Posted in 2026, Healthy Living

Floating

Yesterday, my daughter in law and I put last year’s Christmas present to use – we went “floating”.

Float chamber

She and my son have done this several times and really wanted me to try it – hence, the Christmas gift! We were trying to set it up for she and I to go at the same time my son and husband would go on their Christmas gift fishing trip, but it didn’t work out that way.

We went to Float 41 in West Hartford Connecticut. It’s a one hour session. Prior to getting into the chamber, or in my daughter in law’s case, a pod that looks like an egg, put ear plugs in, take a shower, and wash your hair to eliminate any conditioner and lotions.

Once I did that, I turned the light in the room off and stepped into the chamber, rested my head on a donut ring and laid back. Ahhhhhh, heaven!

You can have the soft purple light on or off, and meditative music on or off. There are 2 large soft buttons on the wall to change the features. I started with both on, turned both off, and settled on light off and music on.

I started with my arms in goalpost and gradually drifted them down to a shavasana pose.

I fell asleep twice that I know of, because I jerked awake. A few other times, my leg kicked out so I was drifting away at that point also.

My mind was blank from the moment I laid back.

When my time was up, a woman’s voice came through the speaker, and although with the ear plugs I don’t know what she said, I knew my time was up!

I opened the door, sadly turned on the light in the room, took a shower and washed my hair, got dressed and moved to a room with hairdryers and a vanity to prepare for the outdoor world.

The private room for shower and floating

My DIL and I sat with cups of tea and little snacks in another room to talk about the experience before leaving.

I’ve been carrying the floating feeling with me and I can’t wait to go back!

Have you ever floated? If not, do you think it’s something you would want to try?

Posted in 2026, thoughts, Writing

Happy New Year!

I started the new year off right by waking up early, enjoying my coffee, and heading off to work out. I always feel a sense of accomplishment!

On and off over the years, my husband and I would head down to the state beach about 40 minutes away. We walk and search for sea glass. Today it’s cold – my watch says 23 degrees and it’s windy. We decided we can find plenty of things to do here at home!

Our hike to Sleeping Giant State Park last week

Tuesday we had planned an impromptu trip to New York (well, I did and he’s my willing sidekick). I knew it was going to be cold but I thought it would be okay. Until he told me he was going to wear his lined pants and I thought, “ya know what? This is crazy”. So I decided we weren’t going to go and I think he was happy about it! We’re going in February for a concert and an overnight stay and that will be here in no time.

New York Last year!

I’m taking down my decorations, even the tree. I would like to get over to our We-Shed (the second floor of our garage where we workout and I have my ancestry and knitting stuff, and other hobby stuff) and clean that up a little bit. Clean up my desk area and open some mail. It might sound a little routine, but I get satisfaction seeing stuff cleared out. We re-organized the basement the other day! Anywhere I’m organizing is my happy place.

Our tree on Christmas Eve

I’m working on being mindful, writing down what I did this day in my planner, otherwise everything is one big blur.

I’ve got some thoughts on posts in the new year, maybe revisit some old ones and see if anything has changed. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you!

Posted in 2025, Goals, Healthy Living, life

2025 Review / 2026 Plans

Here I am, the last day of 2025. 9:18am, wondering if I succeeded in accomplishing anything I wrote about at the beginning of the year.

I had physical goals that I wrote about on January 15th. I know my weight was creeping up to a region I wasn’t happy about. I don’t recall the weight I began the year at, or where I am now, but I know I feel a lot better than I did on 1/1/2025.

In 2024, I hit 14,753 minutes on Peloton tracking and my goal was to hit 15,000 in 2025. I did it! I knocked it out of the park with 17,345. So 2026 I’m shooting for 18,000+.

I also wrote about my 2025 Mental Health Goals. To be mindful, focus on self-care. I had good times and not so good with that. I am a worry wort. I worry about things I have no control over, and about things that are miles down the road. Waiting for that shoe to drop? That’s me! And I keep it all in, all bundled inside of me. Definitely need to work on my self-care in 2026.

Something I did achieve that wasn’t on my radar was working on my faith. I embraced my daily reading of “Jesus Calling” and its bible verses. I attended a Beth Moore workshop with my good friend and have plans for another this year. I took a big step in the fall and headed back to church, and went to confession for the first time in over 30 years. I feel whole and look forward to continuing to strengthen my relationship with God.

I still maintain a love/hate relationship with Social Media. My goal was to “read less what other people say and write more of what I want to say”. Did I succeed? Well, I wrote 90 posts which is 3 more than in 2024. Considering quite a few of the 2024 posts were Hump Day Photos, I think I did much better with writing in 2025. But I did not do better in my quest to lighten up on the social media sites! Recently, I set up a timer to block me when I’ve gone over my limit for the day. Some days I respect it, some days I ignore it. Still working on that.

I’ve already talked about some goals for 2026 here and here. Goals are great but if the habits to achieve them aren’t implemented, what good is it to set them? Here’s to working on those habits in 2026!

Posted in 2025, Goals, life

Here’s the Plan

Yesterday we hiked the road to the tower of our local state park. It has well-marked trails, as well as a road to the tower. We haven’t been there in a very long time, but instead of walking on the treadmill, I said, “Let’s go to the tower!”

While we were walking, I came up with a plan to track what was important to me. In 2026, I want to keep track of hikes, bike rides, and day trips or longer travel events.

