I am very comfortable leading a conversation, a discussion, or directionally around a location.
For some people, it’s their tendency to take over because they were a leader in their profession. I admire people who don’t do that. I like watching everyone have the chance to lead if they want.
But if I’m leading people around a location and lose my sense of direction, I get flustered and someone else has to take over! This happened to me in Vienna Austria with friends we met on a river cruise. One of the men stepped in to help me because I had us hopelessly lost!
I am also able to follow in those situations. When I don’t know the subject well, I listen to what other people say. If someone knows exactly where we are headed, I say “Just tell me where to go!”
First and my FAVORITE OF ALL TIME fruit is Watermelon! Just straight up – no salt, no salad – good plan old watermelon. If I let myself, I could eat a whole one, just slicing and slicing away at it.
2nd is Bananas. But they have to be “just right”. A little on the not-quite-ripe side is best. Just ripe is good too. Once they tip over towards too ripe, they get tossed into a bag and into the freezer for my smoothies!
4th is Apples. My most favorite is Macoun followed by Empire but lately, apples at the store are such a crap shoot as to whether they are crisp or mushy! I usually cut them up and eat them with peanut butter!
5th is Strawberries. They were my ultimate favorite until I worked in strawberry fields in my late teens. We spent the spring, training the vines. During picking season we weighed the containers, worked the register, and also stood at the end of rows directing people where to go. I would wear a hoodie sweatshirt and fill the pocket with strawberries! By the end of the second season, I never wanted to see another strawberry for the rest of my life! But recently, I’ve come back around to enjoy them.
Do you believe is signs from loved ones who have passed? I do! May 2nd was our 37th anniversary of meeting. One of the words in the NYT Connections game was SOULMATES – it jumped out at me as soon as I opened the game.
May 1987
May 6th was our 36th wedding anniversary. What popped up in the Connections game? COUPLE and LOVERS.
March 2024
Coincidence? No, I think my mother is sending her love to the two people she set up to meet in 1987. I’ve told this story so many times, you might already know it….I was scheduled for a vacation on March 24th because she was sick and she died on April 4th. I ended up taking the trip on May 2nd and my future husband was a last minute addition to his friend’s trip. Through a medium I went to in 2013, she confirmed she set us up.
I wrote most of the above for my facebook page on Monday the 6th but I was thinking some more about that time and coincidences. You see just before I moved out to California, someone I worked with paid for me to hand a hand analysis with her sister. Although 37 years have gone by, I still had the cassette tape of the reading and a few years ago transcribed it. I think through it my mother was trying to give me motherly advice — and I did NOT listen to it. Literally, I did not listen to that tape again for 35 years. There was actually some advice I could have used. Oh well! They say the other side will give you signs but you have the free will to listen to it or not. Sorry Ma! I’m listening now!
It’s the end of my Birthday Month and my march towards 65. I don’t mean that in a bad way, more of a contemplative one.
My husband has retired and I can now find him most days out in his garden preparing for the season.
The garden area
I’m looking for balance in my work and home life. My three office responsibilities have been pared down to two thanks to our incredible Client Manager who has successfully taken over those reins (and it is sometimes like trying to rein in wild horses).
I have projects at home to work on – organizing 35,000 pictures on my devices, family stories or family history research.
Honestly, I enjoy what I do in the office. I feel like now I can organize and set up the business in the best way possible moving forward – and get that Succession Plan, aka “If Something Happens To Me” plan in place.
My goal is to consider Wednesdays and Fridays each week and schedule something, whether full day, half day, by myself, with my husband, or with a friend.
I see the possibility now whereas a year ago, I don’t think I saw it.
A little bit of this contemplation comes from the fact that my mother died the day before her 65th birthday. If you’ve been over to It’s All About Family you’ll know her story. It was 9 weeks sudden, but sudden enough so she never got to experience that retirement.
I think about what her and my dad’s life might have been like if she didn’t get sick and it makes me want to honor and appreciate each day.
In January, I wrote about completing my first puzzle. I “got it for Christmas” in 2022 but it and the roll up pad sat for a year before our Aunt Mindy’s dedication to hers inspired me to start on mine!
After I took that puzzle apart, I looked for another by the same maker, Eeboo, but quickly realized my coffee table was not large enough! Evidently the “A Day In Paris” was the only one and that one just squeaked in.
We went to Amatos Toy and Hobby in Middletown to find a new puzzle (I was armed with the table measurement!), and I bought one by White Mountain called New York New York and is made up of New York State landmarks. There’s a bit of a theme there – puzzles based on places I’ve been. Anyway, the puzzle was a few inches too big but my husband told me he’d get a piece of plywood to cover for the few extra inches needed. Didn’t happen! 😂 I started looking for a coffee table that was wider. Can’t decide on one! 😂
I ended up perusing the puzzle aisle of Walmart with my measurements and found this Buffalo Games and Puzzles Charles Wysocki puzzle called “Sunday Morning Stroll”.
