly.

Now for some snippets from Naniland as of late.

Yesterday I started my day in the arms of three firemen!

Boy, I wish that was as scandalous as it sounds! It would have been more fun. Lately it's been getting harder to get in and especially out of the bathroom. It’s the location of the counter, door and the turn I have to make in the morning to get to the stair-climber. Yesterday I failed. I was holding on to the counter and the walker just outside the bathroom and my balance gave out. I tried to lift upon the counter and David was trying to do what he could to help but finally my left leg was just to weak to keep supporting me and I told David it was no use; I was falling. The cool thing is it was almost a controlled fall, falling slowly so it lessened the impact. I landed on the floor but also hit my shoulder and head on the shower chair. After making sure nothing moved less than it already did, I managed to scoot out to the stairs, but there was no way I was getting up and we called 911.

Folks, if I weighed a hundred pounds I wouldn’t let David lift me on his own. 100 struggling or trying to be helpful pounds is a dangerous thing to lift on your own. I’m a little more /sarcasm than 100. The fire department dispatched three EMS guys. After a few tries at ways that would work, we got one with two of the guys behind me lifting and one in front steadying me and balancing me. I ended up hugging the guy in front and the other two hugging me from behind while I balanced. Then they got me in the stair lift chair and I got down and transferred to my power chair without further incident. It had been over a year and now my safety board goes back to 1.

Social Media

Well, a blog is social media, a personal blog is anyway, but I do some other social media things too. My latest big news on Facebook is my friends list. My 2 favorite teachers from high school sent me friend requests. How cool is that? When I was in high school I was a renegade. I was defiant and a had a huge wall in front of me to protect me from my own teenage insecurities. I wasn’t a troublemaker, not really, but I pushed established boundaries. There were two teachers who really saw through my teenage façade and pushed me to break past my own boundaries. They saw potential and nurtured it. I don’t know if they foresaw how truly influential and precious their influence on me would be for the rest of my life but when I got a friend invite from my broadcast teacher and then my French & humanities teacher those were acknowledgements and rekindled acquaintances that I treasure! Justin Verlander could follow me on Twitter and it wouldn’t mean as much. If you like how I turned out, thank my teachers, a couple of them especially.

Instagram; remember my plan for all coffee vignettes? Well, java_nani has become a bit more than that. I found a great Weight Watchers community there and one subset of that that I enjoy a “share the love” group with. We exchange support and monthly gifts in the mail with each other. The gifts include inspiring and supportive items and also an opportunity to share snacks and things that have been helpful to us. My partner’s box goes out tomorrow and it’s as exciting as Christmas!

I’ve also found a great MS support network there. I’m currently participating in a daily IG post meme leading up to World MS Trend Day, July 31. Here are a couple of the daily photo-posts I’ve done:

Prompt: Love

 

Prompt: Fun

 

Prompt: Sand

Short notes:

- My “training phone” died this week and I made the big leap to a phone that’s smarter than me! I have an iPhone that talks to my iPad and they talk about me in front of my chest (where the phone is clipped) That they share information is both cool and scary to me.

- As of this morning for the first time in 31 years I'm not a legal driver. My license expires next week so I went to the DMV to get a state ID. I seem to be the only one who thinks this is a good thing. I haven’t driven in 2 years and it disturbed me that legally I still could.

- On July 19 it was one month since the TV died. I don’t keep up with my baseball teams as well without the home team play by play. For instance it was three days before I read that Joey Votto reinjured his left quads. But other than the details I’m missing, our teams haven’t been doing well this year and maybe we don’t want to watch? Even the Tigers have been streaky. I still hope we have a TV by the playoffs!

- Tomorrow is Eye Exam day. My eye doc is next to Panera. You know what that means! Lunch tomorrow is a You Pick Two Bacon Turkey Bravo and something else with an apple and a latte! Then it’s come home with a new prescription and finally order sunglasses!

Goals and Projects For 2014

BRRR… I’m cold. It’s cold outside and we have a drafty door near where I’m sitting. But, I feel otherwise good and not at all sick. 2013 ends better than 2012 did and it promises a better January 1 for 2014!

As I say goodbye to 2013 it’s time to set up my goals and projects for 2014. Looking over 2013’s goals and projects I can say that I’m pleased with how well I did in some areas and I know I definitely disappointed myself in some. In some areas I nailed the “or something better.”

“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Clean and Organize Project:

Well, last year I dropped the White Tornado idea for 2013 and well, I must say we did a good job of not moving forward on that front. Looking forward now however, I’m less mobile and more clumsy and that makes everyday things more out of reach and clutter more dangerous. In the first couple months of 2014 I’ll be researching and asking questions. After suggestions from friends (hi Edna!) and other family members I’m going to look into avenues for daily living assistance for people with disabilities. I understand there are even people who will help with serious cleaning and organizing a more accessible house.

Like I said research first. I need to find out what assistance I can get, if I am an eligible candidate for disability assistance and how much it will cost/if I can afford it. I figure initially there will be a lot of work to get our house truly organized and safe, then maybe just someone who can help tidy up once a week or so. We’ll see; this is entirely new territory for me. I’ll talk to my doctor too to see if he has any suggestions.

One thing that I must get done is the door jamb on the entryway to the kitchen from the dining room has to come out. There is snuggly enough space to drive the power chair through but if the jamb is removed it will give an extra inch. In all the years David’s been here there’s never been a door there, so the door jamb won’t be missed. A mid-December call to 911 to come pick me up off the kitchen floor because my leg just quit while I was hobbling back from the bathroom made me decide that I had to be able to use the chair in the kitchen. I also want to see about a couple more grab bars in the hallway to the downstairs bathroom, where the chair doesn’t fit at all and I have to “walk.”


