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May 08

Scheduling

I recently started writing out menus for the week instead of just fixing whatever comes to mind on the day. When Chrystal was here to eat with us and use some of the leftovers for lunch, it was a daily thing. With just the two of us and Jim not really inspired by leftovers, It’s become sort of 3 or 4 days a week with leftovers and salads in between. I still search online for new recipes to keep inspired.

I’ve been trying to follow my scheduled routine for exercise and added new sessions. The old schedule called for a few quick stretches and deep knee bends to strengthen my legs once a day. I’m increasing that to three times a day and adding a Yoga session in the afternoons. In a couple of weeks, school will be out and I won’t have a framework for activities until the fall. I need to get into a regular routine to make up for that. Last summer, I just sat around and I lost a lot of strength and stamina because of it. I need to be getting that back and adding to it.

I’ve also got to set up a house cleaning schedule. Before, it was just a random thing whenever I was in the mood. I’m going to try scheduling it so things get done before they grate on my nerves so much I just need to fix it. I found a list in my prayer app for Household jobs that I wrote up a while back. It says update blogs on Monday. That’s what I’m doing today. The rest of it may need to be rewritten and copied to my Notebook app. The old schedule had one thing a day, sort of a different room each day. I’m thinking that wasn’t very practical, obviously it didn’t really work since I’d forgotten all about it. I need to come up with something better.

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Posted in Current Events, For Your Consideration, Random Thoughts, Updates

Apr 26

Once More into the Fray

I feel very little inspiration for writing these days, but I still feel like I should. I haven’t posted anywhere but Facebook since November. This is my attempt to get back into it.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading. A little on my phone app for Kindle, listening to audio books when I drive, actual paper books for devotional time, and at bedtime to wind down for sleep. The book I’m reading on the Kindle app has been stagnant for weeks. I just can’t seem to get into it anymore, although that used to be my favorite way to read. I go through an audio book in, at most, a couple of weeks because it’s my go to now instead of music in the car. It takes a while for me to get through a devotional book or the ones I read at bedtime because I only do a few pages at a time. Still, it all adds up. I am rereading the Outlander series at night and I’ve just started a new book for my devotional time, Discovering Fire by Robert Wolsey of Kissing Fish fame. My current author for audio books is Karen Slaughter.

I’ve gone back to playing online games. I play online solitaire or Mahjong while I listen to my audio books in line to pick up Damion and Elaina from school. I let myself get sucked back in Farmville. I used to play it on Facebook years ago and stopped when it got boring. The new version is more challenging, but it’s becoming frustrating because they continually try to force you into spending money in order to advance. I did that for a couple of months, but I’ve stopped spending and my progress is stagnating. I have a feeling I’ll drop it soon.

I was cooking more. I searched online for recipes and, for a while, it was a real challenge. I’ve gotten burned out on that as well and, this week, I’ve reverted back to cooking about 3 or 4 days a week and eating leftovers the other days. I’m also finding myself preparing the old faithful menus.

We are planning an extended trip in June. It will be our first long journey since before Covid. We did go to South Dakota to visit Brad and his family for a week last year. But it was limited. This trip will take us all the way across the country and it’s not to visit anyone, but just to explore someplace we haven’t been before. I am looking forward to the experience. I’m just worried a bit about my physical strength to make it. I can barely walk a half mile without resting so there won’t be our usual extended hikes. I’ve laid out the route, it will be a two week excursion (eight days driving and a week exploring Washington State), Jim is preparing to make hotel reservations and I’m researching locations.

I plan to add writing back into my daily routine. We’ll see how that goes.

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Posted in Current Events, For Your Consideration

Nov 22

History Update

It’s been several years since I wrote my history. I guess it’s time for an update:

First of all, we lost Davie. He died several years ago while mowing the lawn. He was a force for good in all our lives and we still miss him.

Next my grandchildren have been busy having children. I now have more great grandchildren than grandchildren. Some that live close by and are a regular part of my life, others that are far away and seldom visited and, sadly, a couple that I’ve never met. I think everyone is through adding to the list now. In ten years or so, my “littles” will probably begin to add children of their own.

