Halloween inflation

Researchers tell us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. – Sandra Boynton

Hmmm…imagine this horror story for Halloween.  It’s official, my husband and I are being empty nesters for Halloween “trick-or-treaters”again.  What do I mean, again?  We’re on a roll, it’s been 23 years.  Yes, 23 years!

I can’t remember when we had “trick-or-treaters” stop at our house so it must be that many years.  We haven’t been visited because we don’t advertise we have any candy by the traditional pumpkin lit on the doorstep.  We don’t live “in-town," it’s too far out for people to find us.  And, the ultimate “leave us alone” clue, we turn the lights off so it looks like we’re not home. 

Oh, my gosh, guess that makes us Halloween Curmudgeons!  

I do have fond memories of when our kids were little and excited about “trick-or-treating.”   I don’t really like disappointing kids, I’m not that mean.

Yesterday, the day before Halloween (the candy is fresher then right?), on a whim, I decided just in case we do get a “trick-or-treater” maybe we should have some candy available.  So I grabbed a bag of Snickers.  I didn’t even look at the price, just threw the bag in the cart.  I just know they’re a popular type of candy bar.  Plus they freeze well to be used later for Snicker Bar Salad.  Snickers is a safe candy of choice. 

Shocking horror #2 for the day…have you checked out the prices of candy lately?  Remember I haven’t bought candy for Halloween for 23 years.  Way back when you could get a bag for less than $5.00.   I was horrified when I went to the check out and had to break a $20 to pay for 1 bag of candy.  When did Snickers turn to “gold”? 

Here’s to hoping our running streak of no “trick-or-treaters” holds true today!  I’m definitely freezing the bag for posterity sake or the Snicker Bar salad so I get more chocolate for my buck.  Sorry kids!

I feel for all of you who have tons of “trick-or-treaters!" Thank you for your generosity and for taking one (or $100's) for the Halloween team!  

Thanks for stopping by (or not really stopping by...my candy is frozen today!) ~ Enjoy your Halloween!

  

The atrophy of fall

Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay. – Robert Browning

Autumn is a time to scramble and get “outside” jobs done before the snow flies.  One of the tasks we complete is prepare the gardens for rest for the winter.  It’s time to do so when the frost shuts the flowers down. 

I’ve been watching out the window as the stages of atrophy have taken hold on the flowers planted this year.  The further away from the house they are, the quicker they changed to brown and readiness to be done.  It’s time to harvest marigold and morning glory seeds for next year’s crop.   

I do feel a sense of sympathy for the flowers.  They took the whole summer to get to full bloom and now, they are done.  It simply reminds me of the importance of life.  Each phase plays a role in atrophy so continuity can happen.

I find beauty in all the stages.  I look forward to preparing the gardens for the next year.  Each stage reminds me life keeps on going, and we are to keep on going with it. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Fall-Atrophy!  

Learning to overcome mundane processing of emails

“We are by nature observers, and thereby learners.  That is our permanent state.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What the heck is wrong with you?” said the little voice nagging in my head this morning as I stood in front of my desk reading emails.

There’s nothing interesting here, it’s the same thing as yesterday.  A bunch of spam with a few news feeds I enjoy reading.  Shame, shame, shame, even a bunch of emails I read days before, still sitting there in the inbox.

“Get real!” 

The process of clicking to delete the spam has simply become boring!  So boring, I’ve ignored it for a few days, now it has become a big task! 

“What the heck is wrong with you, why don’t you just delete them right away?” 

The process of deleting emails isn’t a new task for me.  I do it ALL day long for work so I’m really good at it, but it isn’t fun, it’s annoying.  I don't learn anything new when I do it.

“So what’s the problem?”  

I haven’t learned how to get over the longing to discover what might be interesting in the email.  There might be something to learn or use in the future. 

"So your problem is that you love to learn?"  

Leaving an email in the inbox satisfies a desire.  I might just learn something when I read it.  The idea excites me and blocks me from deleting emails too quickly.  