Blog Goals:

Blog more regularly?? I did the consolidation in the fall putting all my blogs on The Chronicles of Nani so I have plenty of material for a healthy blog, I just need to get my head in the right place. Counseling is helping; I’m getting g better. I also think that if I can get the help to get the house up to safer and more comfortable it will help too. I can’t let my mental health depend on that right now though since I don’t know for sure that I can get or afford that help! Still, I’ve set some 2014 goals with my counselor and I feel good about my prospects. I want it and I believe it will work, 75% of the battle.

So, with my head and heart in a better place, and getting better day by day, I should be able to commit myself to The Chronicles better. I want to blog a minimum of twice a week. I’m also going to post at least one Tweet a day.


Reading Goals:

This is one place I am very pleased with my numbers for 2013. My goal was to read 2 books a month with a short book review on The Chronicles of Nani. I read 27 books with reviews here in 2013! Waiting in doctors' offices gets a nod for help with that one, but so does reading before bed or an afternoon nap.

For 2014, I’m keeping that goal of 2 books a month with book reviews here.


Health and Wellness:

Of course the January Detox starts January 2, or whichever day I can get out of the house after the snow to stock up on some better groceries. With decreased mobility and depression came some bad eating habits and less movement! I don’t try to lose in December; I just try to not gain any weight or at least very little. This November and December was a fail! An emotional eater in distress, I gained enough to feel uncomfortable emotionally and physically. I do start January with a bunch of containers of my own homemade vegetable soup in the freezer, a very recent Lean Cuisine sale where David stocked me up and a week’s worth of Greek yogurt in the fridge. I need to get out to the produce market.

I want to lose at least 20 pounds by June.

In physical health and wellness goals, I will have my first round of epidural steroids for my lower back next week. I’m not going to hide that I’m as nervous as can be. I remember the worst part of spinal taps I got when I was 18 was feeling those needles when I couldn’t see what was going on. Numb or not it was agonizing. For this procedure I can’t take the bus because I can’t go home alone, David has to be there because I get IV funny juice. Continued pain is the only prospect I like less! Hopefully the injections will help me get up from a sitting position better and give me a little light exercise ability.


Scrapbooking:

The idea of scrapping the current month instead of trying to catchup a year at a time went brilliantly! Every folder for January and February was completed during these months in 2013! Now those are the months I take fewer pictures, but I’ll be catching up some of the December and November during those months this year while I’m keeping 2014 up to date.

I did keep a tally of the pages I completed each month with my goal of averaging a layout a day. In 2013 I finished 484 scrapbook pages with my record month being July (When the ramp was still new for discovering all the places I could go and it was hot anyway) I did 66 layouts in July!

In this too my goal shall remain the same; average a page a day with a tally kept.


Project 365:

Now here was a fail this year. I figured out that where I completed 2012 but fell behind and dropped 2013 was in the randomness. 2012 was just a line or two written about the day and a layout with those thoughts each week. 2013 was a structured “writing assignment” that had to be written and scrapped every week with pre-assigned topics for each week. I like a challenge, but hobbies are supposed to be fun and as challenging as I want them to be on any day. This year my Project 52 will be “2014: That’s So Random!” I’m going to do a page a week. It might be a journaling page, or a quote every day, a picture a day, a mix of ideas each day or just a layout of a highlight event for the week. I won’t know until the week is under way what it’ll be.

We’ll see how that works!


Employment Goal:

Part of working toward working for me in 2013 was volunteering. Volunteering means networking and earning some current references who have worked with me in a professional setting. As the year was winding down I had some wonderful ego-building surprises as a result of volunteer work that have pushed me into leadership and more detailed work. That means that I not only feel like I have a lot to offer even with wheels, but I’m perceived as having a lot to offer by other professionals. I can’t even express how good that feels and how much it does for my confidence!

So my goals for employment this year are to keep doing what I’ve been doing, shoring up my resume presentation and add at least a few professional items to my wardrobe. Ideally it would be great to land something part time and either have that go full time or move on to a full time placement from there. I know it’d be best to build my stamina rather than jump into 40+ hours a week right off the bat. I want, no need, to feel I’m making a valuable contribution at work and to the home income too.

And there is my plan for 2014. 

 Of course, this or something better!

Not Inspired

Cluster made with On My Knees elements by Darlene Haughin

I’m joining Josanne at A Chocolate Bouquet again today for the last week of Motivational posts in her blog hop. Next week, as we move into February, A Chocolate Bouquet blog hop switches gears to “All Things Love.” For those reading who haven’t decided to try this hop because you just don’t feel like a motivational writer, everyone has thoughts on love! Consider joining in next week to talk about the emotion, where to find it, how to be romantic or even just your take on the people and things you love. The January theme was pretty open and I expect that the February one will be as well. You don’t have to blog about Valentine’s Day…But ya could!

But back to today; it’s still January and we’re still talking motivational, how do your stay on track with your goals and why that’s important to you. How do you inspire and motivate yourself and others. There’s my challenge right now.

How Do You Inspire If You’re Not Feeling Inspired?

I didn’t post anything motivational last week because I’m just low on steam in that area right now. I know, right? Me, uninspired and unmotivated? I’m always “up” and ready to share all the positivity I can muster, and I can muster a lot of positive vibes! But that’s been a challenge this month. I’m not good with negative starts. It’s not just the hospital stay to start the year; the whole month has had a bit of a dark cloud for me. Maybe that is exactly how I inspire right now.

As you know, I’ve been called inspiring because of my refusal to let my issues with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis stop me. Oh, they slow me down, sometimes a lot, but the one thing they don’t get to even touch is my spirit. I have my rough patches, but deep down inside, I won’t allow it to change who I am. Who I am includes that when I’m depressed I’m more embarrassed than actually depressed. I think that’s ego.

The thing is, that’s how I continue to inspire, even when I’m not inspired, when I'm feeling challenged. Even the happiest and most tenacious people have bad days. If you’re having a bad day, even a bad week, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost that spark that keeps you a positive person. You just need a break to regroup. Know that you’ll be fine tomorrow and can pick up then.

