Tag: dailyprompt

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, relaxing, Writing

Brrrrrr

Posted on by nancyb422

How do you feel about cold weather?

I am cold if it’s 90 degrees and a cloud passes over the sun.

I always wear a coat or sweater out the door in the morning and usually keep it on most of the day because the air conditioning is blowing on me, or if the heat is on it’s still not warm enough.

Does that give you an idea of how I feel about cold weather?

As long as I am prepared for it, I can be ok about it. But I will always turn off the ceiling fan when I sit in the living room to watch tv because it’s blowing on me!

Posted in 2024, family, life, Memories, Writing

Ruining My Sister’s Birthday

Posted on by nancyb422

Have you ever broken a bone?

It was a sunny Saturday in September of 1972 and I was 12 years old.

My childhood (and current) home

One of my sisters and a friend or two were performing flips in the front year. We would start from the steps and head towards the flag pole.

I completed a few flips, but on the last attempt I ran, flipped, and landed on the top of my right foot. There was intense pain and I couldn’t walk. We all shouted for my mother. She came out and off the two of us went to the emergency room. We waited for a few hours for X-rays that confirmed I broke a little bone in the back of my ankle. I came home in a cast to my knee and crutches.

My diary entry!

It was a miserable 8 weeks. First with the crutches, and then with a “walking cast” which back then was a rubber block they attached to the bottom of the cast. In my case even with my highest heel on the other side, I was still lopsided, walking like Peg-Leg Pete! I would have been better off with crutches. What a relief it was when the cast finally came off but how weird my leg looked!

But I wasn’t the only one who suffered that weekend….

The incident happened on Saturday, September 9, 1972. My older sister’s 14th birthday and the family party was scheduled for the next day. My mother was in the process of baking her delicious 4 layer chocolate cake with whipped cream between layers and covered with chocolate frosting. She was likely making whatever meal we would be eating beforehand.

Aha! proof that I didn’t spoil the party, just “her day”!

She was pretty annoyed with me, but she did get to enjoy her party on Sunday! I was probably very happy I didn’t have to go to church!

Posted in 2024, leisure time, life, relaxing, Writing

Balancing Work and Home

Posted on by nancyb422

How do you balance work and home life?

For the past 25 years, it has been a tightrope walk between work and home because my husband and I run a business together. Some of that balancing act involved the two of us but a lot of it, was my balancing.

Our remodeling company started in our basement, an unfinished, low ceiling space with a concrete floor and painted stone foundation walls. I faced crumbling painted walls at the bottom of the stairs and when my husband came home at 4 p.m. to start his estimates, he faced the oil tank.

Having a fledging business at home made both the work and home balance tough. Being home, I would realize there was laundry to do, or something needed cleaning, so I’d get immersed in that. On the weekends, I’d go to the basement to do/finish the laundry and remember a proposal to type or phone call to make and get caught up in that!

After the basement we moved the office to space above our newly built garage and then almost 20 years in, we purchased office space about 10 minutes away. Each step away, made the physical work/life balance easier. However, I found myself determined to put in as many hours a day as possible because once I left for the day, that was it. My husband put in his 7:30 to 4 and I would try to get in at 8 a.m. every day and usually stayed until 5 our shortly past. Now, mentally it was very taxing knowing there were things I was leaving behind but definitely couldn’t sneak into the office to take care of. I found myself bringing files home but letting them sit there and never touching them all weekend!

As far as my husband and I balancing business and home life together, we made a decision early on that work stayed at work. It hasn’t always been easy but if I was mad at “my boss”, I didn’t want to bring it home to my husband and vice versa! It was sort of weird and definitely an act of compartmentalizing but it has worked for us. After a few years, we also decided that our company wouldn’t physically work on the weekends or go to any estimating appointments. People found that strange but we told them, “everyone needs their weekend”.

My husband has now retired, but is still available when my son, who took his place, needs him. I am still working, but now that we have a very capable Client Manager and I have been able to pass all client work on to her, I am able to come in later, leave earlier and take some time off and I finally feel like there is a good and healthy balance for me both physically and mentally.

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, Writing

Fruity Favorites

Posted on by nancyb422
List your top 5 favorite fruits.

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.

Photo by Elaine Bernadine Castro on Pexels.com

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!

Photo by Kio on Pexels.com

3rd is Grapes. Red, seedless at room temperature! I’m not picky about their firmness or ripeness because they are usually always good!

Photo by Bruno Scramgnon on Pexels.com

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!

Photo by Matheus Cenali on Pexels.com

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.

Photo by Ave Calvar Martinez on Pexels.com

All the talk of these fruits has made me hungry! There are apples at home right now, so I guess that’s what I’ll have today!

Posted in 2024, family, life, Memories, Writing

One Name is Enough

Posted on by nancyb422

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.

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, Music, Writing

A Thoughtful Christmas Gift

Posted on by nancyb422

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

For Christmas quite a few years ago, my husband gave me (and him) tickets to Wicked on Broadway. He pulled them out of the tree at the end of the gift giving and handed them to me.

I started crying because I was so happy but also because I felt like he really understood what I would like.

He talked to a friend about different plays and she told him she thought I would like that best. The biggest gift was that he was going with me, even though he doesn’t like to go to plays!

It was a Wednesday matinee, we took the train in from Connecticut and we both had a great time.

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?