“Well, that’s just plain silly!” 

I have to just buck up and admit it and then figure out how to live with the desire to learn in a different way.  I have to learn how to make it fun.  Email deleting is mundane, but the information contained in them might be worthy of reading. 

“How are you going to survive dealing with the mundane process of deleting emails?” 

I have to change up how I’m doing the mundane task.  Learn a new way of doing the same old familiar task.   

“In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

“Duh…all you have to do is set rules in Outlook!”  

Yes, all I needed was a new outlook (no pun intended)!  Jeez...why didn’t I think of rules in Outlook before?  Just like magic, I created folders for the emails I want to review regularly and sent the junk to spam or trash folder.  

My inbox only contains undefined spam and new things I’ve never seen before.  Now I can focus my learning on smaller chunks of information within the folders and quickly see new content to or send to spam in the future.  

“See, that was easy!”

Thank you little nagging voice.  Now I have time to learn something new and enjoy the fall day! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy finding ways to make the mundane a new learning experience!  

Fitting in or Standing Out

"The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong.  Fitting in is important." – Simon Sinek

Remember the first time you wanted to fit in?  I imagine it was at birth.  As a baby, born with your own personality to two parents with their own personalities already in a relationship, each need you expressed let your parents know how you wanted to fit into their lives. 

Fast forward to school age, remember the feeling of going into a classroom and longing to fit in?  As we grow from youth to young adulthood, every year we started all over, learning to fit in again as we changed and molded who we wanted to be each year.  Is that when we start to think more about why fitting in isn’t as important of a need? 

"Fitting in is unnecessary.  Embrace who you are.  You will go through rough times in high school, but always stay strong, and never deny yourself!"  - Neon Hitch

Remember your first job?  Were you welcomed or did you have to figure out how to fit in?  Remember the first person who helped show you the ropes and helped you feel welcomed?  Depending upon what your role was or who hired you, maybe fitting in isn’t what they were expecting of you based upon your interview. 

Remember the moment you decided, “Heck with trying to fit in, I’m gonna do my own thing?” 

“People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.” – Warren Bennis

50 is a nice stage in life.  You’ve learned many ways to fit in and many ways to stand out.  You aren’t done learning and you’re not done making a difference in life.  Go ahead, discover your next opportunity to fit in or stand out! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your moments of standing out, you're not done yet discovering how you can continue making a difference in this world!  

Top 5 compensations of having a thrift sale

It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever considered how much you’re compensated when having a thrift sale?  If you really consider how much time and energy and masking tape consumed, you probably average an hourly wage of $1.17 or less.  If I offered you a job that paid that rate, would you jump for joy and say, “Absolutely, when do I start?”  Not a chance, right?

So if it isn’t about the money, then what is the compensation you get when having a thrift sale?  Thrift sales are about helping each other.  You have stuff that you no longer need, and someone, be it a shopper or a recipient of your donations, needs it and finds it useful.  

Beautiful, simple and great compensation! 

Top 5 compensations of having a thrift sale:

1. Clutter clearance – Enjoy the space created by letting go of stuff you no longer need or want.  The person who buys it finds a perfect spot for it and it becomes useful to them.
2. Making someone’s day – There’s joy seeing someone happy when they find the treasure they’ve been looking for.  It feels good to see someone happy with something you no longer need.
3. Freedom – Let the item go to someone who wants or needs it, but keep the memory which takes up way less space.
4. Charitable Deduction – You’ve decided you didn’t need the stuff in the first place and you have no plan to have another sale, donate as fast as you can anything you didn’t sell so you can take the deduction on your taxes!
5. Memories – There are plenty of moments while preparing for the sale to relive memories of the things you held onto for so long.  The memories you create while working hard together as a family hosting a thrift sale are the best part of a thrift sale.  There’s the excitement of the day watching things go to new homes, the moments of bonding when you see something go that you treasured together and the stories you have to tell after the sale.  Yep…the compensation of memories makes it all worth it in the end! 

