Switched Off

All our bags are packed and we're ready to go! See y'all when we return.

Blessings

Still being honest

I hesitate as I write this, though, because isn’t this a tired conversation? Haven’t we exhausted this concept already? Are there still honestly ways I hide from you and the world and my husband? Is there anything left to explore? But I want to be real!

My circle of friends is small and those who really know me are few. But they are there and they are listening and I am thankful. I’ve grown in my ability to be honest with people I trust. I think it’s because of time and grace and being loved anyway enough times. I’m learning that they don’t want to see me lined up pretty with pastel cheeks, picket fence smiles and covered up secrets. They just want to see me.

We tend to show the world our prettied up versions, to say we’re fine even when we’re not because it’s safer or maybe we’re just lazy. I still struggle with this one, circle around this word honesty, wrestle with how the meaning changes for me as I get older. I’ve talked with lots of women about this and there is always the argument that sometimes when people ask how I’m doing, they don’t really want to know. And I’d have to agree with that.

I’ve been writing more honesty and digging deep within myself - have you noticed? - and let’s be honest here it’s been hard. I mean gut-wrenching, heart-rendering, and downright hard. But ooh it’s been g-o-o-o-d too. I’ve been exposing things some of which are not so nice, but that’s what being honest is all about right? Being honest?

Even after all you have read and heard and know about being honest, is it still hard for you to practice? If yes, what makes it so and what would make it easier?

Blessings

Crocheting 101

or perhaps this should be named The Idiots Guide to Crocheting.

A couple weeks ago my friend Deb posted about her crocheted hats. I was impressed when I read that she could whip up a couple of hats in the matter of a few hours. OK, let's be honest, I was jealous. I wanted to be able to do this too. So I called my Mom and asked her if she could teach me to crochet. Her reply? - "of course - crocheting is easy!"

With this free pattern off the Internet off I went, to spend the day with my mom and learned to crochet. The end result? ... . .. . Hours of frustration as I sat there struggling with the difference between a double crochet, slip stitch, single crochet and perhaps the most difficult was the double crochet decrease. After I left Mom's I felt quite confident. But alas it didn't last too long. Without her supervision, I found myself becoming more frustrated as I could not remember some of the simple steps. Thankfully someone uploaded a video to YouTube so that even I could follow the dreaded 'double crochet decrease' in a step by step process. Which I ended up playing over and over again each time I needed to apply it to my hat!

So the real end result? Voila!Of course it took me a week to do this, not a matter of a few hours, but hey, I did it!

Blessings

Am I a judge?

While I was waiting to meet my dear friend Maria at Coffee Cultures which is THE main cafe, of the town. I took the opportunity to “case the joint“, as it were. Sitting in public spaces, mainly cafes, can provide no end of opportunities to evaluate and judge people. I like to think that I’m really good at this. That is, until I realize I’m an awful person.

Some conversations I happen to overhear. Other times the conversations boom from their sources, invading the ears of everyone within twenty feet. While listening to conversations, I often catch myself classifying people into types. There are the snooty dressed to a "T" types, the retired seniors, the younger more hip generation and then there is me, the one who thinks she knows their story.

The moment I sort people into groups, I begin to either dismiss them or compare them. And here’s the crazy thing: I don’t even know these people, but I’m already sorting them in my head.

All of this is based on looking at how people are dressed and hearing snippets of conversations. Once I create these divides, it’s harder to be kind to people when I’ve pegged them as too snooty, too old, too frumpy, too lazy, too quirky, too .. ... . you get the idea.

We {or maybe I should only talk for myself} are too quick to judge. I find that once I know their story, I am alot more empathetic to those around me. We probably all have this tendency to pre-sort people into groups and types before actually hearing their stories. Unfortunately, It cuts us off from opportunities to love people for who they are, right where they are.

We need to learn to think twice before we make a quick remark to someone. We never know the whole story. And one shouldn't presume. So when I catch myself thinking that someone is a “type”, I need to repent. I need to ask God for new eyes and grace to share.

Don’t jump to conclusions.

Just ask.

And love.