You don’t have to be battling an ailment to inspire. You don’t even have to be happy and perky all the time. I offer this; every one of us inspires someone in a positive way. Parents inspire children, teachers inspire students. Members of the clergy and volunteers in social groups inspire. We all set examples for others by just being who we are. The talents we have the things we work hard for, every kindness we extend; they all have power when witnessed by others. Of course we can also inspire others to not be like us. Whether it’s “I want that, but not like he got it,” or “I want her work ethic, but without being as cruel as she is to her employees,” we’ve still set the example and others are influenced by us. When we have a bad day, or feel unmotivated, we also let the people we influence know that they can still attain their goals if they have a bad day too, because tomorrow we’ll be back to that forward moving direction. We can inspire even when we don’t feel very inspirational.

Okay, personally I want to be the good example. When I’m having a tough time I want to show that it’s not the end of the world and I still want people to think I’m worth a hug for encouragement.

Reaction To Challenge

I’m working on a rewrite of my goals post. When I used to do my annual goals in my planner, I used to include inspirational quotes with my various categories of goals and I want to do a little more organizing with my goals and projects for this year. That should have been my Hodge Podge answer #1 for yesterday; by the end of 2013, I want to have my organized goals and projects ready to post at the Chronicles of Nani before 11:59PM December 31. For now my most immediate goal related to that is that I want my goals for 2013 organized and ready to post my 11:59PM January 13. That’s Sunday Of course, 11:59PM because midnight is the first gasp of the next day!

While blog hopping the Hodge Podge yesterday, I visited a new-to-me blog; Joanne’s A Chocolate Bouquet. Joanne and I have man things in common aside from my obvious attraction to her blog name, A Chocolate Bouquet; the woman speaks to my heart. Well, okay, chocolate isn’t speaking to my heart, my taste buds, maybe, but hey they are important to me. I do, after all, call them my buds! Yes, I swiped that from a Sonic commercial, but I loved the idea of “I should call them my ‘taste bros.’” The chocolate is for my taste bros! Or maybe taste sisses? I’ll have to work on that one. But I digress. Joanne and I also share the need for coffee and supplies if there is nothing else in the cupboard and we both seem to like to inspire and motivate where we can.

So Joanne started A Chocolate Bouquet Blog Hop on Thursdays where anyone can join by linking to their motivational posts. Here is what she said on her blog about the types of posts in the hop:

Share with us:

How you stay motivated

What made you decide to make a life changing goal, and why you are sticking with it

Why making goals is important to you

or any other post that will be encouraging to others who would appreciate the extra boost!

So without further ado, here is my motivational thought for the week:


Reaction To Challenge

My quote “I cannot control things that happen to me, but I'm the only one that controls how I react to things that happen to me.” It's really my motto for life, especially post MS diagnosis. My own husband calls strong as I gimp around the house with cane and walker and he pushes me around with the wheelchair when we go out because he says I handle things better than he would. Keep in mind that David has seen me at my lowest too, but the smiling moments far outweigh the frustrated tears. That’s because they HAVE to. I don’t have a choice about the MS but I’m the only one that chooses how I react to it and I’m not giving up that power. It’s a simple choice, really. I can let the frustration overpower me and wallow in the negativity or I can adapt and do as many of the things I’ve always enjoyed as I can with those adaptations. No effort miserable, effort happy. Well, duh! I choose happy!

I know people who seem to choose sad or frustrated or defeated and really, their facing problems that are much more beatable than MS. It’s easy to dwell on the challenge facing you than it is to face it or to find a solution around it. It’s easy to blame someone else for your problems than it is to fix them yourself, but is there any satisfaction in knowing who’s at fault? You still don’t have what makes you happy. So, take a tip from she who doesn’t walk; adapt!

Adapting can be as simple as writing down the pros and cons of a situation and choosing to focus on the pros. It can be as complicated as shoring up your resume and seeking a new job. The important point is that in any situation that doesn’t work for you, you have to decide what you can do and focus on that. The solution to any problem has to start with being optimistic that you can succeed in finding that solution. That optimism has to start within you; you have to know what you can do and you have to do it. Choose to make yourself be happy.

Monday Mug Shot

Welcome 2012

Today’s mug is unpainted, a blank mug canvas, shiny and new. It’s the first cup of 2012! It’s awaiting me to paint it.

Looking at it from the front, it may appear to be empty. But it’s not at all empty. My 2012 cup is half full with the coffee I’d already brewed in 2011 and 40 some years before that. Truly, as early as 1966 I was already putting my own elixir in the baby bottle of life. Oh I started 1967 with a lot less in that bottle. I’d only had 5 months to work on it and I was drinking it all in and not saving much. It wasn’t until over a decade later that I really realized what an awesome drink that elixir was and started saving some of it through photos, crafts, my personal journal, recording the recipe. Of course then it was “expressing myself.” I didn’t have any idea that every thought, every action, every person who joined me or influenced me would be such an important part of who I’d be at 45. I didn’t realize that all those things that shaped my character, all those memories and the things I don’t remember would be the foundation for the vintage that fills my 2012 cup.

But that’s exactly what they are, everything that’s me is already in my cup. It’s half full with room for more. The collection of mugs in my memories is all about the choices I make and how I handle the outcome of those choices. I try to add things to my cup that will make that year’s vintage sweeter, more robust, better than every year before it, because that will be the base for next year’s drink. I want to toast the coming year with it and be excited knowing next year’s spices will make it even better, although I can’t imagine it tasting better. I want to savor and share from my cup of life and know that everyone who takes a sip finds a flavor they want to add to their own cup, just as I find a spice to add to mine when they offer a sip from theirs. My character and the influence of everyone who touches me make mine the perfect brew for me.