Thanks for stopping by ~ Time to box up the things to donate that didn’t sell!  Enjoy the compensations of giving!

Get ready, let your mind be so

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.”

– William Shakespeare, Henry V

I decided when I turned 50 I was going to make it a year of trying new things.  I didn’t really have a bucket list of things to try, just knew that if a new opportunity presented itself, I wasn’t going to immediately say "no."  Especially if it didn’t feel comfortable or something I knew right away I wanted to do.

Being an introvert and a planner by nature can make it harder to go out of your comfort zone. For me, if I’ve never done it, I typically want to research it before doing it or at least consider it for a day or two (or more) before committing.  Somehow that felt safe, but it has also limited my new experiences and opportunities to grow.  

So this year, with my “mind be so” to try new things, I have done stuff I never tried before!  I've said "yes" and then did the research to get ready.  You know what, it has been fun and not as scary as I thought it would be. 

What are a few of the things I have said, "Yes!" to or took a chance on my own to try?

• Submitted articles to a magazine to be published – 2 submitted, 2 published
• Applied for a Leadership Training course – accepted
• Applied for a Volunteer for Coalitions and a Non-Profit Organization to be a Trainer – accepted in 3 counties
• Painting Parties – 3 attended
• A new role at work – my role seems to morph a lot, thankfully, I learn new things all the time
• A TV commercial and interview - did both
• Gave a personal speech presentation in front of strangers – 2 times in one day

Wow, guess that's not too shabby for a 50 year old introvert.  I think I chose the right mind set for this year!  

Thanks for stopping by!  If you're up for it, don't let too many sunsets go by until you've set your mind on a new track in life.   

Nature's lessons

Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.  – H.G. Wells

Last night as I was waiting patiently for my dog to do his business and return to the door, I looked out on the field of soybeans.  I’ve enjoyed watching them grow and change this season.  It’s a bumper crop this year.  They grew above waist high.

I missed taking a picture of them when they were green and flourishing, and when they turned a beautiful golden yellow.  Now they are a soft brown, almost ready for harvesting.  I can see the rows again.  With the sun setting, I thought it was a neat view from where I stood.  So I grabbed my camera.

After I took the picture, I realized it wasn’t as “neat” a view as I thought it would be captured on the camera.  When I zoomed in and cropped the picture, I saw I had captured a weed that persevered through the season.  It is now is growing higher than the soybeans.   Despite all the fertilizing and nurturing the farmer did to make sure the crop was weed free, some weeds adapted and grew.  

Ah…the lessons of nature never cease to amaze me.  Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your moments of adapting and growing.   

Fear

“Fear is the highest fence” – Dudley Nichols

I’m finding 50 is a great time to let “fear” become less of a solid fence and more like a chain link fence.  At 50 there’s no solid fear that we need to hold on tight to.  See the opportunities past the fear and decide, “Why not try that ____” instead of “Wait, don’t try that until _____.”

At 50, there are going to be more and more “big” events in our lives that we’ve never experienced.  But all the other fearful events we’ve already come through have made us ready for whatever life will bring in this season of our lives.  

If you’re a parent, watch the cool things your kids are trying and more importantly doing!  Would you have ever tried those things?  If you did, see you lived through them too.  If you haven’t, well…they’re doing just fine aren’t they?

What “fear” are you letting block your view of possibilities?  Try it, you might just like it.  At the least, you’ve broken through the fear and can see the safety of not trying it again, or you might just like what’s on the other side of the fear.  Jump the fence or find the gate, open it and walk through the fear!  

Thanks for stopping by!  Try something new (that you’ve feared) for the first time. 

To the moon and back

I’ve never seen a moon in the sky that, if it didn’t take my breath away, at least misplaced it for a moment. – Colin Farrell

 I remember when it happened, yes, I do!  The moment the moon became something that will take my breath away every time I see it.

