A New Year Is Underway

What will this year mean to you?

I hope it means a time of building for you, building your dreams, making them realities, learning new things, enjoying relationships with good people who care about you.

I hope every day brings you some opportunity, however big or small, to make something better in your life, your home, your work, or your environment.  I hope you take those opportunities.

I have been enjoying a good year so far -- opening to dreams, making productive changes in business and life, and learning -- always learning.

I have continued keeping my resolution that I made at the end of 2015, and it continues to benefit my life daily.  As a result, I deal with far less hassles and am able to be far more productive, more focused, and do better overall.  And I am just happier.  Yes.  I still have health concerns and will be seeing a new specialist soon, but even that is much less a burden now that I don't need to wade through other peoples' muck to take care of my own health and well being.

And I am in love -- Yup!  There was a time following the end of my marriage when I was sure I was done with the whole love thing, just did not want to go through the loss, the pain, and the rebuilding again.  Also, at my age, I pretty much thought love was not going to happen.  But the delightful surprise is that it has.  I have been seeing a wonderful man since October, and we get along very well.  I have been keeping things kind of low key in that I have not told very many people, and I am not sure if I will change that.  Unfortunately, a couple of people were so extremely rude and behaved in such a toxic way over my former marriage and the marriage ending that I know for sure I will never make the mistake of exposing myself to any repeat performance of that.  Their behavior over something that did not affect them and was not their business was frankly bizarre to say the least.

So yes, looks like 2018 will have some great times and some roller coaster times in store.  And I look forward to every day because it is my life and how it unfolds is interesting to me.

Hoping life provides you lots of joy and great learning experiences this year.  Peace.

A Sad Truth

Part of growing, maturing, and overcoming obstacles is recognizing that there are people out there who do NOT wish you well, even if they say they love you, who do damage to you, who kick you when you are down.  Part of reclaiming your own life, part of achieving success, part of getting well, is to be willing to really know what experience has taught you and to move on and move away from these  people.  It is NOT an act of love to allow someone to abuse you over and over, to gossip about you, to do damage to you, and to never apologize or change their behavior toward you.  Allowing that has nothing to do with love.  So move on, care for yourself, and let them handle their own stuff.  If they are lucky, life will be able to get through to them and teach them about being better and doing better.  If not, well then, they still have their stuff to deal with, and none of it is yours to handle.

A Short Update

Round One of Healing Treatments 

was over on August 31.  I am on a break of sorts until after the 18th of September.  I am doing well, getting good reports back and getting good and useful feedback.  I like my care team very much.  They are trustworthy people, and that is a quality that in the larger world has been all too rare.  I am doing my work, my part of my healing -- every day.  One of my care team members tells me that is not something they see a lot with patients, so I am something of an anomaly -- a good anomaly.  She said a lot of people never do their part in their own healing; they want the easy way, which does not exist.

I was running some errands a couple weeks back and came across this lovely collection of flowers in  a sidewalk garden, so I thought I would share it.  Of course, I love that there is purple in it.

After A Long Time Away...

I am back again.  Transforming...

It's been a very interesting few months, a time of some heavy-duty changes and inner transformations.  It's been a time of great blessing as I have received much tender caring from friends old and new.  It's been a time of intense meditation, prayer, and doing the work required when one is seeking spiritual connection, answers, and tools to live by.  Working at it is necessary because what is sought requires more of a person than who that person was at the starting point.  Work strengthens. There is no other way to get there than by doing the work in the journey.

I have been spending as much time in nature as I can.  Nature is one of life's Great Healers, Great Rejuvenators, Great Friends.  Several days per week I spend hours among the flowers, trees, grasses. I am there in both sunshine and rain, does not matter to me.  My time spent in the natural world has been amazing -- very cleansing of old inner junk that needs to go.

I am happy to say that the decision I made so many months ago is still firm in my soul, and it is one of the best decisions I ever made.  It proves to be increasingly valuable and helpful.

Something new...

Tomorrow, July 12, I start a new journey of discovery, healing, and again building my life.  I am quite nervous about it, but I am relieved and proud as well.  I did the work necessary to reach this place and go the next level.  I am ready.  Ready does not have to be synonymous with brave.  I don't feel so brave, just ready.  I know I need this gift of grace and I am accepting it, and I am beyond grateful to have the help and guidance I will need.

