thoughts – Page 3 – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2025, life, thoughts, Writing

A Shopping I Will Go!

Posted on March 9, 2025 by nancyb422

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

When I think of a “shopping spree”, my thoughts go immediately to all that I don’t need! I don’t need clothes because my size is difficult to shop for and I get discouraged. I don’t need electronic equipment because I have more than I need. My brain no longer works on a “want basis”.

Things for my home! That’s it! I would buy a nice coffee bar, the sectional sofa for the family room that my husband and I have discussed over and over again, and …… hmm, as I look around, I think it would be a quick shopping spree!

I feel content with what I have. I would prefer to take someone else on a shopping spree and let them buy what they want. It would make me happy to do that.

2025, Goals, hobbies, Home, leisure time, life, thoughts, Writing

Social Media and Me

Posted on January 19, 2025 by nancyb422

Ugh. That is how I feel about this relationship.

I am curious which also translates to nosy. This is why once I start scrolling, I can’t stop. Facebook to Instagram to Threads. I hate Threads the most. It’s filled with complaining.

I deleted them all so many times off my devices during the election season. Then my fingers (and my brain) would itch to see what was going and I just had to reinstall them. And then delete them again.

They are unhealthy. But….

I have accounts for our business and I try to keep those full of content and comment on followers accounts.

I want positivity in my life. I don’t want negativity in my life.

One of my goals for 2025 was to “read less what other people and write more of what I want to say”.

Heading off to delete those apps off my IPad again….

2025, family, Goals, Home, life, Politics, relaxing, thoughts

2025 Mental Health Goals

Posted on January 17, 2025 by nancyb422

In my quest to be mindful in 2025, I’m focusing on my emotional and mental wellbeing in addition to my physical wellbeing.

I know that sleep is important, and in our house it’s always been important to my husband! For most of our marriage, this man has gone to bed at 8pm and would get a good 8 hours of sleep. I would usually make it into bed by 10. Since the first, I’ve made an effort to head up by 9pm, get some reading in and have lights out by 9:30. I also started wearing my Apple Watch to bed so it can record the different stages of my sleep.

Another bedtime ritual I’ve started is a 5 or 10 sleep meditation with my Peloton app. I wear my ear buds, start the program and absorb the soothing music and soft voice of the instructor. I usually discover I’ve fallen asleep! My average sleep time for a week has ranged from 7 hours 15 minutes to 7 hours and 28 minutes. My crowning achievement was a night of sleep with NO minutes awake!

Because I don’t have a set time I need to be in the office, This year I’m learning to embrace that! It’s tough to get used to when for so many years, I’ve been at my desk by 8:30! My alarm is still set for 5:45 but I take time to drink my coffee and complete my workout. I have extra time to read the paper!

There are times at work that cause me and the two people there (one being my son) to start to wallow in frustration and self-pity. It’s specially tough to see it in my son, so I always try to turn it around and cheer us all on! We have so much more going for us than against us!

I’m packing up for the day and heading home at 3pm (to-do lists are vital for me!), so I can walk with my husband and our friends for some exercise and socialization.

I’m not on board with our upcoming federal administration so that has made me anxious when I read stories that seem more fiction than fact. For the time being, I’m averting my eyes because I know there is nothing I can do to change any of it. I hope in the near future I can get involved with an organization that will help make a difference for people in need.

*My mental health is better when I stay positive*

2025, Goals, hobbies, life, thoughts

2025 Physical Goals

Posted on January 15, 2025 by nancyb422

All my life I’ve tracked the numbers on the scale and have a roller coaster relationship with food and my body. The January 1 entry in my first diary as a soon to be 10 year old says among other things, “I resolved will try to exercise every day”. I was 9 years and 8 months old.

Maybe it was because the 60s and 70s were full of the Twiggy models or maybe it was because in my brain, I was not petite, just short. I topped out at 4’11” in sixth grade, never to reach the ultimate next foot.