The mug for every year is unique, painted as I go with every nuance of the decoration on it being up to me. My cups are usually full of bright colors with not much empty space left by the time I’m finished. Yes, there will be a few dark spots. I try to paint the brightest colors I can near those, not to make them disappear, they are part of that year’s mug, but to show how small they are compared to the cheerier colors. Sometimes I paint outside the lines, get a dab of bright yellow just inside the cup or extra spring green on the handle. I’m quite sure that 1967 baby bottle, the first one I had a full year to paint, had giggly pink scribbles all over it. Every year I try to paint more happy colors than sad ones and I try to paint neatly in a grid to make my mug pretty. Somehow, that grid thing never happens! I’ll usually get a curve ball of some sort by the end of January and the perfect grid is gone. But somehow, even though the blueprint I set myself at the end of the year before wasn’t followed to the letter, the mug still looks good.

I want my cup of life to be one that always makes me smile and makes other feel good when they see it too. Just with the blueprint I have for 2012, even if it doesn’t go directly as planned, the mug will look great and the contents will be, as it always is, better and better every year.

End of The Naughties?

I just read on a friend’s Facebook page that “The Naughties,” as in 20-naught-whatever number ends the year, is the phrase the illustrious media has coined to call the decade we are leaving behind. Well, I never used the 20-naught phrase for the years anyway, it was two-thousand, two-thousand-one, etcetera to the year that ends tonight, two-thousand-nine, but I love the double-meaning of “the Naughties.” Okay, maybe I’m the only one who rode the coattails of Santa’s recent visit with that one. There have definitely been some things to award some major world figures a permanent place on the Naughty list!

In looking at the past decade there has been plenty of bad and good, maybe a little more bad on a world and economic scale and maybe more opportunities than rewards on a personal level, but the outlook going into the 20-teens is good. I am a decade older and hopefully that means a decade wiser. I’m definitely a decade richer in the things that are truly important. A decade ago my sweet little nieces were 5 and dealing with the child’s struggle of divorce. They lost their Mom only a few months into the decade and now, with the support and love from all of us, they are well-adjusted and incredibly wise young women. Deaths and births are a normal part of the balance of life. Part of healing from loss is realizing that what you have is still really weighted on the joy side and not the sadness side. I’ve dealt with the pain of losing some very dear people in the past decade, including too many people this year. But I am ever warmed by the great memories of them I hold and I’ve welcomed new friends into my family and new life into the families in my world, including my wonderful husband and a new baby in my family of friends scheduled for the beginning of the year!

As I get ready to turn off the computer for the last time this decade, I remember all that is so wonderful in my world and pray for those less fortunate to find the comfort and security they seek. As I said in a comment on Edna’s blog, we can sometimes hear the wind chimes gently ring in our bedroom because there is a small draft. That’s why I bunker into extra blankets, but we have a ceiling to hang wind chimes from in the bedroom. There are so many around us who don’t have that.

In a year that David and I felt pain reading articles of people who’ve had to take their beloved pets to shelters because they lost their homes and had to move to apartments that don’t accept pets or who just couldn’t afford to care for them, we were able to open our home to another furbaby and donate a little money and time at the shelter events.

In a holiday season when I’ve seen parents with pained faces saying “no” to their kids, I was able to take Tori and Rina out for lunch yesterday. I also got to hear 15 years of wisdom tell me how important the time we spend together is to them and that lunch and coffee at Starbucks was one of the best presents they had this year. What a small price to pay for such an awesome gift for me!!

So yes, 2009 was a year of many challenges and lows but one of so many high points too. My brother’s wedding and my own reception were definite high points, as were the two weeks out west for our honeymoon that David and I shared. As I mentioned in the yearly letter I sent with the Christmas Cards this year, the low points have really let the strength in our marriage shine and left me feeling more secure and in love than I could have imagined I’d feel a year ago.

Now, going into 2010, a new decade, I look forward to the relationships with not just David, but my family of fiends getting deeper and warmer, finishing school and my network certification testing and being able to increase our household income and security and Kaline is finally coming to terms with Carla and even playing with her a bit. The future looks good.

I want to wish everyone a 2010 that brings you more of everything that was good this year and less of anything that as bad and may you find the strength in yourself to find that good and help it grow.

Happy New Year!!

Monday Mug Shot

Yesterday was a just the cats day and me. I think maybe that would be what many of my weekend days would be like if I was still single and had moved independently away from my family in Michigan. I had a wonderful, productive and creative day, but I’m still so glad that on most Sundays I have David! I’m usually a much more social, people-person, but every now and then I like my alone time, time for just me that I can be lazy, that is spend the day in my jammas, and just do my own thing. Those are NOT days married people get often.

I’ll finish off the last school assignment for the week today. The official school week starts on Tuesday, so I had enough time to take a day off from school yesterday without falling behind at all too. In addition to laundry and some kitchen chores, I got 7 scrapbook pages done before dinner, 3 more after dinner. The three after dinner were done at the same time and they were photos from the same day with similar layouts that I did as a group, so It’s not like I created three solo masterpieces after dinner. Like I’ve said before, the layout and presentation is very important to me, but the art is the life the photos document, not the book! I’ll post a few of those layouts later.

David and I visited Grandma Saturday, so I’m going to go see her Tuesday this week instead of Monday. I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat this morning and I don’t want to make the 2-hour drive after taking Benadryl. So today will be the case studies form this week’s chapter, finishing laundry and then I’ll go to the grocery store if my knee still has something left in it after all of the laundry stairs! If not, dinner will be the ham steaks in the fridge. We usually keep the ham steaks, which have a hefty shelf-life being cured meat and all, on hand for the Nani doesn’t get to the store and David doesn’t feel like stopping on the way home nights.

This kinda segues into the mug shot pretty well!

Sleeping Bear Dunes Empire, Michigan

This mug has become one of memories of accomplishments and hopes, goals for the future. It’s mug everlasting mug of recovery encouragement!