Blessings

When you think you have nothing to write

Have you ever sat down in front of the keyboard, and couldn’t seem to string a coherent sentence together to save your life? Or worse, you kept starting only to get a paragraph into things, and hate what you’d written so you simply highlighted the entire batch of words and hit the delete key? The good news is that the Internet is filled with inspiration, ideas, and even other bloggers who are usually more than willing to bounce ideas for topics back and forth.

Here are a few tricks I've learned to help me get past the next bout of writer’s block.

1. I go back over my own posts. Since I've been blogging for a while, I've noticed that there could be more to write about on some topics.
2. I'll take a look through my bookshelf at some of the books that I've enjoyed over time. Quite often the chapter headings have given me some ideas into topics I could write about. I won't re-read the chapter, 'cause that might influence what I think about it.
3. I also visit some of my favourite blogs and see what they've written about. We each have our own voice, and knowledge on a subject. It's kinda cool how our personality traits tend to come out when we write.
4. Or I'll go through different photos on the computer. I've collected several and I enjoy coming up with creative ways that will help either explain the photo or come up with a story that works well with what I want to say.
5. Sometimes the blogposts just aren't quite right so I've stockpiled them in an “unfinished” document. These days my thoughts are all over the place and I've several post ideas floating around. This is a good place to write them down {as scattered as they are} and work on several posts rather than trying to keep everything filed in my head. That way I can always go back at a later date - add more to it {if needed}, refine it to get it ready to be published, or simply delete it.

Blogging is an outlet for my thoughts, ideas and creativity. Despite what some might think, blogging is not a solo enterprise. So I keep trying to get creative and be purposeful to give my followers something worth their while.

Blessings

Back when

Tim McGraw sings the song

"Back When"
Don't you remember
The fizz in a pepper
Peanuts in a bottle
At ten, two and four
A fried bologna sandwich
With mayo and tomato
Sittin' round the table
Don't happen much anymore

We got too complicated
It's all way over-rated
I like the old and out-dated
Way of life

Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when
I miss back when
I miss back when

I love my records
Black, shiny vinyl
Clicks and pops
And white noise
Man they sounded fine
I had my favorite stations
The ones that played them all
Country, soul and rock-and-roll
What happened to those times?

I'm readin' Street Slang For Dummies
Cause they put pop in my country
I want more for my money
The way it was back then

{CHORUS}

Give me a flat top for strumming
I want the whole world to be humming
Just keep it coming
The way it was back then

Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when
I miss back when
I miss back when

I think it's the same with Sunday Dinner. I remember a time when you would either be going to some one's house or you'd have people in for Sunday dinner. It seems that that has become a thing of the past. With everyone's crazy work week schedules and usually Saturdays are spent running errands and doing other chores. Sunday has become the day to do nothing but relax and regroup for the next busy work week.

But not for our daughter. We were honoured today to be the invited guests at her and her hubby's home. And oooh what a treat it was! Dinner was stuffed bacon wrapped chicken breasts, broccoli with jalapeno cheese sauce, baked potatoes with her made up from scratch topping {cream cheese, mayonnaise and chives} - WOW - and I brought a coleslaw salad. Did I mention that dinner was super good? Then the piece de resistance home made baked cheesecake with sliced strawberries and blueberries.

oh. my. goodness!

We certainly took advantage of the sun shining and warm weather for the afternoon and enjoyed taking the dogs for an afternoon walk. We finished off the perfect afternoon by playing a couple games.

Sadly, before I knew it or was really ready for it, it was time to head for home.

Thanks Krystle & Gerard for a perfect way to spend a Sunday!

Blessings

Spring!

Sure sign of Spring!
6, count 'em 6 robins in my front yard. Sadly my camera didn't catch them well. You'll just have to trust me.
Even though this was the winter with no snow, I am ready, no make that, more than ready for spring. I hope these birds know what they're doing... . .. ... .

Blessings

Cupboards, closets & drawers

oh, my!

Cupboards, closets & drawers ~ oh, my!

These past few weeks I have been busy. Busy with cleaning, sorting, organizing, and generally de-cluttering the farm house of alot of needless stuff.