Over the years I’ve used tracking methods like Weight Watchers and Fitness Pal and worked out to the all the Jillian Michaels and The Firm Workouts in existence, and a couple of times over the last four years, I’ve worked with Jennifer, a nutritionist at Evolved Nutrition in Wallingford.

Working out, has never been an issue for me. I’m using my Peloton in one way or another for up to 45 minutes 6 days a week. But what do they say? Losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise…..

This January 1st, as the weight crept up from vacations and general not paying attention, I knew I had to get serious. Is it the impending 65th birthday around the corner? Probably! But more than that, I know, because I’ve done it, that when I lower my weight, I feel better. I have more energy, my arthritis doesn’t bother me (as much), my hip pain disappears. It’s a no-brainer. But sometimes so hard to just take that first step.

So, I’ve started up the Fitness Pal app and really started using it. I’m more aware of how I feel after each meal, what works and what doesn’t. I’m becoming more aware of how I feel emotionally. I’m drinking more tea, and doing more meditation.

I’m looking at the different strength workouts on Peloton to work on lighter weights and more toning, like Barre workouts instead of trying to life 20 pounds.

I achieved my first 1,000 minutes only 14 days into the new year! That’s because my husband and I and another couple in the neighborhood join up in the afternoon when we can to take a walk to the center of town and back. 2 miles, 46 minutes and a great break in the late afternoon. The first year I was in the challenge I completed 13,000+, and last year was 14,000+ so it’s my goal to hit the 15,000 this year.

Here’s to a Happy and Healthy 2025!

*Hubs and I at the Shops at Hudson Yard in December 2024*

2025, family, friends, hikes, hobbies, life, Memories, thoughts, Travel

Looking Back at 2024

Posted on January 2, 2025 by nancyb422

I can forget what I did the day before yesterday.

I really want to be mindful in 2025.

I took a look at my Day Planner for 2024 and my phone calendar and made a list in Notes of What Happened in 2024. I was surprised at all the events from the year. Sometimes in my mind I think “I never do anything!”, but this proved me wrong. There were lunches and dinners out with friends, two trips to New York other than our yearly Christmas shopping spree, and three week long vacations!

I’m looking forward to this new year of adventures!

2024, Home, life, photography, Religion, thoughts, Writing

Starting The Day

Posted on December 9, 2024 by nancyb422

I don’t know about you, but my Sunday into Monday sleep can be a little rough.

Then after waking up, my mind is on every little thing I have to do from now until Christmas.

I drink my coffee and head out the door to workout and as I walk I say, Dear God, help me to slow down and appreciate the moments and I turned the corner and he says,

Be present.

2024, family, Goals, life, thoughts

Big Business Decisions

Posted on December 7, 2024 by nancyb422

What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?

In the past year, we’ve begun the process for our son to purchase our remodeling company. He’s been with us since 2012 and for the last 2 years, has worked in the office estimating and running projects. We’ll start the buyout as the calendar turns to January 2026.

My husband and I have owned the company since 1999. It’s been 25 years of hard work building it from the ground up starting out in our basement to now in an office with nine employees.

When you work for yourselves, you wonder as time passes, “will I be at work until the day I die?” Terrible thing to think of but, it’s your business, not some corporation that you hit retirement age and leave. What option is there other than to find a buyer or close the doors. My husband has retired from the office and I’m starting to work four days a week and come and go a little more freely because I know our son and our client manager have everything under control.

It’s a remarkable feeling to know that our son is incredibly capable of owning the business and he’s already running it. I picture my 3 year old with a plastic hammer in his hand pounding on a piece of sheetrock with dust on his nose and marvel at how accomplished he is today.

2024, life, Memories, thoughts

The Music Of My Life

Posted on December 3, 2024 by nancyb422

Sitting at my desk, I’m listening to “The Bridge”, a station on Sirius XM. Jackson Browne singing “The Pretender” comes on and I’m immediately transported back to the fall/winter of my junior year of high school in 1976.