In August of 2003, John and I took our niece Heather and Nephew Eddie for camping and dune climbing retreat. Heather was 15 and Eddie was 9. We camped and stayed at Interlochen Sate Park where we enjoyed flaming marshmallows the night before. Okay, I love to make marshmallow torches. I don’t like marshmallows, but I love burning them on sticks. That’s since childhood! Mom and Dad never let me have a second marshmallow. As an adult, I can make as many gooey bricks of charcoal as I want!

In the morning we learned a valuable lesson about charcoal! We probably would have been better off using the burnt marshmallows and cooking our Eggo waffles over the fire on sticks! I have always used Matchlight self-starting charcoal on my little grill for cooking. My Dad has always grouched about it, telling me I’d be able to taste the lighter fluid in the briquettes in my food that I cooked over them. Never has happened, until that morning! Now, in defense of Matchlight, the store was out of Matchlight when I bought the charcoal for our trip, so I bought a different brand. BIG MISTAKE! We found out what Dad had been grouching to me about. The waffles were awful! I put extra syrup on mine to drown the taste of the lighter fluid, but I ended up burping up that taste all morning. YUCK!

After striking our campsite and properly disposing of the nasty charcoal, the whole unused balance of the bag too, we loaded into the car for the drive to the National Lakeshore.

The climbing part of the dune is a sand face that extends 400 feet up to a beautiful vista looking down on the rolling sand hills that lead out to Lake Michigan. We went to the base of the sand mountain and began our climb, our attempt at reaching the summit. I made sure we all had sunscreen on a mildly hot and clear day. That close to the lake the sun was definitely a factor. John got the kids-size walking sticks for the two of us adults to kinda even out the age-handicap! Eddie took off running up the hill, leaving his older sister and Aunt and Uncle staring in amazement. All of that 9-year-old energy raced up the hill and upon reaching the top while we were still struggling or way up, he ran back down and started up again. He laughed and taunted us. He told us it was fun, which was the point after all.

About two-thirds of the way up, Heather and I stopped to rest. John had gotten about a quarter of the way when he went back to the gift shop and got the waling sticks for us. I had put my flip-flops in my bag with my camera and was carrying that backpack-style as I climbed. I sat in the two-thirds spot, a little out of breath, and took some pictures, thinking I might call it a done deal there and wait for the other three. But I thought to myself, that I didn’t want to fail without at least trying to climb a little further. So using the stick for leverage on the shifting sand, I resumed my ascent.

Now is a good time to mention that shifting sand. For every large step you attempt, gravity pulls the sand down and you with it about a half of the step you take. That can be frustrating. It’s great exercise, but you take about twice the steps you would to walk 400 feet on level ground! We kept climbing. Eddie ran down past us again and encouraged us to keep climbing.

We got to the level area just before the final ascent to the top about the same time Eddie made it up to that area a fourth time. He hadn’t been climbing the final, shorter section yet because he didn’t want to get too far away from us. We had an agreement about us being able to see each other at all times. When we got to the level area, we noticed that while shorter, that final part of the climb was steeper! We decided we’d let Eddie climb it while the other three of us rested at the “semi-top,” deciding that was sufficient for climbing. Eddie took of running for the3 final ascent.

As I sat there watching him run up a little slower on the steeper last part of the climb, I thought about what Mom had told me about that climb when we were getting ready for the trip. Eddie was going someplace I’d never been. When we went on the Dune climb when I was a kid, Dad climbed all the way to the top, but Mom and the kids waited on that same plateau. In my brain, as I looked at the steeper, but shorter last part of the climb, I thought “this won’t do!” I can’t let Eddie climb up there by himself. I started the steep climb to the top.

Eddie made it up to the top way before I did, of course. He never looked back until he got to the top. Then he saw me climbing up. He cheered, happy that someone was going to join him. He kept calling me, saying “You can do it, only a little more!” Then it became not just a desire for accomplishment for me, but I didn’t want to let Eddie down. He held his hand down to me as I reached the top. “Only a few more steps to go!”

I got to the top and Eddie hugged me. “Yay!” We stood at the top waving arms and shouting to John and Heather. We tried to coax them into joining us, but they vehemently shook their heads and said we were crazy. The view was cool, rolling mounds of sand and clear blue sky with the intense line of water in the distance. Totally cool. I pulled a bottle of water out of my bag and Eddie and I shared it before we began the, easier, climb down.

What a great sense of accomplishment! I was worried that I’d be SO sore the next day, but climbing a mountain of sand isn’t as hard on the joints and muscles as walking on pavement, or even dirt. The shifting sand absorbs a lot of the impact! I actually felt great the next day when I went to the park at home for my afternoon walk.

I did it! I made it all the way to the top of Sleeping Bear Dune. I have that sense of accomplishment because I reached that goal, but I have a new goal too. I want to get my knee back up and running and in shape that I can attempt it again. Even if I don’t get all the way to the top, like in 2003, I want to feel lie I can give it a try again.

For having raced up and down the dune four times, including all the way to the top the last time, Eddie finally did run out of energy. We have photos of him asleep across the menu at dinner to go with the triumphant pictures of the two of us at the very top!

Friday Morning Coffee

from Coffee Talk by Beckie Wallace

Another Friday and another week is done! So far I’m doing well at disciplining and time managing in my online classes. I’m taking the free class offered by the State of Ohio for assessing and prepping for distance learning. I just finished up the chapter on time management.

To be true I an so dedicated to the importance of good time management and always have been. This all started in first grade. Imagine, 6 years old and worried about the consequences of not meeting a deadline! Oh, it started as me sneaking out when I was supposed to be getting my coat from the hall hanger and running out to be first on the bus because I was afraid to miss it. I remember one time I realized half way across the snowy parking lot that I forgot something and came back with wet boots. Sister Ann made me wipe up the floor as I whined “But I’ll miss my bus!”