I’ve been at it for about a month now and boy, it’s a tough one! Usually I finish the perimeter first but for this one, I removed and switched pieces constantly because pieces that didn’t go together, seemed to fit! The pieces are smaller than the last and there are so many similar colors!
Colors for the leftColors for the right
Every night as we watch our scheduled show, I listen more than watch it as I pick away at the trees and sky.
I started wearing ear plugs one summer when the sound of the air conditioner started me crazy. I kept it up in the winter and it’s a hard habit to break.
It makes me feel like I’m underwater because any sounds are muted and since I burrow under the covers (until I fling them off in a sweaty mess) it’s like I’m in a world of my own. There in lies the problem.
What if something happens and I don’t hear it? My phone gets an emergency call? My husband stumbles on the way to the bathroom? The smoke alarm goes off??
I’m debating giving them up and and hoping I get used to the night sounds again.
Do you wear ear plugs at night? Tell me if there are other options!
I’ve written about my home before but now I’m exploring the house, the area surrounding it, and the family who built it.
My family and I moved into this home I now own on Memorial Day weekend in 1961.
My parents had previously been renting a home 2 blocks from my maternal grandmother for a few years.
They found this gem of a home – Dutch colonial, 4 bedrooms, eat in kitchen and dining room, living room with a fireplace, and a beautiful covered side porch. It was just under a half acre and had a 1 car (maybe 2) garage and old chicken coop. It had a walk up attic and a walk out basement.
Picture taken from area currently Lincoln Drive by future neighborCurrent location still has telephone pole. Structure from other picture and an additional one (unknown)
The previous owners, the Atkinsons, built the house sometime in the mid-20s. He was the personnel manager at H.L. Judd until his 1949 retirement but was also a “gentleman farmer” and sold baby chicks! Mr. Atkinson passed away in March of 1960 and a year later, Mrs. Atkinson was ready to sell.
The cost of the house was $25,000. My maternal grandmother gave them the $5,000 and they took out a mortgage for the rest. In a sweet coincidence, my paternal great grandmother gave my grandparents the down payment for their house in 1925.
The yard still contained what we called the chicken coop which my father took down and left the foundation. This brought years of fun playing on it because it was level from one part of the yard and “so high!” from another side and the back. We raced around on the edge for years.
I’m not sure where he was breeding his chicks for 15 years, prior to this 1927 ad but he appears to be quite well known. This will require some more research!
January 1927 advertisement9/5/1932 permit notice
There was also a cherry trees, apple trees, a grape arbor, rhubarb, and asparagus that continued to grow for years in “the way back”. Brambles of raspberries, and a mulberry tree rounded out the fruit.
9/1938 advertisement11/1938 advertisement
There are only 2 remaining apple trees just off our property with only one producing any apples. I determined it was a Wealthy apple from the advertisement and googling the apple. “Wealthy apple trees bear heavily and is very cold hearty, but also fruits in low chill locations. It’s a favorite for home orchards in Minnesota and the East.
Do you see the clock creeping towards your bedtime and you think, no, no I just want to stay here for a few more minutes, that turn into 30.
That’s pretty much me in a nutshell and a Real Simple article this month has a name for it – Revenge Bedtime Procrastinator. I delay sleep to carve out time for myself.
Now, I’m not so bad that I “blow off bedtime, then wake up exhausted” – well, not enough that I hit the snooze button – but I do creep upstairs a little later than I should and then get cranky because I still have to brush my teeth and wash my face when all I want to do is get into bed and read.
Anyone else feel like a Revenge Bedtime Procrastinator?
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
My two sisters and I were not born with middle names! The story is my parents thought one name a piece was enough. Isn’t that weird? They both had middle names! Why couldn’t they give us one?
At 12 years old when I got closer to my confirmation, not having a middle name turned out pretty nice because I got to choose it myself! I ran through a variety of names but you know, it had to sound right with my first name which is Nancy. Nancy Ann – nah, too plain. Nancy Elizabeth, my mother’s name – not bad, but my sister snagged that. Julia? Antoinette, Helen? All names of aunts, No, No, and No.
I settled on Catherine. It was the name of my mother’s favorite cousin, but she spelled hers with a K and I didn’t like the way the initials looked or sounded 😂. NCJ had more appeal to me than NKJ. So Nancy Catherine Jakiela is was!
After I got married I dropped the middle name and took my maiden name for my middle name. Catherine didn’t stick around for very long but it was good while it lasted.
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 