It all started when I just couldn't stand to look at all the clutter my desk held, anymore. Too often I found myself taking the easy way out and would just close the doors. With the desk sitting in the kitchen though, I just could not ignore it any longer. So I started. Cubby by annoying little cubby, I went through it all. The end result?

tada! {notice we removed the top doors - no more cheating for this gal!}

But this was just the start of things to come. There was many more cupboards, closets & drawers that needed going through.

As I took numerous boxes to the second hand store, countless bags to the dump, I realized that we have a tonne of stuff. Stuff that I've kept for ..... for what? For the off chance I might need it?

It's been such a rewarding time. As I've looked through the stuff to toss, the stuff to give away and the stuff I'm not quite ready to give up yet, so many memories resurfaced. It's been very therapeutic, time-consuming, but so therapeutic. Even though I knew I couldn't hold onto the "stuff" anymore, I know all those memories are safely tucked in the recesses of my heart.

As I write, I'm still not done. But I've made great headway. The goal? To get the house done!.... by summer....... or fall..... or.... well, let's just take it one room at a time shall we? >.<

Blessings

bEing rEal

Over this past winter and even presently I'm learning the importance of being a genuine/honest person. I've also been learning how hard that can be especially in the world we live in today. Have you ever noticed that we live in a fairly robotic world? Let's look at something that most of us experience on a day to day basis...

{you} ~ "Hey, how are you?"
{me} ~ "Good! How are you?"
{you} ~ "Good."
{we then go our separate ways}

Have you ever thought about how strange that "conversation" is? I am so incredibly guilty of this - asking people how they are without even having the slightest care about how they are actually doing. That's just one example of being fake.

There are many others like:
***Flattering others with compliments in order to gain their approval or favour.
***Claiming to be all together and happy when really you are broken inside and too proud to admit it.
***Putting on the "Christian spiritualness" mask just to cover up your sin and struggles.
***Being a carbon copy of someone else that you think has got it all figured out.

Hey, we all do it. Including myself. But why do we do this? We so desperately crave the approval of others that we will go to any means to attain it - even if it means not being true to who we are.

The truth is... are you ready for this? We're not perfect! We have problems. We have struggles. We have bad days, bad weeks and heck even some of us have bad years. The problem is, we go about life, tiptoeing around everyone else, trying to make sure they don't find out we're not perfect.

There's a few things I need to remind myself of: stop putting on a front, stop trying to be like someone else and

Stop being a robot and just be real.

Blessings

disclaimer

I love blogs.

I know. I’ve posted about this kind of thing before. But it bears repeating.

I love blogs. I get inspired and rejuvenated when I get a minute to read what others write, and there's something inside me that feels so fulfilled when I have a chance to spill out my own feelings and to make a record of what I’m up to or where I am growing in this blog. Once I write things down, it's like my brain can relax instead of holding tight onto things that may otherwise get lost in the vast expanse of my own forgetfulness.

But some things trouble me about bloggers.

The trouble with bloggers is that we tend to accentuate the positive instead of the negative. It's human nature. And that's good, isn't it? I mean really, who wants to follow a blogger who only writes about negative stuff. The bad part is that we see that positive "tip of the iceberg" that others are portraying and compare our worst to their best. Did you catch that? We compare our worst to their best? Uh, wait a minute - that’s not right.. .. . But that's human nature, I guess. And that kind of comparing is not good.

Those kinds of things make me wonder how I can make this more real life. I mean, I want to capture life as it is. But you know what? Life as it is; is good. Not because it's perfect by any stretch of the imagination, because it isn't. My heart worries endlessly about random things that probably don't need to be worried about. I forget important things. I have about a bazillion wrinkles. I get mad as a hornet about dumb stuff.

But life is good because I love it. And I'm thankful for it. .. . .. especially when I break it down into moments. Especially when I slow down enough to enjoy the journey. And that's the kind of stuff I like to write about.

I guess this post is really meant to say that I’ve struggled with writing the last several posts. I worry that writing about my honest thoughts and feelings, someone out there might judge and not like me. But since this year is all about being honest I can’t worry anymore about making my life sound like it's all hunky-dory. There are a million worries and concerns along with the good stuff.