Truth is I had plenty of time to not miss the bus and in retrospect, Sister Ann KNEW I was skipping out to run to the bus before I was excused. I must have appeared to be a young basket case. But in first grade, we still had a boy who was deathly afraid to speak out loud in class and a girl who occasionally wet herself in class, so I guess my psychosis was minor. After I didn’t miss the bus for cleaning the floor, I quit running out before I was excused to catch it too. Have I said before how much I idolized that woman? 36 years later I still list her as one of the first major influences in my life after my parents and she still amazes me with what she added to who I’ve become.

But that was truly a lesson in trust and time management. I had to learn to trust that the people scheduling these things were not setting them up for students to fail and that I had plenty of time to meet my goal, in this case, catching the bus. I became very good at budgeting time to get assignments done. I was throughout all of my schooling rarely the one cramming to finish the project the night before and was successful. That naturally spilled into my professional work habits and that is great for making less negative stress on the job. It’s all good!


Very Cool Opp!

If you’re a scrapper and you haven’t been over to Darlene’s blog this week, make a point of it! Now, I’m very open about being a big time Darlene Haughin fan, often referring to my CT job as a dream CT Spot. Darlene does a blog freebie every Wednesday and this week, the freebie is a contest. She's giving away a full kit of your choice to random winners from the comments. There will be one winner for every five comments, so no matter what, you have a one in five chance of winning a full kit! Head on over to her blog and see the details and by all means check out all of her wonderful designs and put your hat in the comments for a chance to win!

See Darlene’s blog for more details - http://darlenedesigns.blogspot.com




A Little Rhetorical Rant

Maybe I’m showing my age with being a Weather Channel regular, but I’ve done a lot of work outside with electric in my professional and personal life, so the radar has always been essential.

What’s with the music when they go back into the studio? I totally get it for the local forecast, where you’re only seeing graphics and the voice over is not at all conversational, but when they go back into the studio there’s dramatic music that is mixed too loud for the people talking. It’s produced poorly and it deters from the message. You don’t hear music under the news while they are reporting. Music under the dialog is for dramatic effect at prime time. When there is music under the top story, today a tornado in Missouri, it says “fiction.” Add to the fact that the music is too loud so you have a harder time understanding the anchor anyway. Yeesh!


Yummy Morning!

Skinny and The City had a recipe for fruit salad today. They talked about how high in fiber berries are and that they’re in season. I have a container of watermelon I cut up, some raspberries and black berries in the fridge. I’m disappointed with the blackberries. They were on sale and I thought about getting two containers. I’m glad I didn't. They are sour with little blackberry flavor. The melon and raspberries are good though! I had a salad of those three and banana with cherry pomegranate yogurt yesterday for breakfast. YUM! I’m going to try cutting up the blackberries and using the juices in the recipe to sweeten them up a bit. Then I’ll add the nuts and coconut to make the salad after I get some blueberries. It ought to be good!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Tah-dah! Hairless Nani!

Okay, by comparison, hairless anyway. The whole point of having David take that picture that was the photoblog yesterday was to assess if I had enough. I did! Part of yesterday was my first visit to a hair salon in Toledo, where I donated three ponytails to Locks of Love!

If you’re not familiar with Locks of Love, they create hair pieces and hair prosthesis for children who have diseases that rob them of a normal head of hair. The hair pieces, high quality wigs, are available on an ability-to-pay basis for kids who have permanent or temporary hair-loss from illness or chemotherapy. I actually waited as long as I could to get it cut because I wanted to make sure I had the 10-inch minimum to donate.

I did my research at the Locks of Love website. I wanted to make sure of what the minimum was and if my color treated hair was okay. Color-treated is okay, bleached is not! It’s good color-treated is okay, because they don’t use gray! They’re making hair for children, after all!

The largest number of children who need the hair pieces suffer from alopecia. Alopecia wan cause hair loss in bands, patches or the entire head or body. For those children, they provide hair prosthesis, which are custom-fit to the child’s head. The prosthesis vacuum-seals to the wearer’s head without glue or tape. The children can even swim or shower with them on with no worry of them coming off. They have to be taken off by the wearer.

It takes 6-10 ponytails to make a hairpiece and the prosthesis would retail for $3500-6000. Locks of Love provides them at minimal or now cost. Sick kids shouldn’t have to give up the feeling of dignity or self confidence that something so many of us take for granted can provide and what their parents can or can’t afford shouldn’t make a difference. Locks of Love is an awesome organization that tries to make things a little better for kids who are living with illness!

Camelot Salon, in Holland Ohio, is a salon that does the cutting of ponytails for Locks of Love and will even send the hair in for you. I asked my stylist, Jamie, if she could have the ponytails sent. I didn’t need to do the “official” donation with my name on it. It’s not for the recognition that I did it. My hair is thick, healthy and grows fast. It always has, even when I permed on a regular basis, it stayed healthy with minimal extra conditioners. It’s very hearty! I can’t imagine what it would have been like if, as a kid, my hair wouldn’t grow, or I lost all of it, possibly to have it never grow back. It think it would have been devastating. It was bad enough for me when I played hockey and wore it short because it hurt when people thought I was a boy. As an adult, I understand how much difference it can make for a child whose hair won’t grow. As a society, we do place a lot of importance on appearance and as much as we may counsel a sick child on it not being important, it truly is for their own self-esteem.

I am very proud that I was able to donate my hair. Even if right now, it’s a little shorter than I’d like it, I know mine WILL grow back and I’m part of something great that will help a child whose won’t! If you are fortunate enough to have long healthy hair, please consider trying a new shorter style and donating a ponytail to Locks of Love. If the shorter style isn’t one you like, yours will grow back too. Aren’t ya glad?

For more information, visit the Locks of Love website
Locks of Love

Monday Mug Shot

Two weekends! Only TWO WEEKENDS left before Christmas! Yeesh!