For now, a photo of one of my sweet nature havens:

Blessed Day

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Easter.  I hope you are all enjoying the spring season.

Holy Moly and Tasty Tuesday

March has certainly come in like a lion.  The wind has been wildly blowing for a couple of days now, and I am surprised I have not seen trees or animals flying by.  Prior to yesterday was actually warm and humid to the point of being uncomfortable, but the wind has taken care of that.  Brrrr.

For today's Tasty Tuesday, I am sharing a yummy and satisfying hot vegetable casserole with the main attraction:

Layered Hot Dish

Ingredients:

1 large package of frozen broccoli and cauliflower

1 can cream of celery soup (do not add water)

1 8-ounce jar of Cheez Whiz

1 can sliced water chestnuts

1 can French fried onion rings 

Instructions:

Layer ingredients in greased casserole dish according to the order listed above.  The French fried onion rings will go on the top.  Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  I cover the casserole for the first 30 minutes of baking and then remove cover and bake for the remaining 15 minutes so onions can get crunchy.

A nice hot comforting dish to compliment a main dish, or you can have this as a meal in itself if you prefer.

Dollar Tree Craft Item and St. Patrick's Day Recipe

Hello Everyone -- My apologies for delays in posting.  Things have been a little crazy around the home front.

Dollar Tree Craft Item Review:

To jump right in, I have a review of a Dollar Tree craft item that I intended to post last week and forgot.  Many people have jumped on to the adult coloring book trend.  People often find coloring relaxing, that it helps them to remove themselves from the hassles of the day and to focus on other things.  Some of the images available in adult coloring books are really beautiful and can be used as art to decorate walls or made into book covers or made into place mats, and more.

Dollar Tree has many adult coloring book choices from floral and garden designs to geometric designs to famous places around the world and more.  It's easy to see what you are getting when you can flip through the books, see the images, and get a feel for the quality of the paper.

But what about the colored pencils for use in coloring those images?  Dollar Tree carries a convenient pack of colored pencils, but you can't really tell how they will work or how the colors will look on paper until you get them home.

I picked up a pack of the Dollar Tree colored pencils.  The brand is Liqui-Mark, and the pack contains 10 pencils.  The colors look very vibrant in the package, and I was pleased to see that they were already sharpened to a fine point.  Colors included are:  dark green, brown, red, orange, yellow, bright green, sky blue, violet purple, black, and navy blue (the black pencil is in the box, did not realize it had not shown up until after I posted the photo).  I thought, "not bad for a buck."

But how do they work and look on paper?  I tried each one by coloring a little swatch of each color on a piece of white paper.  I found them to work smoothly on the paper.  I did NOT press hard with the colors because I have arthritis in my hands and do not want to use art or craft tools where I have to really press hard to get them to work.  Thankfully, that was not an issue as the color went onto the paper well, and the pigment was good without having to go over and over it.

Here is how the colors came out on paper.  If you go to Dollar Tree and wonder about the quality of the Liqui-Mark colored pencils, here is how they look.  I think for a dollar, you can't really beat it.

The black one (because I forgot to use it on the example with the others):

The colors would probably be more vibrant if I chose to go over them a few times or to press hard with the pencil, but for basic colored pencils to keep on hand for your coloring books or journals, this is a great buy, in my opinion.

Now, how about a fun salad or dessert idea for Saint Patrick's Day?

Pear Salad (to get your Green on)

Ingredients:

1 3-ounce package of lime jello

1 cup pear juice

2 3-ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature

1 16-ounce can of pears, drained (save juice for the 1 cup of juice required)

1 8-ounce carton of Cool Whip

Instructions:

1)  Bring the 1 cup of pear juice gently to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Remove juice from pan and put into a medium size mixing bowl.

2)  Dissolve jello in the hot pear juice.

3)  Beat the cream cheese into the jello mixture.

4)  Crush the drained pears, and add them to the jello mixture.

5)  Chill until the mixture is turning thicker (like syrup).

6)  Fold in Cool Whip, and chill until firm.

Wishing everyone a great weekend coming up!