It was a very tumultuous time for me. I had a boyfriend through my sophomore year, but we broke up in the waning days of the school year. Aww, poor me! It would have ended here, and I might have gotten over him, but I couldn’t because we continued to see each other. During the day, I would go to his house to swim. His mother was home so it wasn’t anything sneaky. But I’ll bet his friends didn’t know about it!

Silly, naive me thought we had a chance to get back together! But, in public, he had moved on from me with his group of friends, painfully one of them, who it was rumored he liked, had just made the incoming cheerleading squad!

Back to Jackson Browne!

I had moved on by fall. Ha! You obviously don’t know me very well, do you! I hoped he would ask me to Junior Prom, but no luck. Was there a possibility? I’m sure he kept my hopes alive. He went as “a friend” with someone in his group. I lived in the periphery of that group and I went with a boy that someone in that group set me up with! It was complicated with that group. I was friends with almost everyone in it, but not really included.

By prom time, I was dating someone else, that fact is important only to this story.

Christmas came around, and I hinted at and received Jackson Browne’s The Pretender album from the new boyfriend for Christmas. I wanted the album because the song “Here Come Those Tears Again”, reminded me of my old boyfriend!

In hindsight, the relationship with the original sophomore boyfriend was a match made in Hell for so many reasons! Stay tuned….

Here come those tears again
Just when I was getting over you
Just when I was going to make it through
Another night without missing you
Thinking I might just be strong enough after all
When I hear your footsteps echoing in the hall

Baby here we stand again
Where we’ve been so many times before
Even though you looked so sure
As I was watching you walking out my door
But you always walk back in like you did today
Acting like you never even went away
Well I don’t know if I can
Open up and let you in baby
Here come those tears
Here come those tears again

I can hear you telling me
How you needed to be free
And you had some things to work out alone
Now you’re standing here telling me
How you have grown
Here come those tears again
Now you’ll tell me how to hold them in
Here come those tears
Here come those tears again

Some other time baby
When I’m strong and feeling fine maybe
When I can look at you without crying
You might look like a friend of mine
But I don’t know if I can
Open up enough to let you in
Here come those tears
Here come those tears again

Walk away
I’m going back inside and turning out those lights
And I’ll be in the dark but you’ll be out of sight

2024, leisure time, life, relaxing, thoughts

Sleep Glorious Sleep

Posted on December 2, 2024 by nancyb422

Does your sleep pattern change often? Mine drives me crazy sometimes!

I know it’s the weekend because I will sleep through the night and wake up at 6am. But as soon as Sunday night rolls around I wake up at 1am, 3am, and 5am! My alarm goes off at 5:45 and I’m always tempted to get up when I wake up from a doze around 5:30. But I stick it out and wait for the alarm.

I try to figure out if it’s related to something I eat, or don’t eat, at dinner or afterwards. Is the room warm or cool? But there’s no clear answer.

I must get enough sleep because I’m not tired during the day or nodding off in front of the television!

2024, family, Holidays, Home, life, thoughts, Writing

(Is it?) The Hap-hapiest Time of The Year

Posted on December 1, 2024 by nancyb422

The holidays stress me out.

I try to be chill but once we turn the corner from Thanksgiving, I feel like a train is rushing down the track. Am I on it? Or is it heading towards me? I haven’t quite decided.

I have hosted our family Christmas Party for 10 or 15 years always the second or third Saturday in December. Throw in a work party we host on the first Saturday and a trip to New York to shop in whatever week doesn’t contain a party at the end and there’s December, done and dusted.

Gift-giving has slowed down, which is a good thing. My husband and I shop for ourselves in New York, and our son and daughter-in-law usually receive something large during the year. Now it’s gifts for our great niece and nephew and something for the grab bag at the party.

This year’s election has f*cked it up a bit as some people don’t want to be around other people and it’s enough that I try to make everyone feel welcome regularly to now have to worry about who’s ignoring whom and what will they mutter under their breath.

I will be sure I do my daily meditation, get enough sleep and exercise, select my menu, and buy a big bottle of wine for myself and hide it away!