I’ve noticed that my visitor count is down. Actually, my visiting count is down too! There’s so much to do and so little time! This week is baking week one. David and I did the grocery shopping this afternoon before he left for work. I now have a couple shopping bags of baking supplies in the atrium next to my exercise bike. (Don’t think the irony of that is lost on me!) Tonight I’ll get a start on the treats that will be going to Connecticut with us. The cats will love that, Mom and Dad gone and a cat-sitter again. Luckily, they like their usual cat-sitter, so no one trashes the house or spends the weekend under the bed. Not that I think Baggle would ever be scared enough to go a whole weekend without food, anyway! When we had all four cats in Michigan and Dad watched them for a weekend, he said he always thought there were three, but every now and then a fourth one would show up at the food dishes!

So this week, I work on earning that “anal-retentive” label so many of my friends lovingly place on me. The schedule on my desktop has specific times for cover letter writing, shower, which day is shaving day and how long I have to floss my teeth before the next batch of cookies goes in the oven with just enough time to change the laundry loads while they bake...

Okay, NO, I’m not THAT bad! But I do have a detailed “to do” list for each day! When people taste the treats, eat a meal I planed or enjoy the festive look of the home I welcome them into, no one utters the label without an appreciative smile!

This past weekend was COLD! I mean cold too, we were in Lafayette, Indiana in my car. My heater is dead. Saturday morning, the bank clock said it was 4 degrees. I had long underwear, leggings, a turtleneck, a sweatshirt, jeans, a fleece coat and three pairs of socks and STILL had my feet bundled up in a blanket and another one across my lap to keep warm.

Why didn’t I fall in love with a nice Georgia boy?

I spoke to David’s brother on the phone when we were en route to the store today. It’s not supposed to be above freezing the entire time we’re there.

Why didn’t I fall in love with a nice Georgia boy with kin in Florida?

I pose those rhetorical questions with a grin. David’s family are wonderful people who I enjoy spending time with and that Georgia boy would pretty much have to be David with an accent!

So, I have 45 minutes on my schedule to write and proofread a mug shot. ;) Better get to it!

A Christmas Gift from my Mom
circa 1994

This was a gift in my Christmas Stocking in the mid-90s. I’ve made mention before to my “type A” past. I lived with my parents then. The 60+ hour workweeks (on salary) and my seeming inability to talk about anything but work weren’t lost on Mom. I did still find time to have coffee with her once a week, almost on a schedule.

Now, I wasn’t the type who never took vacations. Mom worked on me at home to get away and my program director was awesome at tempering the balance between the drive of my ego and the point where I’d break. She was good about making sure I had what amounted to an extra week of vacation as comp-time every summer. I just wasn’t very good at relaxing, even when I had time off.

This mug was Mom’s way of extending a warning to me.

The truth is, when the company that bought out my old company came in and told me about that financial ceiling if I didn’t get a degree, then turned around and kept insisting that there wasn’t time in the schedule to let me have a night or two a week off to go to school that I realized I really didn’t have all that much to show for the over four years of grindstone I’d given. I’d been giving and expecting appreciation for it. Silly me. When it comes right down to it, a job is only a way to make a living. To be appreciated, to be remembered, you need to make a life, and for that you need people.

My nieces were 2 when I left to go back to school and they knew me as that aunt-lady who came home just before bed and played with them a little. I had old friends I hardly ever saw and new friends with whom I only “talked shop.” When I went back to college, I discovered Hip-hop music, deeper meditation and deeper relationships.

Everyone discovers something new outside of the curriculum in college, even those who are almost 30 and in college. My musical taste expanded courtesy of the top songs of the day on WJLB in Detroit that played on my way into school. I just liked what I was hearing and kept listening. College students commonly broaden their musical tastes. I also learned how to do something I already had tried even better.

I quit smoking in 1990, just before trade school, with the help of a self-hypnosis tape and absolute will power - I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself if I could provide one GOOD reason that I did it, I could keep doing it. I couldn’t come up with anything good. They say that in 5-7 years after quitting, your lungs heal and that’s where a lot of former smokers develop a serious allergy to it. That’s me now. I think of it as God's way of saying “Good job, I’ll help make sure you never do something that nasty again!” But, I really do consider that a gift!

That self-hypnosis program helped me stop overnight. No munchies, no cravings, I just quit. I figured that the sincere desire for it to work helped a lot, but I also figure that if it worked for smoking, it could probably help me help myself with a lot of things. I studied a lot of religious meditation for several different religions, in my World Religions class. What an eye-opener that was! Meditation is a lot about bringing yourself to deep relaxation, to controlling your own mind and how it reacts to your environment. I learned how to step back from the forest to study the trees before I start chopping them down. I am a lot calmer now. I’m not stress-free, in fact I still thrive on occasional positive stress, but I don’t let it become emotional chaos where all I can do is keep moving forward so I don’t see what’s left behind. I like to look back and enjoy my accomplishments now. I think I’ve become a more complete person.

I’m close to my nieces and closer to my family and my friends, all of my friends, in a more personal and loving way now. I feel that in many ways I have generally better relationships with everyone, even with myself.

Monday Mug Shot

Siena Heights University
Adrian, Michigan

Siena Heights, my alma mater! It was Siena Heights College when I was there, becoming a University just as I was finishing my degree. We have fun here with the differences in our schools. David went to one of those Ivy League schools back East. The difference between an Ivy League school and a private Catholic College? We have crystal stemware with the Cornell crest on it. For Siena Heights, we have a coffee mug!

So, I started and finished school in a private Catholic Institution. I went to St. Pius Catholic school in Southgate, Michigan for first though fourth grades. Then public schools for the rest of grade school, community college and trade school for the first two years of college.

I decided I would give it a go with the trade school certificate and my equivalent 2 years of college and not worry about the bachelor’s degree. The truth is, the money just wasn’t there for any more school. I had to go make some money before I could get more education anyway! And I was doing VERY well moving through internships, part time gigs, contract work as a camera operator for town meetings, then the job at Omnicom!