Next, Jim and I are trying to “retire” again. We’ve stopped taking new clients and are, gradually, divesting ourselves of the current ones.

Covid didn’t affect us much. We “battened down the hatches” for a year or so. Stayed home and let our younger members deliver our groceries. Did church online. I helped a couple of my great grandchildren do their schoolwork online as well. None of our family died or even went to the hospital. In fact, none of us even got a positive diagnosis until after we were all vaccinated and the worst of the pandemic was over.

I had a cancer scare that required surgery to remove a tumor in my intestines. It was clear afterwards, but I’ve been diagnosed with Lymphoma. It’s the slow growing kind and, so far, it hasn’t progressed. I am getting regular checkups for the first time in my life and we’ll see how long it stays dormant. The doctor says he’s watched some people for five years before they needed treatment.

Since Covid, our travels have been limited. This year, we went to South Dakota to visit my grandson, Brad, and his family. We did also take an excursion to Mammoth Cave, here in Kentucky.

Hopefully, we will be able to spend more time traveling next year. We are planning a trip to North Carolina in the spring and to Jim’s photojournalist reunion sometime in the summer or fall.

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Posted in Health, Memoirs

Oct 28

My Dark Soul

Today I am taking a stroll down memory lane. I took one class on poetry during my extended college routine. I was taken with an urge to look up some of my attempts. None of them really qualifies as literature. I can never claim to be a poet. I do, however, still feel some of them express my feelings. The first one is especially apropos in today’s world. It is very dark, written at a time when I was travelling 90 miles each way to school on an almost daily basis.

American Cocoon

The world is at war, but I am at peace.

My cocoon lets me ignore the bombs as they fall on the guilty and the innocent alike,

in other places,

because all of my children are safe.

I drive along the highway, and I am at peace in my traveling cocoon.

When the radio announcer mentions mass shootings too close to home,

I just hit the black button and music floods the car as I pull the security blanket of ignorance

over my head and travel on in apathetic bliss.

When traffic backs up ahead, I expect construction, not destruction.

No checkpoints, no armed guards.

The only blood on my road is from careless or loaded people,

not a loaded car bomb or IED.

I am insulated.

Wrapped in my cocoon of complacency.

Just one geeky berserker away from the final cataclysm.

As I read through all of the offerings, I was struck by the fact that all of them have a darkness. I’m surprised that no one called me on it at the time. My second offering here is the only one that doesn’t have a flavor of despair.

Music Is a Gas

Jazz helps to sooth my nerves and lets me sleep.

The Blues stir something, deep inside my soul.

Nothing moves me more than a horn, wailing that long tenor note.

Willie and his pals lament my sadness,

the lost loves of youth cried away the night with longing and pain,

but Denver and Cash have called me home again.

Mozart and Verdi boost concentration,

when work is my goal. Bach and Beethoven focus my thinking

with orchestration of all kinds of strings.

Rock music digs deep as it speeds the blood, burns away anger

and builds up passion, burning calories.

How the beats fill me. Music fuels my life.

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Posted in Creativity, Poetry

Oct 12

Current Meditations Continue

Well, we had the discussion group and it went well. Even though I hadn’t had the negative experiences of the book, I did find things to contribute.

I am still reading. I finished The Heart of Christianity and I’m now working on The God We Never Knew, both by Marcus Borg. Along the way, I’ve discovered details about the author that I never imagined. He said he was in his thirties before reaching a point that he accepted God as real. I know that many people question the existence of God in college. I have decided it’s not really college that causes the doubt. It’s a level of maturity. I felt that way myself in my early twenties and I didn’t go to college until I was in my forties.

As I told the book discussion group, I tried to think of the world and my life without God and it scared me to death. I cannot conceive a world without God. The current book I’m reading is explaining a different concept of God. It is a God all around us idea. I am still working on understanding it. More later….

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Posted in Inspiration, Meditations

Scheduling

Once More into the Fray

History Update

My Dark Soul

Current Meditations Continue

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