Ready for a Rainy Week?

After 90 degree weather a week or so ago, this cloudy cool weather seems odd, but we are in for a number of overcast or rainy days so be prepared.

I like the rain. I remember watching rainy car windows as a child. I’d imagine two drops were in a race and I’d watch them as they ran down the glass. It was strangely fascinating looking at the world through those small glasslike beads. It was as if colors bloomed inside of them with no connection to the object that stimulated the orbs to glow with the red of an umbrella, or the green of a streetlight.

These days though, when I’m the one having to drive, those rainy windshields aren’t quite as pleasant. Nonetheless, we’ve got rain approaching and there isn’t a thing we can do about it…except for outfit ourselves with umbrellas and boots and rain slickers.

Well? Go on! 🙂

I’ll be here when you get back.

love,
mo

Wishcraft

Morning!  Today I want to share a very nice online book by Barbara Sher called Wishcraft.  Here is the link http://wishcraft.com/

I’ve just started reading it and it excites that small voice inside of me that wants me to recognize that there is more to me than the clothes I wear, and the face I put on, or the things I do each day.  There is something deeper, that if I think about it for any length of time creates a yearning. I refuse to believe that it’s just me that has these feelings so I’m on a hunt to find ways to draw out me!   I’m sharing here because I thought it might be nice to keep it handy for myself as well as share it with anyone else who is looking for ideas to help them develop, or bring their “dream life” into reality.

If it helps you then thank Barbara!

If it doesn’t, let’s talk about it.  How do you inspire and invest in yourself?  Do you set times to do it?  Do you have any resources you use to help you find what stimulates you?  Are there habits that you practice that help spark your ideas, or your creativity?

Talk to you soon!

Love,

mo

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Can Sing!

The other day I tried to sing.  It wasn’t great.  I used to sing as a younger person.  My voice was relatively strong.  I liked it, but I never did it seriously.  I sometimes sang in the Church choir, but that was me and several mature women who sang from memory, one whistled the tunes.  No one was going to harangue me for trying to sing from the hymnal.

Anyhow, I actually tried to sing with lessons.  I learned that I had to focus on my larynx, or that part of your throat where the voice is located.  There are muscles there!  And you can feel them opening and widening, or closing and tightening.  I learned about singing into my “mask” that is another word for my face!  Who thinks you have to use your face to sing?  When you use your face, your voice has a new timbre.  It rumbles through your cheeks and your nose.

What I learned was I could, through practice strengthen my voice as I moved up and down the scale.  I sounded sort of like one of those old “ayoooga” horns moving through the notes, but afterward, my highs were stronger and higher and my lows were deeper and stronger.

That is what practice does for a voice.  Who knows if I’ll take my act on the road 🙂

Probably not, but it would be nice to sing Adele in the shower without feeling like my throat is an old rusted steel door.

Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!

Love,

mo

Have You Ever Hiked?

I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately? But I’ve been loving myself some videos of folks hiking through woods, or wild camping, or through hiking the Appalachian trail.  It just feels so free and it seems like something I want to do.

The bad news is I find myself out of breath walking in my yard.  It’s not a big yard, but still, it’s a little hilly.  Okay, it’s not hilly, it’s more like lumpy.  I think they are voles.

So for someone who can barely climb a vole hill, why am I into camping?  I’ve even imagined loading the back of my car with pillows a cooler and netting and heading for a nearby Walmart.   We have several to choose from, the only problem is why in the world would I want to sleep in a Walmart when I have a perfectly serviceable if not comfortable bed in a house with windows that have screens in them, a working sink and lots of food in the frig.

Yeah, don’t expect me to make sense of it.  The only thing I can come up with is I’m itching to just get away from things.  Things aren’t awful, but imagine sitting in a forest, hearing a burbling  brook, seeing stars and feeling the  breeze.  Getting eaten by a big bear!

Maybe I need to think this over a bit.  But I still will be checking out great videos on younguns who are living in cars, or walking from Maine to Georgia, or just camping in a Walmart.  Or Target?  Or local casinos.

Happy Spring!  And if anyone wants to go camping, and you are sane, let’s chat 🙂

love,

mo

I’m Still Here!

Blah!  How do I explain why I’ve fallen off the blogging planet?

Well, to be blunt, it’s a lot of work talking to yourself for the most part and even though I know I have wonderful visitors, it just gets a little dull sometimes.  Plus this is an effort of love,  no money changes hands with anyone, it’s a free will effort.  Sometimes I guess I get angsty about giving away my time…not that I spend it doing anything else that is particularly necessary or needful, but still, one does get fussy sometimes doesn’t one?