I loved the job at Omnicom! I was the Public Access Producer and Local Sports Director. I coordinated, wrote class materials and taught public access classes and I produced high school and community sports programming. I worked and average of 55-60 hours a week on salary and I LOVED my job! That salary had progressively gone up every year. In fact, my raise was above company average after my second year. That was merit. I’d turned around the image of the local sports programming, offering a balance of men's and ladies’ coverage and boldly covering sports that hadn’t been televised in Southeast Michigan before. I also worked with a great group of young professionals, many of whom are still good friends today.

But in 1995, Omnicom was bought out by a larger company. The first thing the new company did was review records and give everyone raises in compensation to “industry standard.” It was a sizable raise and I wasn’t unhappy about that! But then, the other shoe fell...hard. In the new world order, my job wouldn’t be Public Access and Local Sports. Those were very separate parts of local programming in the new company. I was not going to be the Public Access Coordinator anymore. I was also NOT going to be the Sports Director. I was going to be one of the producers in the local origination pool. That’s like being the office manager and being given a raise before they put you into the secretarial pool!

I’d turned the image of the sports department around in the eyes of the high school sports directors. I’d increased the number of people who attended public access classes and that increased the number of community produced shows. I’d won a statewide award for my editing work and was on a first name basis with the elected officials in the five municipalities we served. Why was I being demoted? When I asked, I was told that they wouldn’t even consider interviewing me for the job I’d had for over four years because I didn’t have a degree. I was only still there because I was grandfathered in.

To say I was upset was an understatement. If wasn’t a devoutly nonviolent person, I could have gone postal before going postal was cool! But, I also realized that if I wanted to go anywhere in my chosen profession, or any profession, I needed the degree!

Siena Heights is in Adrian, Michigan, but was just starting a program for degree completion with satellite campuses scattered around Southeastern Michigan. When I sat down with the admissions counselor, he went through my transcripts. I had my 2 years from community college and credit for trade school. I would also get credit for all of my internships and many of my classes for my major with a letter of recommendation and verification form my program director. If I passed the testing to get into the program for the accelerated classes, and didn’t take summers off, with a full class load, I could be finished in a year and a half.

I took the necessary tests, got the letter from my PD and started in the accelerated program at the Southfield campus. It was a grueling year and a half! I left the old job and coordinated three part time jobs with school to maximize the class schedules available to me. This slow reader was reading 10-15 chapters a week, writing papers, preparing for tests and driving between all my jobs. My daytimer and my coffee cup we my best friends!

I’m proud to say that I made it trough that time! In June of 1997, I took my last exam and in August, was awarded my degree in Broadcast Communications with a 3.8 GPA. I was 31 years old. Times may be tough right now. They’re tough everywhere. But, I do know that when things get better, I have that piece of paper that will make a difference again some day. And I also stand as shining example. I am both proof that you’re never too old to get that degree, but the tiring way I finished it stands as a testament to the preferred way to do it, right after high school!

If your are over thirty and without a degree, know that you too can have a mug like this and earn the right to say “my alma mater.” But if you are reading this and you’re still in high school, YOU still have a chance to earn the stemware!

Doldrama (2/29/08)

Okay, remember how I told you all that I’m normally NOT a snow fan? Well, the novelty of the pretty flocked snow is gone! Actually it was gone by Tuesday night. Of course, today is another snow day. PBTZZ!

Silly snow. Where was it for Christmas? Wouldn’t that flocked snow at not subhuman temperatures have been pretty for Christmas? Instead we are treated to it to welcome in spring! PBTZZ!!!



I read a job seeker support email from one of the job boards to which I subscribe. It was a newsletter about not letting yourself get depressed or discouraged in the job hunt world. Oh, I agree with the thought completely! Potential employers can get a sign of that negativity in your voice on the phone, in person at an interview, even in the tone of your letters of interest in a position. The market is tight and there are plenty of people that are seeking, some desperately, for a job, any job. It was a pretty good cheerleader type email, one I was happy to read because I like that reinforcement now and then. Its hard to remain an optimist in the face of adversity, competition and rejection!

But the replies to that article from job seekers just killed the wind in my sails! I know it’s hard to be looking for work. I am looking for work. My knowledge is first hand! I cherish my lunch breaks and evenings because they give me a chance to do something productive or creative. It gives me the opportunity to reinforce my self worth, to show myself that I have plenty to offer. But the replies to that article were just awful! People who’d been out of work for 3 weeks crying abut how tough it is while people who’ve been out of work for over a year are blaming employers’ prejudices about gender or age for their plight. It was a giant pity-party in response to an article that says self-pity is self-destruction. I quit reading the responses after about 6 of them. I was feeling depressed reading them. I want to be a source of cheer and support for everyone I know, everyone I meet, but not at the expense of my own optimistic center!

Sometimes it does feel good to get things off my chest. I usually do that in my personal journal, but this one effects so many that I thought I ought to speak up. The job market is awful, I mean really awful. But it’s the job market and job availability that’s awful NOT the people existing in it without a job. If you are in that job hunting population with me, know that you are strong just to be surviving. And it’s hard, but you are stronger than what you’re facing now. Remember that and present that strength of character and purpose in every interview you go to, every call you make or take and every letter you write. You’re not alone. Let that be your support. Let that support be your strength!



With a little lift at the end there, on to a few smiles with a few scrapbook layouts that reflect spring, silliness and peace. That’s what I want to share on this snowy and jobless Leap Day - HOPE!

These are all selections from my online gallery at Digital Freebies.

SPRING -

Is It Spring Yet?
Credits: Vintage Winter by Daniele Engbretson

SILLY -

Girls’ Night
Credits: Commotion On The Ocean by Danielle Engebretson, “Ian” appears courtesy of Sheri’s “Girls Night Out” CD

PEACE -

The Warm Cinnamon Swirl of a Calmed Mind
Credits: Kit - Brownie Mud Pie by Angela Sharrow, chipboard frame - Amazing by Jodie Patterson