Category: thoughts

Posted in 2024, hobbies, leisure time, life, thoughts, Writing

What I Can’t Get Rid Of

Posted on by nancyb422
Daily writing prompt
Do you have any collections?

I don’t have collections in the true sense of the word like Beanie Babies, salt and pepper shakers, or baseball cards.

My collections are:

My vast amount of family photos dating back to the late 1800s, and early 1900s on both parents’ sides of the family. Many formal portraits including families, first communions, and wedding parties. Informal photos are in photo albums and labeled with dates and locations!

My mother’s postcard collection. She had a big album with all the cards categorized by location. I hung onto it and finally took them out of the album. Someday I will write some stories about some of them.

My yarn, knitting needles, and knitting books. I have baskets of yarn and a slew of knitting books! I kept the yarns by weight in file cabinet drawers until I repurposed the file cabinet for my ancestry work. I was going to get rid of a lot of the yarn but never got around to it. I guess it’s time to put the yarn away again before any moths get to it!

Do books count? I have a lot of those and I keep buying more!

But if you’re thinking my house must be filled to the rafters, you’d be wrong! All of my “collections” are in a very large room over our garage that serves as our workout room in two-thirds of the room and my “she-space” in the remaining part. We’re lucky to have such a wonderful space!

The garage/workout/she-space built 2006
My She-Space
Posted in 2024, life, thoughts, Writing

I Can Lead and I Can Follow

Posted on by nancyb422

Are you a leader or a follower?

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!”

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

Signs

Posted on by nancyb422

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!

Posted in 2024, Goals, life, thoughts

Balance in the Coming Year

Posted on by nancyb422

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.

An early morning on the Seine river 2022
Posted in 2024, life, thoughts, Writing

Noises in the Night

Posted on by nancyb422

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!

Posted in 2024, life, thoughts

Revenge Bedtime Procrastinator

Posted on by nancyb422

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?

Posted in 2024, life, thoughts, Writing

I’m Just Too Honest

Posted on by nancyb422

Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

As I was putting my groceries in my car in the Walmart parking lot, I found a makeup item that was stuck at the bottom of my cart. Oh no! I accidentally shop lifted something!

I believe in Karma so after getting everything in the car, I went back into Walmart, explained the situation to the front person and went to the self-checkout and checked the item out.

If I didn’t, every time I used it, I’d feel haunted.

What about you?

Posted in 2024, life, thoughts, Writing

Guess What Just Happened!!

Posted on by nancyb422

You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?

For any good news, the first thing I would do would be to find my husband and tell him the great, amazingly fantastic news!

The second thing I would do, even though it’s not part of the question, is I would find my son and tell him the great news too!

Posted in 2024, life, thoughts, Writing

Keep the Good – Reverse the Bad

Posted on by nancyb422

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

There are so many Good/Bad inventions created since the beginning of time but the number one “invention” that should crawl back into the hole it came from is –

SOCIAL MEDIA

MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok – maybe they were created for socialization but they took a right turn into online bullying, scams, hacking, and keyboard assassinations. There are many other sites for socializing, some I know of, some I’d probably be shocked to learn about, but I’m only talking of the ones I really know.

It was probably “ok” and “manageable” prior to the 2016 election, but after that, all bets were off. I allowed myself to get caught up in Facebook arguments with friends who became non-friends. Funny, after 2020, they came back again. I’m afraid to see what this 2024 election will bring.

Do I use them? Yes, FaceBook and Instagram both personally and for my business. I have X and TikTok accounts but have posted only minimally on X.

I guess we can’t stop progress but I can dream!