Honestly, I think the real reason I fell away from writing daily is because my lil chickadees have all flown the coop.  For a bit that was quite a torment for me, truthfully?  It still hurts. I swear I didn’t think about the long emptiness that would swallow me when I don’t have to drive anyone around, or make it to practices, or buy clothes at the mall.  They picked up their things, loaded their cars, or friends cars and off they went.

For a time, things were sort of nice between my significant other and myself.  It was nice to have things just be the two of us, but then we settled down into habits, as people often do, and now this is a new problem…finding we’ve got our own lives and they don’t connect but for a bit of time on the weekends.  Of course it was always that way in the past, but you didn’t notice it as much because there was so much going on otherwise.  I’m finding things got better, but it’s still hard.  If you are about to see your own children off in the world, invest in some real activities you and your spouse can enjoy together.

The other thing that is causing some ruckus in our lives is our parents are aging.  Boy, no one told me what a mess that was going to cause.  You know how sometimes even though I’m sure no one meant it, one child in a family gets a lot of attention from the parents?  I wouldn’t go so far as to call the child a “favorite” but I think you know what I mean.  Every conversation winds back to them.  Everything you do is coincidentally a lot like what they do.  Their plans are like yours, but even more interesting.  Well, don’t tell anyone but we had a situation like that and I didn’t care, I just recognized it. Big deal.  It made life easier in a lot of ways.  Unfortunately, that adult child has now received some terrible treatment from said parents.  Who knew?  I think the trouble arose when those adult children wanted to “help” their parents.  Whoo boy, that help wasn’t seen as true help and that began a minor battle that flares up now and again.  So now, the second tier gets lots of game action!  Whoopee!

Oh, if only life were simple eh?

Everything will work out,… or not!

I hope you are all doing well.  I hope you don’t have any problems with missing people, or regaining people that are wonderful but challenging.  But if you do? You can always talk to old  Mo here.

love,

me 🙂

 

Pantone’s Pea Soup

Have you seen the new 2017 color of the year?

It’s pretty blecchy in my opinion.  They call it greenery, or a tangy green color.  I call it a dull chartreuse.  Pea soup.  Dull yellow green.

It’s supposed to exhilarate and excite us and make us feel alive.  Instead I pretty much hate it.

Check it out and tell me how you feel about it!

love,

mo

Mercedes Benz Metris

Our car needed to go into the shop and so my husband needed a car to get around in because he is a salesman and he’s in his vehicle a lot.  The nice folks at Kulp’s gave him some choices– they offered him a minivan and we thought they also offered a Mercedes.  I wanted the Mercedes!  He decided on a car similar to his usual work vehicle and that was a minivan!

Turns out we both got our wishes.  He’s now driving a new Mercedes Benz Metris. Which is a very tall fancy minivan.

I haven’t  been in it yet so I’m not sure about how it drives, but I did think it was funny when he asked me what one of the icons on the dashboard meant.  Now I’m not all that technologically savvy, so his question  was one of those general sort of thinking aloud questions and not one intentionally directed towards me, but I am the kind of person that loves thinking “hmmmm, that’s weird” and then I check things out.

When he asked me about a coffee cup image that shows up on his dashboard I wondered why there would be one?  Why would MB create an icon with a steaming cup of something that shows up on the dash?

The answer is the folks at Mercedes Benz have a system designed to alert drivers that they might be tired.  If the driver is doing lots of corrections on the steering system then the car imagines that is because the driver is exhausted.  It measures how long the car has been on the road and compares that to the type of road that the vehicle is travelling on and whether there are any other reasons the driver might not have used other controls on the dash and if it puts together a picture of a tired driver, it signals with the steaming cup to suggest the driver pulls over and takes a break.

Now I’m guessing that our poor rental is completely confused about it’s driver!  Only because it doesn’t have a driver!!!   But it is a cool system nonetheless isn’t it?

Soon my husband will get his old car back.  I’m thinking I’m going to have to make a sachet with coffee grounds in it!  That way when his brain has an urge for coffee he’ll have to pull over!

Be safe out on the roads!  Things are a little more slippery than usual.

love,

mo

Black Santa!

The other day I noticed a story about the Mall of America hiring their first Black Santa.  I didn’t get why that was an issue, but then I’m white and I have lots of associated privilege that goes along with it, so I hope my readers will understand that I’m clueless sometimes but I do care!