So I'm just going to go ahead and let it all hang out and not worry anymore, because people are going to interpret my blog any way they want, and I can't change that.

Enough said.

Blessings

Friday fun night

When our family was younger and still all lived at home we established a family Friday night of fun. We’d have pizza for supper, play games, watch movies, basically spending time together and having loads of fun. With all our kids grown and living out on their own, our Friday nights have become pretty quiet. {sigh} I miss those times. It’s funny how you don’t really appreciate something until you no longer have it. But that’s not the point of this post - see how easily I can get sidetracked.

When my sister invited us to spend the evening with her and her husband. I was pretty excited. I haven’t seen her since my Dad’s b-day surprise. So after a super yum supper at Beartozzi’s (new restaurant in Milverton) we headed back to their place for visiting and games.

I thoroughly enjoyed our time together and realized through our conversations that we (Wayne & I) don’t really have couple friends. In fact we don’t “do” a lot with anybody. However as Becky was talking about how they do this with that couple, do that with this couple, and other things with other couples. I found that, all I could think about is why we (W&I) don’t. Is it a bad thing? Is there something wrong with us? Don’t people like us?

On the drive home I thought even more about this, and then it came to me. I am not the social butterfly that my sister is. In fact, I am far more introverted and don’t cope well with such a busy social calendar. And then I realised that I need to learn to accept myself with the way I was created. I need to stop being so hard on myself! And to stop comparing myself to others. I was created with a unique set of talents, gifts, and abilities that no one else has. I need to stop pretending that I am something I am not. I need to remind myself that everyone has positives and negatives qualities. And to be patient with myself as God is not finished with me yet! Yeah, I know easier said than done, but something to strive for.

Just imagine what life would be like if you could just be yourself, without thinking twice about what other people think of you.

Thanks bliss, for the wonderful evening and the reminder to Blessings

Mission Accomplished

After 29 days of facebooklessness, I'm finding it easier than ever to not be in the loop about every little detail of my friends' lives. You know, its really sort of nice to be out of the loop a little bit and find things out the old fashioned way. Hearing about news through word of mouth just feels better somehow. I don't know how else to explain it. My Facebook cravings have died down to a mere murmur.

In the last month, I have discovered several things about Facebook. First and foremost is the realization that Facebook itself is not the problem. I am. Facebook is simply a tool. It has its quirks and issues, to be sure. But the root problem is that I didn’t have a strategy for how to use it.

Like many people, I had begun to use the term “friend” in a very loose way. The first thing I did in re-thinking my strategy was to tighten up my definitions of key terms:

Family: These are the people who are related by blood or by marriage. From now on, I am going to use this word as it was intended.
Friends: These are the people I know in real life. They are people I have met face-to-face, enjoy being around, and interact with in real life. (These three elements are key.) I have a few deep and significant friendships. But if I am honest, I don’t have many. I only have so much time available.
Acquaintances: These are people I know through someone else. I may know their name or even their face. We may even have been friends at some point in the past, but we don’t have an ongoing relationship. We only know one another at a superficial level, and that’s just fine. We just have to be clear that these are not our “friends”.

So with those definitions in mind, I have set out to re-think my approach to Facebook. Basically, it’s pretty simple. I have decided that I will only use my Facebook profile for family and close friends. I don’t want an inbox that is flooded with things I don’t care about.

Here is some of the key learning I took away:
You have to understand the difference between family, friends, and acquaintances. If I try to be everyone’s friend, I will be no one’s friend. I must be deliberate and selective. I will probably offend some of the people I unfriend. That’s okay. My sanity and real friends are more important than meeting the expectations of acquaintances. I need to be very careful who I accept as a friend on my profile going forward.

With that in mind I decided to un-friend those on my list that didn’t quite meet the criteria. Just based on mouse clicks, it’s three times as much work to unfriend someone as friend them. In this crazy world of social media, I think we need to remain thoughtful and flexible about how we connect online.

Is it time to re-think your Facebook strategy? What needs to change for you?

Blessings