It took me three tries earlier in the month, but I have my day planner for the upcoming year. I was like Goldilocks. I ordered one from Amazon and returned it, bought one from Walmart, and gave it to my husband. I finally looked a little harder and bought this one on Amazon.

In the back, it has blank pages, and will keep a list of each event. I’ll likely write it in on the day itself, but by having a list, I can tell with a glance that we need to take a hike! I think I will write about potential places to visit on the Events/Travel page.

This is part of my plan for a more thoughtful 2026.

Do you do anything like this?

Posted in 2025, life

Letting Go

I currently have 197 open tabs on my IPhone. I feel like that says something about me. Will I miss one of it’s gone? Will I even notice?

My IPad and laptop are not that bad. By the way, my IPad and phone are not synced. Not since I had a faulty password app and nearly lost ALL my passwords.

Anyway, my life has always been a little like that too. Keep stuff gathered around so I don’t forget them. Projects, papers, files…

If I put it away, if I close the tab, I might want it later and won’t be able to find it again. Sort of like that jacket you never wear so you give it to Goodwill and then you buy a pair of pants and realize the jacket would have been perfect for it!

Maybe December is the time to close those tabs, put those files and papers away and make a note of where they are. It’s time to tidy up for the new year.

Posted in 2025, Healthy Living, life

Goals Are Good…

Unless you are obsessive like I can be about things like goals.

I downloaded an app called Streak because it was recommended by a (real life) friend whom I admire. I decided to try it because I want to focus on keeping myself mentally and physically active.

With Streak, you create goals and select how often they need to be completed. Multiple times a day, every day, a few times a week, and so on.

My goals were 5 20 oz water a day, 7,000 steps a day, write blog post every day, take vitamins every day, leave for the office by 9am, and post a picture to Facebook every day. Some are simple like the water and vitamins, and the Facebook post. Getting my steps in is a little more difficult because I work in a very small office. I incorporated walking around our complex during my lunchtime for a half hour. However, I still have to get additional steps in during the day to hit that 7,000. Leaving for work by 9 is a struggle! Writing every day is a struggle!

After a week, I changed the office time to getting there by 9:30, because honestly, I like my morning time at home and, since I’m the boss, I guess it’s ok to set my own hours. I changed the writing to 3 times a week because I needed time to research and write for my family blog.

I guess that represents growth within me that instead of saying “this isn’t going to work!”, I make some simple adjustments.

Here’s to continuing my Streak!

Posted in 2025, Healthy Living, life

Advice From One Who Knows

I may be 65, but sometimes I think my mind is stuck in my teens. Or maybe it’s because I’m a Taurus?

Anyway, I’m like a dog with a bone. If I get a thought, especially a negative one, I can’t let it go. Money, bills, employees – it’s what swirls around my head all day. And if there’s a comment from someone rebutting me on a Facebook post about creating affordable housing in my town (I’m for it by the way) – yikes!

But then, I watched the New Heights podcast with Taylor Swift as their guest. It was one of the most entertaining and enlightening two hours I’ve had staring at my screen in a long time.

What snapped me to attention was when she said, “What you spend the energy on, That’s the Day!”. THAT’S THE DAY.

I have to say in my defense, I am only a week and a half back from a 10 day vacation cruising along the coast and inside passage of Alaska but even I’m saying to myself, Enough’s Enough!

I currently say a morning prayer to get myself right with the day and try to get a 5 to 10 minute meditation in, but, it looks like I need to add an additional mantra to the day.

Yesterday’s monarch butterfly flitting around me

What do you want to spend your energy on?

Posted in 2025, Goals, Healthy Living, hobbies, leisure time, life, Writing

Make it – Check it

When do you feel most productive?

I always think I will be so productive because I get out of bed by 6am every morning. But that really has nothing to do with productivity because I’ve perfected the art of taking my time.

I feel the most productive when I make a list of what I want to do and what I have to do.

I find it amazing that I have so many “things” I want to do, yet I never work on them, because I don’t remember them in the moment. If I have a list, I can look and say “oh, I’ll do a little work on this”.

I guess it’s time to take own advice!

Posted in 2025, Goals, Healthy Living, hobbies, Home, life, Travel, Writing

More of This More of That

What do you wish you could do more every day?

By working four days a week, I’m getting glimpses of what retirement will look like.

I have a variety of hobbies that include knitting, ancestry research, writing for this and my family stories blog, puzzles, reading. All my indoor stuff but I also have a new e-gravel bike to ride and a boat that will go in the water next month. And travel!

I wish I had more retirement time every day to find a flow to work on my hobbies and outdoor activities!

Soon. I just have to be patient.

Posted in 2025, Goals, Healthy Living, life, Writing

The Six Week Curse

Six weeks from whenever I start a “healthy lifestyle program” it all goes to hell.

2025 is turning out to be no exception. I talked about my plans for a healthy 2025 here.

What happened? Valentines Day happened and I went to Sweet Chocolata’s here in town to buy treats for my family and employees. Of course, I had to buy something for myself and their caramel and chocolate covered pretzel sticks are to die for! That was almost a month ago and I haven’t been able to get back on track. It feels like no matter when I start, six weeks later there is some event or holiday that derails me.

My workouts, of course, continue to be going well. It’s my diet that I can’t get back on track. I start each with with determination, and then slide away.

But, as Truman Capote said, “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor”. Appropriate right?

👏🏻 January Perfect Score 👏🏻