Anyhow, I saw the article and I thought, how silly of people to be upset that St.Nicholas is finally being presented as a black man!  Did you notice I wrote finally?  I bet you are wondering why I’d ever expect a black St. Nick.  Well, let me tell you what I think…

I’ve always been interested in the lives of the Saints, growing up Catholic it’s one of those things that interest you because you are told that your whole history incorporates these incredible people that were wholly consumed, sometimes quite literally with their sense of God.  So anyhow, people who are interested in common Saints, ( if there can be such a thing) may have seen some of the icons attributed to St. Nicholas…and if you had, you’d have noticed that in some he looks black.  There are actually a lot of black iconographic images, for example there is the whole Holy Family with darker skin.  So it’s not surprising to me that we’ve finally portrayed St. Nicholas as someone much more historically accurate than the late 1800’s version that wears red and smokes a pipe while his pink cheeks glow over a bright white beard.

If you want more of the story, ask me a question about it….and I might even tell you what history says of the real St.Nick’s broken nose!

love,

mo

Hard Boiled Eggs!

Isn’t it silly to write about boiling eggs?  What is important enough about boiled eggs that makes it worth a blog post?

Well, as I often use this blog as a method of communicating with myself, I’m using it now to remind myself how beneficial it is to buy an extra dozen eggs when I’m shopping and when I get home, or soon thereafter, I boil a dozen of them.

They will last a week, I can put them into sauces, stews, on top of salads, or just eat them as a quick protein fix for breakfast, or in an egg salad sandwich for lunch.

It’s a pleasure to reach into the fridge and have something that is so easy to grab and go.  Especially when I’m feeling rushed and who isn’t rushed around the holidays?

So there you have it!  Next time you are out shopping, do yourself a favor and grab an extra dozen of eggs, boil them and enjoy.  There aren’t many cheaper ways of getting all that energy!

Oh, you might be one of those people uncomfortable with boiling eggs, you might feel anxious about needing to get the perfect egg!  I don’t care about that!!!!!  I put my chilled eggs in cold water and I put that water on a gentle heat on the stove and I wait till it boils and then I let them sit in that boiled water for about 10 minutes or so.  If I put cold eggs in a hot boiling pot I get cracked eggs, if I worry about an exact time, I’m usually wrong.  I just let them sit and sure, sometimes my imperfect eggs have a dark green line around the  yolk, that is what you are avoiding by boiling them to perfection…but I don’t care!  I’m going to eat them and I haven’t  seen any studies that suggest overboiling or slightly under-boiling changes the energy they contain.  ( There really are studies about this stuff).

love,

mo

Trump!

It’s official, and it has been for days.  Donald J. Trump is the President Elect!

I wasn’t quite as shocked as other people were at this situation.  I had a sort of sick feeling in the pit of my stomach throughout this election.  And it wasn’t because I hated Donald.  I’m not fond of his style of decision making.  I don’t like that he isn’t a people person.  I found him abrasive and it was my view that the promises he made throughout the run up to the election were impossible to keep.

I still feel that way.

And yet, a lot of people in this country felt that it was time to listen to the conspiracy pushers and fight for an America that they thought was better some time ago.  When you look at the actual history?  That memory of a lovely time?  It’s all just nostalgia.  There were hard times in the past.  We’ve been on a forward trajectory. Going back?  That is a bad idea in my book, but this isn’t all about me and my concerns.  It’s about the  majority of voters choosing what they think is best for their future.

I hope they made a responsible choice.

I wasn’t in love with Hillary Clinton, and I have never been in love with partisan politics even though my views tend to run true Democrat.  I was sad to see the authoritarian choice people made.  I was sad to learn that there are a lot of people who already feel marginalized that now feel that their lives are endangered.  That is part of what makes me feel sick.

I’m white, healthy, old with a fairly steady income going towards retirement.  I’m on the secure side of things.  This new political wind isn’t going to hurt me, and if it does hurt me, it’s going  to hurt people like me who probably have the time and money to make sure their voices are heard.  I’m not sure how to feel about that.  I’m not an undocumented alien, I’m not disabled, I don’t have any long term illnesses, I don’t have citizenship in another country, I’m comfortable with the gender that was decided according to my genitalia at my birth.  I’m a hetero-sexual woman with a strong family.

I was never fighting for me!  It’s my thing to fight for the people who don’t have the same rights as I do.  I imagine I’ll continue doing that.  So, if you aren’t comfortable with seeing my views, the views of someone who isn’t enthralled with the status quo.  Then I suggest you find some other blog.

If you are willing to accept that everyone is unique and special, and that might isn’t right!  Keep reading 🙂

 

love,

mo