Walking with my daughter across a field, she looked up and saw the moon.  I said to her, “That’s the Moon.”  I spelled it to her in a song like voice “M-O-O-N”.  She repeated it in a fun like voice and that was our beginning of loving the moon together. 

When her younger sister was old enough to learn how to spell, our song-like spelling of “M-O-O-N” was high on the list to teach her.  Funny…they’re both young adults now, and when we see the moon, we still say out loud or think “M-O-O-N” and smile. 

I think of my daughters every time I see the moon.  Raising kids is like shooting to the moon and back.  Sometimes the best moments are tough to see in the clouded thoughts of the day.  Other moments are crystal clear and you know you’re in the right place at the right time.  My favorite moments are all of those moments. 

Now that they are young adults, I love it when they’ve been off discovering their own lives and they come back to tell me what they’ve been up to.  In a way, they’ve shot off to the moon and came back to share. 

When I sit quietly looking at the moon, I think of my kids and the saying, “I love you to the moon and back.”  Our lives together so far have rich memories, and so many more to create. 

Thanks for stopping by!  

Hummingbirds

The hummingbird competes with the stillness of the air. – Chogyam Trungpa

Looking back through my pictures, I found an afternoon where I spent a few moments trying to catch the hummingbird either at the feeder or on a nail on our deck.  If you're patient, you can find moments where they do sit long enough to catch a picture or two.  They rest with the stillness of the air instead of competing with it. 

I always wonder what they are doing.  Are they taking a quick nap with their eyes open?  Are they stopping to scout out their next flower?  Maybe they are just enjoying the scenery or watching me?  Are they just recharging before taking off on their next flight?

In Wisconsin, Fall has arrived when the hummingbirds disappear.  Until Spring comes, guess it is just time to think fondly of the little birds and enjoy the changing colors of the season. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy the cool Fall days and moments of stillness in your day. 

Surprises

Sometimes it is better to begin the journey, to get under way, then it is to sit back and wait until such time that you’re convinced that all conditions are perfect and that there’ll be no surprises along the route. – John Engler

I love it when a day takes a different turn than I had planned.  I love my friend who takes one more chance to ask me to do something after I haven’t responded to her first request.  We have the best times when we do spontaneous things.  Just getting together to do something different brings new surprises and a time to reconnect and recharge. 

You don’t always need a friend to encourage you to do something different.  I love it when I just do what I’m sitting there thinking about doing.  Grab that camera and see what it would be like to take a picture of those flowers that are so pretty from afar.  Just go do it! 

Marigolds are one of those flowers that are so pretty, but hard to get a cool picture of.  Check out the one below, I actually captured a spider who wanted to join me in the adventure.  Well worth the moment I chose to just go do it!

Go out and begin…don’t sit back and wait...perfect moments might just be what you haven’t planned for in the first place! 

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy beginning a new journey!

Finding interest in the ordinary

To me, photography is an art of observation.  It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.  – Elliott Erwitt

I like that quote.  Since I’ve gotten more used to my camera, I’ve become brave with trying to do just that…find something interesting in an ordinary place.  I find the challenge fun.  

My cats think everything ordinary is an adventure for them.  They love watching birds from their viewpoint, no matter where they may be sitting.  Every bird that flies or hops by becomes something interesting to them. 

Yesterday, one of our cats was sitting patiently by the door, waiting for a bird to watch.  I liked how the afternoon sunlight was shining in on her.  It made her look interesting as she was being interested in the bird watching of the great outdoors.  So I grabbed my camera.  I was fortunate enough to not disturb her.  She stayed there for a few shots before she moved on to something else. 

The perfectionist in me is a little embarrassed to see the amount of kitty nose prints on the window, but I find it adds to the interest of the picture.  It shows how many times the cats have been there sitting and waiting for something interesting to happen.  I wonder if the cats think the nose prints add to their view.    

Time for me to go clean that window so the cats can see the birds better today! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you find the opportunity to find something interesting in the ordinary!